I5 or i7

[oooen1gmaooo]

Is it worth it to go for the i7860 or i5-750???
I plan on overclocking and gaming with two GTX 460's, and eventually programming. The new final fantasy xiv says that they will be utilizing hyper threading.... Basically is it worth the extra $90?

 

[Tamz_msc]

For your uses, there is not much difference between the two.Get the i5 760, which is the same price as the 750 but is 2.8 GHz instead of 2.66 GHz.

 

[enzo matrix]

Definitely not worth it.
The 760 is a good idea if you have no intention of overclocking and the price difference isn't too much (760 is only 0.133GHz faster than 750)

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

my plans are to overclock my cpu to at least 3.8ghz, i am also getting the cool master 212 plus cooler.. So i thk i should be good with the temps

 

[Tamz_msc]

The i5 is a great overclocker and gives great performance when overclocked.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

with the cooler i am getting, do you think its possible to get to 4ghz?

 

[Emperus]

How could Enzo slip up on this.!! OP clearly mentions that he has overclocking plans.. Anyway, all core i series CPU's have great overclock ability.. If you have no max budget limits then you can consider the i7 875k.. As for my recommendation, i'll say go for the i7 860.. Hyper Threading is a feature and it sure does come in handy with many apps..

 

[Tamz_msc]

with the cooler i am getting, do you think its possible to get to 4ghz?

To get 4 GHz, ensure that there is good airflow in your case.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

I am getting the antec 300, it comes with 4 fans and i am adding one one the side

 

[enzo matrix]

How could Enzo slip up on this.!! OP clearly mentions that he has overclocking plans..

whoops. missed it. And from such a short post too . I must be getting tired.
I think the op could benefit from anyone's overclocking experience with the i5.

I am getting the antec 300, it comes with 4 fans and i am adding one one the side

The antec 300 that I have only came with 2. I'd suggest you double check, just to be sure.
Good case though. The metal feels a bit thin but certainly nowhere near a cheap case. Note that there is no side fan filter so if you are worried about dust, you might have to modify it or add one.

I disagree with the hyperthreading on the basis that "you don't need it" and "not worth the expense". However, I have no first hand experience with it myself. Well, not enough to be able to judge that, anyway.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

Ive double and triple checked... It comes with 2 front intake, one rear exhaust and one top exhaust... all of them are at least 120mm

 

[Tamz_msc]

The Antec 300 is a very good case for the price and it does come with 4 fans.You can add fans if you wish, though 4 GHz is a possibility in your case.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

I am gonna add an extra fan on the side to pull in more air, and maybe another one for the cpu so i can push/pull... how many fans can i use with this PSU and this Mobo

 

[zalittle]

Check out the MSI P55-GD85. ( I own it). It has dual lans, USB 3.0, and True dual 16x pci-x slots, and SATA III support. Get an I5-750, and hyper 212 plus. With this combo I get over 4ghz on the chip. Check my CPUZ. You will pay alittle more for the board, but I am very satisfied with the setup. Also I have a Cooler Master CM690 II advanced that cools quite well with a 140mm in front and top with a 120mm in the rear, with support for 7 more fans. Good Luck and good building.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

when I check the mobo you mentioned above it says that is does dual gpus at x8 not x16... but i heard that i really does not make a difference, tell me if i am wrong as i know nothing really

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

also did you have to change your voltages or did you keep them stock??

 

[flaminggerbil]

You'll not notice any difference with x8, you most likely will lose some FPS, but nothing which is noticeable.

The voltage will need to be upped a bit for 4.0, cant tell you a solid figure off the top of my head though.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

is this mobo dual x16 or x8? all it says is PCIe x16 2.0 x2

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

bump

 

[Raidur]

1156 socket mobos come with 20 PCI lanes. So the best you'll get is 16x/4x or 8x/8x/4x.

And yes, 8x is plenty of bandwidth for a GTX 460. A 480 loses 3% averagely on 8x and only 7% on 4x, for example.

 

[wolfram23]

I have an i5 750 on an Asus P7P55D PRO mobo, and it's really good. My cooler is a Zalman CNPS10X Extreme which is really around the performance of a 212+, and I achieved 4ghz fairly easily. Took me 1.32Vcore and 1.25VTT iirc, temps tho were starting to hover around 70 in a burn test. Currently running 3.68ghz with turbo on, so single core gets up to 4.2ghz and the temps are way lower, like low 60s. I prefer the turbo boost OC, actually, since not only is it lower voltages, and cooler, but for gaming you usually only use 1 or 2 cores so the speed is still 4 to 4.2ghz.

As for the PCIe stuff, the MSI P55GD85 cannot have two 16x lanes because, as Raidur points out, the 1156 socket CPUs don't support that. They have 20 lanes, 16 of which go to the PCIe lanes and the other 4 are for other things. Some mobos like my ASUS have a 4x PCIe lane, but it's actually running through the south bridge so it's more like a PCIe 1.0 lane I think. Something like that, there's an article on Tom's the shows it performs quite a bit worse than the X58 chipset (i7 9xx CPUs) 4x lane because in that case it's a true 4x lane directly connected to the CPU.

Anyway, 8x lanes are totally fine although I think a 480 would lose more than 8% since in Tom's article that I mentioned above (something like X58 vs P55) a 5870 lost 4% on the 8x lane... but regardless he is right that a 460 will see very little to no difference in speed.

Just one last thing about the mobo, I had an MSI P55GD65. While I did like the board and it's features, it ended up dying on me after only 3 weeks. I brought it back (and got it replaced with the ASUS) and the tech told me that they've actually been getting quite a few MSI returns/faulty boards so I personally wouldn't get an MSI board for this generation.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

how was overclocking on the Asus p7p55d pro?

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

in the reviews of the above ASUS mobo, people are saying that its only compatible w/ certain types of memory... I am gonna be using g skills 2x2gb 1600mhz ram, are these compatible??? also will my 212+ get in the way of the memory???

 

[wolfram23]

Just as easy... well actually probably a little easier, because this board has really good Load Line Calibration. If you don't know what it is, basically the CPU is "supposed" to be set at one voltage, but then when under load you get "V droop" which causes the voltage to drop as much as .15V. LLC simply automatically adjusts for this, and you end up with a rock steady voltage at whatever you set it to in the BIOS. I find it works great, and your end voltage can be slightly lower than without LLC since you'd have to add a lot more voltage to make up for that droop. As an example, in Tom's article on OCing the i5 750, they show up to 1.4V or a little more. But that's because of the V droop. I'm achieving similar OCs but with less voltage - 4ghz at 1.32Vcore/1.25VTT.
I've done some reading on it, and one person suggested it can be dangerous because it can cause extremely fast (like nano or pico second) voltage spikes as it tries to adjust for the Vdroop, which can be harmful. Maybe. I personally don't have a problem with it.

My MSI board actually died when I was trying to get 180 base clock with turbo boost on. I had the Vcore at... 1.33 maybe, and I was increasing VTT. It died at 1.28 VTT as soon as I started a burn test (like within seconds). CPU temps were fine, the mobo just couldn't take it.

 

[oooen1gmaooo]

Sounds like asus is the way to go!