I7 950 worth it or should i stick with 920

[docdangerouss]

Hi all,

Just recently i decided to build my own pc after alienware botched the shipment my new computer. I have a budget of about 3k which i believe puts me on the higher end of the performance PC scale.

Now his is my first build ever and i am not super techie (believe i know enough not to blow up my build). Long story short, performance wise is the 950/960 worth the extra 250-300 dollars more then the 920?

I do plan on trying my hand at over clocking and will get an after market CPU cooler. Is there really an difference between the processors outside the clock rating?

Thanks for your time,

 

[LePhuronn]

No. Given the overclocking potential of the 920 there's no need to get a 950.

With the money you'd save sticking with the 920 you can get a serious cooler (Megahalems, Ultra 120 Rev C) with a pair of 120mm fans and a chunk towards a good SSD.

 

[andy5174]

No! Any i7-9xx CPU is a waste except i7-920.

BTW, i7-930 is coming out soon and it will be at the price of current 920 and so I would wait until then if I were you.

 

[LePhuronn]

BTW, i7-930 is coming out soon and it will be at the price of current 920 and so I would wait until then if I were you.

The 930 falls into the same argument as the 950 - it's the same silicon just stock clocked a little higher, so any advantage it gives can be compensated for simply by overclocking the 920. Unless the 920 is being phased out in favour of the 930 then I doubt it'll be the same price to be honest.

So Andy, if by the time you build your system the 930 is out and the price difference is negligible then sure go for the 930, otherwise you'll be fine grabbing a 920 and just cranking the bitch to at least 3.8GHz

 

[aim001]

Hi all,

Just recently i decided to build my own pc after alienware botched the shipment my new computer. I have a budget of about 3k which i believe puts me on the higher end of the performance PC scale.

Now his is my first build ever and i am not super techie (believe i know enough not to blow up my build). Long story short, performance wise is the 950/960 worth the extra 250-300 dollars more then the 920?

I do plan on trying my hand at over clocking and will get an after market CPU cooler. Is there really an difference between the processors outside the clock rating?

Thanks for your time,

Mate just buy a good cpu cooler and clock, or u can buy water cooling. When u have that good cooling u can easily overclock it to 3ghz or over

 

[docdangerouss]

Thanks for all the replies guys, after doing a bit more reading I am definetly leaning towards the 920 and over clocking. With this in mind can anyone recommend a good air CPU cooling solution.

Thanks again,

 

[LePhuronn]

a serious cooler (Megahalems, Ultra 120 Rev C) with a pair of 120mm fans

I believe is what I said previously ;-)

To elaborate:

Prolimatech Megahalems
or
Thermalright Ultra 120 Rev C (MUST be a Rev C)

with a pair of good 25x120mm fans in a push/pull setup - you can get 35x120mm fans but you'll end up blocking some DIMM slots if your RAM has tall heatsinks.

If you're getting a case with a window and you want a little bling (and for a 3 grand budget why the hell not) you can get the all-back versions of those coolers

Prolimatech Mega Shadow
Thermalright TRUE Black Rev C (MUST be a Rev C).

This Thermalright Rev C business is about the machining of the heatsink base - the Rev C is properly flat now so it's a lot better for the i7s. You can tell it's a Rev C by the boomerang-shaped hole cut through all the fins bar the top one, like so:

http://upload.hardver-teszt.hu/imgs/news/2009/411/thermalright-true-black-and-extreme-rev-c-talp.jpg

Now, these coolers are a little more expensive, so even with your budget if you want something a little cheaper so you can put the cash towards other components then:

Cogage True Spirit
Thermolab Baram (pair with 2 120mm fans)
Titan Fenrir (Europe only I think though)
Scythe Mugen 2

All these coolers are fantastic and will still get your i7 920 to 4GHz.

For the fans, you'd be ideally after fans with high static pressure - look for 120mm fans with 9 blades not 7, but it's not essential.

 

[warmon6]

The 930 falls into the same argument as the 950 - it's the same silicon just stock clocked a little higher, so any advantage it gives can be compensated for simply by overclocking the 920. Unless the 920 is being phased out in favour of the 930 then I doubt it'll be the same price to be honest.

So Andy, if by the time you build your system the 930 is out and the price difference is negligible then sure go for the 930, otherwise you'll be fine grabbing a 920 and just cranking the bitch to at least 3.8GHz

Yes the 920 will be phased out for the 930 at the same price point.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,701453/Intel-Core-i7-930-said-to-come-with-28-GHz-in-February-2010/News/

Although there no known date for the release. February is the best guess by most people. So if you need a computer now, get the 920. If you want to wait then get the 930.

 

[notty22]

There is speculation that the 930 will be on 32nm die. This would be part of Intel's ""Tic Toc" strategy. Give the consumer a new product replacing a similar one at the same price point. Similar to when the 45nm's flowed in when the 65nm's were available at similar frequencies.

http://www.intel.com/technology/tick-tock/index.htm

 

[docdangerouss]

LePhuronn, thanks for all the help I do appreciate it. With some many different options when it comes to choosing parts for a PC build, a novice such as myself quickly becomes overwhelmed.

