New Core i7 860 hitting 5Ghz

johngalt · 21 Sep 2009

I suppose I am playing a devil's advocate, as that is pretty much what I opted to do in Spring '08 - I got myself a basic system put together, augmented it with a pair of GTX 260s and then a pair of Acer 22" ws monitors, and I am content with that - but my next system should be much more high end, if I plan and watch and craftily and shrewdly make purchases.

nate42nd · 21 Sep 2009

weh said:

Another consideration: Both USB and Sata are about to shift to version 3. Based on what I've read and the two toys with which I've played (ND agreement, so don't ask), neither is quite ready for prime time.

Seagate has just announced a 2TB Sata 3 "extreme" hard drive with 64MB cache (one-upping WD's brand new 2TB "black" announced a few days ago). Several SSD's -- which, while extremely fast, are not really ready for mainstream prime time, either -- will be coming out in Sata 3 versions 2Q 2010.

I figure that in a year to a year-and-a-half, it will be time for a whole new box, anyway.

I'm happy with what I have (LGA1366 & i7-920) for now, but I'll probably forego 6 cores until I build completely anew. If I were buying for right now, I'd get the LGA1156 (Gigabyte's GA-P55-UD4P board) and the i7-860, regardless of the 4-core limitation. Less money now and more later when everything gets shifted up a notch.

This is Kinda what I'm worried about. The Mobo I got was "supposed" to have SATA6. It was being previewed with it. USB3 and SATA6 are reasons I will get a new mobo when it comes out.

I hope the 1156 socket is here to stay for a while. My guess is with the new i5s coming out it will be. I am EXTREMELY happy with the performance I got for $550. (CPU, RAM, MOBO)You just can't beat it.

The 860 and 870 are fine options for any enthusiast. We don't keep our systems long enough to worry about it.

weh · 21 Sep 2009

Both Gigabyte and Asus have "sampled" mobos with gen.3 Sata and USB; however, both have backed off. Asus is now offering a Sata.3 add-on card (although I suspect the quantity shipped thus far is in single digits).

I'm not worried about it. I really don't want to be on the extreme leading edge of generational technology. I'm perfectly happy to settle in when the BIOS and drivers have had a chance to go through a couple or three publically issued updates (as opposed to the frantic updates done for the various review sites).

I jumped on the i7-920 bandwagon just after last Christmas with a mega-machine upgrade. Come winter 2010-11, I'll build a new primary machine and retire the replaced parts of the current one to my "re-new"secondary system. I've been doing the two-year parts shuffle for about two decades, now; and it has served me well.

nate42nd · 21 Sep 2009

weh said:

I jumped on the i7-920 bandwagon just after last Christmas with a mega-machine upgrade. Come winter 2010-11, I'll build a new primary machine and retire the replaced parts of the current one to my "re-new"secondary system. I've been doing the two-year parts shuffle for about two decades, now; and it has served me well.

I'm hoping the 1156 is going to give me that option, but if not....I will just move to the latest. I DO like to be on the cutting edge (when possible)

These are some good points.

BTW - I have hit over 4Ghz with mine with very little effort and it didn't even run that hot. (next time I will get window snips)