why would anyone buy a i5?

A

ar09

Gawd
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
584
maybe the i9. or i7!
but, why would anyone think about buying a slower version of the i7?
 
because it costs less and performs well? (as in, still kicking the crap out of anything Core 2)

that's like asking "why would someone buy a GTS 250 when you could get a GTX 295?"
 
That would also be like asking back in the day asking "why would anyone buy a Celeron or a Sempron when you could get a Pentium or an Athlon?"

Some people when building a computer don't need the bleeding edge technology, they just want a computer that performs well and has a low price point. Hence, the addition of the i5 by Intel.
 
ShuttleLuv said:
I7's coming down.....might wanna rethink a I5.
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yeah the processor price is.. but everything else isnt.. on avg an i5 should be about 200-300 dollars cheaper for a complete build.. the i5's there to compete with the phenom II.. also to try to take what AMD has gained in the OEM scene with the phenom II back..

the idea's good.. its just 8 months to late.. so id expect the prices to dive bomb after the first month or so.. id just like to see some numbers between the phenom II and the i5 to see if the cost is really worth it..
 
Zinn said:
that's like asking "why would someone buy a GTS 250 when you could get a GTX 295?"
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or like asking why would someone buy a mid-range GTX 260 when he can get a high-end 9800GX2
an upper end mainstream from a generation could perform better than the top end model from an older generation and be less expensive.
 
Because everything is going to be cheaper about i5: the CPU itself, the motherboard, and the memory.

Why pay $500 for the best, when you could pay $200 for something that's 99.9% as good as the best?
 
Solitaire and email is no faster on core i7 975 or core i5. or for that matter any c2d/c2q. not everyone needs mega processing power.
 
so they are making an i5 and then, they are going to make the i9. what will happen to the i7, alone in the middle... :(
 
ar09 said:
so they are making an i5 and then, they are going to make the i9. what will happen to the i7, alone in the middle... :(
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Probably discontinued soon after. The mainboards are still going to be high for it so it's not like the i7 can then become the mainstream even though you can find them in the $199-240 range. Decent mainboards are still in the 200-250 range making it just out of reach of the mainstream.
 
Yes, because as we all know Intel and AMD both make new faster processors to try and out do each other. The i9 is going to be faster than the i7s but they are also going to be more expensive, it's always been the same.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Because everything is going to be cheaper about i5: the CPU itself, the motherboard, and the memory.

Why pay $500 for the best, when you could pay $200 for something that's 99.9% as good as the best?
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Its not 99.9% as good. For those who need more memory expansion on the desktop, there is no comparison.

For those who need hyperthreading, there is no comparison. (At least for the i5 750).

For those who need 2 full 16x PCI-E slots without the use of shitty NF200 chips, there is no comparison.
 
So basically, i5 is better than C2D/C2Q, but still inferior to the significantly more expensive (factoring in motherboards) i7?

I too was wondering why people were getting so excited about i5. I guess I'm just used to the days where the mainstream option and the high-end option were the exact same chip, just at different speeds.
 
I'd buy a prebuilt i5 system. At the quantity manufacturers buy chips and motherboard, it should be much cheaper than even the reasonably priced i7 systems.
 
pxc said:
I'd buy a prebuilt i5 system. At the quantity manufacturers buy chips and motherboard, it should be much cheaper than even the reasonably priced i7 systems.
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I would avoid that. From what I have seen prebuilt systems are significantly more expensive than the price you can get all the parts for and also the quality is lower with a prebuilt system. Being a person who has been buying and building machines for work for the past 12 years I have had a lot of experience with both. Two places where the quality is lower on prebuilt are ram and powersupply. On a prebuilt system they almost always will use lower density dimms unnecessarily populating every ram slot with no heat spreader. Also the power supply usually the absolute minimum size possible for your configured spec. I have had HP quad core workstations fail to post after adding an additional hard drive over the base system and video.
 
s1eepy said:
i5 should be afraid of i7.
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because i7 8 i9? omg lol!!!

what i've learned from this thread: anyone who doesn't spend top dollar on a top-of-the-line PC deserves nothing but complete scorn.
 
drescherjm said:
I would avoid that. From what I have seen prebuilt systems are significantly more expensive than the price you can get all the parts for and also the quality is lower with a prebuilt system. Being a person who has been buying and building machines for work for the past 12 years I have had a lot of experience with both. Two places where the quality is lower on prebuilt are ram and powersupply. On a prebuilt system they almost always will use lower density dimms unnecessarily populating every ram slot with no heat spreader. Also the power supply usually the absolute minimum size possible for your configured spec. I have had HP quad core workstations fail to post after adding an additional hard drive over the base system and video.
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it really depends and on who you are buying it from.. if buying direct from HP, Dell, gateway they are overpriced as hell.. but if you buy from Fry's or newegg or what not.. you can usually find them for 100-200 dollars cheaper if not more.. ive been building my own systems for 15+ years as well.. but not everyone in the world has the same experience to do it or the time to actually learn how to do it..

