Intel i7 920 vs AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Black Edition

Depends on your budget, whether you can salvage some DDR2 RAM, and what kind of GPU you plan on running.

Generally the i7 920 is faster, but the 955 seems to do a little bit better with single card setups. The 955 is not a bad CPU in anyway and would do fine. If you have some DDR2 and a limited budget (under $1000) then go with the 955 or 940 Phenoms.

If you have a budget that is higher than $1000 and you plan on multy GPUS (4870 X2 and GTX 295 count), then the i7 920 would be a good choice.

In the end the i7 920 will out perform the 955, but not by much especially in gaming.

Im going for gtx 295 im getting it on sale 120$ off at my local store in know guy that works there.

I would say as long as you can afford it then the i7 920 is the processor for you. Do note that the i7 920's expense is also in the motherboard ($190 cheapest) and RAM ($70 cheapest).

Ya i think i got my build it going cost in low 2, 000's

I would go for the phenom ll, the i7 is a beast CPU but for gaming it's not that much better than a 955 (or even a 940 for that matter) it is great for multi tasking and video encoding and editing but for a gamer your number one concern should be getting a cpu that will work well with your graphics card (you really got a nice break for that gtx 295 lol) both the 955 and the i7 will be able to handle it just fine so for you it really only comes down to price you could build an amd am2+ set up with the 955 for less than a 1000 bucks (easily) and it will give you elite performance,you could probably pull off an am3 system for a similar price as well but i don't know if a 5-10% increase in memory performance is worth it although it's good for future proofing considering the fact that am3 will probably become the standard socket in a year or two, going i7 would mean paying extra for mobo and ram as well and like i said these expenses will benefit other things but not gaming ...at least not enough to warrant spending that money so i would go with the 955...you can over clock the 955 to 4ghz on air pretty easily too so that's a plus as well,so yeah i would go with the 955 in this scenario with a graphics card like that you will be fine with any of the cards you pick.

Ya i know there killer but from what i hear i7 920 can easily be overclocked to more than 4 ghz should it should be worth the $$$ and long lasting.

Phenom II X4 955 (but really, the i7 if you have the money, just being a little bit different)

I have 4000$ saved right now i was planning on spending all of it for a computer so i should go with i7?

Dude if I were you I would build a $1000-1500 rig and save the rest of your money and use it to build a new computer in ~3-4 years or upgrade the GFX in 1 year. $4k gaming rigs just aren't worth the 5-10% increase in frame rate.

I second that, unless you want to brag about your topnotch gaming rig for about a year. Support the AMD so intel will stay honest =))).

yo i bought a 1.2k i7 rig like 5 days ago and its awsome, but paying more for something that u wont need is pointless. u should consider amd bec their price and performance ratio is good and easily upgradable

What he said. $4000 on a computer is a total and absolute waste, unless you need it because your job as a professional video editor required it.

or if you need a mac.

if it's for Gaming, go AMD, if it's for 8 threaded or more apps, go Core i7, for everything else, go Core 2 Quad.

Ok spend the extra $$ money to get an i7 CPU because while it is not much faster than the Phenom II now, it should have some benefits with quadcore optimized games and apps in the future. It is not that expensive and will last for a good long time and you can always slap in another GPU down the road to keep up with technology so you might as well have a nice CPU.

Edit: I agree that a $4000 PC is pushing it, stick with your earlier budget of $2000. $2000 will get you a very nice computer that will last for a good long while, $4000 will give about 5 extra FPS if you are lucky.

I hear at anandtech you can go to 3.8GHz on stock volts and in 32bit os they even booted at 4.2GHz.

Get the i7, plain an simple. Spend ~2k on the rig, and save the rest for in a couple of years. With 2,000$ you could get a great mobo, the i7 920, GTX 295 (or 2 even), nice Corsair Dominator Ram, a 1,000W PSU, and a cool case (antec 1200 or HAF 932).

AMD is cheaper, but the i7 comes out on top when you have the money to spend. You obviously have the money, so stick with the better CPU  

it would depend on how much money you plan on spending. The i7 itself may not have a HUGE price difference from the 955, but the motherboard and DDR3 ram costs a lot. the i7 is better but going 955, am3 motherboard, and say 6 to 8GB ddr2 ram could save you quite a bit of money. so i7 if you plan on spending more than $1000 and AMD if $1000 or less.

Here is what you will need to consider:
If your going Dual GPU both cpu are good. But you will save a HECK (200$) more going Phenom 955.
If you do anything else (as in encoding/zipping (most of wat gamers never do lol.)) then go i7.
Now value talking:
The best build you can get is the phenom II 955. You will save a 200$ that you will be able to spend on a better GPU.
Seriously, I think very few people will recommend a GTX 295. Your even better with a HD4870 X2. It has lots of issues as in GTX260 in crossfire scales WAY better on crysis and things like that....
I say your better going with the follow
Phenom II 955
Asus Crosshair III formula
HD 5850 (it will probably be the same price of the GTX 295 ur getting on rebate since that card costs...way too much)
And with that 200~250 $ your saving, you can buy ANOTHER HD5850 and crossfire.
Seriously, no build can beat this one at performance/price.

But yes, i7 is really the best cpu out there if you have the money. Now your better doing like what ehanger said. Save the extra money for 1-2 year. Or for your girlfriend, shed be happy  

People might misunderstand, but what I meant by best build performance/price is that, at THIS level, the CPU bottlenecking should not be considered. i7 beat Phenom II 955 by 5~ fps, but in some games, like farcry2, phenom II 955 beats i7 by 10~ fps.
But all of this is purely if you only game/websurf on your PC (and im shure you only do that.)
And also, this is all considering you like Dual GPU. As I said, the money you save going phenom II INSTEAD of i7 will give you enough money for another GPU, and the difference would be WAY more noticable then if you bought i7 with a single GPU.
Once again, Im telling you, GTX 295 is a pure waste.. it's in itself a dual GPU card. Why not buy 2 cards for the same price that will do better? + HD5850 is DX11, and AMD announced lot of DX 11 games for Q1 2010. http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15907/34/

Lowest price I found is 464.99
-120 is 340. thats around what you will get it at.
Dude... Your even better buying Dual HD 5870, and you will have the most powerfull PC out there with a Phenom II 955.... slightly better with i7 but you will pay 200$ for 5~10 fps difference... not worth it IMO especially if you never encode/zip.
My dad has a i7, and I see no difference from Q6600. Unless we go in big tests that us gamer never do.
The best build for the price You started with is this
Phenom II 955 BE
Asus Crosshair III formula
2 HD 5870
You will need a MAXIMUM off 600W supply, and this with everything included (fans/usb readers, and things like that->528W)
A good case like Antec 900 or Haf 922/Sniper
or even Antec 300 if fancy cases aint your thing.

You will have Better GPU's while saving money, AND saving power because with GTX 295, you will need more power on load then on the more recent HD 5800 series. ALL THIS AGAIN FOR THE SAME PRICE. (less if you wanted to go i7)

Another necro thread. Need a mod to close this thread.....

Everyone is forgetting a big cost of building a great rig right now. SSD!! Spend some on........let's say maybe 4 SSD's raided. Or 8? Pay attention to the read/write speeds of the drives and go with the AMD X4 or I7. It won't matter much which one.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey