Wait or Buy i7 920?

JmZrlz

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Aug 12, 2009
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Hey there,

I've been following the gulftown news recently and it seems it'll be released in Q2 of 2010.
So, if money were no limit, would it be better to wait and buy the gulftown or buy an i7 920 now and buy the CPU after gulftown (sandbridge?)?

I am going to build a new system when possible so I can either wait for the 6-core gulftown or go with the current technology.

If I were to go with an already released i7, I would then wait for sandybridge most likely but the i7 i buy would be outdated by the gulftown. If I buy the gulftown, it'll be replaced in a year or a little more by sandybridge.

So its a tough decision, wait or dont wait?
 
you would be forever waiting for the next big thing... If you have the cash buy what you need now at the best prices.
 
What system do you have now? Mine is in my sig. I just built an i7 rig for my bro to be used as a hackintosh to run his photo apps. (adobe cs4, lightroom etc) this was on raid 0 Intel SSD drives. I first installed windows 7 so I could run core temp,real temp and prime 95. to properly stress test it and monitor temps before running OSX. its a fast system but I honestly don't feel a difference with my rig. and I use non raided 7200rpm seagate drives and Vista on a 3.5ghz q6600.

For what I do there is just no difference at all.(game, run a VM that I surf the web with etc) for things that require any kind of rendering his i7 should be at least 30% faster. which can work out to be minutes or seconds, depending on what you are doing. So for me personally an i7 would be a waste of $ it cant noticeabley improve the things I do. my CPU is not the bottleneck in my system by any stretch, and when it is I'm sure 6 core chips will be the norm.
 
I currently only have a core 2 duo E6700 so am definately going to invest into an i7, DDR3 system at least.

I was just thinking if it'd be better to buy the gulftown next year or just get an i7 now.
My system is able to run everything I need but I would like to have a better gaming system.

Can move my gtx 285 into the new one and slap my old 8800 GTS into this one too.
 
I currently only have a core 2 duo E6700 so am definately going to invest into an i7, DDR3 system at least.

I was just thinking if it'd be better to buy the gulftown next year or just get an i7 now.
My system is able to run everything I need but I would like to have a better gaming system.

Can move my gtx 285 into the new one and slap my old 8800 GTS into this one too.

Gulftown is looking to be Extreme edition only. Although, I doubt it.

I upgraded from an E6400 to an i7 920, and it's a blast.
 
In your case an i7 would bring noticeable gains over the e6700. I say get the i7 now or an i5.
 
Upgrade to i7 920 now and when gulftown comes out, get it......same socket ie 1336.

Youll be waiting forever otherwise.
 
Yeah I think buying an i7 920 would be best (and maybe overclocking it).

Even though its only next year when gulftown is out, it'll cost a hell of a lot of money and will be replaced in 2011 anyway.
 
Upgrade to i7 920 now and when gulftown comes out, get it......same socket ie 1336.

Youll be waiting forever otherwise.

While its true it will be the same socket, he should make sure he gets the best board he can now, to increase chances in being able to step up to it. A few times when a new chip has been release on a previous socket, the chipset had to be different (for various reasons.. e.g. not enough, or too much, voltage to the processor, outside the adjustable range, or the chip has a new feature that the chipset doesnt support) I doubt the chipset issues will occur with the next intel release, but you never know.

But I agree, get what you need now, if you have something that you enjoy using currently, then figure out at what point you want to upgrade. Do you want to upgrade when the processor performance doubles what you currently have? 20%? 50%? Then you have your timeline for when to upgrade.

Personally, I upgrade every generation.. but I'm not the norm.
 
Well I was considering building this:
- i7 920 CPU
- 6GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM
- 850W PSU
- EVGA Classified mobo

Then use my current GTX 285 GPU and HDDs.
 
Well I was considering building this:
- i7 920 CPU
- 6GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM
- 850W PSU
- EVGA Classified mobo

Then use my current GTX 285 GPU and HDDs.

That's a perfect setup, nice choice in components. That's exactly the setup I'm getting soon!
 
Yeah, well I decided against any better i7 because you can probably overclock the 920 to be as fast.

As for the RAM, 1600mhz is already nearing "overkill" so anything better wouldn't be worth it in my opinion.

So it's still a top of the range setup but lower than the most extreme possible setups.
 
Yeah, well I decided against any better i7 because you can probably overclock the 920 to be as fast.

As for the RAM, 1600mhz is already nearing "overkill" so anything better wouldn't be worth it in my opinion.

So it's still a top of the range setup but lower than the most extreme possible setups.

Ya just get a nice air-cooler, and OC that puppy to at lease 3.8GHz or more!
Look into the Titan Fenrir or the Coolermaster V-10.
 
I have heard that whist the Fenrir can give slightly better results than the Noctua, it's much louder, so I wouldn't advise it based on that information. I've never owned one though so if anyone has owned both I'm prepared to be corrected. ;)
 
Will probably buy a titan fenrir since it's much, much, much (etc) cheaper lol.

Also it's only a few degrees difference so I'm not so bothered.
 
No, no your better off with either

A) Prolimatech Megahalems (IMO Best Air cooler you can get that is practical)

B) IFX-14 (with 3 fans, HUGE and cools like crazy, but not quite as practical)

C) TRUE (again about tied with megahalems, with the megatron usually winning out in most reviews by a few degrees)

V10 is gimmicky and EXTREMELY overpriced compared to better quality coolers that can be had for 1/2 the price... and the Fenrir is OK but not quite king of the air coolers.... (which goes to the IFX-14 with 3 high speed fans for a core i7)
 
With the megahalems being fanless, it still cools as good as the TRUE?

edit: dumb question, wasn't concentrating when typing it lol
 
Rofl my mistake.

