Considering i7

Hey guys I have read some of the other forums and I have been thinking about upgrading my pc, but with the coming out of gta4 and this article http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2336852,00.asp it got me thinking about possibly going quad.

Originally I wanted to go to a faster core2duo, then gta4 came out and got me thinking that quad core might be a bit more future proof.
My motherboard does support quad core 775 processors and I started looking at the prices of the processors. After reading that article and looking at the core2quad it seems like the i7 is aggressively priced when it comes to price and performance. It really hurts to think that if I drop $300 for a processor I could have gotten that i7.
Problem comes that if I was to go i7 it would add to the price new ram ddr3 and a new motherboard. Question is, would the extra cost be worth it, and how much do you think is worth the parts that I will be replacing worth if I was to resell them to recoup some of the loss?

Parts that would be replaced would be a E6600 core2duo never o/c, Asus P5N32-E SLI mobo, and 2GB corsair XMS2 DD2 800mhz , the one with the activity status lights http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145038 can be run at 4-4-4-12 at 2.1v dd2 800

I am wondering if I sell those components if It becomes economically feasible to go with an i7, would my corsair 620 have enough power to run it all?
All comes down to a) leave it alone and wait till later to overhaul my pc. b) core2quad and replace stock fan c) i7, mobo, ram.
Thanks for your time

Like you, I want to upgrade also but it's probably good to wait a couple months for the prices to stabilize and for the competition to grow so that they can have more sales.

I've been toying with the idea of going to an i7, but I just can't convince myself it is worth the extra cost in MB and RAM. Unless you are building a really kickass system the performance delta from a good C2Q isn't that great right now, and by the time it is I would expect prices to have come down to more affordable levels. No doubt the i7 is a great chip, but for normal desktop usage I don't see it being worth the price premium right now, especially if you current MB and RAM is up to speed. If you were upgrading en masse, like from an AMD system, then I think the i7 makes more sense.

Reason why I even looked at the i7 is if you read that article, clock per clock the i7 pulls a lot harder, feels like the core2quads don't really outpace the core2duo's performance wise unless you play gta4. I think Intel should lower the price on the core2quads since they released a new line. It's gonna be messy until they release more new specs, USB3.0, dx11 video cards, and the new windows 7. I wonder if this would be feasible if I sold my processor, mobo and ram.

If can afford it, I see very little reason not to go with Core i7. It's been very solid, stable, and even the lowest 920 overclocks easily 3.6 Ghz and beyond. DDR3 prices are coming down fast and 2nd-tier budget motherboard should be coming out soon.

ellover009 said:

Question is, would the extra cost be worth it, and ...

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You shouldn't even be asking us. Sounds like you want other people to justify you wasting money on new parts

By looking at what you have it seems like you know enough to find benchmarks that will show the differences. By reading what you posted it sounds like this upgrade would be for making videogames look slightly better. We don't know anything about your finances nor what you value so that we could give you a good answer on whether spending $300+ on new parts is a good idea for you.

They make the Core i7 an attractive processor when comparing it to a $300 Core2 Quad. However as a package with a $300 motherboard putting me at $600 it fails since I don't need SLI much less tipple SLI.

The cost of DDR3 ram is a none issue for me, if I could get a nice i7 board for at $180 I would be all over the 920 but I can't. If I were to upgrade my Q6600 it would be for a Q9550 but I know I wont go back to dual core.

Well they do have some mobos for around $220-250 but none of them are the ones I like (Asus) are over $300, they will come down in price eventually. That Asus Rampage II is sick.

Just wait until after Christmas, there will be serious price drops on i7 mobos. January is looking to be a great month for anyone looking to upgrade as the sales in December have been disappointing to say the least.

