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i7 920 vs i7 950

C

chong67

Gawd
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
648
I am now using i7 920.

I won on ebay a used i7 950 for $309 last night. Seller had it for 2 mths and will include receipt and retail box.

I dont overclock. I just wonder if it is worth it to upgrade.
 
to be honest no, its not really a meaningful upgrade.

You probably would have gotten better bang for your upgrade dollars getting an SSD.
 
Money is definitely better spent upgrading your graphics card or like PClark99 said...a SSD.

It pains me to hear 920s not being overclocked. :eek:
 
You can easily overclock the i7 920 to 950 speeds. You probably don't even need to raise any voltages to get it there. As others have said, SSD would have been a far better upgrade or a nice video card would have made more sense. You could have easily picked up a new AMD 5870 or a used GTX 295 for $300 range.
 
Well if you do not overclock I would keep the 950 and sell the 920 back for $180 to $200.

You probably don't even need to raise any voltages to get it there.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Its pretty easy for an i7 920 to hit i7 950 speed.
 
drescherjm said:
Well if you do not overclock I would keep the 950 and sell the 920 back for $180 to $200.


Agreed. Its pretty easy for an i7 920 to hit i7 950 speed.
Click to expand...

So if the OP wanted to OC the 950, what kind of speeds could he expect to achieve?
 
I do not game at all. I get the GT240 cause its the highest it can go without putting in a 6 pin power. I think I make the right choice on this.

To get the 920 to 950, you have to increase voltage and waste electricity. Why not just get the 950 and you dont have to increase the voltage. Am I right on this?
 
you'll notice a big difference once you run SSD and u'll be happier than ever
more noticable than any processor upgrade within the same line
 
I see. Even with 6 hard drive, I am running out of space. I plan on adding 2 more hd.

So nobody should buy any higher processor as it it is really wasting money unless $ is no problem.

Did you say you can overclock without increase voltage?
 
Did you say you can overclock without increase voltage?
Click to expand...

Yes. That is the way I overclock with my i7 / amd and core2 systems. I refuse to increase any voltage. For i7, just increase the BCLK from the default of 133 to 150 and you have a 3.0GHz i7. This should work without any problems at all.
 
chong67 said:
I do not game at all. I get the GT240 cause its the highest it can go without putting in a 6 pin power. I think I make the right choice on this.

To get the 920 to 950, you have to increase voltage and waste electricity. Why not just get the 950 and you dont have to increase the voltage. Am I right on this?
Click to expand...

Well considering the price difference and the marginal increase in power usage from overclocking the 920 to 950 speeds (assuming you actually need to bump up the voltage), you'd have to use the 950 for a while for it to pay for itself in terms of saving electricity. That's assuming you resell the 920 to recuperate some losses.
 
heh, my i7 went from 2.66 to 3.8 without increasing voltage, so i'd say it's extremely easy to hit 950 speeds without upping any voltage...
 
i also run my 930, with no extra volts, at 3.8 during the summer to reduce heat output.
 
Yes, I am going to sell my 920. I will come up with the difference after I sell it.

If you can just overclock it, then why do Intel makes 930, 940 and 950? Its for those who cant overclock their mobo? Thats the reason ???

Funny I never clock my mobo even though I can do it. I am going to learn now.
 
chong67 said:
Yes, I am going to sell my 920. I will come up with the difference after I sell it.

If you can just overclock it, then why do Intel makes 930, 940 and 950? Its for those who cant overclock their mobo? Thats the reason ???

Funny I never clock my mobo even though I can do it. I am going to learn now.
Click to expand...

the 930 replaced the 920 and runs @ 2.8 rather than 2.67 - the others are for the mainstream folks not the enthusiast crowd. i would think most users on this forum would by the 920/30 and oc it. it is smart business for intel - same chips with different multis and a couple hundred dollar premium. 950 runs at 23 while i have my 930 at 21.
 
chong67 said:
Yes, I am going to sell my 920. I will come up with the difference after I sell it.

If you can just overclock it, then why do Intel makes 930, 940 and 950? Its for those who cant overclock their mobo? Thats the reason ???

Funny I never clock my mobo even though I can do it. I am going to learn now.
Click to expand...

Intel sells most of their chips for systems (HP, Dell ..) which have locked BIOSs that prevent you from overclocking. I have 2 such systems at work.
 
I try to OC my computer just now. It never work. The computer never boot up. I went to EVGA tutorial. I dont know where to begin.
 
and what cooler are you using? have you read any guides? I know there is one on here but this one is pretty thorough
read this
 
chong67 said:
Yes, I am going to sell my 920. I will come up with the difference after I sell it.

If you can just overclock it, then why do Intel makes 930, 940 and 950? Its for those who cant overclock their mobo? Thats the reason ???
Click to expand...

