i7 845 and mboard vs i7 920 and mboard question / comparison - need advise.

[bseery]

NOTE: I notice that I put 920 in the title, as seen below it is an i7 950

I am looking at 2 different barebones kits from Tiger Direct and would like everyone's input on which would be better or worse.

Kit 1:
ASUS P6TD Deluxe Intel X58 Socket LGA1366 Motherboard - Socket 1366, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, USB 2.0, RAID
Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 - 3.06GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366, Retail, Fan
OCZ PC12800 Obsidian 6GB Triple Channel Memory Kit - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048MB)
Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green Hard Drive - 1.5TB, 3.5", SATA-3G
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower Black Case
Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan, Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration

The above has 3 PCI-E slots, 2 working at full x16, one at x?.

Kit 2:
EVGA P55 FTW SLI Motherboard - socket 1156, ATX, Audio.
Intel BX80605I7875K Core i7 875K Processor - 2.93GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, Lynnfield, Retail, No Fan, Unlocked Multiplier
OCZ Gold 4GB PC10666 DDR3 Memory Upgrade Memory Speed: PC10666

Cooler Master HAF 932 ATX Full Tower Black Case
Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply



so -- they both have the same case, same power supply.
The differences that I see are i7 socket 1156 with an unlocked 875 processor vs i7 socket 1366 with a 920 processor. The other difference is the motherboard. I know the EVGA P55FTW is a good board, but I don't know much about the ASUS P6TD. I do know that the dual x16 slots would be a bit faster when running dual video cards in SLI. I do plan on running a pair of XFX 9800GT's in SLI.

This would not be the first computer that I have built, but the first that I would overclock and plan on using for high end gaming.

Give me your opinions. If I have left something out, let me know and I will find the info.


So, which would be better for the buck ?

 

[theflyingrat]

With the 875K, you'll get an unlocked mulitplier, dual-channel DDR3, and generally a less expensive platform to run it on.

With the 950, you get a slightly higher clock speed, triple-channel DDR3, and a more expensive rig most of the time.

To me, it's six of one, half-dozen of another. Both are solid platforms, and your 9800GTs won't saturate x8 PCI-E speeds in SLI. You will not ever see a difference, performance-wise.

Might want to check on that power supply. Some quick searching reveals the possibility of it being a really crappy Wintech-built unit. Ultra has some really awesome PSUs, and simply some of the worst around. Might be worthwhile to double-check, hopefully a more knowledgeable member can tell you which OEM builds it.

As a side note, don't plan on using that WD Green as a system disk. They're great for pack-ratting stuff away, but they're really pretty slow... enough for me even to notice in general usage. Be sure to budget for a faster system disk, or an SSD.

 

[bseery]

Thanks for the advise on the power supply and the hard drive. I was thinking of taking that hard drive and tossing it in my Windows Home Server system for more storage. I have dual 500 gig drives in my system now, running raid 1, but I was thinking of changing them to raid 0 for the performance. I have the Win Home Server for backups and less worried about raid 1 now.

The two kits are very close in price:

Asus - 950 -- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7010535&CatId=4149

EVGA - 875
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6410514&CatId=4149

Here is one they have already built with a BIOS pre-set to run overclocked at 4.0 GHz and has a simple liquid cooling kit and a better power supply.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7024175&CatId=4149


Any opinions on the three kits? Are they as good as can be as they are sold, or does the memory suck in one and is better in another ?

I am new, but trying to learn, at the whole overclock / memory speed / higher performance part of gaming systems. At this time I have been lugging along on a Intel Core 2 quad 2.6 with 5 gig RAM on a intel / Gateway LGA 775 motherboard.