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i7 920 over the 930?

David09

David09

David09

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Joined
19 Nov 2009
Posts
113
Location
Kent
Hi there my first post :)

Recently ive been reading reviews on the i5 and i7 and confidently i will be going down the i7 route because i will be upgrading my current build into something far more powerful, something which i wouldn't of been able to do years ago..However my decision continues again whether to choose the intel Core i7 920 d0 (Nehalem) over the intel Core i7 930 (Bloomfield).:confused:

Could someone explain why the two CPU's are priced a tad differently and also what is better out of the Nehalem and Bloomfield. I will be a heavy gamer so at a later date wil be buying an ASUS 5850 and a new PSU probably a 750watt.

At the current time my build is as follows:
Case: Hiper Osiris
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L
Memory: Geil 2.0gb RAM 800MHz
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB + 640GB
Video Card: ASUS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Power Supply: Hiper 530w
Monitor: LG Flatron 19" W1952TQ (1440x900)

Of course my next part leads me onto the stuff i was thinking of buying.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + Assassin's Creed II Game
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel

Thanks i think thats all.
 
Nahalem is the architecture, Bloomfield is the core codename. Therefore the i7 900 series chips are both Bloomfield and Nahalem.

The i7 920 (D0) and i7 930 are effectively the same chip, but the 930 has a multiplier that is 1 higher. They both use the same core and stepping (D0) and both should overclock very well. The i7 930 should be able to overclock a bit higher, as it will become limited by motherboard BCLK later than the 920 - but this is only of use at the high end (4.2GHz +). If you just want to overclock on air (aiming for around 4.0Ghz) then there is no functional difference between the two chips. Both chips should hit 4GHz with sufficient cooling and perform identically at the same clockspeeds.

It is possible that the i7 930 chips may overclock better as they are being produced as the production matures, but I have yet to see evidence of this - perhaps it will come later.

The reason for the difference in pricing is that the 920 is now EOL (end of life) and retailers want to get rid of them so they can place 930 chips in the same price point. The 930 is also slightly faster at stock speeds, so the pricing difference can be justified.

Hope that helps.
 
Thank you Andi that's fantastic to see such a fast reply.

I understand now thankyou, I did know it had a +1 multiplier but couldn't understand why there was a £20+ difference between the two CPU's HAHA :D

Also was reading about the 930 replacing the existing 920 what is this about, I just hope you understand my trepidation seen as I wouldn't wanna waste my money, I guess the sensible thing to do now is stick with the current CPU then :)

Andi what's the best make of RAM DDR3 to go with my motherboard was looking at OCZ gold, Geil Blackdragon and Kingston HyperX but decided to go Patriot clock timings seemed very good at an affordable price.

Thanks
 
Also was reading about the 930 replacing the existing 920 what is this about,
Click to expand...

I think it was just that Intel realised that their i7 chips can go much faster than 2.66GHz, so they replaced to low end 900 series chip (the 920) with a slightly faster version (the 930 @ 2.8Ghz). This means they can widen the gap with AMD in terms of performance, as well as intel and help then justify their pricing.

I just hope you understand my trepidation seen as I wouldn't wanna waste my money,
Click to expand...

Lol, absolutely. I know the feeling well.

Andi what's the best make of RAM DDR3 to go with my motherboard was looking at OCZ gold, Geil Blackdragon and Kingston HyperX but decided to go Patriot clock timings seemed very good at an affordable price.
Click to expand...

As RAM prices change so much, this answer changes by the week (if not the day), but at the minute I would suggest going for this stuff - really nice RAM.

Are you planning on overclocking the CPU? As I mentioned before, these i7 chips love to be overclocked and 4GHz is very achievable with decent air cooling.
 
Yes but not by too much at least 3.5ghz to begin with i'll be using the stock fan that is supplied for a while but not for too long hopefully, as i have a better cooler around here somewhere lol :)

My plan is to spread my rig out over a length of time, firstly i'll start off with CPU, motherboard, RAM and after that 5850 (with a chance to cross-fire in near future) with a relevent PSU. i just cannot wait to build this stuff in my lovely case, cos everyday i get an itchy trigger finger i just feel like pressing the buy now button :D

Just need the proper thumbs up before doing so.
 
