New CPU / Mainboard

[Groove]

Hey guys,

 

im running a i7-920 (not overclocked) right now.

 

Im looking for a potential replacement.

 

Is there anything fast you can recommend?

 

My vidcard is the Radeon 5870. Im willing to change that one also for a faster one.

[KillaALF]

Overclock that 920 and you still have a top performer when it comes to CPU power. At least wait until Ivy Bridge comes out (Q1/2012 I think), but again, I don't think that its really necessary.

[EtherealN]

The only upgrades that would really be worth the bother would be Sandys - a 2500K or 2600K, and I'd probably suggest one of the ASUS P67 PRO or Deluxe boards. Sabertooth is nice but doesn't have all the OC features. 2500K will perform almost identically to 2600K for general gaming, but lags behind when it comes to video encoding, folding, and such multithreaded applications.

 

If you can live with waiting, you might get better stuff through Ivy bridge which will sit fine in an 1155 board as well, but the release date will be somewhere in the next year (I hear Q2) as long as they don't postpone it again. Intel themselves state that we can see somewhere around a 20% performance increase over Sandy with Ivy, but there's no specifications on which usage scenarios this applies to. It should also, in theory, overclock even better than Sandy (due to the tri-gates), but so far we only have Intel's word on that.

 

Drawback of going for an 1155 board is that you're back down to two-channels for memory, which if you currently have three sticks will set you into running in single-channel mode - though I don't expect this to impact gaming. I've never managed to squeeze any reliable performance impact from single- and dual-channel operation in games.

 

An alternative to Ivy is to wait for the 2011 socket and the Sandy-E's, but they'll be more expensive and I doubt they'll add very much as far as gaming performance goes compared to regular Sandy.

[Groove]

Thanks for your input guys. I think i will wait for the next gen CPU

 

I never oc'ed my system because i don't have the time anymore to get the knowledge for OC'ing the i7.

[KillaALF]

All it takes is about 10 minutes reading the first two posts in this thread and you should be set.

[Groove]

Will give it a try, thanks!

[galagamo]

I7920's with D0 stepping are like the wholly grail of CPU's, fairly cheap and they just go up, and up nearly doubling the stock clock. If you haven't already you could invest in a SSD its about the most significant performance upgrade you could make at this point.

As far as the GFX card I had a couple of HIS5850's flashed with the asus bios so I could overclock them to 5870 speeds as such my comparison here is a little iffy I had to get rid of them because I use FSX alot and the newer series ATI cards aren't really optimized for that so I sprang for a GTX580 it had a noticeable impact on just about every thing its a great card and I wholeheartedly endorse it

[scheffchen]

i also have an i7 920 (D0) and will wait for ivy bridge to arrive.

Most important thing will be overclocking capabilities due to the reduced size. (> 5GHZ)

Or one could buy a sandy bridge cpu right now and just change the CPU next year (ive bridgy and sandy bridge both use socket 1155).

 

For graphic card, right now is the worst time to buy a new one. NVIDIA Gfx card´s prices increase, since the new generation will arrive in Q1/2012 and ATI is also not sure whether to release this year or not.

Best bet IMO will be to buy a top-model ivy bridge next year together with a gtx 680 (single or sli)

 

Greetings

Boris

[Vault]

920's a Holy grail!?!. I've read by experienced OC'er's the 920 to be a complete nightmare to keep under the 70c threshhold at @ 4ghz. Make sure you got a good heat sink. :) Most OC'ers are using custom water rigs to keep them below that 70c threshhold.

 

The K series 2nd gens are flying past the 4ghz barrier on air!.

[galagamo]

Your right I was generalizing. But most of those chips do overclock very well it's hit and miss really. I know of 7 right now that are and have been running at 4ghz on air for a looong time they do get hot of course that's a given. One shouldn't overclock any chip unless one is prepared to deal the access heat common sence

[EtherealN]

Yeah, the OC-capabilities with the 920's are almost as varied (with stepping) as the 950's. I've seen 950's do 4+ GHz while undervolted... O.o

 

Vault, the big deal as far as temperatures go isn't really clock speed, it's voltage. Total power draw, and thus also heat generation (since there's no mechanical work being done, it all goes out as heat), goes up as the square of the voltage increase. A good-stepping 920 (like the D0's) will have a similar scenario to the 950's (I don't quite recall which stepping was the "good one" for 950's though) where they overclock like madmen with barely any tweakings on the voltage and, thus, very minimal rise in heat generation as well. Obviously though, a good motherboard is also essential when doing the more extreme stuff, though not quite as critical as with the older 775's.

 

(Incidentally, this is also the common issue with motherboard auto-overclock schemes - they generally raise the voltage way more than they actually have to.)

[104th_Cobra]

Next week, I'm also going to overclock my 920 (only when gaming).

 

I'm a newbie with overclocking but, as I own an Asus P6T Deluxe, I'm not expecting too much trouble. I've got 1600Mhz memory and a Corsair H60 coming on the way.

