Help me decide......920 or 860

K

korndawg

n00b
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
47
I'm sure this has been asked 10000 times, but I'll ask again :) I ran into a situation where someone wants to buy my current E8400 cpu, Asus P5K mobo and my memory. I agreed to sell it and upgrade to the i7 on the cheap. However, I'm stuck on which one to buy. I'm headed to a Microcenter this weekend (2hrs away) to pick up one of them. I'm not a big gamer, only play WoW, iracing, and GTA4, as I will be keeping my current 4850 graphics card. Besides those games, I heavily use my PC to transcode BD rips on the fly to my PS3 using PSMS, in which my current CPU struggles. If I'm not a huge gamer, and prolly not gonna OC, which is the best CPU combo to get? The 860 combo will cost me ~150 less than a 920. I build a new PC around ever ~3 years, so I'm not a huge 'enthusiast'. I know the 1366 mobo are better due to SLI and trichannel memory, but is that really necessary? I never plan on SLI anyways. Opinions? Thanks.
 
IDK What's the difference really but I get it this way...Get the 920 if you're going to SLI\CFX...Get the 860 if you're gonna run a single card. Don't know the reasons though :D
 
Yeah I was wondering about this myself - though it was after I had already ordered parts for and picked up an i7 920. The 860 marginally bests the 920 at stock speeds (it's clocked higher so that's no surprise) and I think its Turbo boost functionality works on more cores than the 920. But from what I've read the 920 is better for overclocking (w/ less voltage), since pci-e isn't on chip. Also you get triple channel vs dual channel ram capability (though the performance differences are negligible for the most part).

If you're not going to OC, I'd just go w/ the 860 and save money on the mobo (and you can get an 8gb mem kit)
 
I say i7 860. Cheaper combo and lower power consumption. Since performance wise they are essentially the same (860 a bit faster), and you are not going to take advantage of the 1366 features, the biggest thing you gain is the upgradability for the 1366 socket, which means you can theoretically upgrade just the CPU to something better later. However if you are only upgrade at least 3 years later, you are almost always better off getting new mobo with new sockets and new chipsets and new features at that time. Who knows, maybe AMD comes back up on top again. My two cents.
 
920 - can upgrade later down the road.

Just wait until shit starts using the full capacity of these processors, I bet the 920 will beat out the 960.

If you only build a new pc every 3 years do the 920. (just read that part) You can get a bunch of memory and a hex-core in a couple years and that should keep you going along pretty well.
 
Here is the price rundown of the 860 vs 920. All prices are after rebates.

920:
CPU: $200
EVGA1 41-BL-E757-TR mobo: $200
OCZ Gold 6gb DDR31600: $140
Total = $540

860:
CPU: $230
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3: $120
OCZ Gold 4GB DDR31600: $80
Total: $430


So is it worth the $110. If that mobo is still viable is 3 years, then yes. But how can we be sure that in 3 years, a new socket won't be out? Will my usage, and transcoding BD rips on the fly, will there be a noticeable difference? I'll spend the extra money if its worth it.
 
Now days I seem to game more on my PS3 and do Blu-ray transcoding on my main box. My Q9650 @ 4.2 ghz can encode a movie @ 45fps/40fps on 1st pass / 2nd pass for 720p and about 37fps/30fps at 1080p. It does vary a little depending on whether the blu-ray is VC1, h264, or MPEG-2. That's a ~8-10fps faster than my Q6700 @ 3.6ghz on both counts.

So one perspective is that, if you decided to overclock, your transcoding performance would definitely increase from stock. Now, maybe you can try your hand at watercooling and use the saved money to pick up some WC gear for the 860 and then you're good for the next few years (or whatever your normal upgrade cycle is).

My reason to upgrade is improve transcoding speeds as well - Megui's x264 encoder is multithreaded so speed + number of cores definitely helps. The new six core Gulftown cpus will also be socket 1366 (x58 will support, though I'm not 100% that every board will) - that's the reason I went with 1366 and the P6X58D board. Also that's the reason I went with a 920 as opposed to a 950 or even a 975. I can afford it, but I'd rather have a 6 core later on.

If you want to be able to upgrade the cpu later on, then perhaps a 1366 based system is worth it now so you don't have to upgrade the board later on. As an added plus, you'd have a slightly easier time overclocking (if you chose to do so).

Just my 2 cents.
 
Only thing I think about is socket life. Wouldn't 1366 outlive 1156? Long term?
 
I'm in the same boat - the hundred bucks I save going with the 860 is worth it to me, especially since I don't plan on doing incremental upgrades. if I want to upgrade in 2 years, I'm gunna build an entirely new computer.
 
Love my 860...4ghz was easy to hit for me. 2000mhz on ram took a little playing but I got it there.
 
I just think 3 years is a long time when it comes to PC tech. I don't follow the industry that much so I don't really know what's coming up in the pipelines, but just looking at history and you see how much can change in 3 years. AMD went from AM2 in 2007 to AM2+ to AM3 in 3 years, Intel went from 775 to 1136 to 1156. Sure, 775 was out long before 2007, but socket wasn't the only thing changed, chipset changed, memory changed, interface changed, OS changed, etc. You can get a Q9550s to put in to a 2007 board today, but you can get better results with i5-750+new mobo with new features for about the same money.

If you upgrade say every year and a half, maybe 1366 is good, but in 3 years you will most likely want to replace the motherboard too.
 
depends on when and how you upgrade

also depends on whether or not you currently have (or want later on) a secondary box.

peersonally i'll be getting a new gfx card next and when the time comes for a hexa(or octa)core i'll transplant the gfx into the new one, and dust off my current card to use in my secondary box.

that's my "tick-tock" upgrade cycle
 
korndawg said:
Here is the price rundown of the 860 vs 920. All prices are after rebates.

920:
CPU: $200
EVGA1 41-BL-E757-TR mobo: $200
OCZ Gold 6gb DDR31600: $140
Total = $540

860:
CPU: $230
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3: $120
OCZ Gold 4GB DDR31600: $80
Total: $430


So is it worth the $110. If that mobo is still viable is 3 years, then yes. But how can we be sure that in 3 years, a new socket won't be out? Will my usage, and transcoding BD rips on the fly, will there be a noticeable difference? I'll spend the extra money if its worth it.
Click to expand...

You do know that $80 set of 4GB DDR31600 will work in either board right? You don't have to get the triple-channel memory. So you're really only talking $50 difference if you use the same ram on each.
 
With the i7 920 for $199.99 at Microcenter, you would be crazy to go p55. X58 all the way!
 
920 FTW.

Once you price it out the difference is usually not that great. when I did my build the difference in price was $100 in Oct 09. And since I planned to overclock the 860 being faster at stock speed didn't mean anything to me.
 
Well the buyer of my stuff backed out so now I'm stuck with what I've got. Thx for the help anyways!
 
I wonder how long Intel will support the current X58 motherboards. We're getting 6-core chips this year, but I doubt the 8-core chips next year would come to X58, probably would need a new motherboard for that huh?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top