Sounds like you have the money to burn, but wait for the revisions of the mobos and cpus. If they had come down in price with the i7, I would say get a q9550. Oc's easy..

no matter how you theorize future upgrades versus price, you will have to move to the 1366 platform regardless. However, only you know your limits. If you know you upgrade more than a couple of times a year, you're better off going the i7 route. DDR2 is alive for now but will not be supported beyond current technology so again, you should make a decision that will save you money down the road than a little now...unless it makes sense to save now because you'll come into alot of money later. Either way, it's your call.

Well with mobo prices I think I am gonna stick to a core2quad.

What do you guys think if I can get em for about the same price would you go q9550 or qx6850?

q9550 has more L2cache runs on 45nm tech 2.8ghz
qx6850 is EE and unlocked multipliers, also has a higher stock speed of 3.0ghz.

Of those two, get the Q9550.

well its a tough call for me, I really wanted to go with an i7 processor but it looks like some retailers started to jack up the prices on a few things. The mid end I7 is $550 at newegg, a week or so ago it used to be $500. Motherboard prices hovering at the 300+ mark and at least memory mudules are lowering. What makes it tougher is that intel is already working on a 32nm version of the chipset.

I'm tempted q9550 has 45nm runs cooler. The other one is an EE chipset with unlocked multipliers.

ellover009 said:

well its a tough call for me, I really wanted to go with an i7 processor but it looks like some retailers started to jack up the prices on a few things. The mid end I7 is $550 at newegg, a week or so ago it used to be $500. Motherboard prices hovering at the 300+ mark and at least memory mudules are lowering. What makes it tougher is that intel is already working on a 32nm version of the chipset.

I'm tempted q9550 has 45nm runs cooler. The other one is an EE chipset with unlocked multipliers.

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Its a never ending battle. There is always something better around the corner and you will always have to upgrade sometime in the future, but what you have now will still be good enough for quite some time. I currently have a q9450 nd 9550 and they dont seem any better than the q6600 I had a year ago. so it was all just a waste of money and people always claim that there is more performance to be had, but not always at the expense of the extra cost. I myself like to upgrade just for fun and see if there really is a difference, but get upset after a while finding out I was better off before and could have saved a lot of money.

If you wait for the 32nm cpu's you mught as well wait for the 6 or 8 core cpu's. theres never an end. so I say if you have the money and dont have anything else to spend it on; go ahead and buy now or wait at least for MS cashback to come back. If you trying to get the world record oc, wait for the better revisions.
I myself am thinking about upgrading and seeing if its worth it, but not quite sure yet. Also i have heard that the newer cpus will end up being higher priced so you wont be able to get what you can get now for the price. Not sure about the truth on this, but just what I have heard. also another thing to think about is that no matter when you buy it. its just a matter of time before its 1/2 the price you paid for it! just my 2 cents

INFRNL is spot on. I'm coming from building our last machines in November of 2003 ( Athlon XP 2500+-based box and a P4 2.4c-based box -- AGP for life!).

While those machines are still running strong, for 5 years, I've researched several times throughout that time period on doing a rebuild (especially when PCI-e hit the market). I talked myself out of it every single time, because there was always something better to wait for.

After 5 years of having two incredibly solid builds that were outstanding at the time they were built, the i7 build was a no-brainer for me (I'm pulling the trigger now for some personal finance reasons, but if you can wait until the new year prices will come down).

I want to bite into the i7 platform but what's holding me back is that my budget is not as generous as it used to be in the past. I was trying to find a way to make it more economical feasible with the idea that I could recoup some of the cost by selling replaced parts. I am just finding some small obstacles make things more difficult.

I have an issue with current DDR3 prices.
The X58 is not cheap either.
For most peoples, i7 platform is rather uncompetitive right now.

My Core2Duo got owned by Gta 4

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1033482759#post1033482759

I find i7 components to be priced very well. When on sale, I purchased the i7 920 and the P6T Deluxe for $254.99 and $245.99 respectively at Newegg. Memory costs are hardly prohibitive either.

svelte said:

I find i7 components to be priced very well. When on sale, I purchased the i7 920 and the P6T Deluxe for $254.99 and $245.99 respectively at Newegg. Memory costs are hardly prohibitive either.

