xpnet

I decided to trade out my Lenovo W500 workstation and move to a Desktop setup. I was looking forward to getting the i7-920 processor and a RAID motherboard with two e-sata ports.

In my oversite (with the help of Amazon) I purchased a Intel DP55KG instead of the DX58SO which supports the 1336 chip.

Now I'm faced with either getting a i7 860 and new pair of ram (Which brings me afforable to only 4 gigs as opposed to 6 gigs) or fight to return the DP55KG.

Also, to return the MB there is a 15% restocking fee even though it is unopened.

Any pro or cons going either way?

(Not really looking to game [Only SF4], looking to video edit home movies with Vegas which will require encoding and editing from the raid0 drive or external e-sata.. and basic stuff like office and CS3)

LarsMarkelson

1366 is going to be getting a 6 core chip in 2010, which will be great for video editing... though probably very expensive at first. Still by the time you want to upgrade it could be reasonable.

As well you can get a Xeon W3520 D0 (http://www.tankguys.com/processors/i...eon-w3520.html) which is the server equivalent of the i7 920 D0... meaning better silicon for better overclocks. It's imperative to run HT for video editing and HT can add a good amount of heat... basically the W3520 gives you your best shot to hit a 4GHz+ overclock with HT on. I know one person here has a W3520 24/7 stable overclocked to 4.2GHz with HT... that's pretty much super super awesome for video editing. You can pop the W3520 into any i7 setup too, no need to get special RAM or anything. It's $100 more than the i7 920 D0 at Microcenter though... however its option is a benefit of the 1366 platform.

Skylit

the i9 is labeled as "extreme" unless hes willing to pay 1+ grand for a processor that might not be an option


To poster: the i7 860 is a great processor In my opinion. Yes the i7 920 might be better due to tri-chan bandwidth memory, but the reviews show the 860 is just as great. It overclocks also just as well, if not better. People who say otherwise are just biased. The only down side to 1156 is dual video cards will only run x8/x8. If you're only buying a single card, It will run at full x16 speed. Also The i7 860 is 95w vs i7 920's 130w if you care about using less power, the 860 might be better for you.


Edit:


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=3641

Review says i7 860 is better for everything you want.. Reviews can be a lil off, but Anandtech is normally trusted though.

fang_laluna

get i7 920 and you're set

i9 would be very expensive, a grand at least

LarsMarkelson

Another thing about the i7 860 is if you want to overclock it to the extreme like, past 4.4GHz, then you need to make sure you have the right socket manufacturer. Some boards are burning their sockets out when overclocked that high... article here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

xpnet

Thanks, This is exactly what I needed to hear. I have yet to hear back from Amazon. Next time I'll be more careful when placing my order.

Still is interesting about the power consumption of the 860 as opposed to the 920. Does it make a big difference when you overclock as far as power consumptions.

willis888

I was reading an article yesterday from someone who does professional video editing that seemed to suggest that a fast RAID was just as important as a good processor and lots of RAM. This Areca RAID controller was mentioned by name because it does hardware RAID 6 and has 2gb cache.