intel i5 750 vs i7 860 best value at da moment?

[LaxBlade]

Hi folks,

Im new here, so I thought I'd have an intro with my 1st THREAD....

RE: Core i5 750 vs i7 860 - Best value for money including Overclocking too.!

I have both the Core i5 750 2.66Hz o/c'd to 4.2Ghz and i7 860 2.8Ghz o/c'd to 3.8Ghz both on (ARCTIC Freezer Pro 7 Rev.2) and both MSi P55 GD65 Motherboards...

The only difference is £60 in extra for the i7 860, however, for most people they are still stuck away back in the "Core 2" days... I was there too, but in Nov 2009 I changed and by Xmas, I had both 2 new rigs.

Im not a gamer, just desk top publishing, Photoshop and video editing.... etc.

Back to my thread, what do you think what P55 setup is best, and why? you can include all the new i5's and i7's..... H55 & H57 if you like also... as they can hold all.!

Thanks for all your contributions....

[Terbinator]

Well both builds are really fast at stock and so IMO there's no need to overclock for 24/7 usage. I've felt for a while like I shot myself in the foot buying the i7 860, benchmarks tend to show that the i5 750 is equal on the majority of stuff. However, I was converting some videos the other day using Sony Vegas - and thats when the i7 began to shine for me personally. The extra 4 threads did make a huge difference in rendering and I'm know glad I spent the extra £50 in plucking for the 860. The extra multiplier is also useful for OC as you can see in my sig.

[nibbler]

OTOH my i5 740 at 4ghz ain't too bad so it really depends on what you want. Strangely, the i5 750 seems to be the fastest gaming quadie out, as it beat i7's by 1-2 fps in some benchmarks.

[Teamsreth]

I did have my 750 at 4ghz, but decided that for my current usage, that was pointless.

For the random surfing and the older games, a 750 at stock is more than enough

[nibbler]

By the way what settings are you using to get 4.2 ghz out of your 750? I hit a wall at 4 ghz and that was with better cooling, memory and 1.46 vcore!

[pp05]

i5 at this point.

[LaxBlade]

i5 750 temps and how I reached 4.2Ghz

I reached a stable O/C using a Corsair HX 850w PSU (for clean ripple free power)
With MSI P55-GD65 Mobo
Freezer pro 7 (rev.2)
Kingston DDR3 Ram @1333mhz
Vcore 1.43v
o/c DDR Ram 1.7v Never had it this high before so I don't know the long term implications, however its not running to warm inside HAF 922. (With all those fans)
Base Clock 209 20x multiplier

Used Everest tests to check Temps on all 4 cores including a 30min aggressive test where I maxed out the cache, ram and loaded the cores to number 10. then paased stress test with the following temps, minimum idle 34c Max Temp 64c

However at (stock), before O/C my temps were unbelievably low 16c idle and 34c normal to high load. (oh! I used MX-2 thermal paste)... "best in my humble opinion"....

Some, other folks say my temps seemed a bit on the low side, but when I 1st built the PC; burning in, I had temps of 12c idle with Arctic Freezer Pro 7. and 30c load. (unbelievable I know, but genuine)...

I understand, if I keep these spec's unchanged the life of my CPU will not last long, and I would appreciate any advice from folks who are experienced clockers, as Im not happy with my DDR Ram voltage running at 1.7v just to get 4.2Ghz. Its just an addiction like chocolate.

Like others have said, you do not need to really o/c the i5 750 as it runs well enough at Intels base specs, with auto turbo enabled at 3.2Ghz.

Thanks to everyone that contributes to this thread. cheers!
All genuine advice from P55 enthusiasts welcome...

[Terbinator]

1.7v for the RAM @ only 1333MHz ?

[LaxBlade]

@Terbinator

Yeh, I used the Normal Manual settings to OVERCLOCK the MSI-P55-GD65 MOBO...

HOWEVER, it would only let me use Auto mode, and the "CELL MENU" would NOT let me change the voltage back to (Stock) 1.5v - I have discussed this with others, and they said that I would be safer trying back my original 1.65v 1600mhz DDR3 RAM and wait and see... But that would change everything... "I'm amazed that the machine is going at all at 1.7v DDR RAM"

Have you come across this before, my RAM is not over heating which is why I let it persist at present. I agree that the (STOCK) original settings were ideal, however - the over-clock past the 4Ghz Barrier is impressive.

Any advice welcome....
Thanks!

[LaxBlade]

I have reversed the overclock back to stock, until I can get my RAM voltage sorted out:

Here is my new system specs:

[nibbler]

Those temps are never gneuine. Arctic freezer is no where near as good as that. Certainly not as good as my h50.

[jim]

Those temps are never gneuine. Arctic freezer is no where near as good as that. Certainly not as good as my h50.

I thought that could have been explained by his living in Scotland, but that one's out the window.

[scaryjim]

It does depend on ambient temperature, guys. When I finished the first build of Project I switched it on and it reported 2 degrees for the CPU! That said, the room I was building it in wasn't getting regular use, so hadn't had the heating on for months, and it was the middle of winter Now I'm actually using my computers occasionally that room gets heated, and I've not seen a temperature that low since

[nibbler]

But if i remember correctly that was an old amd? This is overclocked and overvolted i5 750

[sadbuttrue]

Temps reported by most programs for the i5 750 are not accurate below ~25c on the core. Having had the house extremely cold at many points this winter, I noted the following:

Ambient	Coretemp GB Easytune HWMonitor
10c	12c	 0c	     23c
13c 	20c 	 2c 	     26c
18c 	28c 	 18c 	     30c

As can be seen, only HWMonitor reports the temperature accurately. This is for an air-cooled i5 750 @ 3.8ghz with 7v fans.

[scaryjim]

But if i remember correctly that was an old amd? This is overclocked and overvolted i5 750

Good memory sir! Yeah, my X2 3800+. But even so... 2 degrees dude!

Sounds to me like sadbuttrue is onto something...