i7 - 920 vs 960 (price v performance)

[Crawlerz246]

OK, so I'm far from being a rocket scientist. but I'm a bit sick of this marginally useful DELL (especially in games which require OOOOOMPH).

 

so thinking I'll get a bit of a bonus during xmastime - and using some of the more-or-less usefull parts I'm slowly buying a PC.

 

I have: NEW RAM (Corsair 6GB 1600 triple channel for new mobo), 2 optical drives, video ATi Radeon 4890 1GB (marginally useful maybe will buy the nVidia 300 when the time is right and other things fall into place), card reader, v8 cpu fan/heatsink, 2 120mm fans (glowing light blue <_< )...

 

will definitely buy: 932 HAF case (when it drops a bit in price, as it has during thanksgiving), ASUS P6X58D http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131614 (has a huge RAM limit (altho I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon) and 2000 max RAM speed tho FOR NOW it might be overkill).

 

now the main point of this discussion, dear community, is the cpu. I have talked myself in circles over it and just over confused the matter (it's a pretty big buy and probably the most expensive part, and since this is my only PC I don't really want to fry it during a noob OC or cooling mistake). I definetely want the i7 (as the mobo/RAM suggest) and I'm going back'n'forth a million times from 920 to 960.

 

Obviously the 960 is three times as expensive, and comes in OEM packaging (thus the v8 buy), which scares the bejesus out of me. the 920 is obviously a bit slower on the stock speed, but also much more affordable, comes in a factory box with good packaging (I mean what the F would I do if the CPU came in damaged? not a very good situation to be in.) now the 920 CAN be overclocked to about the same or even more than the stock 960, but I never OC'd anything in my life and am just more than a little anxious about it... and if we all consider that I mostly play on this PC (cod 4, 5, fallout 3, gta 4, the saboteur, dirt 2, ka-50 black shark) and do some other stuff too but less demanding. I burn DVD/CD often and use WinRAR and video recoding on more than some occasions. I dont do folding @ home just because I dont think my PC would handle it (and I dont have quad SLI like some people that build their machines just for folding.)

 

so please drop in your $0.02 guys, by all means.

 

P.S. please tell me your thoughts on the v8 as I'm finding reviews giving the advantage to the Dark Knight over the V8. ty kindly....

[Crazy_Nate]

The i7 920 should be fine for everyday use. If you need more, you can overclock it. Sure, the i7 960 is a lot of processor, it's just a lot of money..! (note: I spent $500 on a AMD 4400+ X2, so I have felt that pain before). At this point in time, you really shouldn't be worried about having enough processor for your games or encoding. Again, you can overclock it if you need to - there are plenty of people that can help you here.

 

If you get the OEM packaging, I wouldn't worry about it being damaged in shipping, unless the box comes really beat up. The LGA style processors don't have pins to bend or break. The processor should be held in a specially designed clamshell or something similar (with additional packaging - perhaps bubble wrap - around it in the outer box).

 

The V8 was reviewed by OCC (see here). Unfortunately, the temperatures are for a C2Q, not an i7... Seemed to be quite comparable to the TRUE. Here's some more temperatures for you to look at (i7 920): http://www.legitreviews.com/article/880/11/

 

Do you already have the V8?

 

 

PS. Any [modern] PC will f@h, it's just a matter of what kind of performance you'll get out of it...you don't need to have quad SLI, nor even GPU folding to donate computing time.

[rourkchris]

Since you're worried about the cost stick with the 920. OEM packaging isn't anything to be worried about at all, you're fear is unwarranted.

[Crawlerz246]

I see. thank you very much guys. the community has proven itself time and again. KUDOS.

 

YES i already have the V8. in hinsight - maybe it wasn't necessarily the best choice.

[actionstan]

I see. thank you very much guys. the community has proven itself time and again. KUDOS.

