Intel i7 920 or Phenom II 955?

[ADay2Long]

Originally Posted by Soultribunal

I got Twin Nvidia Cards in my AMD build.


ST

Which board are you using ST?

[jyc327]

ST, it's Jacky from before.

I'm also interested in the mobo you speak of, that allows SLI to be enabled rather than just having two NV cards.

btw, I've finally finished my G5 built, cant believe i can squeeze in the blackice 120.2 rads in there. and a full ATX x58 mobo.

Cheers everyone

[Cowboy]

He's probably using an am2+ socket, nvidia 750a/780a/980a chipset based board. Compatible with am2+/am3. I'm going to guess its:

Newegg.ca - ASUS M4N82 Deluxe AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards (uses 980a)
or
Newegg.ca - ASUS Crosshair II Formula AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards (uses 780a)
or
Newegg.ca - ASUS M4N72-E AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards (uses 750a)
or
Newegg.ca - XFX MDA72P7509 AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards (uses 750a)

so its between the only 4 amd/sli boards I could find.

[keto]

Originally Posted by AmuseMe

Is the 955 the way for me to go than? At my budget.

I just bought
i7 920 C0 $340
TRUE 120 Black $80
2 fans for above $35
Gibabyte EX58-UD5 (shop I went to doesn't carry -UD4) $300
Sapphire 4890 OC Edition $269
6GB OCZ DDR3 14400 Ram $175
PCP&C 750 Crossfire PSU $150

Some of those $ figures aren't to the penny, just off the top of my head and the total spread is out by no more than $30-40 for the whole pile.

I had a case, a HD and optical drives to use from prior build. So I spent $1350+GST to upgrade, you do the math for your budget, add or subtract the stuff you don't need. You could spend around $100 less on a motherboard, but probably won't get triple channel at a <$200 price point. Could spend less on slower RAM and/or vid card.

[clone63]

Originally Posted by ADay2Long

Which board are you using ST?

Foxconn Destroyer will do SLI. There's others, just don't remember models.

edit: Asus M4N82 Deluxe will SLI as well. Both of those will 3 way I believe as well.

edit2: ASRock (woO) K10N780SLIX3-WiFi... sli and they've got others too.

[Neolithium_Wpg]

Those do have SLI but there's currently no AM3/DDR3 SLI boards :(

[Cowboy]

wtf

why do you need ddr3?

ddr2@ decent speeds and latency matches or bests ddr3 at current speeds and latencies. IMO

also IMO, ddr3 tech needs to mature and the stuff with decent timings needs to drop in price for them to be nothing more than a novelty.

[Nodscene]

For what you need and how much you want to spend you might want to consider a LGA775 system with a Q6600 (if you are a bit patient you could even get a great price on a used Q9550). You could build yourself a great system at really good prices plus you have the opportunity to overclock and save some coin for an SSD. *Looks like NCIX doesn't sell the Q6600 anymore.

Example...

Intel Q9550 - $280.78 (On sale for $248.99) NCIX.com - Buy Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Quad Core Processor LGA775 2.83GHZ Yorkfield 1333FSB 12MB Retail Box - BX80569Q9550 In Canada.
Mushkin Redline PC2-8000 - $74.99 (On sale for $54.99, $20 mail in rebate and $9 IS) NCIX.com - Buy Mushkin XP PC2-8000 Redline 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit - 996593 In Canada.
Gigabyte EP45-DS4P - $170.76 (On sale for $145.76 with $25 mail in) NCIX.com - Buy Gigabyte EP45-DS4P ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E SATA2 RAID HD Sound 2GLAN 1394A CrossFireX Motherboard - GA-EP45-DS4P In Canada.

Total before rebates, promo and not including price matching = $526.53

[miggs78]

If i'm not mistaken AM2+ boards take AM3 processors, then I would certainly suggest the Phenom II X4 955.. If he has a board that came support that cpu without any problems, go for it..

DDR3 does have performance increases, advantages, but that doesn't mean DDR2 is no good, with the current prices of DDR2 RAM, dirt cheap, he could probably spend a few dollars more above average and get a very nice G-Skill or Mushkin or OCZ set with excellent timings..

[bojangles]

Originally Posted by miggs78

If i'm not mistaken AM2+ boards take AM3 processors, then I would certainly suggest the Phenom II X4 955.. If he has a board that came support that cpu without any problems, go for it..

DDR3 does have performance increases, advantages, but that doesn't mean DDR2 is no good, with the current prices of DDR2 RAM, dirt cheap, he could probably spend a few dollars more above average and get a very nice G-Skill or Mushkin or OCZ set with excellent timings..

You are mistaken. AM3 boards support AM2+, not the other way around like you mentioned. There is no reverse compatibility.

EDIT: Oops, I've mistaken myself too! It's dependent on the motherboard manufacturer whether or not they want to support AM3 chips on AM2+ boards.