i5 760 vs i7 930

[Jodiuh]

***Please comment as to why you voted for X so that future readers may benefit! Thanks!!***​

I hate these threads, I really do. But after reading the entire internet, I still cannot make up my mind. So let's have it [H]. What's your opinion on Lynnfield's HT less wonder vs Bloomfield's power monger?

I'm not going to post any of my usage scenarios just yet as I'd like to hear your overall opinions wo/ biasing them first. So here ya go...




Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760
Item #: N82E16819115067
$199.99

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131621
$179.99

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO
Item #: N82E16820231321
$95.99

Grand Total: $446.97

_________________________________________________________________


Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930
Item #: N82E16819115225

ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131665
$454.98 - Combo

G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI
Item #: N82E16820231335
$154.99

Grand Total: $609.97

 

[vengence]

Do you need the extra 2GB of ram? Do you need tripple channel memory? If not, then use the ram from the i5 760, in the second combo and take 60$ off the price. If you do, then the first combo isn't really an option now is it?

Do you live near a microcenter? It might change the prices a bit if you do.

 

[Jodiuh]

Not sure. If it means leaving more shit open, I would. No microcenter.

 

[Tudz]

I'm going to say to you what someone told me when I first started to get into computers... Buy what you can afford given your time frame for upgrades.

The i5 is great, I think its a bargain. I have one in my home computer and it does everything I want at stock speeds without a sweet. Overclocked it to 3.8GHz to improve number crunching performance but really didn't "need" to and it didn't help gaming at all.

The i7 930 is also good, got a few at work and they're faster at number crunching than the i5, but for general usage I can't tell the difference (my i5 system is faster these days since I recently got an SSD for it and the i7s at work are still running regular HDDs). Is it worth $160 more? For gaming I dont really think so. For number crunching then yeah I think its worth the extra. But if you have the budget for it, it wont hurt you to go for the i7 over the i5. If you want HT without triple channel RAM you can also go the i7 860.

 

[Jodiuh]

...it wont hurt you to go for the i7 over the i5. If you want HT...

Hmmm...that's all that seems to be coming out of your post.

 

[EvilViking]

I found after debating, researching and comparing prices. The i5 was a much better bang for buck for me (being OC'd of course). It's still a quad core without HT, which I don't need. It also freed up more cash for a better gpu and other things.


You could probably shop around and shave another 40+ dollars off the i5 setup with a different board and some on sale G. Skill DDR3 1600 ram. Also check out Tigerdirect to avoid sales tax if you can


Edit: as a side note. If you plan on running Xfire or SLI go with a 1366 setup for 16X 16X. 1156 will only do 8x 8x

 

[USMC2Hard4U]

1366 for the win

 

[Jodiuh]

I guess the biggest question would have to be, is the extra heat/power/$ worth HT, triple channel ram, possibly better SLI/Xfire performance, and maybe the opportunity to pay $$$ for a 960X or whatever it'll be called in a year?

I just don't wanna look back in 6 months when Crysis 2 releases and to the amazement of everyone benefits from HT.

Edit: Oh goodness, you're the last person I'd wanna sit by @ a LAN party. I'll be next to EvilViking where I don't have to worry about being engulfed in flames at any moment.

 

[Jon55]

I, personally, thank you for opening this thread, because I've been toying with this debate for a while myself.

I just know that a lot of games are very CPU hungry (speed-wise, not so much core-wise), such as Civilization and WoW.

 

[Jodiuh]

I've got 3 questions floating around in my head right now.

1. Can I tolerate the heat/power of an i7?
2. Will the features of an i7 benefit me now...in the future?
3. Are those features worth another GTX 460 or an SSD?

Thanks for all the votes guys/gals. I'm leaning towards a chiquita i7?

 

[ilkhan]

950 is like $10 more than the 930, if you go s1366 get the 950.
If you're on a tight budget, triple channel isn't worth much performance and the ECO is good RAM. If you're not on that tight a budget, 2x2x2GB is more RAM than 3x2GB.

 

[Jon55]

950 is like $10 more than the 930, if you go s1366 get the 950.
If you're on a tight budget, triple channel isn't worth much performance and the ECO is good RAM. If you're not on that tight a budget, 2x2x2GB is more RAM than 3x2GB.

Wow, wasn't even aware of this. So the new question is i5 760 vs i7 950 (for me at least).

 

[Jodiuh]

2x2x2GB is more RAM than 3x2GB.

If this took me too long to figure out, should I go i5?

 

[Tudz]

Hmmm...that's all that seems to be coming out of your post.

Well that's basically how I feel I think if you're on a budget, the extra $150 for a 1366 and i7 would be better spent on other components. If you've already got SLI and SSDs and have another $150 to spend, then yeah, go for the i7 system.

Like I said, my SSD driven i5 system is quicker than the HDD driven i7 systems at work in all but number crunching (where the i7 was quite a lot faster, largely due to triple channel memory), and even before the SSD I'd have been hard pressed to tell the difference between them, though I dont do any video encoding or whatever either.

 

[Jodiuh]

So none of this "creamy smoothness" Kyle talked about at the end of the i5 article? I gotta say, I'm leaning towards the i5 now. If for no other reason than to keep a cooler, quieter workplace.

 

[galt010]

eh. triple channel memory isn't terribly useful outside of benchmarking, or the rare professional app that benefits more from the additional bandwith than the higher memory capacity, as compared with a 4 gb kit. get the 760 unless you do a lot of heavily threaded work. even then, you'd probably be better off going with an 860 instead of a 930. not as if p55 or x58 have that much of a future left anyway once sandy bridge launches

 

[bore_u2_death]

Another aspect of this that you may want to consider. LGA 1156 has no upgrades ahead of it, contrasted with 1366 which will be getting more hexa-core processors in the future. If you don't want to upgrade your whole system, another point to 1366. If you are going to upgrade your whole system later on, then socket 1156 is OK.

The reason the i7 900 was faster at work is because of HT. HT processors from the i7 800 series are tied with the 900 series in performance, so you can buy a socket 1156 Core i7 if you want to avoid triple-channel RAM and X58's cost.

And the i5 760 is quite fine if your not looking for top top performance. You'll never notice the difference unless your doing heavy multitasking anyway, and unless you do benchmarks all the time, you'll need a stopwatch to notice the time difference for WinRAR, decoding, etc..

 

[eddieck]

For gaming use I have found HT actually decreases performance and causes stuttering in ArmA2 which is a very CPU-bound game. I would assume it could possibly cause the same in other CPU-bound games, but the only other such game I own is BC2 and I don't see a difference.

I would still suggest going 1366 simply because you have the option of going multi-GPU in the future. Also, check around here and at OCN - there are some that are willing to pick up CPUs from Micro Center for a few bucks. It should still be less than Newegg.

Also, remember that you can run 4 GiBs of RAM in dual-channel on an LGA 1366 i7. It's not using the system to its full potential, but if you can take that extra money and get a better video card, it's well worth it, UNLESS you are doing other activities that could use the extra RAM. For gaming use, 4 GiB is fine, even in GTA 4.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

How on earth could we tell you whether the i5 or i7 is better when you won't tell us how you intend to use your prospective system?

 

[Tudz]

eh. triple channel memory isn't terribly useful outside of benchmarking, or the rare professional app that benefits more from the additional bandwith than the higher memory capacity, as compared with a 4 gb kit. get the 760 unless you do a lot of heavily threaded work. even then, you'd probably be better off going with an 860 instead of a 930. not as if p55 or x58 have that much of a future left anyway once sandy bridge launches

The reason the i7 900 was faster at work is because of HT. HT processors from the i7 800 series are tied with the 900 series in performance, so you can buy a socket 1156 Core i7 if you want to avoid triple-channel RAM and X58's cost.

