I generally browse the ASUS and Gigabyte websites first to get a general idea of what's on offer for motherboards; I generally check out the top of the range board to see what features are possible, then go down and see what I can give up on.  Generally, you don't need a high end motherboard, unless you have special needs.

(13/07/2010 05:12 AM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  I generally browse the ASUS and Gigabyte websites first to get a general idea of what's on offer for motherboards; I generally check out the top of the range board to see what features are possible, then go down and see what I can give up on.  Generally, you don't need a high end motherboard, unless you have special needs.

The Pro version doesn't seem worth it, £40 for an extra PCIe slot, SLi (Non-Pro is still CrossfireX compatible, not that I'd need it anyway) and Coaxial S/PDIF Output.

Interesting overclocking tests with the Lynnfield processors.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/20...u-review/3

I suppose it depends on how far I want to push it... they noticeably say the 920 overclocks like a beast.

EDIT: Gah, looks like 920 has been on the road to discontinuation for a while now.

(This post was last modified: 15/07/2010 02:58 AM by S7*.)

870 can't overclock as good as the 860?  Lolwut?  This makes the 870 an even more retarded buy than it already is (which is.... extremely bad).  Why the hell does the 870 cost like twice as much as a 860 when it's only a measly 0.13GHz better?  It costs even more than the 875K, which is just as fast, probably a better processor in every single way (how does that even work?  who would buy a worse processor for more money?  Is it because of extremely short supply?).

Chips aren't necessarily equal, so I generally don't want to rate things based on overclockability.

The 1156 are apparently slightly more efficient than the 1366, that is, i7 860 is a tad bit faster than i7 930, from what I've heard (ignoring any benefits of triple channel DDR, which I doubt will be any - maybe only a very slight benefit in seriously memory intensive applications (PAQ8PX compression anyone?)).

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(15/07/2010 03:31 AM)Assassinator Wrote:  Why the hell does the 870 cost like twice as much as a 860 when it's only a measly 0.13GHz better?

It's the top of the range 1156 processor (ignoring the newer -K models).
Intel always charges a premium for that.

Other examples:
- Core 2 Duo E8600 (like 50% more than a E8500)
- Core 2 Quad Q9650 and QX9770 (way more expensive than a 9550)
- i7 Extreme
- AMD did similar with its range of CPUs when it was ahead of Intel


The 875K is a newer model, which is wholesaled cheaper than the 870.  IDK why Intel didn't reduce their wholesale price for the 870.

Marketing much?

Unlocked multipliers seem like something that would attract overclockers.

Quote:If you're not using exotic cooling (and why would you on what is, after all, a mid-range CPU) then the default multiplier of 22x and the 220MHz maximum Base Clock that the best LGA1156 boards are capable of gives you a maximum potential overclock of 4.84GHz before having to touch the multiplier. This is a huge overclock that only the best overclockers and sub-zero cooling systems will achieve.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/20...k-review/1

Haha, lol @ the comments.

(This post was last modified: 15/07/2010 03:55 AM by S7*.)

(15/07/2010 03:40 AM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  It's the top of the range 1156 processor (ignoring the newer -K models).
Intel always charges a premium for that.

The problem is it's NOT the top of the range... and the processor that IS the top of the range is cheaper...

Which leads to...
|
V

(15/07/2010 03:40 AM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  The 875K is a newer model, which is wholesaled cheaper than the 870.  IDK why Intel didn't reduce their wholesale price for the 870.

How do they even plan on selling any 870's if the 875K costs less?  Hope un-researched retards buy them?

(15/07/2010 03:52 AM)Assassinator Wrote:  How do they even plan on selling any 870's if the 875K costs less?  Hope un-researched retards buy them?

Are Intel still selling them?  Or the stuff remaining just excess stock?
Could also be a temporary thing - ie prices will be brought down later, and I don't really understand if there's any contractual obligations with wholesaling of whatnot.  The 870 will probably be replaced with an 880, maybe, which will then become the top of the line 1156 processor.

But how does a 870 even loose to an 860 in overclocking?

Isn't an 870 just a higher binned 860?  In which case it should not loose....

Higher multiplier?  Maybe there's some optimal overclocking between frequency and multiplier, I dunno.
Could also be a case of chips being unequal.

(This post was last modified: 15/07/2010 04:23 AM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)