Upgrading over time works quite well if you do it in batches. The biggest performance increase will be from the motherboard/ram/cpu or from the graphics card depending on your point of view.

New psu has to come before new graphics, or you run a risk of your hiper killing everything. I'd personally want to change case early on, but if you leave this until last it won't matter that much.

So, I'd personally go for
1/ psu + new case and build the current components into this
2/ new motherboard / cpu / ram
3/ graphics card and cpu cooler

But as long as you don't run the 5850 off the 530W Hiper it'll be ok. I wouldn't want to try the new motherboard/cpu with the old power supply either, hence I'd get the most boring parts first.

920 vs 930 doesn't really matter. 930 costs a bit more and will probably have a slightly higher resale value, either will clock about the same as they're essentially the same processor.
 
JonJ678 said:
Upgrading over time works quite well if you do it in batches. The biggest performance increase will be from the motherboard/ram/cpu or from the graphics card depending on your point of view.
Click to expand...

That's an idea I've had a year or so back but hesitated due to funds. I kept my current rig for as long as I can as I used to play small time games mostly battlefield 2 which I played quite a lot.

Before we overstep and make this thread too complicated, I HOPE my PSU (530watts) at this moment to power my current graphics card an ASUS 4850 to use with: Intel Core i7 920, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) (1600MHz).

My current case will be more than enough Jon thanks, I spent a long time reading and looking to find the perfect case as for me the main reasons for the case was having the Stealth bays and a solid all round build.

I won't be getting the graphics card yet ill get the PSU and GPU at the same time at a later date...I just want to run the 3 components together with my current setup.

To Answer the last question Jon, I wont resell the the 920 I wil keep it for many years to come.:):)
 
Ok peeps, just about to order this stuff now so wish me luck ;)

If you would like I could post pictures of my components onto the desk and room gallery, it would be a pleasure.

Delivery will be on monday and damn have to wait 3 days what a liberty :D:D:D
 
I've just dug out a review of your case, it's not the one I thought it was. I agree, don't change that for a new one. I'm been using an akasa omega for ages, it's much the same internal layout as your one.

The 530W Hiper should be entirely capable of running the new processor/board/ram with a 4850. The thing is, Hiper power supplies have quite a black name. The group has also gone out of business now. I'm concerned that the additional load may push your power supply over the edge. Power supplies occasionally kill other components when they fail.

As a compromise, if you don't overclock the processor until replacing the psu and graphics card in the future, you'll place the psu under less load and improve the chance that it'll work out well. I don't have any way of estimating the probability of it going wrong on you I'm afraid, I suspect you'll be fine but the risk is there. Best of luck :)
 
Hi jon again thanks for the heads up.

To throw caution to the wind ill be borrowing a 650watt Hiper PSU instead of my current one, ill just pick up a a 850watt, until l find the right time to buy a 5850, hopefully the prices continue to drop bit by bit each week.

Just added:
Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £224.99
(£191.48) £224.99
Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXUK) Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXUK) £99.99
(£85.10) £99.99
LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW ReWriter SATA - (Black) Retail LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW ReWriter SATA - (Black) Retail £19.99
(£17.01) £19.99

Now ill watch the prices drop for graphics :):):D

P.S thanks for the input Jon and Andi
 
That's a spectacular power supply you've picked out. That's not a bad thing, just that you could save 20 quid or so there if you wanted to. I'm in favour of overspecifying power supplies, as it helps keep them quiet and lets you add more things to the computer in the future without worry.

I think you're good to go. Nice computer there. Have fun :)
 
Yea it will be a killer machine but at some point really want to xfire the two 5850 at a later date because it'll be over kill with my silly 19" monitor imo, wouldnt mind either a 22/23" setup later was considering the LG Flatron just hope a 850watt will run the lot (including xfire) :S ....but ill always consider a 950watt but if need be, hopefully not as my electricity bill will probably hit the roof lmao:eek::eek:
 
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Ah, if you're looking at crossfire then the 850W corsair is ideal. It's still overspecified in that a 750W would run both cards, but the 850W won't break a sweat while doing so. Cool :)
 
Thanks for that info was looking at the modular one but i am just as happy saving the £50 do some cable managment :)

Ill upload some pics of my setup, in the case and room gallery, ive been adding bits here and there, so this is the biggest upgrade ive done in a long while thanks for the help. THUMBS UP!!! :cool:
 
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