# Intel® Core I7 920 Vs Intel® Core 2 Quad Q9650 - I Need People Reasonable Opinions



## Tehtiger123 (Feb 19, 2009)

Hi, well i am considering to buy the new customised by me home pc... so i am not sure which pc should i pick here is the full pc's infos:
any explanations why to choose one or other are welcome.


1 - price £2,524.79

Customizations:
CPU: - Intel® Core i7 920
CPU Cooler: - Coolermaster V8 LGA1366
Motherboard: - Asus P6T Deluxe V2 (Intel X58 chipset, SLI/Crossfire)
Memory: - 12.0GB Corsair DDR3 1333mhz XMS3 CL9 (6x 2GB)
Hard Drives: - 1TB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s - QTY: 2
Optical Drive: - 20x DVD±RW DL S-ATA Lightscribe
Second optical drive: - 20x DVD±RW DL S-ATA Lightscribe
Graphics card: - 2 x ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB
Sound card: - Creative X-FI Xtreme 7.1 Audio
Operating System: - Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Software: - Nero, PowerDVD, Avast Antivirus
Internet: - Wireless 802.11G PCI card
Peripherals: - Wireless keyboard and mouse
Monitors: - Asus 22" VK222S Widescreen LCD
Accessories: - 30-in-1 USB Media Card Reader
Accessories: - Firewire Card
Accessories: - PCI Digital TV Tuner Card
PSU: - 1200W Thermaltake ToughPower Modular
Case: - Antec Nine Hundred
Warranty: - 3 Year Gold Warranty


2 - price £2,315.58

Customizations:
CPU: - Intel® Core 2 Quad Q9650
CPU Cooler: - Thermaltake Golden Orb II
Motherboard: - Asus Striker II Extreme (nForce 790i Ultra chipset, 3-way SLI, DDR3)
Memory: - 8.0GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz DHX CL9 (4x 2GB)
Hard Drives: - 1TB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Hard Drives: - 1.5TB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: - 20x DVD±RW DL S-ATA Lightscribe
Second optical drive: - 20x DVD±RW DL
Graphics card: - ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB
Sound card: - Creative X-FI Xtreme 7.1 Audio
Operating System: - Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Internet: - Wireless 802.11G PCI card
Peripherals: - Wireless keyboard and mouse
Monitors: - 22'' Widescreen LCD
Accessories: - Firewire Card
Accessories: - PCI Digital TV Tuner Card
PSU: - 1200W Thermaltake ToughPower Modular
Case: - Antec Twelve Hundred
Gaming extras: - Killer K1 Gaming Network Card
Warranty: - 3 Year Gold Warranty

also if u know the place where i could find similar spec pcs cheaper pass the link for me. i appreciate it


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## dug987654 (Feb 19, 2009)

12Gb RAM...? 2TB HDD...? What are you planning on doing with this computer?

Where are you buying it from? Link to the page? Doug.


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## Tehtiger123 (Feb 19, 2009)

dug987654 said:


> 12Gb RAM...? 2TB HDD...? What are you planning on doing with this computer?
> 
> Where are you buying it from? Link to the page? Doug.



well , i just want the pc last for a long at least for 3 years so i could do anything i want to with best graphics without lags for instance gaming. 

i am not buying it yet, just checking the prices more less ~ i've been away from the pc world for a long so i am kinda clueless about the all prices.  thats why i am asking people opinions and suggestions about. 

the website i found the cheapest pcs being able to "customise" so far is http://www.dinopc.com/


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## bullzi (Feb 19, 2009)

I could probably build that cheaper, but I'm in the states... 

I'd go with the i7, no doubt.


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## daisymtc (Feb 19, 2009)

I really doubt if you need that much of HDD. Also, I don't think it is worth to have crossfire on 4870 x 2.

If you want a future proof PC, intel i7 is the way to go. However, I think it would be more economical to get mid-range PC now and upgrade it every 2-3 year.


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## bebopin64 (Feb 19, 2009)

for ~$5000 US im sure you could do better than that if you built it.  on newegg i put together a tri sli gtx 285.  i7 extreme.  SSDs 12gb 1600 ram.  asus p6t mobo.  and coolers, case and all the other stuff you need.  came out to 4400 US.  im sure you can do something close to that in the uk.


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## lovely? (Feb 19, 2009)

The euro to Dollar ratio isnt 1:2, his build doesnt exactly equal $5000


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## bebopin64 (Feb 19, 2009)

those are british pounds


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## just a noob (Feb 19, 2009)

one word of advice, build your own, its very easy, and you could probably save 500 pounds in total


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## Tehtiger123 (Feb 19, 2009)

first of all, its cool that my thread got attention and thank you for some tips. 
i had a talk with my friends and they told me if i go for 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB is way better than going for radeon ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB. is that correct? 

also i dicided to drop the rams to 6 gb instead of 12. it should be enough tho, i also heard that rams dont make much of the difference. 

what is still buging me tho, is there a big difference between Intel® Core i7 920 and Intel® Core i7 Extreme 965 ? i can tell the price difference of these cpu is crazy 


infos:

Intel® Core i7 920 
Interface Socket 1366 
Bus Speed 4.8GT/sec 
Core Frequency 4 x 2.66GHz 
Process Technology 45nm 
Cache 8MB 
Special Features On-processor memory controller
"Turbo Boost" technology 
Single-die layout
731M transistors
Hyper-Threading support on each core
Improved power efficiency
Support for triple-channel DDR3 RAM
QPI Bus 


Intel® Core i7 Extreme 965 
Interface Socket 1366 
Bus Speed 6.4GT/sec 
Core Frequency 4 x 3.20GHz 
Process Technology 45nm 
Cache 8MB 
Special Features On-processor memory controller
"Turbo Boost" technology 
Single-die layout
731M transistors
Hyper-Threading support on each core
Improved power efficiency
Support for triple-channel DDR3 RAM
QPI Bus


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## CdnAudiophile (Feb 20, 2009)

The 2 295's just barely edge out the 2 4870x2's. You should go instead with 3 285's. If you go tri sli tho you will need to get a different motherboard tho because the slot layout doesn't really allow 3 dual slot video cards to work. The best board for tri sli would have to be hands down the Evga Classified x58 board. You could even add a 9800gt for physx with it.

As for the difference between the i7 965, and the 920, the 965 has an unlocked multiplier and has been tested to be more stable at higher speeds. You can easily OC the 920 to 3.2ghz so unless you want to OC into the 4GHZ+ zone get the 920.  

If you plan to OC you will want DDR3 1600 ram instead of 1333. This will allow much more headroom for OCing.

Other than that it's a great build  As you can see from my signature you are basically buying the same computer I have. It's eats everything I throw at it and more. You will be able to game at 1920x 1080 with everything maxed with AA and all the other goodies on full.


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## maroon1 (Feb 20, 2009)

GTX 295 is sli is better


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## Tehtiger123 (Feb 20, 2009)

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> The 2 295's just barely edge out the 2 4870x2's. You should go instead with 3 285's. If you go tri sli tho you will need to get a different motherboard tho because the slot layout doesn't really allow 3 dual slot video cards to work. The best board for tri sli would have to be hands down the Evga Classified x58 board. You could even add a 9800gt for physx with it.
> 
> As for the difference between the i7 965, and the 920, the 965 has an unlocked multiplier and has been tested to be more stable at higher speeds. You can easily OC the 920 to 3.2ghz so unless you want to OC into the 4GHZ+ zone get the 920.
> 
> ...



how do u do the overclocking? once u do it, u lose the items varanty correct? also is it really dificult to do it, i have never built pc from the very scratch neither did the overclocking. tips apreciated


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## CdnAudiophile (Feb 20, 2009)

Tehtiger123 said:


> how do u do the overclocking? once u do it, u lose the items varanty correct? also is it really dificult to do it, i have never built pc from the very scratch neither did the overclocking. tips apreciated



It is not hard at all. The only thing you will have to watch is your temperatures. But because you are getting the Coolermaster V8 I don't think you will have any problems with that. Intel still warranties the CPU up to 1.55 volts, so as long as you keep it under that you have no worries. Also 1.55volts is too much to use as an everyday OC anyways. I run mine with 1.47volts.

Building your computer is easy as well. Most parts have only 1 place to go. You can take pride in saying that built your computer. It is good experience and will help you in the future if you have problems with other computers or would like to upgrade the components you have.

Once you have the computer, you can post any question you have here and we will try to answer them the best we can. Same thing with OC'ing. It is easy to explain it once you have the computer in front of you.


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