Trying to decide i7 920 or i7 860

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 19:53

HI guys need some help deciding between these i7 920 or i7 860 before saturday when i can go and collect parts.
I already have the Msi p55-gd65 sitting here but i could sell that if needed so what you think guys any comments welcome.

Thanks for comments so far guys really glad your making them and maybe i should give a bit more info to make it a bit more clear for what i use it for which is encoding and multi tasking and not for games at all this my help now i have given more info sorry should have done that in the first place.

reygjabla · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:22

Depends on your budget really. If money is not an issue then go for 920.

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:28

It's not an easy choice heh!

The Bloomfield 920 has been out longer than I realised and is a popular choice now, the boards that support have been fine tuned through BIOS revisions and you have a wealth of 3rd party heatsinks to choose from.

The Lynnfield 860 has been on sale like a week, a lot of people scoff it or see it as a bad choice because the 920 can be had for less.

However I guess it depends if you wanna overclock or not and how you use your machine, the Lynnfield 860 is IMHO the most advanced mainstream processor in the world and has a number of benefits not found on ye old Bloomfield (joking heh, it's not that old!), like improved memory support, better Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, more power efficient etc

From early reviews the Lynnfield i860 seems to be overclocking very well too!

When comparing Bloomfield vs Lynnfield the former only really offers a few extras:

Tri-Channel instead of Dual Channel
QPI instead of DMI
Full x16/x16 PCI-E 2.0 Crossfire/SLI Support (vs 8x/8x)

Tri-Channel Memory looks good on paper, however from everything I've read it's not making hardly any difference in the Real world? I guess it depends how you use your PC

QPI has more bandwidth than DMI but again from what I've read the extra QPI bandwidth comes into its own when you have Multi Chip set-ups (i.e two separate processors both plugged into same board), also bare in mind some of this QPI bandwidth is being used up on the PCI-E 2.0 graphics (Lynnfield has built in PCI-E 2,0)

Lastly and I think the most important reason why some folks will say X58/Bloomfield is the prefered Gamers choice is if you plug in two really *monster* GPU's then you will get slightly better frame-rates on the X58 due to it offering the two full PCI-E x16 slots.

Personally, my own choice if buying today would be the 860, that's my own personal opinion and will not be shared by a gazillion die-hard Bloomfield owners heh! :cool:

jbloggs · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:39

If you already have a P55 board, I would go the 860 route...with both CPUs (860 & 920) at the same clocks there really is little or no performance differance...

I bought the 860 over the 920 simply because it has a 95w TDP compared to 130W TDP of the 920...

As Wayne remarks, it is a hard call...

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:57

Thanks for comments so far guys really glad your making them and maybe i should give a bit more info to make it a bit more clear for what i use it for which is encoding and multi tasking and not for games at all this my help now i have given more info sorry should have done that in the first place.

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:58

I wonder how many i7 Bloomfield 920 owners run their system at stock? . . . I know a lot of folks do some great clocks but not all. For people that want a great machine without all the enjoyment/hassle of overclocking the i7 Lynnfield is a fair bit faster Out The Box and due to it being very power efficient the running costs will be lower and so will your electric bills £££

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:59

jbloggs said:
If you already have a P55 board, I would go the 860 route...with both CPUs (860 & 920) at the same clocks there really is little or no performance differance...

I bought the 860 over the 920 simply because it has a 95w TDP compared to 130W TDP of the 920...

As Wayne remarks, it is a hard call...

What did you have before the i7 860 and what do you think of the performance of your new setup ?

jbloggs · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:06

I had a Q9550 @4.0GHz (so not really much of an upgrade for me), sold it some weeks ago as I fancied a CPU with HT (as at times I do a lot of video work/encoding), so I was either going for the 920 or 860, so went 860, which I have clocked @ 4.1GHz, would like to get 4.2GHz out of it...

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:08

jbloggs said:
I had a Q9550 @4.0GHz (so not really much of an upgrade for me), sold it some weeks ago as I fancied a CPU with HT (as at times I do a lot of video work/encoding), so I was either going for the 920 or 860, so went 860, which I have clocked @ 4.1GHz, would like to get 4.2GHz out of it...

