- Bigger cooler required, thus negating part of the price difference.
Yet you keep insisting on an aftermarket cooler anyway. Why is this even on the list?
- Probably more noise.
Not so, esp if an aftermarket cooler with a quiet fan is used. More like LESS noise.
- Lose warranty - rather a biggie to me.
Technically yes, but if you clean the thermal paste off properly and don't lap the CPU before sending it in, you'll still get 3 yrs.
- Shorter lifespan.
Not true, esp if you stick with a moderate OC as I mentioned. No sweat means no stress to the chip. A speed of 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz is easily within a 920's comfort zone, esp if you use a better than stock cooler.
- More power consumption?
This is the only slightly valid point your friends made, but honestly, the added power draw will only be seen while gaming, video editing, batch photo processing, etc.
Another thing you may not be aware of is it's possible in the BIOS of many MBs to set the thermal shutdown limit manually for your CPU. This guards against any possible damage to the chip.
I understand some wanting to get their advice from friends vs people you don't know personally on forums, but you have to at some point ask yourself, do they really know what they are talking about from experience?
@ PS,
While I agree with most of what you said about bin allotment on CPUs, I have not heard of anything to the effect that they suddenly stop thermal image testing after the quota of the higher end chips is filled as you imply. From my understanding each chip is thermally tested and falls into its bin via how efficiently it's transistors handles current. As far as I know there is no lucking out and getting a "good" 920 that is just as thermally efficient as a 975. If you can provide ample proof otherwise however, I will digress.
That being said, these chips ARE fairly conservatively rated and tested and all are capable of being OCed quite a bit and run stably that way for yrs. The main thing you're paying for on a 975 other than better thermal efficiency and higher stock speed is an unlocked multiplier.
Concerning the TT Element cases. I read about the Element G and do not like that it's side fan restricts CPU cooler spacing quite a bit more than it's brother the S model. It's also not as quiet as the S.
On RAM timings, I feel it matters how loose vs how tight when comparing modules, esp if you're under the assumption a more expensive higher frequency module with much looser timings is faster. DDR3 1600 at CAS 6 isn't going to be any slower than a much more expensive DDR3 2000 at CAS 9. So paying attention to timings does matter I feel, you just have to use common sense in balancing timings with frequency and price.
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