i7 Processor 920 Available NOW!!

[Detale]

I thought they were due out in Jan WTF.
i7 Processor 920
http://www.microcenter.com/image.phtml?id=0300438&sku=875617
$299.99

i7 Extreme Edition Processor 965
"The Fastest Desktop Processor on the Planet"
http://www.microcenter.com/image.phtml?id=0300440&sku=875641
$999.99 :O


More at MicroCenter (http://www.microcenter.com/storefronts/intel/nov_promo.html?BrCs=498&BrCg=16182946&BrRc=1100244968)

Looks like I'm saving up prob after the holidays though. Damn kids and their Xmas stuff!!!

Looks like Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343+1050744915&Configurator=&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=) has them too, but at a much higher price

[clocker]

I thought this (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/11/intel-core-i7-cpu-value/1) was an interesting way to look at those.

[Detale]

WOW Im stunned, Thanks so much man. Here is the long and short of it. "Bang for your buck" in a nutshell
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4467/1116200843016pmxd3.png (http://imageshack.us/)

Who Knew :idunno:

[clocker]

Yup.
It's that perspective that let's me still recommend the e8400, even this deep into it's life cycle.
The q6600 is the surprise winner but I don't like it's increased heat output (thus, the need for aftermarket cooling) and the fact that most software is still multicore oblivious.

[Detale]

I agree man, Why arent more software companies jumping on the, what is now standard, multi core CPU's I'll never know

[clocker]

They don't because they're lazy...look how many didn't even prepare for Vista and they had a long leadtime to work with.
Besides, judging from what I see at the recycling center, even dual-cores are still rare as hen's teeth in the "real world".

[Detale]

I'v been thinking of that lately about the release of Windows 7 I wonder because its so much like Vista will the drivers be the same or will we have another Vista Driver issue? I know exactly what you mean about C2D rarity. When I do builds for people in the $300-$500 range they are always surprised they get a Core 2 Duo inside.

[Sanka113]

Kinda sucks they changed the type of motherboard you can use, but I can't wait till become cheaper.

[Detale]

Yeah and I'm pretty sure you have to use DDR 3 Ram also :(

[clocker]

Yes, you will and don't count on it ever being as cheap as DDR2 is now.

The current bargain basement price of DDR2 is the result of a perfect storm of events- good for us, terrible for manufacturers, and not likely to be repeated anytime soon.

The disconnect between the computing power available with new platforms and the use to which it is put grows ever greater.
Two separate incidents this weekend brought this to mind-

-An elderly neighbor (all my neighbors are old, come to think of it) was visited by her kids ("kids"=40 years old+, in this case) and they were appalled by her 17" CRT monitor.
A quick trip to Costco brought her a 22" widescreen LCD which the son hooked up ("See how much nicer this is? Merry Christmas, Mom!") and as they left he even carted away her old, obsolete monitor.
Such nice children.
Later that evening I get a call.
She can't read any of the text, even the icons are too small for her to recognize.
Upping the font dpi does no good, so slowly but surely the resolution gets downgraded.
I forget what absurd setting we ended up with but each pixel is the size of a Lego and the screen looks like something from the fifties.
Thanks, kids.

-The second incident involved the new secretary of my home owners association.
She was given CDs containing the minutes from meetings (until last year these were kept on floppies, fer crissake!) and her Office program wouldn't recognize them.
Because she was using Office 95 (no doubt pirated from her last job before retiring- in fact, that may be where her whole computer came from..."No gold watch for you, here, have an obsolete PC instead!") and the last secretary had a later version.
I don't use Office (and never have actually) so I left her to her own devices.

Yeah, both these users are going to benefit greatly from the new i7 platform...

[Detale]

LOL well put man. Why not cosy up to the old lady and see if she'll leave the monitor to you in her will? Dude c'mon now get the poor secretary a new copy of Office already. They have the "blue" edition that needs no activation or anything out bro. Works like a charm.

[clocker]

22" ain't nothing to get excited about.
If it was a 28" (or larger) she might have an "accident".

My thinking is that the homeowners association should get their shit together, standardize the software and get it legally. Maybe buy a laptop and pass it from secretary to secretary or something. It's ridiculous to run an organization like this on a shoestring.
Besides, the second I help out I'm going to be the "go-to guy" and will be expected to figure out all their problems.
For free.

[Detale]

Ahhh you're right I didn't think about it like that. You'll get a hundred "why is my computer running so slow" and "I don't know how that porn got on my desktop, I SWEAR" calls a day.

[clocker]

I get that already.

I am "technical support" for half the neighborhood right now...the half that pays- or at least, offers to pay.
The other half gets ignored.

[mbucari1]

Check out what it can do if you OC it.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/1

[clocker]

You know, I'm really beginning to wonder about the value of overclocking these days.

Used to be that the whole point was to buy a cheap platform and trick it into performing like high end parts.
Nowadays however, there really isn't a cheap buy in to the new platforms.
In fact, the processor is almost the least expensive component...motherboards and RAM have skyrocketed in price and can hardly be considered "disposable" anymore.

Furthermore, the expansion of the BIOS has gotten so confusing that you really have to be dedicated to become even reasonably adept.
The adage "Be careful what you wish for" has never been so applicable- look through the manual for a new motherboard and the BIOS options are overwhelming (not to mention, poorly explained).

Even assuming you somehow come to grips with the plethora of settings- or more likely, stumble upon a website where someone with similar hardware has figured it out for you- what do you gain?
Better benchmarks sure, but can you really tell the difference?

Our hardware has so far outpaced the software it runs (with the exception of video games and then all bets are off) that a 10-20% increase in performance is irrelevant...running stock, the hardware is better than the apps it's using.
How much software is 64-bit, multicore aware?

I dunno, maybe I'm just advancing into fuddydom and getting old but the bloom is off the rose and I'm having a hard time getting excited about this round of new stuff.
Or maybe I just need better drugs.

[mbucari1]

Well, among other things, I use my PC for encoding movies. A 30% increase in speed is HUGE for me. It means the difference between an entire day of encoding vs. 17 hours.

[clocker]

What exactly is "encoding movies"?

[mbucari1]

Taking a full DVD and encoding it in AVC.

[clocker]

Why do you do this?

[mbucari1]

Cuz I like playing with the settings and getting the best looking picture with the smallest file size.

[delimare]

Why do you do this?

Clocker, I love you. I’m not gay but I love you. You’re cultured in the ways of hardware and you humor me to no end!

I appreciate the link to bit-tech.net. It is a welcomed breath of fresh air from my dealings with Tomshardware. I will certainly be using the graph they so graciously provided to build my next gaming machine.

Clocker, to sum this all up, you are an invaluable piece to this site. Thank you.

[clocker]

Cuz I like playing with the settings and getting the best looking picture with the smallest file size.
OK, but maybe step back and look at the bigger picture.
You're willing to spend umpteen hours rendering a movie file to decrease it's size ( this has to be the main reason since you can't make the quality any better than the original)- and this probably made sense when hard drives were small and expensive.
But they aren't anymore.

Why spend hundreds of dollars on a platform and then risk it by overclocking, rather than much less on a big harddrive?
BTW, don't forget to add in the cost of electricity while you spend "all day" converting these files...over the span of a year, that will add up too.

Seems to me that you're solving a problem in a rather backhanded way.

[kooftspc11]

a tiny tiny bit off topic but homeowners assocations are the most archaic and non-flexible bunch of people ever to exist.

needless to say im not happy with mine :/

[clocker]

a tiny tiny bit off topic but homeowners assocations are the most archaic and non-flexible bunch of people ever to exist.

needless to say im not happy with mine :/
Apparently not.

I am past President of mine and for the most part, thought it worked pretty well. The biggest problem I faced- and I assume the current board still faces- is that the homeowners haven't read/become familiar with the codicils.

I don't think we'd be considered overly restrictive or picky though.
I've heard some real horror stories...

[Detale]

You know, I'm really beginning to wonder about the value of overclocking these days.

Used to be that the whole point was to buy a cheap platform and trick it into performing like high end parts.
Nowadays however, there really isn't a cheap buy in to the new platforms.
In fact, the processor is almost the least expensive component...motherboards and RAM have skyrocketed in price and can hardly be considered "disposable" anymore.

Furthermore, the expansion of the BIOS has gotten so confusing that you really have to be dedicated to become even reasonably adept.
The adage "Be careful what you wish for" has never been so applicable- look through the manual for a new motherboard and the BIOS options are overwhelming (not to mention, poorly explained).

Even assuming you somehow come to grips with the plethora of settings- or more likely, stumble upon a website where someone with similar hardware has figured it out for you- what do you gain?
Better benchmarks sure, but can you really tell the difference?

Our hardware has so far outpaced the software it runs (with the exception of video games and then all bets are off) that a 10-20% increase in performance is irrelevant...running stock, the hardware is better than the apps it's using.
How much software is 64-bit, multicore aware?

I dunno, maybe I'm just advancing into fuddydom and getting old but the bloom is off the rose and I'm having a hard time getting excited about this round of new stuff.
Or maybe I just need better drugs.

You know I was thinking along very similar lines recently. Even with the WC rig. I spend an undisclosed amount of money to gain not that much in performance or even cooling compared to the Enzotech. Especially since I had the leak and I have to wait for the RMA on the vid card, and yes I remember you said I would realize the inaccessibility a WC setup creates (yet another Clocker "I told you so") Do you ever tire of being right :P

With my HTPC rig I installed 64 bit Vista for the WMC and all I have is Video driver problems and constant reboots, I can't seem to get the right one :( .

Apart from my bitching my point was that I feel the effort and money I have been putting in to the rigs to get what is a minimal amount of noticable gain is unbalanced at best. In fact its crazy

I did a budget build for a friend yesterday, $300 including a case!, and I got a E7200 for it and this board Foxconn M7PMX-S (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186140) ($50) It had onboard Nvidia 7100 and built in HDMI. The thing was such a great little board for $50 i was shocked. I played with it a bit hooking it up to my 42" LCD HDTV and played a few 1080p HD movies just to see the difference from my Asus 3850 video card and let me tell you as far as an HTPC goes the on board was the same if not better than my current setup. I would even say better because it was plug and play as opposed to setting up my rig to work out just right. Even the into of Spiderman 3 would skip with my card but not with the onboard. This made me realize that I think I may need to simplify things a bit. Take a step back and go back to the roots of building a PC which is to save some money. I might even go back to Air cooling for a while :O .

In short as you said Benchmarks? Sure a few points here a few degrees there but honestly I can't tell the difference. The only thing I see any kind of difference in is Encoding movies as Mbucari1 said except I am encoding from Xvid to DVD for friends and family but even that can be boosted by a simple 25% OC.

Clocker I would say you know my Hareware habbits better than anyone since I have nagged and annoyed you for some time now with all my hardware obssesions, a debt I can never repay, so you know I was getting all gung ho about the new toys thinking and figuring on how and when I would have the money for it, but then after this cheapo build being so easy and working so well for the little money spent on it, I think I may be becoming a HW addict, no seriously I think I have a problem and I am going to stop before I get too crazy. I already own 2 very decent intel chips (q6600/E8400 bought when they were new at top dollar) and I can base pretty much any rig on either of those without looking back, but here I was getting sold on something I don't need because it's the next big thing. Well I'm glad I caught myself before it was too late.

Is it getting older and wanting to simplify everything or is it a step in the evolutionary process of building PC's? I don't know but I feel they have a hell of a marketing team for sure. I am going to order that same board for my HTPC after Xmas. Hell it's prob be cheaper than $50 which is insane for the quality of it.

[clocker]

No, I never get tired of being right.

Everything else wears me fucking out though.

[mbucari1]

Cuz I like playing with the settings and getting the best looking picture with the smallest file size.
OK, but maybe step back and look at the bigger picture.
You're willing to spend umpteen hours rendering a movie file to decrease it's size ( this has to be the main reason since you can't make the quality any better than the original)- and this probably made sense when hard drives were small and expensive.
But they aren't anymore.

Why spend hundreds of dollars on a platform and then risk it by overclocking, rather than much less on a big harddrive?
BTW, don't forget to add in the cost of electricity while you spend "all day" converting these files...over the span of a year, that will add up too.

Seems to me that you're solving a problem in a rather backhanded way.I don't do it to conserve storage space, I do it because it's a hobby. And if I have the money (which I do) and chose to spend it on an upgrade then that is my choice. You may wish to spend your disposable funds on other "toys", but this is the toy that I want.

[Detale]

An amendment to my previous post:

Even my case that looks nice and is the TJ07 of HTPC cases. I mainly got it for the touch screen and I haven't touched that damn screen in months!!! my 2 year old touches though and dirties it up well


MBucari I have to agree with Clocker. Maybe we are both wrong here but do you think you will get a better picture than an original? The machines they use are way better than all of our PC's put together you know. Editing bays go for around $1,000,000 man. For your hobby man sure knock yourself out enjoy what you wish and have fun doing it :)

[clocker]

I do it because it's a hobby.
I approve of hobbies.
Keeps one off the street.

[Detale]

Well I used to drug deal as a hobby so there goes that ;)

[clocker]

... my point was that I feel the effort and money I have been putting in to the rigs to get what is a minimal amount of noticable gain is unbalanced at best. In fact its crazy...
I have always been cognizant of the disconnect between "money spent" and "value received" but justified it by factoring in the intangibles...I enjoy the process and the eventual pride of ownership.
The fact that my purchases can't be said to reflect my needs is irrelevant...much like mbucari1, I just like to do it.

D., it would be a shame to give up on the watercooling so quickly.
If only to say that you climbed the learning curve, you should bring it to completion and run her for a while, then decide.

[Detale]

Yeah I will man. I just get so frustrated that I have to drain it and the re route the hoses. I know, I know if you fall off a horse right? I just had a bad week, but I'll get her up and running soon.

[colombianino]

the prices are not as bad as for the current ones, but as always you do need a new mboo and DDR3 which costs more than the mobo :O. the cheapest thing if you build is the speakers which for $30 bucks, a frekn good keyboard now days comes with the mouse for 35$...

now i remember a teacher told me once that they (intel/amd/etc) were trying to make new processors with 8 cores that would each work seperately, i think he said that atm they could only make it work like 2 quad cores i think.

[jaszypoo]

Expensive as hell. Just wait a month or two.

[clocker]

Why, what will happen then?

[DeWe]

Well, i don't think they'll give satisfying performance for their prices. My E8400 still going so strong :)

[Detale]

Not for the money HELL no, not until they come out with DDR5 ram or something to that effect

[mbucari1]

Well, I paid $330 for my e6600 in september of '06. $300 for 4GB of DDR2 800 and $160 for a GA-965P-DS3. Suddenly the price of a core i7 rig doesn't seem so exorbitant.

[Detale]

Yeah but DDRII ram is even cheaper that DDR is most of the time. As most of you know I spend a good deal of cash on my computers when I have it, so it's not even the money really, my thing is I think it need time to be proven for a while before I drop the cash. let some others test it out first IMO ;)