860 or 920 setups - same cost

What would be better choice? Gaming is the main thing I do, I will be overclocking but very lightly. I know the differences between the two and I dont care about future proof of the 1366. I just want a stable rig than can do light OC and be quiet and cool. I will not use crossfire or sli or raid or anything like that. I hear that nice aftermarket heatsinks block a ram slot on p55 motherboard which is a concern

I can get the the following i7 920 or the i7 860 setups for the same price.

ASUS P7P55D LE
i7 860
8gb of 10600 DDR3
PROLIMATECH, Megahalems Rev B.

or

ASROCK X58 Extreme
i7 920
6b of 12800 DDR3
COGAGE, True Spirit

out of curiousity, you don't want to upgrade the graphics card as well?

just curious

Honestly, I would go with the 1156, the is a good difference in cost. You can get a great setup for under $600. I just ordered an 1156 setup and I paid $622 shipped from Newegg and I still have a mail in rebate for the RAM for $25. I had to combo the MOBO and CPU as well. The MOBO is a [H] Editor's Choice Gold Award and has next to no bad reviews. I think that 8GB is over kill, but then you're looking at about $100 more. No matter what this is about $100 less than a 1366 setup which I don't think is worth the cost, at least it wasn't for me. I don't care about the future proof crap, I don't care about triple channel's 1% performance increase, and I don't need more than 16GB.

MOBO: MSI P55-GD80 LGA
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz
RAM: Mushkin Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
HSF: ZALMAN CNPS9900 NT 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Fail: I am not upgrading I am buying a new complete rig which will have a 5870, 1TB HDD, asus essence sound card, Trupower 750w PSU, and Lian Li case. Now I am just decided on the above post.

Yeah I am not sure I want 8gb or need it. It is just I am afraid if I get 4gb now and want another 4gb later the ram will be different. I read somewhere that mixing and matching different ram is bad

Go with the i7 920 rig.

ok, well you didn't include a graphics card in there, so it made me wonder what you were going to do with the PC, since your current rig is still more than good enough for all but the most demanding games like GTA 4 or such, that 8800 GTX would be the only thing you'd need to change out.

But anyway, that's where the question came from, not seeing you list a GPU.

To answer your question, you don't need 8GB unless you're opening a lot of programs at the same time or using multiple VM-wares. Basically as long as you're not doing anything too RAM intensive, then you don't need 8 GB. With VIsta, you needed 3 GB minimum, but with Windows 7, you don't need that much anymore. 6 GB is a good number, and there's plenty of deals for 6 GB of RAM for under $100.

That'll probably suit your needs and future proof you a little bit. That's a nice middle ground between what you're suggesting and the extreme end of what you're suggesting.

So 4gb is good for Win7 playing a game, having itunes open, and a firefox with a few tabs?

should be more than fine, Windows 7 isn't as memory intensive as Vista was.

If you're willing to pay a lot for 8 GB, i don't see why you wouldn't pay a little more for 6 GB to give yourself some breathing room for the future.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145236

$35 more, higher quality memory from Corsair, and 2 extra GB of memory, I don't count in the mail in rebate because you still have to pay cash up front, but if you pursue it, then the cost is only $25 more.

Personally I subscribe to a motto of "better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

your choice.

Considering price being equal, get the i7 920.

I am having it built by AVAdirect. The motherboard/ram/proc setups in the original post all come out to the same price give or take $15. The P55 i7 860 setupp will be $100 cheaper if I drop that to 4gb ram

troisanh, I see you have an XFX 5870 inside the LL A05NB case? Did it fit easily or do you have to remove the hard drive cage?

well you do know you can install RAM yourself, right? lol

it's as simple as inserting it in the RAM slots and locking it in place

Originally Posted by wheelsx45

So 4gb is good for Win7 playing a game, having itunes open, and a firefox with a few tabs?

I was doing it with 1GB haha

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2654/86672278.jpg

Originally Posted by troisanh

Considering price being equal, get the i7 920.

But it isn't. The cheapest 920 system I could build was $100 more expensive and most of the good mobos were over $200 all the way up to $300+.

yeah,
you can get the 920 chip cheaper (if you have a microcenter nearby) then the 860, but the X58 mobo would eat that difference up, and then some.

I'm in the same boat as you. Im thinking to go cheaper and get the 860/P55 setup with 4gb ram. I don't care about future proof, because by next year I will most likely upgrade again...