 

YES i already have the V8. in hinsight - maybe it wasn't necessarily the best choice.

i believe the v8 is a pretty good air cooler, if you check the internet there are quiet a few reviews for it, it will work for the i7 unless your going for really high speeds where youd probly benefit more from water cooling anyways, and i notice you said the 4890 was marginally useful, thats still a good video card, my 4870 can play most games maxed out with mass fps so it should do you for a while thats just my 2 cents

[Crawlerz246]

i believe the v8 is a pretty good air cooler, if you check the internet there are quiet a few reviews for it, it will work for the i7 unless your going for really high speeds where youd probly benefit more from water cooling anyways, and i notice you said the 4890 was marginally useful, thats still a good video card, my 4870 can play most games maxed out with mass fps so it should do you for a while thats just my 2 cents

 

i got nothing against the 4890, in fact, when I bought it for 170$ (what is relatively a good deal, big part of that goes to the community who found me a 10$ off coupon) + I had a 30$ off deal, twas very good for 1GB VRAM - ...

 

is a 2GB video card better then a xfire/SLI 2 1GB cards each? should I count on (in the future of course) - buying another ATi to xfire with this one? or should I just exchange the whole thing for a brand spanking new nvidia with maybe 2GB ? (that is if I can even afford the 300 lol)

 

P.S. when cards are xfired/SLI'd do both cards have to exactly the same i.e. both 4890s or one can be 5870 for example?

[Hyper]

P.S. when cards are xfired/SLI'd do both cards have to exactly the same i.e. both 4890s or one can be 5870 for example?

 

 

I believe with ATI cards they just need to be the same series, im not sure if thats changed though. So a 4890 would not xfire with a 5870 if this still holds true.

[Bosco]

For you to match the CPU speed of a 960 is less then 600mhz of an overclock. That is not even making the CPU sweat save your money buy the 920 and overclock to 3.6 and mop the floor with the 960

[road-runner]

Yea just get the 920, only benefit to the 960 is the higher multiplier if overclocking with LN2 to get that last little bit out the cpu. The 920 should do 3.2Ghz to equal the 960 without even touching the vcore voltage...

[Crawlerz246]

I forgot to mention a few parts I already have: a 320GB HDD, WD caviar black 640GB, and a 100w P&C 910w continous "silencer" nonmodular, 80mm fan PSU.

 

yeah as you put it, the 920 does seem like a smarter buy. especially if I later learn to OC it. but is the V8 then adequate cooling for ther future OC? won't it cook? (Ive bought a IR thermometer for checking) should I have bought a better cooler?

 

P.S. the mobo Ive chose after a lot of back'n'forth is an ASUS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131614 which IMO has everything I need and relatively good reviews which is rare for a 1366 board.

[crowTrobot]

I forgot to mention a few parts I already have: a 320GB HDD, WD caviar black 640GB, and a 100w P&C 910w continous "silencer" nonmodular, 80mm fan PSU.

 

yeah as you put it, the 920 does seem like a smarter buy. especially if I later learn to OC it. but is the V8 then adequate cooling for ther future OC? won't it cook? (Ive bought a IR thermometer for checking) should I have bought a better cooler?

 

P.S. the mobo Ive chose after a lot of back'n'forth is an ASUS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131614 which IMO has everything I need and relatively good reviews which is rare for a 1366 board.

 

 

V8 is perfectly fine. How is the airflow in your case?

 

Unless you are going for benchmark records, v8 is fine for normal gaming OCs.

[road-runner]

I forgot to mention a few parts I already have: a 320GB HDD, WD caviar black 640GB, and a 100w P&C 910w continous "silencer" nonmodular, 80mm fan PSU.

 

yeah as you put it, the 920 does seem like a smarter buy. especially if I later learn to OC it. but is the V8 then adequate cooling for ther future OC? won't it cook? (Ive bought a IR thermometer for checking) should I have bought a better cooler?

 

P.S. the mobo Ive chose after a lot of back'n'forth is an ASUS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131614 which IMO has everything I need and relatively good reviews which is rare for a 1366 board.

 

The V8 should do fine, I have some Xigmatek dark knight coolers, TRUEs and they do pretty well full load to around 3.8-4Ghz depending on the volts required to get there, if your reading newegg reviews majority of those people dont have a clue what there doing, they just think its cool to post on there and be a so called reviewer. I think half of them dont even own a computer and the other half work for hardware manufacturers and like to knock there competitors down for more business to them self...