E5520 vs i7 920

I plan on grabbing two nehalem based procs, overclocking and watercooling them. Seeing as how i plan to get two and my budget is not unlimited, i cant get the best nehalems [too damn pricey - thus the overclocking].

So which of the two [e5520 or 920] is better overall for performance [and overclockability]. I dont care at all for efficiency.

[i plan to get some cheap garbage video card to hold me over till larrabee is released.]

Thanks in advance! :hello:

Add a reply

Register or log in to remove.

I'm not really sure if this is true, but someone else in the forum has claimed that someone else has overclocked an i7 920 to 4.2Ghz :-o

So maybe with that kind of potential you can go for the 920?

Reply to r_manic

only comment at new egg says:

" Got this OCed on my Gigabyte X58-UD5 @ 4.87GHz using 1.32v and WaterCooled. Highest temp with HT on was 51c. Xeons are nice.
Cons: I expected more of an OC from this chip, I guess I got a dud."

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] _-19117185

seems like nahelems overclock like mad..

anywho, enthusiast i7 or xeon?!

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to battery

I would go for the desktop version i7 920, rather than the server version which is more expensive and slower.

Ultimate Core i7 Overclocking Guide -- We Push Nehalem to its Limits

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/f [...] its_limits

http://images.tweaktown.com/imageb [...] _(ENG).pdf

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
Reply to evongugg

Intel Core i7-920 Overclocking Guide

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] ing_3.html

Editor's Corner: Overclocking Core i7 :

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2063.html

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
Reply to evongugg

you might get a better oc out of the 940 equivalent though since it's only 95w instead of 130w.

Reply to Helloworld_98

the xeon 940 equivalent, X5570, runs for $1,469.99USD [on newegg], which is a tad much, i'd rather get 3 940's than one x5570.

looking at the prices alone ill probably get two 920's [$350cad a pop is a nice price]. 940's are double the price and a measly .27gHz faster

the only thing i'm curious of is the impact the qpi has. the i7's have 1x6.4GT/s, while the e5500's has 2x5.84GT/s. how much will this affect performance?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to battery

depends on what you are using them for.

Reply to BadTrip

evongugg wrote :

I would go for the desktop version i7 920, rather than the server version which is more expensive and slower.

Ultimate Core i7 Overclocking Guide -- We Push Nehalem to its Limits

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/f [...] its_limits

http://images.tweaktown.com/imageb [...] _(ENG).pdf

How are they slower? Where the proof that it's slower? And with why is that it's slower. I thought they were faster? And especially there's no price difference is between as i7 920 and w3520? Just look at the intel official website on how they price it, well for w3520. I thought workstation processor are a bit more reliable too. wiki "workstation". Are workstation processor good from gaming?

Are there SLI/CROSSFIRE server motherboard? Just curious about it.

battery wrote :

only comment at new egg says:

" Got this OCed on my Gigabyte X58-UD5 @ 4.87GHz using 1.32v and WaterCooled. Highest temp with HT on was 51c. Xeons are nice.
Cons: I expected more of an OC from this chip, I guess I got a dud."

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] _-19117185

seems like nahelems overclock like mad..

anywho, enthusiast i7 or xeon?!

For some reason I don't think that person is telling the truth am I wrong?

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by Fail Complex on 04-18-2009 at 01:16:23 AM

Reply to Fail Complex

There is a price difference. 90 us dollars on newegg. And the xeon is slower. The 920 is 2.66 the 5520 is 2.26

You where saying 3520. Correct me if im wrong but i recall the 3 series being socket 755 yorkfield based xeons.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to someguy7

I see the 3520 is a nehleham based cpu. And it should be around me the same price. The op was talkin bout the 5520 and fail the 3520 which i didnt know about. Interesting. Is the 3 series so much cheaper due to higher TDP ratings?

Reply to someguy7

only thing is the e5520 has a tdp of 80, as opposed to the 920's 130 tdp
seeing as how i'm getting two, xeons sound like a better option with the two qpi links, hopefully there'll be a nice price drop by the time I decide on my final configuration. also i dont even think you can get dual i7's. ive been looking around and seen a few people say that you cant do dual i7, apparently you need xeons cause of their 2 two interconnects.
heres hoping for a nice pricedrop! [anyone know when there will be a drop?]

Message quoted 2 times

Reply to battery

someguy7 wrote :

There is a price difference. 90 us dollars on newegg. And the xeon is slower. The 920 is 2.66 the 5520 is 2.26

You where saying 3520. Correct me if im wrong but i recall the 3 series being socket 755 yorkfield based xeons.

No that's is incorrect. That's Xeon 3520. It's NOT the Xeon W3520 just look closely the on "W". The "W"'s are Nehalem. And also look at the "1k Estimated Price" on charts.

The source is on the official Intel Site. Just look for yourself
Xeon W3520 : http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=39718
i7 920 D0: http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=37147
Xeon 3520?: http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=27272 <-- The one you're addresssing?

That's why I'm debating on W3520 and i7 920 on another post.

Message edited by Fail Complex on 04-18-2009 at 04:00:39 AM

Reply to Fail Complex

battery wrote :

only thing is the e5520 has a tdp of 80, as opposed to the 920's 130 tdp
seeing as how i'm getting two, xeons sound like a better option with the two qpi links, hopefully there'll be a nice price drop by the time I decide on my final configuration. also i dont even think you can get dual i7's. ive been looking around and seen a few people say that you cant do dual i7, apparently you need xeons cause of their 2 two interconnects.
heres hoping for a nice pricedrop! [anyone know when there will be a drop?]

But don't you need two of them to have it actually work? I mean like 80+80 is 160 watts? That's 30 watts more?

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by Fail Complex on 04-18-2009 at 04:05:27 AM

Reply to Fail Complex

Thanks for the correction but I did look it up right after my initial post.

Reply to someguy7

Fail Complex wrote :

But don't you need two of them to have it actually work? I mean like 80+80 is 160 watts? That's 30 watts more?

can't say I fully follow the question :\

out of curiosity is a lower or higher tdp better? please correct me if i'm wrong, my understanding of tdp [from what i've read] is:
a low tdp cpu obviously runs cooler to begin with so when the overclocking begins it should be easier to cool than a cpu with a high tdp, but a higher tdp rating indicated a cpu is more stable at higher speeds.

Reply to battery

Not at all. TDP has nothing to do with a chip's maximum capacity to draw power, only with its stock speed power and heat load. In every case, all other things being equal, the lower TDP chip is better. In addition, since lower TDP chips are designed to run stock speed at a lower voltage and power, when you crank up the power, they are usually capable of a higher overclock than the high TDP chips are.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by cjl on 04-18-2009 at 08:16:38 AM

------------------------------ Asus P6T deluxe
i7 965 @ 4.2GHz (200*21), 1.384V
12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 CAS 7
Reply to cjl

cjl wrote :

Not at all. TDP has nothing to do with a chip's maximum capacity to draw power, only with its stock speed power and heat load. In every case, all other things being equal, the lower TDP chip is better. In addition, since lower TDP chips are designed to run stock speed at a lower voltage and power, when you crank up the power, they are usually capable of a higher overclock than the high TDP chips are.

thanks for the info! is your setup air or watercooled?
would it be better to get a L5520[60W] over the E5520[80W]? theres a ~$200 price difference between em so i'm really leaning towards the cheaper e5520. i'm hoping theres a price drop so i can get an x5550, but that probably wont happen. This rig i plan to build will come together at the end of the summer, so i have till then to figure out the best watercooling setup. :]

Reply to battery

Air - it's a dual fan TRUE though, so still fairly high end

As for those, the L is going to be a higher binned part, so it would probably overclock better and run cooler. I'm not sure if I would consider it to be worth $200 though - that's a fairly sizable increase in price for an arguably small increase in performance capability.

Message edited by cjl on 04-18-2009 at 09:47:39 AM

------------------------------ Asus P6T deluxe
i7 965 @ 4.2GHz (200*21), 1.384V
12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 CAS 7
Reply to cjl

think there will be a price drop when the 32nm westmeres hit the shelves? maybe i should wait for the 6core gulfdale's at the end of the year. my only concern is what their price will be :\
130 tdp isnt the greatest but for 6 cores and two qpi paths who can complain

Reply to battery

battery wrote :

the xeon 940 equivalent, X5570, runs for $1,469.99USD [on newegg], which is a tad much, i'd rather get 3 940's than one x5570.

looking at the prices alone ill probably get two 920's [$350cad a pop is a nice price]. 940's are double the price and a measly .27gHz faster

the only thing i'm curious of is the impact the qpi has. the i7's have 1x6.4GT/s, while the e5500's has 2x5.84GT/s. how much will this affect performance?

My god my god, why would a server equivalent cost nearly seven times as much?!

Reply to r_manic

Fail Complex wrote :

Are there SLI/CROSSFIRE server motherboard? Just curious about it.

ASUS P6T7 WS has 7 pcie 2.0 slots, "four of these slots are x16 and three are x8 electrical, and 3-way SLI and CrossFire are also supported."
argh just wish it was a dual cpu mobo! :cry:

Reply to battery

I only wish that the P6T7 would be released. Anyone have a date on that by chance?

Jason

------------------------------ Fighting Huntington's Disease with Folding@Home
http://atlasfolding.com/
Reply to Atlas Folder

battery wrote :

i dont even think you can get dual i7's.

I am looking to do almost exactly what you have described. I haven't seen any dual i7 capable mobo's. But I've also read that you can't overclock on any xeon based server boards. The combination of these two facts would make it seem like the choices are either 1) get a single Core i7 and overclock it or 2)get the dual Xeons and don't overclock. Have you been able to find a MB with dual lga 1366 sockets that will allow for overclocking? I would love to be proven wrong here.

Thanks.

Reply to jdathela

You can't do dual CPU on the i7 and the Xeon W35XX series. Those are all single CPU setup. If you want dual- or multi-CPU setups, you need the 55XX series Nehalem.

It's not only about the motherboard. The CPUs need to have the right number of QPI to 'talk' to the other CPUs. This is after all Nehalem, where the memory controller is on CPU die.

Reply to f4ding

Focus On

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - E5520 vs i7 920