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Hardware Intel Core i7-920 versus i7-930

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Lizard, 19 May 2010.

  1. JustLeigh

    JustLeigh What's a Dremel?

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    I love my 920. I can't get stable past 3.8 Ghz though. Like Omnituens, I wish I'd gone Asus. My Gigabyte EX48 DS4 just can't cut it.
     
  2. somewhereoveryonda

    somewhereoveryonda You'll never know when to buy!

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    I saw a 920 on the cheap the other day but failed to see the 'logic' in buying something out of date! My set up has to last 4 years.. And paying however much for either is still a fortune! You might as well fork out the cash in the long run in my case for the extra performance.

    I don't see how people manage to get more from their 920 than 930 considering the multiplier is higher with the same stock QPI... Please explain!
     
  3. Vigilante

    Vigilante What's a Dremel?

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    It's very simple - The chips are effectively the same. Some can simply handle higher QPI speeds, and the difference between a base clock of 20 and 21 is not as significant as many seem to think; often, the limit will come from the chip being unable to go any higher due to pure clock speed ceilings, or be limited by their motherboard/ram, all of which would mean a good 920 could outperform a 930 in overclocking. Only if a chip/motherboard is reaching a QPI ceiling will it make any difference, and those situations seem to be rare.
     
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  4. Zurechial

    Zurechial Elitist

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    Is it safe to assume that all 930s are made with D0 stepping?
    If so, that's another detail in favour of the 930, since it's still pot luck with some retailers as to which stepping of 920 you get and the differences between C0 and D0 are like night and day when it comes to overclocking capability.
     
  5. Vigilante

    Vigilante What's a Dremel?

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    Yes, all 930's are D0 stepping. Some retailers sell 920's specifically with the D0 stepping (Dabs, Aria, and ebuyer do this, to name a few). Intel no longer makes C0 stepping i7's, meaning as long as you buy a new retail processor it *should* be D0, but any retailers selling quite old (or preowned) stock may still have a few.
     
  6. Bayaz

    Bayaz What's a Dremel?

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    If you're a gamer it won't make any difference as the main bottleneck is the GPU. So I'd go for the 920
     
  7. leexgx

    leexgx CPC hang out zone (i Fix pcs i do )

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    i can get all of my i7 cpus stable at 3.8 very easy to do (20x191, vcore around 1.3-1.4v, PPL 1.89v, ram 1.64v if its 1600 ram but TBO running it at 1150 ddr3 speeds made no difference in SMP folding, and 3 other options i cant remember )

    like to know what i need to change to make it stable at 4ghz i do not believe its the CPU thats not stable seems more likely its the motherboard as if i go above 191 system starts to be unstable so i guess i need ot mess with northbridge voltages
     
  8. Farfalho

    Farfalho Minimodder

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    Good article

    +1
     
  9. mac007

    mac007 What's a Dremel?

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    Check out the reviews in Custom PC - clearly 930 is the one to go for - know overclocking is far better and it is new tech after all.
     
  10. enciem

    enciem Minimodder

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    I got a 930 @4.2, took a bit of voltage to get there though. Like with every chip, depends on the batch. If you can find a good batch number 920 it'll out do a middle of the road 930, just depends if your willing to shop around a high street instead of buying online. I know I can't be bothered
     
  11. LightningPete

    LightningPete Diagnosis: ARMAII-Holic

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    920, id go for, simply because the price versus performance gain even when overclocked is not justified in my opinion. The CustomPC tests did not show a significant gain, and thats obvious... and for over £50 more, no thank-you!

    920's buy em out, get em cheap and start fragging at will!
     
  12. Arj12

    Arj12 What's a Dremel?

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    I thought the main bottleneck was always the cpu? Or is that always on low-mid range pcs?
     
  13. bobwya

    bobwya Custom PC Migrant

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    Thanks for the heads-up on! Bought myself a Core i7 920 last week. Really appreciate the heads-up on the cheap 920's - I would have missed this completely otherwise (was planning to buy a 930)!!
     
  14. crazy8s846

    crazy8s846 What's a Dremel?

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    Right now i can get i7 930 for 199.00 us:jawdrop:
     
  15. pbrain69

    pbrain69 What's a Dremel?

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    i've got a very early 920 (could be C0 or even earlier) running constantly at 4Ghz, heavy duty gaming for hours (Quad SLI GTX295's which doesn't work!...get the same results running a single GTX295). The D0's should all reach this without much effort. it's been so long since i set it up, i'm sure it's running at 1.45v with a siberian tiger II
     
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