http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634 hi all forgive me if this has been posted before what are your thoughts regarding the new chips and motherboards?

I must say that most reviews seem to be gushing praise for Lynnfield. One of the few who seem to offer a bit more than a "buy me now!" article is bit-tech here.Having read most of them I must say that I am still not clear whether a D0 i920 on X58 (with triple channel RAM, more PCI-E bandwidth, much better oc at stock voltages + guaranteed compatibility with 6 and 8 core Gulftown) is simply not the better and wiser investment than Lynnfield/LGA1156 will ever be. Clearly LGA775 is out the door big time, but that is the only thing that seems clear, at least to me.That severly limited PCI-E bandwidth (1x16x or 2x8x) and GTX3xx/DX11 on the horizon also seems a bit of a mismatch.

I must say that most reviews seem to be gushing praise for Lynnfield. One of the few who seem to offer a bit more than a "buy me now!" article is bit-tech here.Having read most of them I must say that I am still not clear whether a D0 i920 on X58 (with triple channel RAM, more PCI-E bandwidth, much better oc at stock voltages + guaranteed compatibility with 6 and 8 core Gulftown) is simply not the better and wiser investment than Lynnfield/LGA1156 will ever be. Clearly LGA775 is out the door big time, but that is the only thing that seems clear, at least to me.That severly limited PCI-E bandwidth (1x16x or 2x8x) and GTX3xx/DX11 on the horizon also seems a bit of a mismatch.

I have just installed my new i7 860, ASUS P7P55D and 4 GB DDR3. Only two hours testing: FS9 runs fantastic ( my "old" E8600 was also fantastic) but FSX , runs a lot better, 30-40 fps PMDG MD-11 VC, in dense areas like Seattle, New York...very, very smooth. I never thoufgt FSX could run smooth. Tell you more, later.Miquel.

What is the core clock on the 860?

What is the core clock on the 860?

2,80BYW, continue testing, really fast. Best.Miquel.

I must say that most reviews seem to be gushing praise for Lynnfield. One of the few who seem to offer a bit more than a "buy me now!" article is bit-tech here.Having read most of them I must say that I am still not clear whether a D0 i920 on X58 (with triple channel RAM, more PCI-E bandwidth, much better oc at stock voltages + guaranteed compatibility with 6 and 8 core Gulftown) is simply not the better and wiser investment than Lynnfield/LGA1156 will ever be. Clearly LGA775 is out the door big time, but that is the only thing that seems clear, at least to me.That severly limited PCI-E bandwidth (1x16x or 2x8x) and GTX3xx/DX11 on the horizon also seems a bit of a mismatch.

Thanks for the link Konrad, my p.c knowledge is limited but they state that the on-die PCIe controller are on the Lynnfield, doesn't that make it better?? since its feeding the gpu directly??

I have just installed my new i7 860, ASUS P7P55D and 4 GB DDR3. Only two hours testing: FS9 runs fantastic ( my "old" E8600 was also fantastic) but FSX , runs a lot better, 30-40 fps PMDG MD-11 VC, in dense areas like Seattle, New York...very, very smooth. I never thoufgt FSX could run smooth. Tell you more, later.Miquel.

Thanks Miquel. sounds good so far. :)

The PCI-E bandwidth will only be an issue if you plan on a Crossfire or SLI setup. If you have a new single x16 card it is not going to be inhibited on a P55 motherboards. The P55 still affords a ton of bandwidth. Trying to claim the bandwidth is "severely limited" is really not correct.

Agreed.. Define "severly limited". I think it'll be a while until hardware (atleast single card setups) can utilize more than what the P55 offers.

I guess 16 PCI-E lanes just sounds severly limited to me in comparison to the 40 on X58. I understand that percentage wise few people actually have more than 1 gpu installed and that with a single gpu no one is ever going to miss more than 16 lanes but it still would be nice to know that you have the option of going full-speed dual gpu in the future if you so desired (2560x1600 gaming, more than 2 monitors, folding@home, dedicated physx card perhaps using your previous gpu etc). If FSX could take advantage of SLI/crossfire this issue would be more important no doubt.But Lynnfields limited (severely or otherwise) PCI-E lanes is not the major issue anyway imho. Fewer memory channels and uncertain future socket compatibility are seemingly more pertinent. My (admittedly simple) understanding is that it takes 3 fully loaded cores (not sure if this includes HT or not) to max out the bandwidth of dual channel DDR3 so it is not a case of simply dismissing triple channel as irrelevant. Clearly a fully loaded quad core is capable of overwhelming dual channel DDR3 today and with Gulftown LGA1366 6 (and 8?) core cpu's on the way in 2010 this situation is seemingly only going to get worse. Chances are that if you upgrade your whole system every 18 or so months this stuff does not really matter but if you are like me on LGA775 and can only afford to upgrade in more reasonable 3 to 4 year cycles it becomes a whole lot more difficult to pick between LGA1366 or LGA1156 given that you would want it to last you 4 odd years into the future.

I guess 16 PCI-E lanes just sounds severly limited to me in comparison to the 40 on X58.

If I remember correctly the X58 has 36 lanes split into 1 x 16, 2 x16, or 4 x8. So really the only issue would be with SLI/Crossfire and that hasn't even been really demoed. I think the i5 is a very quick budget gamer setup as opposed to its i7 big brother. That is unless you get your i7 920 for $200 from microcenter. ;)I am very interested in seeing how the i5 compares to the i7 in real world FSX testing. Toms Hardware did a benchmark and the results were identical. Then again that is Toms.

If I remember correctly the X58 has 36 lanes split into 1 x 16, 2 x16, or 4 x8. So really the only issue would be with SLI/Crossfire and that hasn't even been really demoed. I think the i5 is a very quick budget gamer setup as opposed to its i7 big brother. That is unless you get your i7 920 for $200 from microcenter. ;)I am very interested in seeing how the i5 compares to the i7 in real world FSX testing. Toms Hardware did a benchmark and the results were identical. Then again that is Toms.

If there is one store I love in this world it would be microcenter lol went there for the first time about 2 months ago when I went to visit my sister and parents over in new jersey the prices are really good its like newegg brick and mortar store that 200$ I 920 is a steal I do wonder how performance is with the new chips and motherboards will do in fsx.

Tomshardware did benchmarks on the i5 vs 920, Q550, and AMD P2 965BE. Take the charts with a grain of salt because it is Toms and most reviewers don't set up FSX properly. Toms FSX BenchPlus they capped the FPS to 20 which most systems should be able to do anyway. Again just take it with a grain of salt until i5 FSX owners can run their own.

I have just installed my new i7 860, ASUS P7P55D and 4 GB DDR3. Only two hours testing: FS9 runs fantastic ( my "old" E8600 was also fantastic) but FSX , runs a lot better, 30-40 fps PMDG MD-11 VC, in dense areas like Seattle, New York...very, very smooth. I never thoufgt FSX could run smooth. Tell you more, later.Miquel.

Miquel what type of frame rates did you get with the 8600? I'm thinking about updating my e6700 to a e8600. thanks keith

Miquel what type of frame rates did you get with the 8600? I'm thinking about updating my e6700 to a e8600. thanks keith

Hi , in FS9, E8600 was fabulous, but wasn