I did take a look at your recommendations, and i have to say the Thermalright and Prolimatech Mega look impressive, but may be a bit overkill as i probably will not be clocking past 3.4-3.6. Out of the others you had mentioned do you have a preference?

Also, thanks for the info on the 930 series, may just push my build out a little for this (maybe not hehehe).

 

[LePhuronn]

Out of the others I'd say Cogage True Spirit, and you could still go to 4GHz on it.

Any reason why you're sticking at 3.6? With a good i7 920 you could hit 3.8GHz without increasing voltage.

And if you go with an Asus motherboard their Turbo V overclocking utility allows you to save OC profiles, so you can create a series of them to best match performance to situations.

 

[aim001]

Thanks for all the replies guys, after doing a bit more reading I am definetly leaning towards the 920 and over clocking. With this in mind can anyone recommend a good air CPU cooling solution.

Thanks again,

It depends on price range, i can get you the best air cpu cooler, but u can also buy a water cooler for ur cpu from corsair or the best aircooler . the water cooler from corsair is slighty better than the aircooler: Cooler Master V10, and its 2 times cheaper. But u get a advantage in the Aircooler, it also cools ur memory bricks, so its a hybrid cooler!

Cooler Master V10 is the best air cooler till now.

 

[LePhuronn]

Cooler Master V10 is the best air cooler till now.

On your planet maybe. On ours it's overpriced and underperforms for the money.

The big problem with the V10 is the TEC cooler never really kicks in to its true potential, so you're left with two 120m fans in a weird configuration that doesn't quite do the job. The Megahalems outperforms the V10 by a degree or two and even with the cost of fans is still half the price. Other coolers I mentioned earlier may be a degree warmer the V10 but given that they cost at least half the price shows how much the V10 is just not worth it.

And don't go for that Corsair H50 if you plan on doing any half-decent OC on the i7 - a single 120mm radiator is not sufficient to cool the i7 and given that you have to use the fan on it as an intake you're blowing hot air INTO the case, which will mess every thing else.

 

[aim001]

On your planet maybe. On ours it's overpriced and underperforms for the money.

The big problem with the V10 is the TEC cooler never really kicks in to its true potential, so you're left with two 120m fans in a weird configuration that doesn't quite do the job. The Megahalems outperforms the V10 by a degree or two and even with the cost of fans is still half the price. Other coolers I mentioned earlier may be a degree warmer the V10 but given that they cost at least half the price shows how much the V10 is just not worth it.

And don't go for that Corsair H50 if you plan on doing any half-decent OC on the i7 - a single 120mm radiator is not sufficient to cool the i7 and given that you have to use the fan on it as an intake you're blowing hot air INTO the case, which will mess every thing else.

I don't think he is gonna do enthusiast oc. Because i have many coolers for that too . Or the easiest is buy a good watercooler, 175$ for only cpu cooled, 265$ with cpu and north bridge, 300$ with gpu cooler, cpu cooler, and north bridge. Thats roughly price

 

[LePhuronn]

If he's not gonna do enthusiast OC then why even mention the V10 or watercooling lol

3.6GHz OC will be perfectly fine on a Cogage True Spirit and it's cheap.

 

[joetechman]

Is there another water cooler that you guys would recommend that is similar to the Corsair H50? As in easy to put together/install + low maintenance like the H50. But that you would actually recommend for use with an enthusiast overclock of the i7 920/930? I know I remember seeing other water coolers similar to that one that people recommended on another forum previously. I just wonder if those would be better for the task than that H50.

 

[LePhuronn]

To be honest Joe if you want to watercool your i7 920 on a hefty overclock you'd be better off doing your own loop.

Jump over to the watercooling section and see what the experts over there say.

 

[docdangerouss]

Yeah, that is going to be a negative on the enthusiast OC'ing. Only reason I would be apprehensive going over the 3.6 is that this will be my first attemp at OC'ing a processor and i do not want to screw it up.

The Cogage does look right for the price (and my needs) if it performs, and i have no reason to doubt that it will not. I will do a bit more research into it and see if it is right for me.

Again thanks for the time and feedback.

 

[LePhuronn]

If your cooler is mounted properly the worst that can happen is the motherboard doesn't post - hit the reset CMOS and you'll go back to stock settings. The i7 will dial down or even just switch the system off if things go too far - the only way to fry the chip is to boot up with no heatsink on it.

Still, 3.6GHz on the i7 will tear through anything you can throw at it, so it's nothing to be sniffed at.

Enjoy the ride man and let us know how it goes!

 

[aim001]

So what Are u going for, stock or a good watercooling

 

[LePhuronn]

He's going for good air cooling.