Zinn said:
because i7 8 i9? omg lol!!!

what i've learned from this thread: anyone who doesn't spend top dollar on a top-of-the-line PC deserves nothing but complete scorn.
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pretty much.. and this is exactly why there are a lot of people from this forum sitting at home in front of an i7 and a cheapo gfx card with it sitting idle 24/7 because they over spent on a system they will never use nor ever needed.. and ill keep enjoying my 230 dollar investment in my phenom II 940 that sits at full load 24/7 running DC projects..
 
drescherjm said:
I would avoid that. From what I have seen prebuilt systems are significantly more expensive than the price you can get all the parts for and also the quality is lower with a prebuilt system. Being a person who has been buying and building machines for work for the past 12 years I have had a lot of experience with both. Two places where the quality is lower on prebuilt are ram and powersupply. On a prebuilt system they almost always will use lower density dimms unnecessarily populating every ram slot with no heat spreader. Also the power supply usually the absolute minimum size possible for your configured spec. I have had HP quad core workstations fail to post after adding an additional hard drive over the base system and video.
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x2. Most reasonably priced prebuilt systems are... lackluster. I'm not saying they can't serve a role, but they are not [H].
 
drescherjm said:
I would avoid that. From what I have seen prebuilt systems are significantly more expensive than the price you can get all the parts for and also the quality is lower with a prebuilt system.
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Those are not the ones i'm talking about. It's fairly easy to find new systems that cost less than the parts at newegg or other online sites. Some of the prebuilt deals even rival what I can scrounge up at Fry's on sale/clearance.
 
There's always something like Cyberpower. They don't seem to have the mark-up someone like Dell or HP would have. No, it's not going to beat Pricewatch, but they have a fair number of enthusiast parts at prices that aren't terrible. I can't vouch for their quality, but their prices aren't too bad.
 
Unless I have a hardware failure I wont be getting rid of my C2Q for a few more months. I want to give prices a chance to settle a little and maybe newer revisions of some of the boards will be out. So I haven't been follow all the news and speculation too close so I may be wrong on some points.

Anyway cost of a 1366 board is enough to keep me from thinking about that platform for my needs. I have no use for 3way SLI and I can't imagine the triple channel DDR3 will do much for me. The only real advantage I see with the 1366 is the ability to go over 8gig of ram with out spending a small fortune on high capacity modules.

The 1156 socket boards will have a much lower price point and support everything I need or want. I have little doubt this is the route I will go.

Now unless the 1156 i7 has a very small price premium over the quad core i5 I can't see my self getting the i7. Both CPU would be physical quad core and to me the Hyper Threading on the i7 giving it 8 logical cores isn't worth much extra money in my opinion. And I suspect the 1156 i7 will actually go for a bit of a premium over the quad i5.

The quad core 1156 i5 is what I will be after for my needs since it should be the best bang for the buck.

The i5 dual core with Hyper Threading should also be a great CPU and if the price is right I can see it being killer for almost everyone I know. The 2 extra logical cores should keep the system responsive, even when under a heavy load by more then one app or a multi-threaded app. And being a native dual core it will cut down on power usage and the heat generated by the system.

Sorry but an i7 really is little more then a waste of power and money for many people.

I just don't get a [H]ard-on over bigger numbers like I once did.
 
Pre-built vs. Build Your Own was a debate back in the P4 days. These days, you can get reasonably specced machines and even Dell has stopped using custom PSU's which will only work with their motherboards and vice-versa. I bought a cheap Acer and upgraded it to way better specs and it was as painless as any system I'd ever built.

However, if you buy your own, you can get more expandability and pick and choose your own parts according to your own needs and you don't have to accept the compromises OEM's make. Like I posted recently, you can build a complete system for less than $250-300 using some brand new parts.
 
Mark Larson said:
Pre-built vs. Build Your Own was a debate back in the P4 days. These days, you can get reasonably specced machines and even Dell has stopped using custom PSU's which will only work with their motherboards and vice-versa. I bought a cheap Acer and upgraded it to way better specs and it was as painless as any system I'd ever built.

However, if you buy your own, you can get more expandability and pick and choose your own parts according to your own needs and you don't have to accept the compromises OEM's make. Like I posted recently, you can build a complete system for less than $250-300 using some brand new parts.
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Noted. I remember someone frying their motherboard a few years ago when they tried to replace their PSU.
 
Mark Larson said:
Pre-built vs. Build Your Own was a debate back in the P4 days. These days, you can get reasonably specced machines and even Dell has stopped using custom PSU's
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Considering the last non-standard pinout PSU Dell shipped in a new model was close to 8 years ago (S423 P4), it's been "safe" for some time. :p

The first reply to your post still shocks me a bit. :( I remember posting a PSA around 2003-2004 here to point out the incorrect info that was being passed around about then new systems too (fanned of course by Charlie @ theinq using older model support docs... good to see he has a new target now :rolleyes: ).
 
If i5 comes in at the price/performance point that is predicted.....well, no reason to ever buy an AMD system other than for a HTPC.
 
Zinn said:
because i7 8 i9? omg lol!!!

what i've learned from this thread: anyone who doesn't spend top dollar on a top-of-the-line PC deserves nothing but complete scorn.
Click to expand...

i can't believe u stole my thunder. :eek:
 
InorganicMatter said:
Because everything is going to be cheaper about i5: the CPU itself, the motherboard, and the memory.

Why pay $500 for the best, when you could pay $200 for something that's 99.9% as good as the best?
Click to expand...

The CPU itself was listed around 190$(IIRC) you get 10$ for a mobo/RAM, good luck :confused:
 
The i5 doesn't seem significantly cheaper. Most motherboard previews I have seen estimate price to be about $200+, the same cost as a budget x58 mobo. Granted, most P55 previews have been high end offerings, but it seems most early P55 boards will be just as expensive as the X58 until more chips and boards enter the market.
 
I'm waiting on i5 750, i'm ready to upgrade to Quad Core. I was toying with an idea of getting i7 and some cheaper board like Gigabyte UD3R from Superbiz with 20 % CB, but honestly i don't think that i need Hyperthreading at all. For a mostly gaming machine i think i would benefit more from Phenom 2 or i5 then having a i7. Like having a Ferrari and driving 30mph around the city in my case...

But the upgrade path is the scariest thing about 1366 to me...
 
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