i7 950 or i7 870?

[Ragamuffin86]

I'm currently looking at new systems with a budget of about £2000. I'm not into overclocking and I'm not a big PC gamer, mainly I just play WoW a lot and some RTS games (C&C3 and BFME2), plus I'm looking to play Dragon Age: Origins and The Old Republic when they're out, just to give an idea of what the setup I get needs to be capable of.

So anyway, the main choice now comes down to which CPU I go for, as that'll affect the other hardware choices too, it's either going to be the i7 950 or the i7 870. If I go for the i7 950 that'll leave enough in the budget for a 1GB XFX HD 5850 graphics card, 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 and a choice between the Asus P6TD Deluxe and EVGA X58 SLI LE motherboards I'm not sure which though (or maybe the Asus Rampage II Extreme, but that would be pushing it). If I go for the i7 870 there'll be enough for a 1GB XFX HD5870 graphics card, 8GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 and a MSI P55-GD65 motherboard.

To put it bluntly, which is the better CPU without any overclocking, the i7 950 or the i7 870? And then which is the better setup with no overclocking, the i7 950 with the HD 5850, 6GB RAM and which motherboard, or the i7 850 with the HD 5870, 8GB RAM and the MSI P55-GD65 motherboard?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[nibbler]

Get a 920 and get a 5870 instead. Waste of £200 on the 950 IMO.
Plus, 1366 (bloomfield) has a future in the form of gulftown. Lynnfield is not going to be expanded in terms of high end chips. Plus, if overclocking, the 920 goes much further.

[kalniel]

To put it bluntly, which is the better CPU without any overclocking, the i7 950 or the i7 870?

If you won't upgrade for a while, then the i7 870.

And then which is the better setup with no overclocking, the i7 950 with the HD 5850, 6GB RAM and which motherboard, or the i7 850 with the HD 5870, 8GB RAM and the MSI P55-GD65 motherboard?

For your usage, the latter.

You could also cut the budget significantly and still get a rig that performed the same as far as you could notice.

[Vimeous]

I don't like 1156 i7's, I think they're over-priced when compared to 1366 because I perceive the socket's lifespan as being shorter.

However

If you're never going to manually over clock an i7 850 running in Turbo mode would be the best value of the i7 series. I still think it's too pricey but that's just the way it is.

nibbler is right however - if you ever want to tinker with manual overclocking the i7 920 is the best of the bunch from the results I've seen.

[Ragamuffin86]

You could also cut the budget significantly and still get a rig that performed the same as far as you could notice.

Well I'm open to any suggestions, although with the ones I'm looking at now, they're all Scan 3XS systems.

I was told that these were a bit "overkill" for my needs, and suggested looking at an i7 860 OC'd to 3.8Ghz with 4GB RAM and the HD 5850 which cut it down to about £1500.

[kalniel]

Well I wouldn't worry about overclocking - even a stock i7 860 is more than fast enough for the usage. If something comes out in the future that needs it then overclock then, but no point paying extra for it or worrying about it when you don't need it.

4GB RAM is also more than enough for the moment - if you need 8GB in the future then the price will be much cheaper then as well.

But I would put the money towards the best graphics card you can afford - that is the only component that will actually make any difference. Granted, the difference between the 5850 and the 5870 is not reflected in the price (you're paying a lot more for a relatively small increase in performance), but the increase in performance is there. A more cost effective strategy would be again to buy the slightly cheaper 5850 now, and then upgrade the graphics card later when new generations come out.

[Terbinator]

i7 860/920 - the turbo modes on the Lynnefield is a good ace up the sleeve, 3.46Ghz when running 2 cores (4 threads ?), yes please