i7 860 2.8GHz or i7 920 D0 2.66GHz?

Very interesting info there fumz , thankyou.

I think he has his heart set on an i7 , so I may have trouble convincing him to get an i5 lol.

I am starting to get the feeling that the 860 would be fine for him , I am sure once I tell him about the turbo boost then he may suddenly feel there will be no need for overclocking.

I mean the 860 will be miles better out the box than his old Q6600 which incidentally we can't seem to overclock at all with any stability (it turns out it was the bad revision of it).

You say there won't be much headroom for overclocking , I would hope at least 3ghz would be possible from it seeing as its 2.8 already?

Cheers

Just had a look at those benchmarks , quite amazing really seeing as the i5 is a cheaper cpu.

Arhh the dilemma lol

Dwarf said:

If you decide on the i7 920, then I would choose some alternative memory such as OCZ 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Obsidian Triple.. | Ebuyer.com OK, so this would be slightly over budget (by just under £13), but running dual-channel memory on a processor/motherboard capable of utilising tri-channel will cost a lot in performance, even when overclocked.

As a result, I therefore now recommend your first option, the i7 860 combination.

Alternatively, if going for the i7 920, you might like to take a look at this alternative for the memory: G.Skill 3 GB PC1600 CL9 3x1GB Triple Channel KIT DDR3: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo This means that you will be able to utilise the tri-channel mode and still remain within budget, at the slight cost of a reduction in memory of 3GB as opposed to 4GB.

A very good point there Dwarf , it would be silly not to take advantage of the triple channel. Sadly I work it out as being £33 more and the budget just won't stretch that far.

It could be possible to do it the other way on your 2nd link , perhaps buy 3 gig now and add another 3 gig in a month or 2 when more funds are available.

I get the feeling he will go with the 860 and 4 gig ram tho.

I really need to have a good chat with him before we order.

Thanks for the help

Paul.

I have to agree with Fumz. The i5 750 is more than capable of playing all the top games today, especially when combined with a good graphics card, and the overclocking abilities of the i5 750 makes it on par, if not better than, most of the i7 chips. I've had mine clocked up to 3.8 (from 2.66) stable with my Corsair H50 cooling system.

In my opinion, you should save a few bucks and go with the i5, and pour the extra money into a top end video card, which would help with gaming and Photoshop.

Fumz said:

3GHz is no problem, the 860 will do that on its own. What I mean by overclocking is going beyond what the chip naturally does with Turbo Boost. You often find though that it's a bit pointless. You're not going to notice the increase in fps going from a Turbo Boosted 3.2GHz chip to a manually OC'd 3.6GHz chip. About the only thing you will notice is heat and power consumption increases.

If you think those i5 results are impressive, read this: Intel Core i7-975 EE and Core i5-750 in Contemporary Games - X-bit labs

Just had a quick look at it , will give it a good read later , but its really shocking how close the i5 is to the i7 on modern warfare 2.

blackroseMD1 said:

I have to agree with Fumz. The i5 750 is more than capable of playing all the top games today, especially when combined with a good graphics card, and the overclocking abilities of the i5 750 makes it on par, if not better than, most of the i7 chips. I've had mine clocked up to 3.8 (from 2.66) stable with my Corsair H50 cooling system.

In my opinion, you should save a few bucks and go with the i5, and pour the extra money into a top end video card, which would help with gaming and Photoshop.

Thanks for the info blackrose.

Now seeing as everyone is recommending the i5 750 i thought i would check the price on ebuyer to see how much cheaper it is

Its actually only £6.67p cheaper than the i7 920 lol so whats with that?

paulpicks21 said:

Thanks for the info blackrose.

Now seeing as everyone is recommending the i5 750 i thought i would check the price on ebuyer to see how much cheaper it is

Its actually only £6.67p cheaper than the i7 920 lol so whats with that?

Really? That's crazy...over here there is usually at least a $50 difference...eh, if it's only that much more expensive, might as well go for the i7.