Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have decided to replace my aging Athlon 64 computer and i decided to go for a i7 860 CPU. The choices for motherboards and RAM are really confusing. I'm not planning to overclock and i would like to spend as little money as possible on those components because i would rather put it on a video card.

What would you recommend?

To be honest, if you're aiming at the Core i5 860, I'd think about pointing you in the direction of a Core i7 920 based system. They'd work about about the same price for the platform. While I respect your choice not to overclock, a modern Intel system really shines with it.

If you're dead set on Core i5, a 750 is a lot cheaper, but doesn't have hyperthreading (no great loss, to be honest...)

Another option would be a Phenom II based setup... :)

don't get unnamed RAM or obscure RAM brands (the chips on them can be samsung sometimes but that doesn't make them samsung RAM ...)
generally avoid RAM packaged as OEM (plastic bag)
my preferential brands are : Corsair, G.Skill... and other brands with lifetime warranties.
On the performance side, almost anything will do so don't spend too much on high clocks or low CAS, it'll make less than 1% difference in performance in the end.
Depending on what you use your computer for I would go for something between 3 GB & 6GB of RAM
3GB is enough for most uses, if you like to multitask a lot and think of a 64bit OS you might choose 4 or 6GB ...
You might want to get 3 sticks to make use of the three channels however the difference between dual & triple channel on the performance side is pretty small...

Motherboard it's a bit more difficult, there's a lot of choices out there
main point : you need to know what features you want :
-USB ? how much ?
-firewire ?
-LAN ? 0 or 1 or 2 ?
-Wifi ?
-regular PATA connectors ?
-SATA connectors how much you intend to use them ?
-want the limited RAID possibilities of motherboards ?
-need PCI ?
-want to use multiGFX card possibilities ? CF or SLI ? then check out the PCI-E ports.......

all these sort of things you need to know as that will allow you to refine & sort ...

To be honest, if you're aiming at the Core i5 860, I'd think about pointing you in the direction of a Core i7 920 based system. They'd work about about the same price for the platform. While I respect your choice not to overclock, a modern Intel system really shines with it.

If you're dead set on Core i5, a 750 is a lot cheaper, but doesn't have hyperthreading (no great loss, to be honest...)

Another option would be a Phenom II based setup... :)

The 860 is a Core i7 but with a 1156 socket. In all the reviews, it outperformed the i7 920 in gaming tests thanks to its 2.8 GHz speed. The 95W TDP is another argument in its favor. The price of the X58 motherboards and the use of triple channel DDR3 makes the i7 920 more expensive than the i7 860 that uses dual channel DDR3 and cheaper P55 motherboards.

In the past, i have always bought ASUS motherboards. They're a safe bet but they also carry a price premium.

Seriously consider first how extensive a feature set you want on the MB, whether you're fine limiting the system to dual vs tri SLI, and that the X58/1366 platform is more future ready in fitting the upcoming i9 Hex Core.

You can get excellent X58/1366 dual SLI MBs from top brands like Gigabyte for under $200. The i7 920 is also priced at $200 at Microcenter right now and word is Fry's will match it. By comparison there are many tradeoffs with a 1156 platform setup, esp if you go cheap with an i5.

The fact is, a dual SLI setup with two top shelf single GPU video cards is all you really need and avoids a lot of the complications and problems tri or quad SLI/Crossfire present. No need to go overkill.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128375

If you want to run two dual slot single GPU video cards and a PCI vs Pci-Ex sound card, for a little more this would be the way to go:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

Add some decent DDR3 RAM at tight timings which can be had pretty reasonably now and you have the beginnings of a top notch gaming rig at a great price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231272

On choosing not to OC at the very least the CPU though, you are seriously missing out on a balanced system at a great price. It becomes all the more necessary if you use more than one GPU. The Intel CPUs are fast, but stock they are not clocked very high.

True, the new i7s do have a more robust Turbo Mode, the 860 maxing at 3.46GHz automatically, but a 920 will easily OC to more than that and you can leave it set that way vs the CPU constantly throttling up and down. I question as well whether some games would have issues with the new i7s ability to adapt in speed quickly enough when Turbo Mode kicks in.

The 860 is a Core i7 but with a 1156 socket. In all the reviews, it outperformed the i7 920 in gaming tests thanks to its 2.8 GHz speed. The 95W TDP is another argument in its favor. The price of the X58 motherboards and the use of triple channel DDR3 makes the i7 920 more expensive than the i7 860 that uses dual channel DDR3 and cheaper P55 motherboards.

In the past, i have always bought ASUS motherboards. They're a safe bet but they also carry a price premium.

in this case you might want to consider Asrock which are supposed to be the cheap Asus Boards and are quite reliable

The 860 is a Core i7 but with a 1156 socket. In all the reviews, it outperformed the i7 920 in gaming tests thanks to its 2.8 GHz speed.

But you see, no one in their right mind reviews a 920, esp a D0 stepped one, at only stock speed. It's ludicrous really, they're capable of so much more. It's also not only because of a mere 140MHz difference in clock speed, it's that they put a higher TurboBoost Mode on the 860 because it's targeted for people that are afraid of learning how to OC, which isn't that hard really.

Supposedly when TB kicks in, the 860 reaches 2.93GHz on all cores (vs 2.8GHz on the 920), 3.33Ghz on 2 cores, and 3.46GHz on 1 core (vs a mere 2.93GHz on 920). What I don't like about the idea of trusting Turbo Boost for your speed needs is it doesn't increase much on all 4 cores.

Tests have shown the i5 and i7 870 outdoing a stock 965 while OCed to their thermal limit (supposedly 3.85GHz according to the reviewer), but a 920 can easily do that at a much lower OC without breaking a sweat.

Granted the 860 does have noticeably more stock speed on TB mode in dual threaded apps/games for those not wanting to OC, but the question is, how long will it be before that is just as insignificant as single threaded performance?

Intel i5/800 series TurboBoost specs chart: