Finally left AMD.

[mekon]

And gaming isn't the only significant thing people do with computers that requires more horsepower.

My computer doesn't run on horses. See how I changed the topic subtley to suit my own ends? You should recognise it I think.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Man up, 50 passes hehe

 

[mekon]

I think the developed world has moved on from horses? Some people cling on to old ideas.

 

[EnzoLT]

not rich yet you have a 920? lol doesnt compute...

 

[SunnyD]

Man up, 50 passes hehe

Done. Had to bump the voltage up one notch though. 1.056v @ 3.33GHz, completed 50 passes successfully in 5249.90 seconds.

not rich yet you have a 920? lol doesnt compute...

$199 isn't terribly much. I just haven't been in a position to upgrade a whole platform (mobo+cpu+ram) until recently.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That i7-920 looks good, real good. I wish I could afford it, although if I sold my other Q9550+X48 parts on craigslist I probably could afford it.

Why I would want to upgrade is another question altogether. I don't even use my Q6600 for anything, I still run my E2140s 24/7 instead.

 

[PM650]

$199 isn't terribly much. I just haven't been in a position to upgrade a whole platform (mobo+cpu+ram) until recently.

For the people in the 34 states w/o Microcenter it's 45% more.

 

[jvroig]

For the people in the 34 states w/o Microcenter it's 45% more.

And for countries outside the US, it doesn't seem to be any better.

Here, i7-920 is $288, while the Phenom II X4 965 is $200.

Even the mobo prices aren't good. Even an ECS board for the i7 is around $150 (cheapest you can get here), compared to a good Gigabyte board for the Phenom II which only costs $100.

i7-920 + ECS mobo = $438
Phenom II X4 965 + Gigabyte mobo = $300

You can get a 5750 1GB here from the $138 difference.

People near a microcenter are pretty lucky, seems to me.

 

[SunnyD]

Well, I've settled on the previously mentioned overclock as my closed-case final overclock until I get bored and/or move to water. 3.33GHz @ 1.056v. Kind of a double-win in terms of overclocking in my book, especially since I don't generally overclock anyway.

For the people in the 34 states w/o Microcenter it's 45% more.

You need to find a "friend" who's willing to pick one up and ship it out for you at cost. My closest Microcenter is still 3 hours away, but it made for a nice road trip with the family.

That i7-920 looks good, real good. I wish I could afford it, although if I sold my other Q9550+X48 parts on craigslist I probably could afford it.

Why I would want to upgrade is another question altogether. I don't even use my Q6600 for anything, I still run my E2140s 24/7 instead.

Yeah. For me it was more of an impulse upgrade. Like I said, the Phenom II was doing just fine for me, but I had some spare cash and my wife actually agreed for once. Plus it gives me a socket that's going to be around for a while longer.

And for countries outside the US, it doesn't seem to be any better.

Here, i7-920 is $288, while the Phenom II X4 965 is $200.

Even the mobo prices aren't good. Even an ECS board for the i7 is around $150 (cheapest you can get here), compared to a good Gigabyte board for the Phenom II which only costs $100.

i7-920 + ECS mobo = $438
Phenom II X4 965 + Gigabyte mobo = $300

You can get a 5750 1GB here from the $138 difference.

People near a microcenter are pretty lucky, seems to me.

Those prices aren't terrible. That ECS board is gonna run $150 here too. The CPU is what kills people, since it's only ever available at Microcenter for $199. If you're lucky, you can find one on the FS/FT forums for $220ish shipped.

 

[hclarkjr]

only thing i question is going from gigabyte to asrock, that is a downgrade IMHO. should have stuck with gigabyte

 

[SunnyD]

only thing i question is going from gigabyte to asrock, that is a downgrade IMHO. should have stuck with gigabyte

Why is that? Considering the ASRock has a layout I like, all the features I wanted, several people here on these boards (including Anand) have had great success with them... and the price is well below Gigabytes offerings (if I really wanted to be cheap I would have bought open box from NE and saved even more)...

The only complaint I have about my particular motherboard is that the tension springs on the chipset heatsink are a bit weak. Other than that, I'm not having occasional cold boot issues like I did with the Gigabyte board. Again, to each their own. If I really wanted to go hog wild I would have gotten a top end Asus or EVGA.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Man up, 50 passes hehe

Done. Had to bump the voltage up one notch though. 1.056v @ 3.33GHz, completed 50 passes successfully in 5249.90 seconds.

WOW, very nice!

I haven't even begun to find my lowest vcore. It will jump to 1.24v (2.8Ghz turbo) through the auto negotiating setting on my Asrock X58 Extreme.

EDIT: how do you multiple quote? crap!

 

[Gillbot]

And for countries outside the US, it doesn't seem to be any better.

Here, i7-920 is $288, while the Phenom II X4 965 is $200.

Even the mobo prices aren't good. Even an ECS board for the i7 is around $150 (cheapest you can get here), compared to a good Gigabyte board for the Phenom II which only costs $100.

i7-920 + ECS mobo = $438
Phenom II X4 965 + Gigabyte mobo = $300

You can get a 5750 1GB here from the $138 difference.

People near a microcenter are pretty lucky, seems to me.

