Quote Originally Posted by EQAddict View Post
How about Core i7 860 ? Is this good enough? I just play games really. Never encode or do 3D.

Despite the smaller numbering of the i7 860, its clock speed is actually higher than the i7 920 (2.8hz vs 2.66ghz). I think the i7 860 has lesser hyperthreading pipelines.

Still, checking around.... the i7 860 seems to be as quick or quicker than the i7 920 in many non-gaming tasks. Needless to say, it destroys all current AMD cpu's. Average margin vs my Phenom II X3 720 is 20-30%.

On most current games, the margin is lesser say, 10-15% average which indicates the video card matters more.

Pricewise, the i7 860 is $1 more than the i7 920 and $171 more than my Phenom II X3 720. I also intended this pc mostly for gaming.

I'm at least a couple of years behind on my gaming. So actually, most games I'll be buying will be one to two-year old games except for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and either ArmA 2 or Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

I game online mainly with relatives in a private server. We're all moving up from Battlefield 2 to Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The only other online gaming I do is with FSX. No one in my group has plans to upgrade beyond FSX.

The good part is many of the older games like Mass Effect and Red Alert 3 are down to $20 plus games such as Fallout 3 will soon be heavily discounted.