Did i make a Mistake with this new pc build???

Matson · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:08

Hi there i would really aprechiate some advice, a couple days ago i ordered myself a new pc with 2 5870 in crossfire. I picked a i7 860 cpu which obviously comes with the p55 motherboard.
Was this a bad decision as ive read up and found out multi gpus dont scale aswell with this setup.

I still have the oppertunity to change the order as they wont have the cards in for a few weeks yet so i have time.

Would it be better to change the cpu to a i7 920 and a x58 motherboard?

Zenduri · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:10

YES and NO

The i7 860 and p55 will only allow 8x8 crossfire
The i7 920 and x58 will allow 16x16 on the right board

Realistically i think 2 5870's wouldnt saturate the 8x8 pci lanes sop i wouldnt expect there to be an issue and the i7 860 performs better than the 920 in various gaming benchmarks.

Its upto you really what you want

mmj_uk · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:17

Some games such as Call of Duty 4 take quite a hit running 8x but it's nothing massive.

8x isn't optimal but it's not catastrophic either.

Zenduri · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:18

Read this... i am doing now!
HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling

Looking at that the effect of 8x8 over 16x16 is minimal

MagicBoy · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:23

Bear in mind its PCI-e v2. So the 8x lane is as fast as a 16x PCie v1.

Matson · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:25

yeah thanks for that, theres obviously a difference but as you said its very Minimal. Since i have the oppertunity to switch to the 920 though do you think i should do that or just stick with the 860.

thanks again

Zenduri · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:31

Personally if its a gaming rig stick with the 860, it performs better. If your video encoding or anything like number crunching then get the 920.

Plus bear in mind the i7 1366 upgrade route WILL be pricey as its the enthusiast/ workstation socket so expect £3-400 + for new i9 6 core... not that we need 6 cores yet lol.

Both will Clock to 4ghz and the 860 uses less power than the 920

Matson · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:35

yeah its definatly mainly for gaming, i don't do a lot of video editing ect, I just wanted to make sure i get the most out of having 2 5870 in crossfire, so it would seem the 860 will be fine for that then

Zenduri · 26 Sep 2009 at 16:42

Anyway at the end of the day these are my opinions and theres ample data benchmarks flying about that show the i5+i7 1156's are more at home gaming compared to the 920.

On the other hand the 920 only falls shy on gaming by a small margin and has a good pedigree.

Its personal choice. Ill be buying the 860 and MSI GD80 for gaming very soon as its more than capable of this task plus future upgrades to 1156 will be cheaper.