I should mention that when I said the i7 was faster because of triple channel, it is an oddball situation. The number crunching I do at work involves large amounts of memory and large amounts of reading that memory. The i7 930 was actually slightly faster at 3.5GHz and 1600MHz ram than it was at 4GHz and 1440MHz ram.

 

[Tudz]

I would still suggest going 1366 simply because you have the option of going multi-GPU in the future.

That P55 can go multi-GPU. It can only do 8x/8x with multi-GPU, but according to the [H] comparisons that doesn't make any real life performance difference with everything up to the most powerful GPUs currently available.

 

[Jodiuh]

eh. triple channel memory isn't terribly useful outside of benchmarking...

What do you make of this?

Techspot claims, "The extra threads of the Core i7 920 processor are no advantage when compared to the Core i5 750 in this game, but the additional memory capacity and bandwidth is."

It's the one instance I could find where the i7 pulls away from the i5 in a game @ real world settings. Because SC2 doesn't use more than a pair of cores...or what?

Another aspect of this that you may want to consider. LGA 1156 has no upgrades...You'll never notice the difference unless your doing heavy multitasking anyway, and unless you do benchmarks all the time, you'll need a stopwatch to notice the time difference for WinRAR, decoding, etc..

I'm ok w/ that. I went through about 6 boards on LGA775 alone. It wasn't until I found the Maximus Formula that I was content. Now, after upgrading the E8400 to a Q9550 for only 3 weeks, I'm wanting more than C2Q can offer.

See, that's just it, I love leaving crap running. 60 tab FF sessions, multiple FF windows, social apps, monitoring apps, media player classic, AV running, RDP sessions going, and I'm starting to get interested in VM's. If I can have a game or two minimized @ the same time and be able to sleep it when not in use...awesome. Even better if I can start shrinking a movie from my phone and feel as if I'm NOT actually doing any encoding.

I thought I read a few instances where 7-zip's decompression times were quite a bit faster on the i7. To the tune of 50%, which would be a very nice speed bump.

For gaming use I have found HT actually decreases performance and causes stuttering in ArmA2...1366...multi-GPU in the future...CPUs from Micro Center for a few bucks...Also, remember that you can run 4 GiBs of RAM in dual-channel on an LGA 1366 i7.

I remember reading that back in P4 days, but a couple buds have been using the i7's w/ HT on during games and they said everything's fine. One even things they feel smoother. Although, I did read a long thread on OCF about ArmA not liking it, so I suppose there will always be some games/apps that throw a fit when not optimized for HT.

I'm ok w/ 1 GPU. I game on the 20" and have been ok w/ the fastest single GPU solution for awhile. Although, dual 460's look mighty tempting for nearly $100 less than a 480. Too bad the Sabertooth doesn't have an SLI friendly slot solution. Why couldn't they put the 2nd PCIe x16 1 slot lower? That would have been perfect. Forte could have gone up top and I'd of been set. Hmmm...if I could find an X58 board I liked as much as the Sabertooth, that might just push me over the edge. Even then, the P7P55D will do 2 8x lanes and [H]'s proven that's plenty.

Thanks for the tip on MC friendly folks. I'll look into that. And I'm ok w/ the extra expense another 2GB would set me back for the triple channel setup. In fact, I would prefer going 6GB now instead of in another year when BF3 releases and follows in BF2's footsteps. That game laid wasted to a 2 x 512MB kit of Supertalent's finest. Moving to 2GB smoothed everything out. It'll happen again...and right about now seems like a good time to make the switch.

How on earth could we tell you whether the i5 or i7 is better when you won't tell us how you intend to use your prospective system?

Well, the idea was to start the thread off as objective as possible to open up all avenues of discussion as opposed to hyper focusing on my need's and rendering the discussion less useful for a broader audience.

I'm thrilled to have [H]folks offering opinions just for me, but would be even happier to see this thread help many more. But this post has gone on long enough and I think I've revealed a bit of bias and some things I'd like to do with the machine...play games...I mean be productive and edit the billions of movies my 3 nephews/1 niece seem to produce on a near daily basis...play games, huh? LAN party!!

