Final Words
Perhaps this is a bit anticlimactic, but the Core i7 860 performs exactly where you'd expect it to. It's faster than a Core i5 750, faster than a Core i7 920 and slower than a Core i7 870. As I noted in The Lynnfield Follow Up, overclocking is much easier on Bloomfield (LGA-1366) thanks to the absence of an on-die PCIe controller. It's not impossible on Lynnfield, it's just effortless on Bloomfield.
My recommendations from the initial Lynnfield review still stand, you'll want to opt for Bloomfield processor if you care about:
1) High-end multi-GPU performance (or other uses of high bandwidth PCIe)
2) Stock Voltage Overclocking
3) Future support for 6-core Gulftown CPUs
In terms of cost effectiveness however - the Core i7 860 is the way to go. With cheaper motherboards and higher operating frequencies than a Core i7 920, for the majority of users the 860 will be the better pick. Here's where the discussion gets interesting however.
A year ago, $284 for a Core i7 920 didn't seem like a lot for what you were getting. But with AMD shipping $99 quad core CPUs, and the Phenom II line being very competitive in the $130 - $200 space - is Lynnfield too expensive?
Our sources are telling us that Lynnfield isn't selling as well as expected, it's not a flop, but definitely selling under expectations. The reason? Price. Apparently the vendors (and their customers) were hoping for a sub-$200 Core i5 750. Remember that the majority of quad-core sales happen under the $200 mark. Fortunately for AMD, there aren't any cheaper quad-core Lynnfields on the roadmaps for Intel through Q3 of next year; the Core i5 750 will be the cheapest quad-core Nehalem for the foreseeable future.
Instead, Intel will compete with 32nm Clarkdale CPUs in the sub-$200 space. These are dual core parts with Hyper Threading; it remains to be seen how well they'll stack up to AMD's quad-core CPUs in that space, since it doesn't look like we'll see Lynnfield down there anytime soon.
Assuming that Clarkdale isn't overly competitive, Phenom II could dominate the ~$150 quad-core price point throughout much of 2010. The biggest threat to Phenom II appears to be the Core i5 650. We'll see how that plays out early next year.
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marsspirit123 - Monday, September 21, 2009 - link
"Microcenter, for in-store purchase. I purchased an i7 860 last week for $229. The i5 750 is cheaper, $159 seems right."Yeah with 8.5 % tax that price is $250 + how much for gas?
afkrotch - Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - link
For online purchases, you may still have to factor in sales tax and shipping. There's also the cost of having to wait.Between your current computer and the upgrade, what is the performance gap? For that gap, how much time could have been saved in your work? Because you saved time at work, how much $$ was saved?
Things can become complicated or we can just stick with the retail pricing at these stores and leave out the other factors.
marsspirit123 - Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - link
The I7 860 is $290 at newegg with free shiping and no fees of any kind.In microcenter you have $230 + $20 tax + gas .The point is the differance is less than $40 with microcenter .You should always compare final price for the purpose of being fair. How long have you been waiting for I7 860 cpu to come out ? How much have you lost for that time ?So if you have been waiting 8 months how is 3 days going to be bad?If that is so bad how come you din't get 920 before?BlueBlazer - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
I think he's referring to this?http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....">http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
Core i5 750 = $159.99
BlueBlazer - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
As well as this...http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....">http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
Core i7 860 = $229.99
My +/- 1 cents..
Ninevah - Monday, September 21, 2009 - link
Or this, for that matter:http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....">http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
Core i7 920 = $199.99
vol7ron - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
This doesn't even factor in the savings on Watts used.jordanclock - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
But how many LOCs per fortnight can they process? Could you please provide your metrics in more understandable formats. At the very least I would like to see how many TuxRacer compiles per hogshead of cider (the good stuff, not the end-of-season stuff) we can expect.BlueBlazer - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
Skewing the numbers? Try..Intel E5300
142 / 69.99 = 2.02 SYSmarks per $
BlueBlazer - Saturday, September 19, 2009 - link
Where in the review is the PII X4 620?