Which CPU?

[Bolas]

I'm building a new x58 system. Trying to figure out what cpu to use. I'm not too familiar with the core i7 930 or the 980X, but both seem like possible options. I could also potentially go with the dual-socket EVGA SR-2 board and get a pair of Xeon chips, but that does seem kind of expensive for a $5k total budget.

Which cpu would you recommend to go into a $5k system to power triple 30" monitors?

The 920 or the 930 would most likely be purchased from Microcenter, hence why the low prices are listed for those. I'm making a trip to Minnesota next week, in theory I could stop at the Microcenter in the Minneapolis area and pick up a chip.

Intel core i7 920 D0 step, $200
Intel core i7 930, $230
Intel core i7 980X, $1,100
dual Xeon chips (L5630?), $1,150+

I don't see much point in getting a 940, 950, or 960 when I can just over-clock a 920 to do basically the same thing, so those aren't listed. I'm not particularly interested in P55 boards or AMD cpu's at the moment.

If you think Xeons, then please indicate which ones and how they could possibly fit into a $5k total budget.

[H2O]

Unless you are a big cruncher or a heavy renderer, go with a single socket X58 board and an i7 920. The extra money would be better spent on GPUs if you are a gamer.

[PatRaceTin]

930 is good enough for me

if money is not your problem buy 980x (with good x58 board)

[ajaidev]

If you want to compete with what Intel is bringing out in the very near future go with i7 980X. i7 920 OCed also does not have much stand against what i saw.

dual Xeon chips are worthless dual cpu < more cores

[H2O]

980X does not make much of a difference unless you are crunching and rendering, so it depends on what you are going to use it for.

And how are Xeon chips useless? If you went for two dual core Xeon chips, then yes a 980X would be better. But two 6-core 5600 Xeons or even two 4-core 5600 Xeons would kill a 980X.

Here is my opinion:
i7 920/930 - gaming, light crunching, light rendering
i7 980X - gaming, moderate to heavy crunching, moderate rendering
2x Xeon E/X CPUs - heavy crunching, heavy rendering

[trn]

What your looking for is a 4.0+ GHz OC'd 920 and GPU power since you mentioned triple 30" I might recommend at least 1 ATI 5970 (if you can find one for sub $700.)

[Bolas]

Here is my opinion:
i7 920/930 - gaming, light crunching, light rendering
i7 980X - gaming, moderate to heavy crunching, moderate rendering
2x Xeon E/X CPUs - heavy crunching, heavy rendering

That makes a lot of sense. I'm not really into the heavy crunching or rendering at the moment, so I'll probably stick with either the 920 or the 980X then.

I'm pretty tempted by the 980X -- more cores, more speed, unlocked multiplier, and possibly better overclocks than the 920 -- but on the flip side, it's over five times as much money, and that's hard to justify. Plus, with a $200 chip, if I fry it, it's not anywhere near as big of a deal as if I fry a $1100 chip.

[LennyRhys]

Definitely get the 920 D0 - it'll do 4GHz with minimal effort; I'm actually blown away by how effortless it is to overclock.

[cdolphin]

Your budget is pretty massive, if you are truly willing to spend that much, go ahead, I say grab the 980 X. That thing will give you an epeen the size of our country's deficit.
But if you are into gaming, a 920 will suffice with tri sli GTX 480's (around 1800 dollars I believe, which will likely be worth it, if you are intersted in folding... If not, grab two HD5970's )

[RichJBrown]

i7 930

[Bolas]

Hmm... will a corsair 1000HX power supply have enough oomph to run a pair of 5970's in crossfire plus an overclocked cpu? i'm not planning on overclocking the gpu's, just the cpu.

Also, would a triple 120 radiator in the top of a corsair 800D be enough to cool all of that?

I like the corsair power supply and the corsair case, but I don't want to buy those if they won't be able to support the hardware I want to run.

For Nvidia surround, it's necessary to have at least two cards in SLI, from what I understand. Would it work to have one 480GTX card for each monitor (three total) and just plug each one into a separate monitor?

If I go with the ATI solution, I'm stuck buying a DisplayPort to DVI-D active adapter (about $120), whereas with the Nvidia one, I might be able to avoid purchasing the adapter potentially?!?

[H2O]

Hmm... will a corsair 1000HX power supply have enough oomph to run a pair of 5970's in crossfire plus an overclocked cpu? i'm not planning on overclocking the gpu's, just the cpu.

Also, would a triple 120 radiator in the top of a corsair 800D be enough to cool all of that?

I like the corsair power supply and the corsair case, but I don't want to buy those if they won't be able to support the hardware I want to run.

1000W will be pushing it with 2x HD5970, but you should be ok. 3x GTX480s - no way. I would look at the Galaxy Evo and the upcoming EVGA SR2 1200W, they will give you some more headroom.

A 3x120mm rad is too small for an overclocked CPU and 2-3 GPUs, especially ones as hot as the HD5970 and GTX480. Wuth the budget you have, get a MountainMods case and put 3 or 4 3x120mm radiators in it, depending on how many GPUs you have.

[kInOzAwA]

i rather pick 920 D0 above all..

[ReverendMaynard]

980X. Go big or go home.

[EtaCarinae]

For what use?

1) If it is for Crunching then the choice is the 980X and this is a no brainer. It will run with 12 threads at 4.00 GHZ in the same power envelope then a 920 pushed at 3.6 Ghz and that is 240Watts. But the performance with very fast DDR3 mem is more then 100% (double) at the same power consumption. Crunching means you run 24/7 which also means one time investment one time costs pale towards the yearly electricity bill. And this chip has an acceptable lifetime of say three years. This is true when we compare CPU to CPU and not CPU against GPU where it is DOA agains a Fermi type chip.

2) If it is for gaming then a 920 OC at 3.5 or 4.00 is good enough with a powerful GPU. Anyways many games use only one or two cores and rarely more than two. This will change over time. Power consumption is less relevant here anyway.

3) For work, if it is office work then the 920 is enough. If it is for workstation production type work and software that is tailored to multiple cores and threads .. then the 980X is again the right chip. Time is money.

[WARDOZER9]

If you have money to burn and want bragging rights then grab the 980X. If you want something practical and want bragging rights get the 920 and make that soab run a 4.5ghz+ 24/7 OC on air or water even if you have to hold the CPU @ gun point.

If it was me with the money to consider the 980x I'd get the 920 and a 5970.

[Bolas]

Well I bit the bullet and bought a core i7 980X at Microcenter in Minneapolis, MN today for $999 plus tax, total $1072.

Now all I need is a motherboard, memory, SSD, hard drive, optical drive, power supply, and graphics cards to go with my cpu and monitor!

[Bolas]

Looks like batch 3003A957, made in Costa Rica? Am I reading that right?

[Meta-Prometheus]

I voted for the 920. But I see you already bought the 980X.

[Bolas]

Yeah I based my decision on the 980X largely on Anandtech's review.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3763&p=16

On the bright side, I won't have to worry that my system is cpu bottlenecked. I could have gone with a dual cpu system and gotten even more cores, but don't think that would have been faster, so I'll stick with this. Six cores with 12 threads should be enough, and it'll be six times more thread than I'm used to with my 2 core notebook without hyper threading.

[bro20000]

I7 930 all the way!Till Sandy bridge!!

[Bolas]

I7 930 all the way!Till Sandy bridge!!

I'm probably going to take a pass on Sandy Bridge. I don't need integrated graphics and I don't see any other particular gains to be had from that over Nehalem, at least until there's a die shrink. Or is there something I'm missing?

[systemviper]

I think that if you have the cash, which you did then you made the right decision, that chip with the proper
system and gpu's will be in the top 5% of all computers for a long time. So it will give you a long lifecycle
and boatloads of fun., It looks like and amazing chip and a monster leap forward in Tech so even if now most
programs can't even use close to 1/3 it power, it will eat up everything in sight.

I look forward to watching what you pair it up with,,,,,

[Bolas]

I think that if you have the cash, which you did then you made the right decision, that chip with the proper
system and gpu's will be in the top 5% of all computers for a long time. So it will give you a long lifecycle
and boatloads of fun., It looks like and amazing chip and a monster leap forward in Tech so even if now most
programs can't even use close to 1/3 it power, it will eat up everything in sight.

I look forward to watching what you pair it up with,,,,,

Thanks, I look forward to figuring out what to pair it up with, LOL. I should do a "before" and "after" comparison. My old Alienware desktop from 2000, my refurbished laptop from 2007, and my new dream system build from 2010. I wouldn't be surprised to see a difference on an order of magnitude between the systems.

I do want a chip that will last a long time, I typically only get a new computer every five years or so.