i7-975 boxes

[AyJay]

Does it really matter what the box looks like for the 975 EE? Just a new box, right? I've seen a couple of variations - just checking before i make a big dent in my bank account.

 

[AyJay]

Save yourself a small fortune and buy an i7-920 and overclock it. It will easily reach the stock speed of the 975.

But surely the 975 can reach higher clock speeds? First build with some money to burn, so go easy on me

 

[AyJay]

Only under very good cooling. It'll do just as well as the 920 on air, a bit better on water, better again under phase.

If you've got money to throw away and are using fairly high end watercooling, look at the 950 as the higher multiplier makes motherboard bsck limits less frustrating.

Hmm...well i'm doing this as a kinda project thing anyway - but cheers for the help guys! I'll probably make more posts with more nooby questions sometime soon

 

[AyJay]

You won't find many people recommending the 975. As said before, get the 920 and spend the rest of the money saved on ssds or a crossfire setup.

Crossfiring two 5970's...eventually whilst i'm here, can anyone recommend a good monitor to compliment that setup? Plus i read that the 975 does fine with air cooling up to 5ghz, so i may as well

 

[AyJay]

I wouldnt buy a CPU till you find out about the Gulftown that might be out very soon.

Not sure about your budget but i have these ( E2407HDS-B1 - 24" Iiyama PLE2407HDS-B1 Widescreen LCD, 1920 x 1080, 2ms, DVI/HDMI/VGA - 1080p HD Ready) 3 of them should do the trick

I'm searching in the 30" range (ordered a 5970, crossfiring 'em sometime later on)...and the budget is pretty high, since this is a project and is at least gonna take a couple of months

975 = waste of dough

Get moar gfx cards/ssds/bigger screen instead.

Its all about the future proofing!

If you're wanting to spend that much on a CPU, wait for the new 6 core!

Whats it called now the i7 985 or something?

Good point. Not read much about it...plus i've have to wait for quite a while until they increase the stepping on 'em

Again, thanks for the advice guys! Anyone care to answer my original question?

 

[AyJay]

I learnt long ago it is impossible to future proof, at least to keep up to date all the time. The second you spend a fortune trying to future proof then along come DX12 and Shader Module 5, then once again you are completely out of date for the newest games. Save yourself the money and upgrade in small steps over a long period of time rather than a huge upgrade paying a premium for things that within a year will be out of date.

Aka get an i7 920 and OC it to 4GHz-4.2GHz. You will notice NO difference in games between 4 and 5Ghz. You are spending an extra 500 quid on...nothing.

Ah...but that's just it, isn't it. Sure, you can overclock, run games sweetly, etc etc. But, then again, when the inevitable time comes that dx12 is released, and who knows what else, those who invested in higher tier components ( i'd say the 975 is definitely up there ), then you'll probably find that it will last a lot longer in the long run - plus, i don't see any games being released anytime soon that this build won't be able to handle ( i hope! ) Although i am taking your point into consideration, i would just rather not have to ( in a few years ) have to begin spending a big whack of money on another build just because my old components burned out. Cheers!

 

[AyJay]

Definitely wait for the 6 core cpus then if you really want to spend that much. It'll be more "futureproof" and the fact that it's on 32nm means that you won't have to worry about new steppings. It will overclock pretty well.

Yeah, you're probably right Helios. Just don't like the waiting...is the first i9 to be released going to be the best performer? I guess we could turn this into an i9 speculation thread!

 

[AyJay]

Actually you are wrong lol the 975 and the 920 are EXACTLY the same CPU. The only difference is, is that the 975 may be the CPU range that were picked from the center of the CPU wafer when they are manufactured, so they are very slightly 'better' than the others. This may only mean however, that you can squeeze an extra 50-100MHz out of them, which in reality is absolutely nothing.

CPU's cycle every 2 years~ and in those 2 years the new generation of CPU's almost doubles performance. i7 has been out for a year, in another year the i7 will be out of date and the new generation of CPUs will be out.

You begin to see how the pattern works.

You spend 700 quid on a 975, keep it for 2 years, it is out dated by a year. Pay 200 quid, save 500 quid for almost the same thing. In a years’ time, use 300 quid of that to buy a new CPU. You now have a CPU that is twice as powerful as the one you had, and saved yourself 200 quid. Future proofing is actually a bad investment, same for GPUs.

In about 1 year or more, Intel will release their 8 core CPU, which will make your 4 core 975 look like a terrible investment and leave you feeling like a pranny lol.

As for DX12, a CPU makes no difference, DX12 really only affects graphics. Thus spending over a 1000 quid on a silly OTT SLI investment is another bad idea. Because when it comes out, your DX10/11 cards will be useless if you want to experience DX12.

