I5 or I7

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Randall Leong

With all that said, the i7-860 and i7-920 systems are roughly equivalent in cost to one another at present (largely due to the memory prices which are at present significantly higher than they were just three months ago - and the higher memory prices mitigate much of the difference in price between a typical P55 motherboard and a typical X58 motherboard). However, the 860 is the better value if only stock-speed performance is considered. But the 920 does better at overclocking.

The above quote is especially true if an Intel-brand motherboard is thrown into the mix. Admittedly, the Intel-branded P55 motherboard that's sold at MC is overpriced for a microATX motherboard with no overclocking or voltage tweaking capability at all whatsoever. That mobo, plus an i7-860 CPU currently costs over there exactly the same amount of money as the same brand's X58 motherboard with overclocking and voltage tweaking capabilities plus an i7-920 CPU (combo-wise). Under this circumstance, I went for the LGA1366/X58 platform which can be updated to support the forthcoming six-core CPUs. The ultimate difference in price between the two ended up boiling down solely to the cost of the memory itself, at the rate of about $45 for each 2GB of DDR3-1600 memory (as purchased in a matched multi-channel kit).

The i7-920 cannot run memory at anything faster than DDR3-1066 speed with the CPU running at stock speed. That CPU must be overclocked in order to run memory at even DDR3-1333, let alone DDR3-1600, speed.

[Randall Leong]

Alright, I am trying to clear up some of the misconceptions made by myself and others:

It is true that the X58/ICH10R combo has a total of 36 PCI-e 2.0 lanes plus six PCI-e 1.0 lanes. It is also true that the P55 has eight PCI-e 2.0 lanes that are restricted to PCI-e 1.0 bandwidth - in addition to the 16 PCI-e lanes on the 1156 CPU's die. And I was wrong about the PCI-e 2.0 lanes being graphics-only. They can be used by any device. With 36 available PCI-e 2.0 lanes, any USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps controllers on an X58 motherboard will still allow you to have one or two graphics cards running at the full PCI-e 2.0 x16 bandwidth without the need for a safety mode. The 1156 CPU has only 16 full-bandwidth PCI-e 2.0 lanes, forcing the need for a Safety Mode on the controllers which "steals" four of the eight bandwidth-restricted lanes on the P55's PCH (or a PCI-e bridge chip that provides four additional PCI-e 2.0 lanes) and a Turbo Mode which restricts the main 1156 CPU's PCI-e lanes to eight available lanes.

[Jeff Harper]

After 10 weeks from last post it seems funny that this particular thread has been resurrected. The platforms each have their advantages. The practical differences are so slight they are almost not even worth a debate, IMO.

However, in this case the debate is between a person and themselves, which I suppose is interesting enough by itself.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

After 10 weeks from last post it seems funny that this particular thread has been resurrected. The platforms each have their advantages. The practical differences are so slight they are almost not even worth a debate, IMO.

However, in this case the debate is between a person and themselves, which I suppose is interesting enough by itself.

Yes, but my most recent reply corrected some of the mistakes I made earlier in the thread.