Upgrade time what would you do X58/P55

[leighl]

Hi all

Im looking to upgrade my system and want to reach 4.5Ghz if i can I will be using water.

I've been looking at i920 + good X58 MB for over clocking and 6Gb tri channel ram

Or

i860 + good P55 MB for over clocking and 4Gb dual channel ram

What would you do?
what will give me the most performance with one of the new graphics cards coming out ether ATI or Nvidia which ever is the fastest?

Budget is not a problem

Thanks.

[zalbard]

Budget is not a problem.

Definitely x58 then.
Better boards and higher overall performance atm.

[leighl]

Ok that sound good what Mb would ya recomend

[zanzabar]

i would go with the p55 if u are planning 1 or 2 gpus, the on cpu pci-e controller and less componants should make it perform better with less IO latency and its cheaper. but the x58 is needed for 3/4 gpus.

and if u get good ram from the initial benches it looks like the p55 will be faster clock for clock (if u get the 4 core with ht) with most things so long as they arnt ram bound and thats not a common problem

[tiro_uspsss]

if budget is not a prob then there really is no choice!

X58 + 920 + 6GB done!

[zalbard]

Ok that sound good what Mb would ya recomend

Either Gigabyte UD5 if you want to save up some or EVGA Classified if you want to OC to the limit.

[Starage]

X58 and 920 and two 295 gtx!!!

[leighl]

Ok well have been looking at some of the p55 reviews and they look quite good but not sure what would be faster between 920 and 860 clock for clock at say 4.5Ghz if both chips would reach that OC

The other thing im wondering about is PCIe lanes if running 2 GPU's P55 will do 2x8 and X58 will do 2x16

Starage two 295 gtx!!! sounds great but im waiting to see whats around the corner with ATI and Nvidia

[Chris_redfield]

I think 4.5GHz might be a bit wishful thinking.

Will you be watercooling?

[Martijn]

The problem with hardware is that you can wait forever, there's always something better around the corner. If budget isn't a problem, go with dual 295s, a 920 and 6GB. X58 should support the future 6-core i9 CPUs as well.

[leighl]

I think 4.5GHz might be a bit wishful thinking.

Will you be watercooling?

Yes I will be water cooling and this is the OC that I would like to try and reach.

[leighl]

The problem with hardware is that you can wait forever, there's always something better around the corner. If budget isn't a problem, go with dual 295s, a 920 and 6GB. X58 should support the future 6-core i9 CPUs as well.

I would go for those cards but the only thing hardware wise im waiting for is DX11 cards for Win 7. Other than that im leaning to wards 920 and X58 with 6Gb.

[iTravis]

I would go for those cards but the only thing hardware wise im waiting for is DX11 cards for Win 7. Other than that im leaning to wards 920 and X58 with 6Gb.

+1, good decision, just grab a 920 + X58 + 6GB memory (Corsair Dominator) and you're set. Spending on a dual 295 would be a waste while ATI next gen is just around the corner, I would wait if I were you.

[Evil_AnAnAs]

The issue with SLI/CF on the p55 is really annoying... I'm going to upgrade to i7 from my Q6600 but since p55 would have problems with two new gen ati cards I'll most likely end up buing x58 and that's a year old...
I do feel really stupid thinking that p55 would be worth waiting for if your going to use SLI/CF.

But my guess is that I'm not the only one that made that mistake. :P

[dum]

The issue with SLI/CF on the p55 is really annoying... I'm going to upgrade to i7 from my Q6600 but since p55 would have problems with two new gen ati cards I'll most likely end up buing x58 and that's a year old...
I do feel really stupid thinking that p55 would be worth waiting for if your going to use SLI/CF.

But my guess is that I'm not the only one that made that mistake. :P

A TIMES 2 CARD WOULD WORK THOUGH RIGHT? and you get the advantage of using all 2 gigs of your ram? I just hate how crossfire does not allow the second card to use it's ram as well, atleast that's what I think ? am I right?

[Computurd]

Absolutelty a food point dum, also if you use anything else such as raid or networking or dvr cards it locks down the slot, too...SO in alot of single GPU configs they will suffer, especially with the next generation cards, they are put on a x16slot for a REASON!

[LowRun]

Ok well have been looking at some of the p55 reviews and they look quite good but not sure what would be faster between 920 and 860 clock for clock at say 4.5Ghz if both chips would reach that OC

The other thing im wondering about is PCIe lanes if running 2 GPU's P55 will do 2x8 and X58 will do 2x16

Starage two 295 gtx!!! sounds great but im waiting to see whats around the corner with ATI and Nvidia

It can even be worse than that from what i read. On some motherboards, the second PCI-Express x16 slot is not connected to the PCI-Express controller of the processor through 8 lanes but to the PCI-Express controller of the P55 Express through 4 lanes and then, the lanes going to the P55 Express being slower than the ones going to the processor, the second PCI-Express x16 slot end-up being 4 times slower than if it was x8

You can find a motherboards list with how the second PCI-Express x16 slot is set up here: http://www.hardware.fr/news/lire/09-09-2009/

[Starage]

I would stay with 775 socket or go with 1366 socket only. I am using an ECS x58 board (Not an overclocking board but 100% stable and everything thing works as it should) and have no problems at all. I would only consider P55 board for a low cost PC non sli of cf setup. Really 6gb ddr3 1600 ram is so cheap now too. Really x58 is the best way to go, the only big cost would be the CPU.

[leighl]

Has any one seen reviews on 920 vs 860 at 4Ghz with out the turbo enabled all reviews seem to be at stock clocks with turbo enabled and in which case the 860 will out perform the 920 because it is clocking higher.

Would like to see how these chips compare at the same clock.

[zanzabar]

the 860 and 940 are clock for clock

[Starage]

What is the deal with two chips. i5 and i7 1156 socket? The P55 boards look like any updated p45 board with ddr3.

[zanzabar]

What is the deal with two chips. i5 and i7 1156 socket? The P55 boards look like any updated p45 board with ddr3.

the 1156 has 2 ram channels with 16x pci-e2 on cpu

[Starage]

It is just most boards specs are sli and cf 8x per lane not 16x. That really sucks and makes not sense. So looking at that, p55 setups suck. Yes dual channel ram is no big thing either.

[zanzabar]

8x8 is not a problem with pci-e2 for single gpu cards

[_FAKE_]

8x8 is not a problem with pci-e2 for single gpu cards

Also if you really want dual cards you can always look into getting say a HD5870X2 when they come out. It will run on x16 PCIe2.0 rather then x8/x8 so you won't have a bottleneck (if there is any).

Plus where are these benches showing i920 and i860 clock for clock? I can see them being equally as fast but only when they are both at stock speed (i920-2.66GHz i860-2.8GHz) making i920 faster clock for clock.