I'd probably just buy the TRUE then since it comes with one for the same price almost.
 
Is there any reason why the EVGA classified is so expensive? Does it beat the ASUS 6PT Deluxe?
 
Yes, the EVGA classified is one of the best overclocking boards currently in production. It also allows memory to be run at higher speeds than other boards in its class.
 
Is there any reason why the EVGA classified is so expensive? Does it beat the ASUS 6PT Deluxe?
Yes, the EVGA classified is one of the best overclocking boards currently in production. It also allows memory to be run at higher speeds than other boards in its class.
The Classified is one of the better boards out there, but IMO it's far from worth the high price unless it has some features that you really need.
 
Upgrade to i7 920 now and when gulftown comes out, get it......same socket ie 1336.

Youll be waiting forever otherwise.

But won't first gen socket not compatible with future processors of the same socket though?
My Pentium4 is LGA775 but its not future proof. The only good news is it lasted 2 years before Core2 came out.

But if you really can wait, wait for i9. I bet Intel will have a similar price processor for their i9 at 2.66Ghz speed.
 
But won't first gen socket not compatible with future processors of the same socket though?
Current motherboards will work with Gulftown chips. Intel isn't changing their platform until Sandy Bridge comes out. Until then, it's going to be LGA1366 with the X58 chipset.
 
Many good posts here.. If I was wanting another processor in the future with more cores than just the current four, Than I would deffinitly by a mid level i7 and wait until the sandy that you seem to want. ( which would be picked up at that time ).
 
Yeah

I've decided ill build the i7 system then, if affordable at the time, upgrade to the gulftown when it gets released.

As for the motherboard, the classified does seem rather higher quality than the other boards and I'd say the reason for the price is the fact that it's EVGA. I've had excellent support from EVGA for my GTX 285 whereas I've not had great support from asus for my current asus mobo.

On a side note, the P6T7 WS revolution and P6T7 WS supercomputer boards from ASUS are actually more expensive. The P6T6 & P6T deluxe are cheaper.

So I'd say the classified is in between the most expensive and the least expensive of the top few boards.
 
I apologise for the double-post but I have one last question.

Has anyone got a TRUE with two fans setup? Does it hold the weight easily? I mean that's gotta be a few lbs of weight, surely it could damage the motherboard?
 
I have pretty much what you are shopping for.
My 920 is a release day model and on the Classified easily clocks to 4.2 GHz 24/7.

You can use the True with two fans easily.....it has a backplate to help secure it.
 
Right, also, what do you think about the corsair dominator heatsink/fan?
It seems it can lower CPU heatsink airflow but cool the RAM. So should I get it or not?

This is for 6gb 1600mhz DDR3.
 
I was planning to upgrade to possibly an i5 this fall, but with i7 prices being what they are it didn't really make sense to wait. I figured I'd have to wait several months after release for prices to come down to a point where it made sense price/performance wise and you're kind of in the same boat. i7 isn't brand new anymore so price/performance wise its really really good.

With the 20% bing cashback I got a gigabyte mobo for $130 and 6 gigs of corsair ddr3 for $80, and I live near a microcenter so the cpu was $200. With a TRUE heatsink the whole setup came out to a little above $450, which definitely isn't bad at all.
 
Well I think ill not buy the corsair heatsink due to the possibility of it restricting airflow to the TRUE heatsink.

Once the case I want is in stock, I can buy the components then all at once. Will cost me a LOT of money though, considering this is what im going to get:
- 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
- TRUE heatsink
- Extra fan for TRUE
- expensive enermax PSU
- classified mobo (for gulftown compatibility)
- i7 920

The whole thing comes upto £900ish which would cost about $1000 in USA (since uk is more expensive). The reason it's quite expensive is the RAM, PSU and mobo.
 
Well I think ill not buy the corsair heatsink due to the possibility of it restricting airflow to the TRUE heatsink.

Once the case I want is in stock, I can buy the components then all at once. Will cost me a LOT of money though, considering this is what im going to get:
- 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
- TRUE heatsink
- Extra fan for TRUE
- expensive enermax PSU
- classified mobo (for gulftown compatibility)
- i7 920

The whole thing comes upto £900ish which would cost about $1000 in USA (since uk is more expensive). The reason it's quite expensive is the RAM, PSU and mobo.

The Corsair memory fans are pretty much all show. I had a set on my DDR2 Dominators and all they did was get in the way.
Any high quality PSU will do. It looks like you live in Europe, so my recommendations there may not be so good.
I am a Corsair PSU fan, although on my main gaming computer I have an Ultra X3 1000W and it has been like a rock since I bought it.
 
I'm pretty sure any X58 mobo will run the gulftown. How much is that EVGA mobo?

EDIT - Please do not waste 400 dollars on that mobo. It's totally unnecessary. My last I7 rig had a 180 dollar Gigabyte mobo and it overclocked my C0 920 to 4.3Ghz. Something like this is ALL you need.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130227

The classified mobo does sound really nice though. I'm not so bothered about cost but I would consider getting an almost equally good mobo for less if one exists.

I'd rather have a non-asus board though for a change. So the only top ones I see which cost less than the best-of-the-best are the classified and a couple MSI boards.
 
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