 

[bore_u2_death]

I should mention that when I said the i7 was faster because of triple channel, it is an oddball situation. The number crunching I do at work involves large amounts of memory and large amounts of reading that memory. The i7 930 was actually slightly faster at 3.5GHz and 1600MHz ram than it was at 4GHz and 1440MHz ram.

Thanks for that little tidbit of info. I never would have thought that RAM would play such a big role to negate 500MHz of processor speed through 160MHz RAM speed. Quite enlightening.

 

[Jodiuh]

Shens, clearly he's an F5 pusher over @ Lavalys.

 

[vengence]

Umm... why did you make this thread 4 hours after posting your i930 build in i7 930 overclocker's thread?

 

[Jodiuh]

People don't have second thoughts in your world?

I'm not so sure an i7's the best choice anymore, but I figured I'd poll the forums and see if there were any other reasons or info I had not thought of or considered before returning stuff that w/ the exception of the RAM, works just fine. I'm not getting along w/ the board either as it tends to wake randomly, but I've seen complaints of this on other forums, so it may just be a limitation of the UD3R. And there you have the reasons for the Sabertooth and G.Skill combo in addition to the i5 setup which may well suit my needs just fine w/ less power and heat.

I think I'm sold on the potential of triple channel, an extra 2GB of RAM, and HT, but don't see this affecting anything I'm doing enough to offset the heat/power/cost. Perhaps if I had a crystal ball and could see Crysis 2 benefiting greatly from HT, things might be different. Right now? I'm seeing "shut off HT if you're gaming" or "it might bring performance down a tick." Frankly, neither of those seem a compelling reason to run it for games. Sure, I'll probably see a boost working w/ vids and maybe even 7-zip, but those things take forever anyway. What's another 5~10 minutes here and there? It's not for work, just hobby stuff...no time sensitivity whatsoever.

Sure do like the features, color, styling of the i7 package over the i5 though!

Really, the only positive things about HT aside from apps have been vague comments from Kyle about "buttery smoothness" or "it's subtle." IIRC, someone on here or OCF mentioned games being smoother. That doesn't seem to hold a lot of weight.

I did have a chance to chat w/ a friend whose owned an i7 and now runs an i5 however. He said, it runs cooler and performs the same. For me, that's probably been the most convincing argument for i5 so far. But again, I just wanted to bring the discussion out in the open so I could be sure and also so that we might have a nice poll/opinion on this oft considered upgrade path.

 

[vengence]

You worried about power consumption of HT? You realize that it's under 40W, right? Hell the whole processer with HT turned on will be less than 1/2 of most high end cards.

 

[Koko56]

You worried about power consumption of HT? You realize that it's under 40W, right? Hell the whole processer with HT turned on will be less than 1/2 of most high end cards.

Yeah, but runs cooler with less power, rite?
_____________________________________

This thread brought me to ask - when are the i5s/i7s going to get superseded?

 

[Jodiuh]

You worried about power consumption of HT? You realize that it's under 40W, right? Hell the whole processer with HT turned on will be less than 1/2 of most high end cards.

I've looked through about 7 different i5 reviews and power consumption @ idle on the i7 920/X58 ranges between 30~50 watts more than the i5 750/P55. At load, it's from 50~70 watts more. Overclocked would probably be pushing the realm of an additional 100 watts.

If I decide on i5, I'll probably swap the space heater for a 460 and shave off another 100 watts when overclocked. That's about 200 watts less firepower I have to deal w/ during marathon gaming sessions and probably 80% of the total 3D performance.

 

[Jon55]

I'm not so sure an i7's the best choice anymore, but I figured I'd poll the forums and see if there were any other reasons or info I had not thought of or considered before returning stuff that w/ the exception of the RAM, works just fine. I'm not getting along w/ the board either as it tends to wake randomly, but I've seen complaints of this on other forums, so it may just be a limitation of the UD3R. And there you have the reasons for the Sabertooth and G.Skill combo in addition to the i5 setup which may well suit my needs just fine w/ less power and heat.

