1156 or 1366..

[Azzy..]

Im scratching my head here wondering which of these lovely motherboards to get which in a way is directly related to the processor..

Im looking for a low heat, low noise mATX system and i am currently torn between the i7 920 and the Asus Rampage II Gene or the i7 860 and the Asus Maximus III Gene..

Since im not sure about all the new 1156 or 1366 systems that are currently about i was wondering what you guys thought would be the best in terms of preformance, overclocking, speed, and kind of important heat..

The most demanding game i have at the moment is counterstrike source, but im doing games programming at uni and will be hoping to be spending a reasonable ammount on games in the near future.

Many thanks in advance

 

[Zenduri]

I7 920 if your going to be programming etc and youll need the tri channel memory too that comes with 1366

Performance wise they are on PAR
The 920 clocks slightly better but the 750/860 clocks to 4-4.5ghz too
Heat is about the same I guess but the 1156 socket draws less power and the chips have a lower TDP

 

[WJA96]

S1366 if you can afford it, it's just better. More PCIe bandwidth, and despite the similarity in CPU speeds, the X58 chipset is faster than the P55.

 

[Pete.Dakota]

If you're just playing games, you'll see hardly any difference between an i5 rig and an i7 one. As far as I'm aware, the lower PCIe bandwidth will only become a problem if you're in SLI or Crossfiring two GPUs that are both stressing to play whatever game you've got running.

With a 4890/GTX285 or better in single or double set up, the bandwidth restriction won't hold you back.

Remember, though, that if you want to SLI/Crossfire with an i5, you'll need to spend the tad bit extra to get a board that has 2 or more PCIe x16 slots.

 

[Hotwired]

CSS? mATX?

Below i5 750 rig. 300fps on a 20 player, 150-160 on a 60 player, full detail 1280x800. Overclocked to 3.3ghz and I still know little about overclocking, bundled programs balance it all for me.

Temps depend a lot on the environment, mooches along at 40-50*C in my fairly warm room with fans on medium, 35-40*C fans on full. If I chucked it outside where its frickin freezing 20ish degrees isn't unlikely.

The cooler is still the stock intel one. I'm waiting for an H50...

Also to note:
i7 920 = 130 watts TDP before OC
i5 750 = 95 watts TDP before OC
i7-860 = 95 watts TDP before OC

The 920 has a TDP 35 watts more than the 860 which is at least equal in performance to it and in fact is clocked higher at stock: 920 = 2.66ghz, 860 = 2.80ghz.

The 920 is cheaper as it's been out longer but its motherboard is still more expensive than the brand new 1156 so price for cpu/mobo somewhat balances out.

Or you could forget hyperthreading and hit the 750 which has 4 cores that don't pretend to be 8

Pete this is the top end Asus board it does have 2 x PCIe slots.

 

[JonJ678]

The x58 920 is a very hot chip when overclocked, and does not make for a quiet machine without considerable effort. The lower thermal envelope of the P55 processors suggest they're the way to go.

Fast correlates with hot, not really any way around that. Hyperthreading always makes it hotter, but you can turn it off on the 920 anyway.

 

[WJA96]

The x58 920 is a very hot chip when overclocked, and does not make for a quiet machine without considerable effort. The lower thermal envelope of the P55 processors suggest they're the way to go.

Fast correlates with hot, not really any way around that. Hyperthreading always makes it hotter, but you can turn it off on the 920 anyway.

In my experience the i750 runs as hot or hotter than an i920 D0 - the D0 is taking 1.1-1.3V to do 4GHz whereas the i750 is taking 1.4V+ and unless there has been a sudden improvement in BIOSes somewhere the last time I looked it was significantly easier to get 4GHz on an i920 than an i750.

Add-in the fact that you get triple-channel memory and full-bandwidth SLi or CrossFireX as standard even on the cheapest X58 motherboards and I really can't see why anyone would go S1156 if they can afford the extra bit for a S1366 system. And if you compare a top-end S1156 system with a S1366 system you get more (at least 50% more RAM for a start) for your money with S1366.

 

[Zenduri]

Add-in the fact that you get triple-channel memory and full-bandwidth SLi or CrossFireX as standard even on the cheapest X58 motherboards and I really can't see why anyone would go S1156 if they can afford the extra bit for a S1366 system. And if you compare a top-end S1156 system with a S1366 system you get more (at least 50% more RAM for a start) for your money with S1366.

Because future upgrade will cost around £5-600 on a 1366 system.....

 

[WJA96]

Because future upgrade will cost around £5-600 on a 1366 system.....

That's no reason to buy a second-best system today. I never, ever, ever, recommend buying anything as an upgrade platform because if you look at how fast things change you just can't keep up with it. There is no guarantee whatsoever that the new i9 Extreme CPUs will work in today's X58 motherboards, just as the S775 P975 boards generally wouldn't support the Core2Duos and many S775 motherboards didn't support Quads. The socket might be compatible, but that is no guarantee a new CPU will run in that motherboard. And that goes for S1156 as well.

12 months ago i9 didn't exist, S1366 didn't exist and within 18 months both S1366 and S1156 will be phased out. Buying for an upgrade tomorrow is a mugs game. Buy for today and play for as long as possible.

If you want excellent value then there is an excellent argument for buying an overclockable S775 system for gaming as you spend less on the CPU/motherboard/RAM and that would let you maximise the spend on graphics cards which is where the load goes primarily in a gaming system.