 

Hey Groove, why don't you expect for the new 28 nm graphic cards appear in Q1 2012? The prices for actual cards will be reduced and there will be more choice.

Edited October 21, 2011 by Xpto

[EtherealN]

Xpto: there's still very little detail on the cards that are set to appear, and we've known both nVidia and AMD to just to rebrandings earlier. And really - in computing there will ALWAYS be "something better" on the horizon. Whenever you start busying yourself with what might come in a month or three, you basically set yourself up to a stressful situation where you will never dare purchase anything.

 

Also, regarding overclockiing: make sure to set your memory frequency to unlink from the bCLK (of your BIOS supports this), or steadily keep eyeball on effective frequencies when you step up the bCLK. If your BIOS does not support unlink (it should, but just in case), make sure to radically underclock your memory when you start OCing the CPU, just to be safe.

[104th_Cobra]

:thumbup:

 

When starting with my hands on "the thing", and after read some more relative stuff, I'll ask here for some common values that people with the same hardware is using. Only for some guiding.

[Vault]

Heat comes from the vcore, not the BCLK or multiplier. Even if you undervolt you still use x amount of volts faster which increases the vcore temps. I've never owned or OC'd a 920 but I've read many times that the threshhold for them is 70c. I don't doubt the OC'ing ability but keeping them within the 70c threshhold @ 4ghz on air is supposed to be a nightmare. What temps do they run at on the stock heatsink?. I've read that the only the Noctua DH-14 and Silver arrown are the only air coolers capable of keeping 920's at those temperatures.

 

Anyone thinking of buying closed loop liquid coolers don't, learn a lesson at my expense

 

The OC'er on this review at 4:40 will explain. http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms#p/search/0/EKHRPJfZ5Y8

Edited October 22, 2011 by Vault

[MustangSally]

Anyone thinking of buying closed loop liquid coolers don't, learn a lesson at my expense

 

Is your opinion related to the 920 only??

 

I hope so as my Corsair H70 is brillant!

[Pilotasso]

Got H60 and its awsome, lots of room for maintenance inside as a result. :)

[Vault]

Is your opinion related to the 920 only??

 

I hope so as my Corsair H70 is brillant!

 

Mustang you make your mind up.

 

Cheaper aircooled heatsinks far out perform closed loop passive liquid cooled systems.

[Vault]

Got H60 and its awsome, lots of room for maintenance inside as a result. :)

 

Awesome is the Noctua NH-D14. Cheaper and quiter too.

[MustangSally]

Mustang you make your mind up.

 

Cheaper aircooled heatsinks far out perform closed loop passive liquid cooled systems.

 

 

My mind is made up. It works extremely well and is relatively quiet. All in my humble opinion of course. My office/man cave is also at a cool 22deg c 99.9% of the time as well.

 

YMMV.

 

Edited October 22, 2011 by MustangSally

[Vault]

My mind is made up. It works extremely well and is relatively quiet. All in my humble opinion of course. My office/man cave is also at a cool 22deg c 99.9% of the time as well.

 

YMMV.

 

 

But it could of been more efficient, cheaper and quiter. Ultimatley it comes down to physics. The more surface area the more efficient the heat dissipation will be. *Forgot to add that if you're interested in venturing into OC, the H70's going to hinder your OC capabilities. I personally wouldn't feel happy running a 1st gen i7 @ 4GHZ at 83c+ on any closed loop liquid cooler at the temperatures in that video review, not if you're into mileage anyway.

 

Edited October 23, 2011 by Vault

[Pilotasso]

Thats only part of the equation.

Theres also the contact factor that translates the heat transmittion effecteviness between the CPU and the the cooler. Further, how that heat is then transferred to the cooling blades and convection of the air. I found big size of aircooolers to be overrated as I owned a quite a few of them, and most of the time, only the bottom half of it was recieving and dissipating heat at all. The rest on top remained cold meaning theere was not any heat being tranferred there at all. You noticed how the blades are stacked on the heatpipes? Very little contact area.

 

Water contacts and stores heat much better, as well as transporting heat more uniformly across the cooler. As a result they dont even need to be as big for the same dissipating capacity.

[MustangSally]

But it could of been more efficient, cheaper and quiter. Ultimatley it comes down to physics. The more surface area the more efficient the heat dissipation will be. *Forgot to add that if you're interested in venturing into OC, the H70's going to hinder your OC capabilities. I personally wouldn't feel happy running a 1st gen i7 @ 4GHZ at 83c+ on any closed loop liquid cooler at the temperatures in that video review, not if you're into mileage anyway.

 

I think you misread my initial post. You opinion relates to the first gen of I7's My reply was in regards to the second gen....see my sig.

[Vault]

I think you misread my initial post. You opinion relates to the first gen of I7's My reply was in regards to the second gen....see my sig.

 

I don't check sigs, thought you mentioned 920 somewhere? my mistake!. What temps you getting off that H70@ 4.6ghz?.

[EtherealN]

The thing on his picture was, however, sitting on a Sabertooth with a shroud, which means 1155 socket. ;)