I know both the i7 860 and i7 930 are the same clock speeds. The 930 also is 1366 socket so it supports tri channel memory while the 860 is 1156. I also know the 930 overclocks better than the 860. And 860 runs cooler. What I want to know is: How much better would tri channel memory be than dual channel memory?(in percent if so and scores/numbers) Which one would be better at stock speed for testing just the cpu? Will it be the same? What about which would be better in stock overall performance with all pc components? (differences in percentage and the actual score/differences(numbers) I want to know.) What about the i7 920(I know it has a slower stock speed), would it be worse than the i7 860 or better or the same even though it has a slower speed? Is it always the same difference in score and percentage when they are the same clock speeds whether they are overclocked or not? (Lets say 1 cpu is 4% better at the same stock speeds, is it going to be 4% better at overclocked same clock speeds for both or is it going to be more or less than 4%?) For example: When they are both slightly overclocked maybe to like 3.4 or so, which would run better? And by how much would it beat the other?
The 930 doesn't really overclock any better than the 860, there's no real truth to that. You can't say definitively how much faster tri-channel memory is than dual-channel memory, it depends on the program. There's no such thing as a speed index for CPUs, it just isn't that simple. Some CPUs are faster than others in different programs.
So the main reason you recommended me the i7 860 is because it's cooler? I learned the 930 would run around 4% quicker with tri-channel, that slight different wouldn't bother me much.
No, I recommended it because it was cheaper. The CPU itself isn't much cheaper, but P55 boards and dual channel RAM certainly are.
I would agree with sammorris... it's really going to depend on the specific app and how it uses memory, as well as the specific memory you buy (e.g. latency). In general, the i7-860 beats the i7-920 in most benchmarks (these are general) but the i7-930 probably evens things up pretty well. I just evaluated all this earlier this year, selected a processor (i7-860) and matched components, built a non-extreme custom box that ranks in the top few percent of all desktop systems ($600 or $800), and blogged about it all: http://computingkeith.com/2010/02/10/choosing-a-new-cpu-intel-i7-920-vs-i7-860-2/ Hope this helps, Keith
