New Intel CPUs -- i5 and i7

[cmeche]

So, an i5 system would be about $200 cheaper. Throw that difference out the window, would you go with a 920 or a 750 for a new build to run 5 wows? The option to upgrade to a 6x core on a 1366 board is interesting. But, if the performance for multiboxing is similar between the two.....an extra $200 could go for a nice ssd in the future.

[rahven32]

That's my dilemma atm to. On one hand the x58 is future proof some what. However, the core 6 are going to run close to a grand I think. I don't see myself spending that cash in the near future. The actual I5 OC's pretty well from what I'm reading but no hyper thread =( I'm fairly certain a I5 will run alot better than the q6600 I'm using now. EVGA just announced their p55 boards today and they are pretty sweet. Waiting for people to run them threw their paces before I decide on a 920 or not. Really like the fact the intel board has bluetooth built in wish the other's would do the same. Not overly fond of intel boards.

If I don't go with the p55 im going to get the asrock x58 if I can ever catch it in stock. Very cheap x58 and from all the reviews a nice board. Not to mention it runs about the same price as some of the p55's.

[Freddie]

would you go with a 920 or a 750 for a new build to run 5 wows?

I didn't notice any benchmarks that are similar to running five WoWs, so I'd be afraid to guess.

There are benchmarks of applications that take advantage of multiple cores, but that type of application normally creates exactly one worker thread per logical core, and five WoWs don't match their threads to the processor in that way.

I wonder if the 750's lack of hyperthreading could be significant here.

Has anybody done a benchmark comparison of five WoWs on a 920 with/without hyperthreading?

[rahven32]

Yeah that was the other thing I was worried about. Multiboxing really could be hurt by not having hyperthreading. ATM with the Q6600 I'm using there isn't HT. It runs fairly well OC'd to 3000mhz. What I'm afraid of soon as I start to box one of the next generation mmo's it won't be possible without HT. WoW would run fine I'd think but you will be buying a sinking ship so to speak. But it's that way with any computer really. My goal when buying new computer stuff is to buy the one that will give me the most distance I can get and still be able to afford it. Or another way to look at it is don't buy a dummy tire when you know eventually your going to have to buy a real tire lol.

[Freddie]

There are a lot of things to speculate about here!

I agree that hyperthreading is a big question. Usually it helps, but sometimes it hurts and sometimes it hurts tremendously. Check out this benchmark. The stock 750 beats i7 -- even the i7 975! -- presumably due to its lack of hyperthreading.



(From http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/290...ng/index5.html.)

I suspect this result happened because all the code and data were cached. I suppose this is much less likely to happen with five WoWs but it would be helpful (like I said before) if somebody with an i7 920 would test the effect of hyperthreading with five WoWs.

Another question is upgradeability. If you're planning to buy a 6-core Gulftown then of course the 920 and LGA 1366 are the way to go. But Gulftown is supposed to cost $1000 or more and not many people will buy it.

If you're not planning to buy Gulftown, is 1366 really more upgradeable than 1156? A lot of people think so, but I really don't know why. Maybe you have good reasons for thinking so and you can tell me.