I7-965 vs. i7-940

[tengri]

Hello guys,

I am going to buy a new pc this week. There is a huuuuge price difference between i7 965 and i7 940.

Is 965 series really worth the difference?

What kind of advantages would I be getting with 965 series, over 940 after spending hunderds of dollars extra?

I would be glad to hear some expert thoughts..

Thanks

 

[V3NOM]

neither. 920 ftw :lol: spend the extra on watercooling or better graphics...

 

[tengri]

Thanks for the reply v3nom..

could you be a little bit more specific please?

why do you say "i7" is not worth it in general?

 

[cangelini]

Feel free to check out the SBM series that went up this week on the front page, tengri, and take a look at some of the value buys that are available. I think you'd find that i7 920 will suffice for the money.

 

[tengri]

So it looks like 965 would be a waste of money at this point.

Where are the value buys cangelini?

Could you be kind to share some links?

Also, would it be cheaper to build my own pc?

 

[WR]

If you don't overclock at all, it's up to you whether 2.93/3.06/3.2 GHz is worth $560 or 3.2/3.33/3.46 GHz is worth $1000 when 2.66/2.8/2.93 GHz is $300. The first value is the "stock" frequency of the chip. The second value is what all cores are guaranteed at, and many boards will default to this speed on all cores. The third value is what one core will go up to if all other cores are idle.

For overclocking, 965 is pretty much for people with access to subzero cooling. A 920 has a high enough multiplier on most current X58 boards to break 4 GHz easily. The exception would be Intel's own X58 board, where the base clock caps out lower and you may need a 940 or 965 to reach the CPU limits under good air/water.

 

[ryanthesav]

that sounds really nice...i think i may go intel...nah.

 

[V3NOM]

if you are fixated on going i7, get an i7 and 6GB of triple channel RAM. it would give you better gaming performance to save that money and get better graphics + a core 2 duo and 4GB dual channel RAM... i7 price/performance is NOT WORTH IT FOR GAMES. unless you are intending to run two 4870X2's or three GTX 280/285's..

 

[nightmare106]

There is no real difference between i7 940 and i965 extreme if you would buy an i7 940 and clocked each core to 3.2GHz. This is just another one of Intel's marketing tricks. I say you buy i7 940 or you if you appreaciate AMD's care for customers with their low-priced, high powered products then buy yourself a Phenom . Otherwise I recommend you buy i7 940.

 

[nightmare106]

By the way if your 're thinking of buying a i7 920 and you want it to keep up with 940 and 965 xtreme then you might wanna spend that extra money you have left on some decent cooling and clock it to 3.0Ghz

 

[cjl]

There is no real difference between i7 940 and i965 extreme if you would buy an i7 940 and clocked each core to 3.2GHz. This is just another one of Intel's marketing tricks. I say you buy i7 940 or you if you appreaciate AMD's care for customers with their low-priced, high powered products then buy yourself a Phenom . Otherwise I recommend you buy i7 940.

Considering the thread is 5 months old, I think that the OP has already purchased whatever CPU they were going to purchase by now

 

[shiangchen]

Hello guys,

I am going to buy a new pc this week. There is a huuuuge price difference between i7 965 and i7 940.

Is 965 series really worth the difference?

What kind of advantages would I be getting with 965 series, over 940 after spending hunderds of dollars extra?

I would be glad to hear some expert thoughts..

Thanks

Well really depends on what your looking for, if your looking for a gaming computer 920 is going to be more than enough for all the games as cpu performance isn't crucial. Get the BEST coolling system and graphic cards and good DDR3 memory.

If your yousing it for advanced computation/mathematics/physics ect. programs then maby 965 might suit you better, do you ever have to have 965? Probably not.

ALSO THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT MAKE SURE YOUR MOTHER BOARD CPU SOCKET SUPPORTS i7 SERIES, MOST MOTHER BOARDS DON'T SO CHECK.