Does it multi task very well ?

Typhoon · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:09

With the i7 860 currently costing a few notes more than the the 920, the 860 only makes sense if you go for a basic cheap P55 board and memory to make a saving. If your getting a £150+ MB, you may as well get something like a ASUS P6T SE board for £140 and go down the X58 route.

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:11

Typhoon said:
the 860 only makes sense if you go for a basic cheap P55 board and memory to make a saving

Hi Typhoon,

I think your viewpoint is shared by a lot of folks, but would you add a little more detail please if you have time!

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:13

chippy08 said:
Does it multi task very well ?

Hehe, a quad core chip with eight threads running at over 4GHz would multitask pretty well I would imagine!

[edit] however this is a mOOt point because both 920/860 do this

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:17

Big.Wayne said:
Hehe, a quad core chip with eight threads running at over 4GHz would multitask pretty well I would imagine!

[edit] however this is a mOOt point because both 920/860 do this

Shows how much i know thats one reason i need advise on making the right choice.

setter · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:20

Ive decided to go down the x58 i7 920 route, selling my current s775 parts. Fancy trying sli again or possibly xfire. Got an asus p6t dlxv2 board and just waiting to get the cpu and 6gb of ram. Saying that though the lynnfield platform looks very good so far.

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:20

chippy08, forgive me if this is a silly question but do you know how to overclock? have you overclocked before?

Typhoon · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:22

Big.Wayne said:
Hi Typhoon,

I think your viewpoint is shared by a lot of folks, but would you add a little more detail please if you have time!

I5 750 on the P55 make more sense than the 860 at the moment as its significantly cheaper at around £150 or less.

This makes sense to me on the P55 platform:-

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £159.99
(£139.12) £159.99
(£139.12)
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£75.64) £86.99
(£75.64)
OcUK Value 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz Memory Module (AD31333002GMU) £26.99
(£23.47) £53.98
(£46.94)
Sub Total : £261.70
Shipping cost based on delivery :
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £39.26
Total : £300.96

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:25

Hold up Typhoon, we aren't discussing the 750 :confused:

what I meant is, can you elaborate on your previous statement . .

Typhoon said:
the 860 only makes sense if you go for a basic cheap P55 board and memory to make a saving

chippy08 · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:28

Big.Wayne said:
chippy08, forgive me if this is a silly question but do you know how to overclock? have you overclocked before?

I only know some i can certainly follow instructions on how to if someone said alter this that and the other.
To be honest never read the quide at all.

Typhoon · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:33

Ok cheap i7 860
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 860 2.80Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £226.99
(£197.38) £226.99
(£197.38)
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£75.64) £86.99
(£75.64)
OcUK Value 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz Memory Module (AD31333002GMU) £26.99
(£23.47) £53.98
(£46.94)
Sub Total : £319.96
Shipping cost based on delivery with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £47.99
Total : £367.95

Mid Range i7 860
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 860 2.80Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £226.99
(£197.38) £226.99
(£197.38)
Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £155.99
(£135.64) £155.99
(£135.64)
Corsair Dominator XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9D Twin3X (TW3X4G1600C9D) £72.99
(£63.47) £72.99
(£63.47)
Sub Total : £396.49
Shipping cost based on delivery with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £59.47
Total : £455.96

Mid range i7920
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £199.99
(£173.90) £199.99
(£173.90)
Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
(£147.82) £169.99
(£147.82)
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C8D) £119.99
(£104.34) £119.99
(£104.34)
Sub Total : £426.06
Shipping cost based on delivery with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £63.91
Total : £489.97

the Mid range i7920 is easily worth the few extra notes over the mid range i7860, so only the basic 860 setup makes financial sense.

Big.Wayne · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:38

Typhoon said:
cheap i7 860
£367.95

Mid Range i7 860
£455.96

Mid range i7920
£489.97

the Mid range i7920 is easily worth the few extra notes over the mid range i7860, so only the basic 860 setup makes financial sense.

Thanks Typhoon for the effort, we are starting to get somewhere now!

So why would you personally choose the 920 set-up over the 860 . . .