FS/FT sections are what I use primarily. All the x58 boards I have purchased were less than $120 shipped. Granted, I'm in the US but if it's that much higher you still may be better off finding someone here to ship overseas to you.

only thing i question is going from gigabyte to asrock, that is a downgrade IMHO. should have stuck with gigabyte

Why pay extra for a name? My Asrock has hit 235 bclk, runs well enough, and it was a $118 open box to boot! If the board has the features you want at a price you are willing to pay, why not?

 

[filibusterman]

As Teal'c would say.. "Indeed."

Not to mention I have the parts trickling in for an i3 530/H55 based HTPC/Mommy-box too.

LOL maybe you could up the voltage on the 920 with a ZPM (Zee or Zed let the debate begin) if you can find one laying around! The attractiveness of Intel lies on the overclockability IMO...and HT.

 

[evolucion8]

Isn't AMD offerings faster in virtualization performance than Intel's current offering?

 

[hclarkjr]

funny how so many have had the cold boot issue with gigabyte boards, to date i have never had that with any of the boards i have owned from them. this is my third one too. i did own a asrock 939 board but did not like it. bought a 939 gigabyte board and have been using gigabyte ever since

 

[nyker96]

Isn't AMD offerings faster in virtualization performance than Intel's current offering?

it's faster than those intel chips w/o hardware VM support. this is from my own exp.

 

[SunnyD]

WOW, very nice!

I haven't even begun to find my lowest vcore. It will jump to 1.24v (2.8Ghz turbo) through the auto negotiating setting on my Asrock X58 Extreme.

EDIT: how do you multiple quote? crap!

Hit the button on the posts you want to quote that looks like "+. Every post you click/tick that button with will show up in your reply when you hit "Post Reply" at the bottom of the thread.

Why pay extra for a name? My Asrock has hit 235 bclk, runs well enough, and it was a $118 open box to boot! If the board has the features you want at a price you are willing to pay, why not?

This. First and foremost, you ask anybody out there and you'll find people that have had problems with tier 1 boards too. Maybe slightly less, though some like Asus have had batches of problems in recent history too. The main difference is that you just need to be a little more patient and take your time with the build. As long as you're not buying utter crap (ECS? or other complete no-name brands), you're good. Besides, I had Newegg to back me up if the mobo was bad.

LOL maybe you could up the voltage on the 920 with a ZPM (Zee or Zed let the debate begin) if you can find one laying around! The attractiveness of Intel lies on the overclockability IMO...and HT.

Love it! And as we all know, it's gotta be "Zed" Pee Em. And I'm not even from Canukistan!

Isn't AMD offerings faster in virtualization performance than Intel's current offering?

I believe this is actually true. However, when you combine the workload that I'm planning (VM's+Gaming) Intel gets the edge since it should be able to provide better overall performance.

funny how so many have had the cold boot issue with gigabyte boards, to date i have never had that with any of the boards i have owned from them. this is my third one too. i did own a asrock 939 board but did not like it. bought a 939 gigabyte board and have been using gigabyte ever since

To each their own. I haven't had the cold boot issue on my gigabyte board for a few months. It was sporadic anyways. As I said before, there's a couple things about the ASRock board that I'm not fond of either - for example the heatsink on the chipset looks like it will obstruct the first PCIe slot given a long enough card, and the retention springs on it seem too weak. But overall I like the layout and features of the board (sure it could use a few more SATA ports, but I'm only using 2 to begin with so that's moot). I liked the layout of my Gigabyte board too, except that it put several of the SATA ports underneath where my video card ended up. There's tradeoffs everywhere.

 

[AdamK47]

Why did you get the Phenom II 940BE in the first place?

 

[SunnyD]

Why did you get the Phenom II 940BE in the first place?

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19Because it was rather inexpensive at the time and a significant upgrade from the X2 that I had.

 

[perdomot]

I'm in a similar situation although I haven't made the jump yet. Priced out an i5-750 upgrade including new mobo, ram and vid card near $600. Not too bad but still having a hard time justifying it given the performance of my X3 720BE doing 3.4Ghz.

 

[bigboxes]

I went through the same thing as you did. I bought five AMD processors over the last ten years and loved them all. If AMD offered anything near the i7 I would most likely have stuck with them. I too got a Microcenter 920 D0 six months ago, but went with the more expensive Asus route. I have played around with o/c, but stock is more than fine with me as I am more into quiet than all-out. It doesn't help having my P183 sitting under my desk and a uber-hot 4890 heating things up.

I upgraded from an X2 4400+ after 3.5 years. My 920 encodes video 4x faster than the 4400. It's like night and day. However, I tore the old lady down and rebuilt it for my wife. I put Win 7 x64 on it and it boots quite a bit faster than my 920 and it's dead quiet. One day I will get a fan controller for my rig and dial down those loud fans. It's not like I game very often.

 

[jvroig]

I put Win 7 x64 on it and it boots quite a bit faster than my 920 and it's dead quiet

Your X2 4400+ boots Win7 faster than your i7 920?

 

[bigboxes]

Your X2 4400+ boots Win7 faster than your i7 920?

Yup. Maybe it's just more lean than my 920 build. I did check the startup tab in the System Configuration utility and nothing unnecessary is loading at startup. To be fair, Win7 on my 920 boots a lot faster than WinXP did. It doesn't really matter to me anyways as I leave the 920 on 24/7. It only reboots for Windows updates.

 

[Tsavo]

Your X2 4400+ boots Win7 faster than your i7 920?

Not quite the same thing, but my Celeron E3200 vaporizes my Core i5/750's boot speed; the machines have the same software and startup stuff.