how capable is the i7 860 still? (no more replies needed.)

[ExoMale]

i know its old, but that is what my mini itx is which im quite fond of and at £35 i dont see it as a waste(affordable old hardware upgrading is nice) so after establishing it will run off my psu i am going to try get the one i found over the weekend, but that doesnt stop me wondering how capable these old i7 processors still are at anything really. i cant be bothered with overclocking anymore, so raw power will do me.

 

[David Bisset]

Well I still game just fine on my i5 750 (tho, it's at 3.6 day to day so a bit overclocked)

It's not going to blow you away and in some games certainly lacks but in many scenarios it's still great. What GPU you pairing it with?

 

[ExoMale]

Thanks for reply.

Yeah not expecting earth shattering performance, I just know the 1155 i7 processors are still considered good when it comes to upgrading, so i wondered if the older i7 models were the same case as they are 4c8t.

Right now I have a 2gb gt610, but plan to get a 1030 unless I find a case that takes stronger power supplies and dual slot graphic cards.

 

[ED209]

I have a I7 950 @ 3.8ghz and 6GB of ram with a Nitro 390 8GB and can quite happily play games.

currently playing the Division without any issues, played the Doom demo as well and handles most things fine but I do game at 1080P

 

[ExoMale]

Are the 1366 not considered stronger or they older?

Mean I haven’t decided if I will game on it other than the older games that even my basic advent m100 blue laptop can play as it’s all down to what I decide about case etc to enable proper graphic cards, but I still want the i7 if I can get hold of one as it’s there if I do decide to game plus should make a nice quick little computer still all round.

 

[DragonQ]

Are the 1366 not considered stronger or they older?

Mean I haven’t decided if I will game on it other than the older games that even my basic advent m100 blue laptop can play as it’s all down to what I decide about case etc to enable proper graphic cards, but I still want the i7 if I can get hold of one as it’s there if I do decide to game plus should make a nice quick little computer still all round.

The "original" LGA 1366 chips (Bloomfield) are basically the same as the i7-8xx series (Lynnfield). However, there are 6-core 32 nm Westmere-EP Xeons available for LGA 1366. LGA 1156 is stuck with 45 nm quad core Lynnfield chips.

 

[DarkHorizon472]

More modern games like bf1 will struggle a bit, my i5-760 @ 3.8 was in this position so I upgraded.

 

[ExoMale]

Thanks for the insight, I guess 1156 wasn’t aimed for server based then if there’s no xenons? I’ve gone backawards so the mm(die?) isn’t a bother to me so long the chip can perform well, mean I had a q6600 the other week till I sold it, so this is an upgrade from that, but downgrade from my other 2 systems, however if it means I can have a nice system with an i7 for a change at really cheap prices then I’m willing to compromise on those finer details.

Thanks for the BF1 review, luckily for me I won’t ever buy that for pc as the evolution pack goes down to £20-22 in Tesco for Xbox often, but it’s handy to know how certain games can perform on these older hardware, I suppose anno 2205 is a game I might get back in to out of my more demanding games, I’m too past division to pick it up where I left off, so that’s one demand I won’t be aiming for.

 

[ExoMale]

Got the processor, unfortunately I won’t be able to test it till late next week, so I’m hoping it works, but things are starting to take shape.

 

[hornetstinger]

Could you use a hex core xeon? That increases lifespan a fair while, I went for i7 950 to 5670, 2 more cores, runs cooler, and overclocks faster too.

 

[DragonQ]

Could you use a hex core xeon? That increases lifespan a fair while, I went for i7 950 to 5670, 2 more cores, runs cooler, and overclocks faster too.

The OP is talking about Lynnfield (Core i7-8xx) not Bloomfield (Core i7-9xx). There are no upgrade paths available.

 

[ExoMale]

Thanks for reply, this board I have doesn’t offer any support for xenon nor do I think there even is a xenon for this socket, but I’ve never had an i7 before and for what I have currently and what I paid for the processor, so if it works then happy days

 

[mistersprinkles]

Are the 1366 not considered stronger or they older?

Mean I haven’t decided if I will game on it other than the older games that even my basic advent m100 blue laptop can play as it’s all down to what I decide about case etc to enable proper graphic cards, but I still want the i7 if I can get hold of one as it’s there if I do decide to game plus should make a nice quick little computer still all round.

Exact same CPU architecture as far as the grunt goes. Both are nehalem. Benchmark scores are similar. Obviously 1 is bloomfield the other is lynnfield and there are some differences but all 1st gen i7 perform similarly. There are some platform differences. Overall 1366 is a superior platform to 1156. Both are obsolete dinosaurs, though.

 

[hornetstinger]

Exact same CPU architecture as far as the grunt goes. Both are nehalem. Benchmark scores are similar. Obviously 1 is bloomfield the other is lynnfield and there are some differences but all 1st gen i7 perform similarly. There are some platform differences. Overall 1366 is a superior platform to 1156. Both are obsolete dinosaurs, though.

Until games run at 10fps, nope.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Until games run at 10fps, nope.

Anything below 60 FPS= garbage. Otherwise why aren't you just gaming on an Xbox?
PC master race bro.

 

[ExoMale]

I’m happy with anything 40-60fps lol, I can tolerate games at 15-25fps depending what it is, I got pretty far on FO4 couple years ago at 15-25fps because I found the stuttering very tolerable...

but this i7 isn’t aimed to be gaming, I got it because I’ve sold my Lenovo tomorrow and debating whether to build up my 1155 still and also build a htpc out my AM1 for my projector and as this i7 was cheap because if it’s age they why not, like I said if it works then I will have a nice i7 itx system for general use and option to turn make a decent gamer or use with demandish software

 

[Thekwango]

Similar to a couple of posters above, I was using an i5 750 till a year ago and it was really only the lure of Ryzen made me upgrade. Sure the Ryzen multi tasks so much better but the i5 was still a surprisingly quick and capable chip.

 

[ExoMale]

The i5 750 was an alternative as I saw one for £12, but I would’ve had to order it, so for the extra the i7 seemed worth it and it’s further than I got with the last 2 1155 systems I had, sold my last one with an i3 before I could afford an i5 lol and the one I have now has a G2020 and for the price of a 2400, I have found an i7 just happens to be a generation older and since I’m not bothered about overclocking then it be fine with my 300w psu..

My next move is sorting out my AM1, need a cpu and ram to test the board even works lol and an itx case to fit it in, but I do think I should try get rid of my 1155 and ugly case still and then maybe look at a ryzen setup to try out

 

[Thekwango]

Can I ask, what do you plan to use it for?

 

[almoststew1990]

I had a 860 which was fine for all games in 2013/4 which is when I upgraded to Haswell I think. This was with a 7970. It might even be surprisingly good in newer games that like having 8 threads. I'd be interested to hear how it performs in BF1. The base clock is low but I had mine clocked to 3.4Ghz to 3.6GHz I think over its life on a cheap aftermarket air cooler. For general computing it will be fine especially with a SSD and 8GB+ of Ram.