Well...what can i say? I hear what you're saying, but then again, i suppose i'm only human. I think right now the best bet would be to wait for the i9 - surely there'll be a point when games can't utilize more than 6 cores into just purely graphics processing, and more into capabilities such as 3d visuals? Incidentally, i admit i'm a bit of an ATi fanboy - crossfiring two 5970's is enough for me! Which also relates to the whole graphical peak i was speaking of - pixels can only do so much. All this outdating you speak of, i think the only outdating that will occur is when entirely new forms of architecture and gpu processing methods are released - which won't be for a good while yet. Plus, don't forget that games are only just starting to catch up with dx11: it'll be a long, long wait for them to catch up with dx12. And, finally, future proofing is virtually impossible, like you said. So i may as well blow some money now, get a high end pc, let it last for a good while, and let it fall into the natural cycle of outdating.

 

[AyJay]

Yes, but the amount your paying for that extra gain now, will get you a lot more extra gain in the future when it's needed.

If you don't have this amount of cash to dispense without worrying to much, you're going to be kicking yourself in 6 months.

Upgrading components is ALWAYS a game of chasing your own tail. Everytime I buy something I look on the net a week later and already want to swap it!

Do not use the word invest when you're referring to high-end components In 5 years it'll be one of those **** bits we've all got draws full of!

There's no way to avoid outdating; its constantly happening.

 

[AyJay]

It's mad that people still think that future proofing makes economic sense. Rapid depreciation makes components a terrible thing to invest in. The only sensible time to get a 975 is if you just don't care about blowing £600 on sod all performance or if you're going for phase cooling and really care about 300mhz.

The standard argument is buy a fast computer now, it'll still be fast far into the future. While true, it can't justify the price gap between 920 and 975 as they'll last exactly as long as each other.

By lasting longer, do you mean physically, or market-wise? Market-wise, i think the extra 600MHz would definitely give it a "life" boost of a few months before its becomes grossly obsolete. As for physical life, meh you're probably right. Although i'd like to think the extra 500 quid would be going towards prolonged useability!

As for the future-proofing, you're 100% correct. You can't win, so make the best of what you got, i say.

 

[AyJay]

Id say my 920 x58 system will keep me going for a few years now, last rig was an intel q9550 on a p45 board, awesome quick system, could have lasted another year or so, but i got the upgrade bug, i7 was the top platform to go far, and im extremely glad i did, being primarily a gamer i have the option of xfire or sli at full blown x16, very nice at my res of 1920x1200, no other platform could offer this, that and the fact that a 4ghz i7 encodes video files so quickly, 6 minutes to convert an avi to dvd, my dvd drive takes 20 mins to burn the disk.

Sounds like a pretty sweet setup! I'd still prefer the 975 though - just for maximum performance really. Already got quite a few of the components, which i suppose i'll make a thread about tomorrow to see if they're all going to work correctly. Ah well, cheers for the help guys, you've definitely got me thinking. Although, i won't be doing any video encoding/editing on the pc, just in it for the graphical bliss. Any further suggestions would be greatly welcomed! But for now, g'night y'all.

 

[AyJay]

Okay, okay, so its now between the i7 920 and the new i9. I suppose what i could do is just buy in the rest of my pc just now, and by the time that's finished, the core i9 should be seeing a release date on the horizon. And yes, i will be overclocking, just not too much-nothing worse than frying a grand's worth of processor. I'll check out the good guides on here. Thanks you lot!

 

[AyJay]

If i where you id get the 920.For me it gets to a point of diminishing returns.you can get the 920 for £210 or the 975 for £785 for just a few % performance increase.I would just bank the extra £550 and then sell your 920 when the new I9 arrives(Id wait a week or 2 after they are released for the price to stabalise) Then you have a good chunk of money for your new CPU.

PS What is your rig to be used for

IIRC i think the 930 is due to be released at the end of Feb that will replace the 920 .It is supposed to be at the same price point.I think its clocked slightly higher at 2.8 as well as probably a few other revisions(power saving etc).If it is released then there may be some bargains to be had on the existing 920 stock.(Hopefully)

Yeah, i'm starting to cave to to all your die-hard support of the 920 The computer is really just for a massive e-peen; Benchmarking, and then gaming into the semi-distant future. I'm just sick of the pc i have right now ( Packard Bell iMedia 8500T, shudder ), so i thought i should just go crazy. But i am definitely considering the 920 now, it fits the bill nicely Any idea where i could get a good deal on it once the 980x is released?

 

[AyJay]

Sounds pretty sweet rjk. Although i really don't need the bundle ( already got the RAM; OCZ 2000MHz, and the the mobo; p6t7) plus i'm still looking into cooling systems. So really, its just the cooling solution and the hexacore in my sights right now.

 

[AyJay]

Before this thread dies, will somebody PLEASE answer my original question? Its just out of curiosity now.