A young naive grasshopper :)
 
chong67 said:
To get the 920 to 950, you have to increase voltage and waste electricity. Why not just get the 950 and you dont have to increase the voltage. Am I right on this?
Click to expand...

this is not true. i OC'ed my i7-920 to 3.7ghz, while undervolting (below stock volts)
 
I am using Intel stock fan.
Click to expand...
That will limit your overclock since the stock fans do not provide a lot of headroom. I still think 3GHz will be attainable with a stock fan if you have descent cooling inside your case. Remember that Intel CPUs have a max temp of around 100C. Over that they will throtte down to protect the chip. So do not be alarmed when you see 80C temps.


That is alot of reading.
Click to expand...
At first look I do not think that is a good guide for those who do not want to mess with voltages. It seems more of a guide to get the best overclock or optimize power usage. Overclocking without messing with any parameter other than BCLK is far simpler. With that said I would read about the stability testing parts of that guide.
 
I don't see what the big problem is. If he can't, doesn't want to, or doesn't know how to overclock then buying a faster processor is a legitimate option. Sell the old cpu as he said and the cost of upgrading will probably be only $150 or so.

For someone that won't be overclocking.....there is nothing wrong with that purchase other than buying it used, and that particular cpu. You see, it has already been announced that the i7 950 will drop to around $295 next month.

http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/processors/processors/core-i7-950-to-drop-below-us-300
 
Robstar said:
*LOL*. I run my Q6600 @ 1.6 to reduce heat output.
Click to expand...

under water my 930 @ 3.8 with stock volts hits about 50c while crunching 24/7. at 4.2 with 1.3v it would hit 63c with fans on high. I think 13c is a sig difference when you leave your comp on 24/7.
 
I think you are more talking about temps of the components. Water cooling will actually add more heat to the room not reduce the heat output. Also 50C or 63C should not make any difference with an Intel CPU. That is unless you can have your radiators outside.
 
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drescherjm said:
I think you are more talking about temps of the components. Water cooling will actually add more heat to the room not reduce the heat output. Also 50C or 63C should not make any difference with an Intel CPU. That is unless you can have your radiators outside.
Click to expand...

i am talking about temps of the components - but less heat on components means less heat exchanged with ambient air. and yes i have one rad on the outside of my case.
 
onepost said:
i am talking about temps of the components - but less heat on components means less heat exchanged with ambient air. and yes i have one rad on the outside of my case.
Click to expand...

Where do you think the heat goes if it's not on the processor/hs&fan?

My cpu already runs cool at stock (30's) but I want less heat in the air in my basement so I underclock
 
but less heat on components means less heat exchanged with ambient air.
Click to expand...

No the same heat load exists + the additional heat added from the pump and additional fans. With the WC you are just moving the heat out of the case faster not reducing the heat load on the room.
 
how does the same heat load exist if you are using less wattage? maybe we should get back to the ops original question/concern.
 
chong67 said:
I still have not overclock. I dont know how. I am a sorry arse.
Click to expand...

Everyone has to start somewhere. I remember when i didn't overclock because I thought it was scary and might burn out my components. But that is far from the truth if you know the limits of your hardware and what you're doing.

The main things you need to do to overclock.

1. Get into your bios at your startup screen. This is usually accomplished by hitting Delete or F2 as your computer starts up.
2. Go into advanced options, then adjust your BCLK (Also might be referred to as QPI), to change your cpu clock speed. Usually, it will show the new calculated speed after you do so. Pick a number between 150 and 200 then multiply that number by your clock multiplier to predict your OC speed. For example with an i7 920 the multiplier is 21. 172x21 = 3.6ghz. with the i7 950 the multiplier is 23. 165 x 23 = 3.8ghz.
3. Now go into your ram settings and make sure that your ram is set to proper speeds. Change the ratios until you get the closest match possible to your ram's rated memory speed. (ex. 1333, 1600, etc.). It is ok to slightly underclock your ram if your system isn't stable with your ram OC'ed, the CPU speed is the most important.
4. Press F10 and then Y to save your settings. Restart and see if windows loads stable.
5. If it doesn't load stable, go back to step 1 and get into your bios. Now you want to bump your voltage settings slightly to accommodate the overclock (Just 1 or 2 step increase is usually enough). The guide should tell you which settings are important to overvolt. Important - don't overvolt your memory over 1.65v, that is the max recommended limit for i7 compatible memory.

Here's a quick guide, just follow it.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=7528

Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Let us know what settings you tried and how it worked out for you.
 
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Same here.
MB 'auto' setting was bumping the voltage well above stock for some reason, so I went to set it manualy to stock voltages, then I remembered reading these chips don't mind undervolting at stock speeds, and decided to see if it'd run at 1.15v while overclocked and it worked!

It might go faster and/or lower vcore, but it works fine as it is for now.

Intel realy did a good job with the 920s
 
I always disable the auto overclock and manually set the BCLK or frequency without messing with any other option. This way I can overclock at stock voltage. No this will not generally lead to a 4GHz overclock.
 
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