AMD 965 BE or i7 860

[Racemedic]

So I am looking for some thoughts. I went to see my brother in law yesterday. We talked computers but it only left me with

more questions than answers. Turkey was good though. Mmmmmm.

 

My thoughs are to build a new system and the cost is set around $2000 Canadian. (1850USD)

 

I am looking to make the machine portable and it is my understanding that this will take any large CPU coolers

out of the loop as I am going to be moving it all the time and I dont want to break the motherboard.

 

I know that this will hurt my abliity to overclock but I am only mildly into it as it is. I do major photoshop stuff

use preimer a fair amount. Games Aion, end war, hawx and I am thinking about seeing what I have been missing in

Crysis.

 

List of parts I was looking at

 

Lain li B10

Corsair 750TX

8gb Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 7-7-7-7-20

cooler spinq (CPU) or Ideas?

1tb WD black

5850 or 5870

 

Now here is the Real problem. Been an AMD guy for some time and I am looking at the AMD 965 BE but the new Lynfied has

come out and there is no answer from the AMD camp. The i7 960 is $100 more than the 965 but there will be more CPUs coming

for the P55 I would imagine and I am wondering it the AM3 has reached the end of it's road. Thoughts please.

[Krieg1337]

Look at the past, AM2 still exists! Because AM3 work with those motherboards with a simple BIOS update. So AM3 should still live for a while, they aren't like Intel who come out with a new socket every week.( )

 

As for the CPU, the 965 for pure gaming and I think the I7 860 is better at photo shop things.

[nns]

the i7 is better than 965 at gaming too!!

[ekiM]

Firstly, AMD's AM3 socket support looks as if it will continue for some time. That being said, the i7 860 will excel at heavy multi-tasking due to it's eight virtual threads.

 

Therefore, because of your $2000 CAD budget, I'd most certainly side with the purchase of an i7 860, on the basis that you would utilize and enjoy it's power more so than the PII's, even in gaming , for certain while using Premier and Photoshop. Sure, it's a hundred dollars more than your other option, the PII 965. But you're able to afford it, and, if you so desire to keep it that long, you would find it much more useful while using multi-threaded applications yet to be developed.

Edited October 12, 2009 by ekiM

[Racemedic]

Thanks for your help. Another question that I have is why the big difference

in clock speed between the AMD and the intel the i7 860 is 2.8 and the 965 3.4.

To get close to that in intel you have to spend huge $$$$$. There must be a difference

in how the systems work but I am not sure what it is.

[N.E.A]

Thanks for your help. Another question that I have is why the big difference

in clock speed between the AMD and the intel the i7 860 is 2.8 and the 965 3.4.

To get close to that in intel you have to spend huge $$$$$. There must be a difference

in how the systems work but I am not sure what it is.

although it is clocked lower it smokes 965 , i5 750 kicks 965 butt , and that cpu is clocked lower and does not have hyper threading ..

[Racemedic]

Further reading is not helping. I have just read (a little behind) that the 1366 will support the

6 core systems coming out where the 1156 will not.. I am building this to be future proof (if there

is such a thing) I will be putting a newer chip on it in the future as the chip costs come down.

This must change things..... thoughts?

 

i7 920? similar price to 860

Edited October 12, 2009 by Racemedic

[N.E.A]

Further reading is not helping. I have just read (a little behind) that the 1366 will support the

6 core systems coming out where the 1156 will not.. I am building this to be future proof

p55 is future proof , maybe intel will make 6 core cpu for 1156 platform , it is a new platform and performs very well so it is future proof ..

 

nobody knows what intel is preparing ..

 

edit :

 

i7 920? similar price to 860

 

yes , but x58 > p55 in price , also ddr3 triple channel > dual channel

Edited October 12, 2009 by N.E.A

[Krieg1337]

although it is clocked lower it smokes 965 , i5 750 kicks 965 butt , and that cpu is clocked lower and does not have hyper threading ..

 

No it doesn't smoke it. It barely beats it in games. Its a 2-4FPS difference in gaming, photoshop and things like that is where the PII fails and the I5/I7 owns.

[MrAlex]

I'd go for:

COOLER MASTER HAF 922

ASUS Rampage II GENE

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT)

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz

GeIL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Intel X25-M 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD)

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s

COOLER MASTER GeminII S

COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible RR-ACC-1366-GP LGA 1366 Bracket Set - Retail

Subtotal: $1,760.41 CAD

 

And you're good to go

 

You can add extra 6GB, a higher capacity SSD (or a SLC one!) or wait for custom cooled 5870's.

[zedsed420]

My experience has been exclusive with AMD. The 965 and 955 procs I run every day to do tasks from Photoshop etc. as well as games like Crysis, Far Cry, WoW, and other graphics intensive games and I always find myself saying " man I'm glad I didn't spend all that extra money on an Intel setup. The money you save vs performance makes AMD procs well worth it. I know the stats say that Intel is faster but my eyes can't tell the difference. But my wallet sure noticed!

[Zertz]

The money you save vs performance makes AMD procs well worth it.

 

I mostly agree, although I don't think money is an issue in this case. If I had $2000 to spare, there's no doubt I'd get a Core i7 + HD5870