Longevity of i5/i7-1156/i7-1366

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Yrahcaz91

Yrahcaz91

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I'm looking to build a new PC, to be used for gaming. It will need to last ~3 or 4 years before I upgrade the motherboard and/or CPU.

Of the i5, i7-1156, and i7-1366, which will hold it's value the best? It will be paired with a 9800GT (recycled from my current system.) I may go SLI with the 9800gt further down the road or I'll upgrade the video card in ~18 months.

All 3 CPUs get similar FPS in all the benchmarks I've seen. Is it worth the extra cash for the i7-1156 or i7-1366? (roughly $100 or $250 extra, respectively) How should the i5 hold up over time?

Thank you in advance!
 
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LePhuronn
Nothing holds its value, everything is obsolete the second it hits retail. And just because a particular socket stays around for a while doesn't mean it works with everything for that socket - for instance socket 775 mobos for the Pentium 4 cannot take Core 2 CPUs.

What do you want to do with your system? Unless you're doing heavy video/media work you won't get the most out of a socket 1366 system. I think there's a lot of fluff and debate going on regarding if i7 should've ever come to socket 1156 in the first place given there's not much difference between i5 and i7-1156, so I personally couldn't choose between them - there are factors like Turbo mode and Hyperthreading, but that's real fine tuning stuff when you consider what your...
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LePhuronn

LePhuronn

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Nothing holds its value, everything is obsolete the second it hits retail. And just because a particular socket stays around for a while doesn't mean it works with everything for that socket - for instance socket 775 mobos for the Pentium 4 cannot take Core 2 CPUs.

What do you want to do with your system? Unless you're doing heavy video/media work you won't get the most out of a socket 1366 system. I think there's a lot of fluff and debate going on regarding if i7 should've ever come to socket 1156 in the first place given there's not much difference between i5 and i7-1156, so I personally couldn't choose between them - there are factors like Turbo mode and Hyperthreading, but that's real fine tuning stuff when you consider what your system will do.

There's also a hooha going on regarding the actual CPU socket on most 1156 motherboards being shoddy and not giving proper grip to the CPU, causing poor contact, higher power draws and some pretty fireworks when overclocking.

Using 9800GT in SLI isn't going to saturate the PCI-Express lanes in a socket 1156 board so you've nothing to worry about there, but the P55 chipset isn't super fantastic if you're running top-end cards in SLI or Crossfire (somebody else can dig out the benches for me hopefully - sorry!).

Finally, with the 6-core i9 coming to socket 1366 it'll be interesting to see how far the mainstream 1156 will go in the future.

So, I guess the conclusion is this:

For a gaming system with 1 top-end graphics card, go i5 on socket 1156 (and whack in 8GB RAM if you can because 4GB DDR3 dual channel kits aren't too expensive) and go Radeon 5870 when you upgrade your graphics later on.

For a gaming system with top-end multi-GPU set-up, or heavy media creation work, go i7 on socket 1366 (6GB triple channel for gaming, 12GB triple channel for media or if you can afford it anyway).

You can save a few bucks over the i5 if you go Phenom II, but others will have to advise you on that as I'm traditionally an Intel boy (media creator first, gamer second).

Incidentally, if you do go i7-1366 there's no need to go any higher than the i7 920 D0 stepping - with a decent cooler it'll clock up to 4GHz easy and thus you get the same performance as the more expensive chips, even the Extreme 975.
 
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Yrahcaz91

Yrahcaz91

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Thank you very much, LePhuronn. I'll be using this computer mainly for gaming, and some occasional video editing. Supcom and Sins of a Solar Empire are both currently bound by my CPU (Core 2 Duo Cronore (sp?) E6400 @ 2.13 Ghz,) so any of the Core i5/i7 processors will by a huge upgrade.

I'm leaning toward the i7 860 for the Hyperthreading. Newegg has a combo deal with a good EVGA mobo right now. Link



I'll be getting a CoolerMaster 690 case, and 4GB OCZ DDR3 memory.

One last question. Is the Intel stock cooler as bad as I've heard? I don't plan to overclock very much, buy should I get a better cooler anyway? I'm looking at the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 Link

Thanks again!
 
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WR2

WR2

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It gets the job done at stock clocks, and maybe a bit more. It's definitely a budget part. Bottom & Top
The AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 looks pretty good.
For about the same price after rebate you could get the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 and its 1156 bolt thru kit. A more secure bolt through mounting and betting cooling is what you'd get.
 
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croc

croc

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Given all the press in regards the foxcon socket, I'd be fairly sure of an upgraded part being released ASAP. And, to add to that, not every foxcon socket is flawed, nor have any failed (to my knowledge) at stock / mild OC voltages. Is it a risk? Yep. But so is waking up in the morning.

This all reminds me of the Seagate 7200.11 or the Sony battery scares of the past few years.
 
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jj463rd

jj463rd

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Perhaps but consider running the CPU on a defective motherboard at stock speeds and consider its lifetime.It could conceivably fail with a shorter lifetime.
Why buy a defective product? I would wait until it's fixed.
 
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croc

croc

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But how do you know that the product is really defective or how any defects that may or may not exist will actually affect the lifetime of a CPU? The CPU warranty is independent of whatever socket it is running on, right?

If we all waited for a perfect, totally bug-free product, we'd never buy anything. However, if it concerns you that much, just stick with an Intel MFG'd MB for the present time. Me, I'll not lose sleep over this 'issue', nor will I worry about getting run over by a bus in the morning. Worry shortens lives....
 
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I built the same combo last week, but missed the discount at Newegg. I bought at Frys. The system works really well and is very stable at 3.8 GHZ without HT. Just watch the motherboard connector template at the back, in my case not all of the holes were fully punched out and I didn't notice until I went to plug in an ESATA drive. I had to remove and reinstall the motherboard (ugh).

A significant overclock with HT support on seems much more difficult. In my case heat is not the problem, I just can't find any voltage changes that seem to help with stability with HT on.

As for coolers I'm quite happy with the CM Hyper 212 plus.

Finally as for the Vcore and socket issues, I believe the socket issues are only coming into play with extreme overclocking and I agree the vcore issues on some boards will likely be minmized with new bioses. For reference I run 3.8 GHZ at 1.2 volts and could likely drop it some, so I'm not in the danger range. So yes, these things might be considerations if you are going for 4+ OC's but otherwise it seems like a non-issue to me.
 
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