Who's planning to upgrade to Nehalem?

Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Anyone that shops Frys should be familiar with their lossleader sales to get people into the stores... This July 4th they were selling Q9450's with a free, cheap ECS NVIDIA IGP motherboard for roughly $200... back then the Q9450 was about $330.

When the Q6600 was $266 but only available for $300+ they several times sold them for $200 with a free, cheap ECS boards... they do it all the time with processors, even the occasional nice AMD one.

The problem is the closest Fry's is an hour's drive away... but I'm watching them. ;)
 
TheGiMp

TheGiMp

Obliviot
it could be worth it

Id say a core i7 920 on a ramapage mobo is the best bet of being able to fit nehalem into a budget builder. I beleive the 920 will be able to hit 3.8 ghz once you bypass the TDP settings but it will be up to the type of motherboard and bios you choose. Pair that up with a geforce gtx 280 and you will have better all around system. As for the memory in regards to tri channel memory the latency in the memory will be about half of that on the core 2 platform which will be awsome with memory intensive applications.
 
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
I still see little or no reason to upgrade to it unless you are a P4/AND S939 holdout that is finally building an all new system.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
TheGiMp said:
Id say a core i7 920 on a ramapage mobo is the best bet of being able to fit nehalem into a budget builder. I beleive the 920 will be able to hit 3.8 ghz once you bypass the TDP settings but it will be up to the type of motherboard and bios you choose. Pair that up with a geforce gtx 280 and you will have better all around system. As for the memory in regards to tri channel memory the latency in the memory will be about half of that on the core 2 platform which will be awsome with memory intensive applications.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums!

I'm curious about that 3.80GHz overclock on that CPU though... I am just not sure if it's possible. I don't mind being proven wrong, but that would require a Base Clock of 190MHz, which is high as heck where Nehalem is concerned. I haven't done any hardcore overclocking (and probably won't), but we'll have the Rampage in our lab soon and see if we can push our 920 to even 3.20GHz... even that would please me. The Base Clock is the definite limiter here.
 
D

Datagg

Obliviot
Hi all, im new here.... Been a long time reader, but havent chimed in till now.....

I'm totally on he fence here as to what to do..... I almost have my finger ready to do this..

1- Intel Core i7 940 Nehalem 2.93GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115201

2 - Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129043

3 - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145220

4 - ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131352

The X2 in current rig I will transfer over as with HD's etc..... But unlike normal behavior im hesitating wondering if it would be even worth it or not. Anyone in similar situation? Would the benefits going from what i have now to i7 worth it?

I guess om just looking for that voice of reasonining....

Thank you for your time...

EDIT..I see my sig isnt showing up..... my current rig is

---
QX9650 @4.0
4G Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
Sapphire 4870 X2
VelociRaptor
Gigabyte EP45T-DS3RMobo
Thermaltake toughpower 1200
Vista 64 Ultimate
 
Last edited:
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
Datagg said:
Hi all, im new here.... Been a long time reader, but havent chimed in till now.....

I'm totally on he fence here as to what to do..... I almost have my finger ready to do this..

1- Intel Core i7 940 Nehalem 2.93GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115201

2 - Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129043

3 - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145220

4 - ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131352

The X2 in current rig I will transfer over as with HD's etc..... But unlike normal behavior im hesitating wondering if it would be even worth it or not. Anyone in similar situation? Would the benefits going from what i have now to i7 worth it?

I guess om just looking for that voice of reasonining....

Thank you for your time...

EDIT..I see my sig isnt showing up..... my current rig is

---
QX9650 @4.0
4G Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
Sapphire 4870 X2
VelociRaptor
Gigabyte EP45T-DS3RMobo
Thermaltake toughpower 1200
Vista 64 Ultimate
Click to expand...

In my opinion, you won't see enough benefit to go from your current system to i7.
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
no big difference in gaming, yet. i'll upgrade wen the 35nm Corei7s come out in late 2009 or early 2010. i wanna enjoy my first build for atleast more than a year.
 
D

Datagg

Obliviot
b1lk1 said:
In my opinion, you won't see enough benefit to go from your current system to i7.
Click to expand...


Thanks.... A few more replies like this I may actually chill for awhile. I always want the newest and greatest thing, but this time around, it just don't feel right as you say the benefit wont be that much better.

Others feel the same way also?
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
Datagg said:
Thanks.... A few more replies like this I may actually chill for awhile. I always want the newest and greatest thing, but this time around, it just don't feel right as you say the benefit wont be that much better.

Others feel the same way also?
Click to expand...
QX9650 @4.0
4G Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
Sapphire 4870 X2
VelociRaptor
Gigabyte EP45T-DS3RMobo
Thermaltake toughpower 1200
Vista 64 Ultimate

u dont just have a pc u have an UBER PC maan! dont even think bout selling it or something its every gamer's dweam, like Po said in Kung Fu Panda, its Pure Awesomeness!!. wait till december 2009.
 
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Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Welcome to the forums!

Datagg said:
Would the benefits going from what i have now to i7 worth it?
Click to expand...

You have a fantastic rig as it is (kudos on the static 4.0GHz overclock), so there's little reason for you to upgrade. As I mentioned in our article last month, the greatest benefits are seen with rendering and other similar multi-media applications, but with an overclock like the one you have on your current machine, you're almost going to negate the benefits of upgrading.

Sadly, Core i7 doesn't overclock as well as Core 2, which hurts. You might get up to 3.60GHz stable, but there will likely be a lot more heat involved than with your current CPU. If you've taken a look through our article, though, you probably already have an idea whether or not you want to upgrade.

If you were to upgrade... I'd choose the 920 over the 940. Paying almost twice as much for the CPU for the sake of 270MHz seems a bit extreme to me. You could easily get the 920 and overclock past that point anyway. I also really wouldn't expect the 940 to overclock much higher than the 920, because I can't even manage to get our 965 stable at 4.00GHz (probably a temperature issue here though).

Oh, and sorry about the signature thing. In order to prevent spammers who sign up for the sole purpose of editing their signature (so it will be spidered by Google and the like), I made it so that ten posts are required in order to add one.
 
D

Datagg

Obliviot
Doomsday said:
QX9650 @4.0
4G Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600
Sapphire 4870 X2
VelociRaptor
Gigabyte EP45T-DS3RMobo
Thermaltake toughpower 1200
Vista 64 Ultimate

u dont just have a pc u have an UBER PC maan! dont even think bout selling it or something its every gamer's dweam, like Po said in Kung Fu Panda, its Pure Awesomeness!!. wait till december 2009.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys.... Based on the "uber" and "fantastic" assessments ill hold off. I definitely needed to hear these comments from others uber pc peeps to chill out.

And rob, no prob on the sig... i didn't notice till later it didn't show up, so most were probably shaking head to my post..LOL... You are spot on for making it that way though.

Have a fantastic holiday season all. And thanks again...
 
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