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You got a nice deal on motherboard and memory. Only place I know that has the i7 that cheap atm is microcenter and you have to go in store. Not going there anytime soon, big snow storm up here in MASS.

i should grab the i7 when live has 30% CB for ebay

Go I7 all the way dude !!!

Right now I run my rig with a 525watts Enermax Modu82+ and the fan speed is only 580rpm and totally silent....I had the same fan speed for my previous Core 2 rig so I assume it's not asking too much to my PSU.

this is my issue also. I am looking to upgrade in january but still can not decide if I want to go all out with an I7 or just get a quad and max out the video.

pay for the big gpu upgrade. an i7 isn't going to turn a 8800gtx into a gtx280.

rennyf77 said:

pay for the big gpu upgrade. an i7 isn't going to turn a 8800gtx into a gtx280.

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280gtx is not gonna push gta by itself, I managed to get good frames after some tweaking, lower the draw distance and car amount.

I think I am not gonna go with the i7 yet, reasons to pass for the moment is New Mobo, ram, processor so lets say cheapest I can get a low end i7 is $250, throw in $300 for an Asus mobo and $180 for 6gb, that should throw me in $780 territory. We still have to worry about the upcoming USB 3.0 and DX11.

there is something very wrong with gta4. seemingly a totally different animal than anything released before it. i wonder if the engine renders the entire environment like crysis, yet is unable to make it look nearly as good. i've already finished an i7 build but i don't think i'm going to waste any money on that game.

well Gta 4 uses Physics, it was designed with the intention to run on more than 2 cores, there's also a lot more going in gta4 than your run and gun type of games.

One can also watch the for sale section. I have seen people already selling their i7 stuff; granted they are hard to come by. It is however possible and a lot of these guys that buy just to test will be selling i7 stuff for good prices. I do not think new prices will drop too much or at a very fast pace especially since there isnt anything to compete with i7.

and as for everyone saying that its better to go with ddr2 and q9550 or what not; almost everyone said that you would not really see gains from this over a q6600 or whatever and they still upgraded. or upgrading to a p35, p45, x38 or x48 mobo. Most everyone here will upgrade to try and ge some king of better performance or higher oc's and spend a lot of money and it all probably adds up to the cost of an i7 setup if not more. Just think whats going to happen when DDR4 comes out and x68mobos or what not.

As i stated earlier; there is always something better around the corner and you will always have to pay the premium for the newer technology. If you want to keep up to date, then its worth the price or if its a little high for you wait a couple of months or for deals and get it. If its totally out of your league, buy used or buy the older technology which is still more than adequate for most of us. We are obviously here because we are not the ordinary people that only buy every 5 years and like to upgrade all the time. Many say that a single or dual core cpu is fine; I dont do half of what everyone here does and I can clearly say that no matter what you do; quad core makes a big difference over dual core; except maybe for gaming. I run many things at once, being internet, listening to music, transfering files and other basic things that most do and I can see a big difference between quad and dual cores.

I guess it all boils down to how much you want to spend. I also think its worth the money and no matter how long you wait for prices to drop it will end up cheaper after you spend the money until it gets towards the end of its life. Just think back to how much we had to spend on DDR2 when it first cam out; we spent more for 2gb than you would spend for 6bg of good ddr3. I think a lot of people may have forgotten how much we spent when we bought our C2D or C2Q stsyems at first and all the upgrades along the way. Just look at what we spent on hard drives when they statred soming out with terrabyte drives, etc. now look how cheap they are and perform much batter too. I hope you get what Im saying. We do it every time new technology comes and we switch sockets or ram. People didnt cry about getting DDR3 for their C2Q's or upgrading the mobos for it. Thats my thought of the day' We could go on for ever, but it gives me a headache.

If you have the money get I7 and/ or wait for sales or MS cashback. If you want to cry about the price, stay with C2D or C2Q and go used.