i7 920 the way to go?

[Perfect_Chaos]

where u gettin these prices from?

Look at the total, i think the list i copied & pasted is just the price excluding vat.

Got my stuff yesterday morning, case looks huge in the box.. not checked other things yet, going to put it together when i get some sleep or if not after xmas dinner, or even later even lol

 

[Sylver123]

Look at the total, i think the list i copied & pasted is just the price excluding vat.

Got my stuff yesterday morning, case looks huge in the box.. not checked other things yet, going to put it together when i get some sleep or if not after xmas dinner, or even later even lol

Wouldn't it be great if we didn`t have to pay VAT

 

[w311zy]

Wouldn't it be great if we didn`t have to pay VAT

hell yeah

 

[MR.B]

Why do some of you people buy i7's for gaming? and why do some of you think the Phenom 2's could possibly be any better than say a Penryn quad for gaming?

Games are currently totally limited by GPU. As shown many times the i7 is only vastly faster than other CPU's with tripple SLI, or sometimes running a game at stupidly low res and settings because even a single 280 or 4870X2 still hold these things back, and i'm sure even the GTX 295 will.
A 3.5GHz Q6600 is more than enough for any current game.

For people who actually make good use of the CPU and do things like video encoding, and rendering, then a i7 is a worthwhile upgrade. My encoding times have almost been cut in half compared to my Q9450.


As for whether or not to get a 920 or 940, get the 920. These things are usually hitting the same OC's as 965's.
I'd also recommend the Asus P6T - got my 920 to 4.15GHz with it, and hitting something like 3.8GHz is extremely easy.
But i cannot stress this enough... these chips get very hot, and you really do need good water cooling to make the most out of them if you plan to highly OC.

 

[gurusan]

I think a lot of it is just the upgrade bug and the curiosity to try new hardware.

I think I may upgrade my monitor from a 22" to a 24" as I think that will give me a better overall upgrade than any other hardware.

 

[w311zy]

Why do some of you people buy i7's for gaming? and why do some of you think the Phenom 2's could possibly be any better than say a Penryn quad for gaming?

Games are currently totally limited by GPU. As shown many times the i7 is only vastly faster than other CPU's with tripple SLI, or sometimes running a game at stupidly low res and settings because even a single 280 or 4870X2 still hold these things back, and i'm sure even the GTX 295 will.
A 3.5GHz Q6600 is more than enough for any current game.

For people who actually make good use of the CPU and do things like video encoding, and rendering, then a i7 is a worthwhile upgrade. My encoding times have almost been cut in half compared to my Q9450.


As for whether or not to get a 920 or 940, get the 920. These things are usually hitting the same OC's as 965's.
I'd also recommend the Asus P6T - got my 920 to 4.15GHz with it, and hitting something like 3.8GHz is extremely easy.
But i cannot stress this enough... these chips get very hot, and you really do need good water cooling to make the most out of them if you plan to highly OC.

I am gonna see what phenom offers then maybe jump on the I7 bandwagon

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

should hit 3.0 or 3.2 with stock heatsink. will get better one when i can

no point in me getting water because of high price & maybe 100-200mhz gain

3.8 should be easy to achieve on a TRUE hs, im pretty sure these cpu's will make a difference to games eventually

 

[MR.B]

should hit 3.0 or 3.2 with stock heatsink. will get better one when i can

no point in me getting water because of high price & maybe 100-200mhz gain

3.8 should be easy to achieve on a TRUE hs, im pretty sure these cpu's will make a difference to games eventually

Of course they will make a difference eventually with games, but for the near future they wont. Especially not with console ports.

Before i used water, i got 3.6GHz with stock heatsink. The chip hit 93c under load though, but never BSOD or produced any errors in Prime.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Of course they will make a difference eventually with games, but for the near future they wont. Especially not with console ports.

Before i used water, i got 3.6GHz with stock heatsink. The chip hit 93c under load though, but never BSOD or produced any errors in Prime.

93c!!

i wont be trying for 3.6 with the stock hs, ill wait to buy a better one. that temp could easily damage your cpu, i didnt even know they could handle that high anyway?

 

[MR.B]

93c!!

i wont be trying for 3.6 with the stock hs, ill wait to buy a better one. that temp could easily damage your cpu, i didnt even know they could handle that high anyway?

The i7's can run at higher temps. If that was my old Q9450 or Q6600 it would have just BSOD long before then. It's normal for i7's to hit around 80c when overclocked, even with high end air cooling.
I'm getting up to 75c under load @ 4.15GHz with water and this is actually considered good!

This is why i stress the need for water cooling if you want to make the most out of these chips when overclocking.

 

[fornowagain]

They do run hotter and remain stable. The 100C Tjmax hasn't increased though, so 90's is still not a good idea, at least not for long. If you have the Turbo enabled on an Asus you'll find it starts to throttle back at 85C. If ever a chip needed water this is it, especially with the HT enabled.

 

[azza21]

Currently the best graphics card on the market is the 4870x2. Now that will likely change when the nvidia 295 comes out, around the CEDIA event but i wouldn't play the waiting game as we all know what hardware is like it could get delayed and to be honest with you the current range of graphics cards are more than enough to run any game smoothly.

 

[Chimerical]

Thanks for all your advice guys, just bit the bullet and dropped £1.7k here at OCUK! (even rhymes :/)

Went for:

i7 920
2x BFG Maxcore 260GTXs
P6T Deluxe X58
6Gb G.skill
300Gb Velociraptor
Additional cheap 24" monitor (samsung one)

You better post pictures of that.

With bread.

And username.