Just my opinion and personal experience, but I've had nothing but trouble with Gigabyte boards. I mean sure when buying time comes they look like a great value for the money, but after a while parts start to go bad and/or their support was just terrible. I had this happen on several different systems. Again, I know many people have had great experiences with them, but I have not. Instead, I started using ASUS boards and holy shit. Yeah they're a little more expensive, but I now truly understand what "you get what you pay for" means. Again though, this is just my personal experience.

I'm also leaning towards the i5 as well. At first I figured, "well maybe the small gains from the faster i7 CPU, triple channel RAM, and faster mobo will come together to make a greater difference in the long run/in certain games (one day)". Then I realized how much more money I'd be spending. It's just really not worth it. I mean I'm sure the i7 route would perform "better", but how much better? Probably not enough to warrant the extra couple hundred dollars. Not to mention I upgrade (most of the system) every 2 years or so, so it definitely doesn't make any sense at that point.

 

[vengence]

I've looked through about 7 different i5 reviews and power consumption @ idle on the i7 920/X58 ranges between 30~50 watts more than the i5 750/P55. At load, it's from 50~70 watts more. Overclocked would probably be pushing the realm of an additional 100 watts.

If I decide on i5, I'll probably swap the space heater for a 460 and shave off another 100 watts when overclocked. That's about 200 watts less firepower I have to deal w/ during marathon gaming sessions and probably 80% of the total 3D performance.

A 460 is a space heater?

Really, perhaps you should try a high end setup and learn what the term space heater really means. My wife's machine has a 460 in it. It's quite cool, and low power.

 

[Jon55]

A 460 is a space heater?

A space heater was a 9800GX2 My buddy had one and my God that thing would heat up a room in minutes.

 

[djstarfox]

Because everyone likes a lower power bill (and a cooler room).

 

[Jodiuh]

*snip*

I had really good luck w/ a DS3 rev 1.0. IIRC, it was paired w/ an E6300 and hit around 3.4 Ghz. If there were any issues w/ it, I've long since forgotten them. And aside from the sleep issue and a funny tendency to reboot when I hit the delete key for entering the bios, it's been extremely simple to overclock and run stable. In fact, I would go as far as to say it's probably one of the quickest stock to OC experiences of any board I've owned.

On the other hand an Asus A7N8X deluxe gave me hell and drove me to the Abit NF7-S, which along w/ the DFI Xpert make up my 2 all time favorite boards.

The i7 rig would be nearly 50% more expensive than the i5. I don't see it being 50% faster. But then the high end never does give much value anyway.

A 460 is a space heater?

Really, perhaps you should try a high end setup and learn what the term space heater really means. My wife's machine has a 460 in it. It's quite cool, and low power.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. By space heater, I was referring to the 470. Overclocked and overvolted, it honestly feels just like a hair dryer. By contrast, a friend's 460 768 overclocked literally blows cool air out of the back. We ran them side by side w/ Kombustor in unlock power draw mode and the difference in heat output's really something to witness.

If by high end, you mean a Quad 480 setup, then yes, I've had the misfortune of playing w/ one of those. Dirt 2 sure did look nice though!

You know, it really depends on where you live and the region of the country/world too. I'm living in an old apt in the desert and it's summer right now. I've got very little motivation to put more heat in here. Now, if I were making this decision in the winter, I may well have tricked myself into the i7, haha.

I do wish I could compare an i5 side by side though. The i7 definitely feels smoother, even messing about w/ Firefox, Zune, and a couple social apps. I'd imagine adding an SSD to an i7 would make everything snap and feel instant. For now, I'm cheating by leaving everything open.

 

[vengence]

The i7 rig would be nearly 50% more expensive than the i5. I don't see it being 50% faster. But then the high end never does give much value anyway.

If you use similar ram (which you can), the i7 is 23% more. No where near, 50% more expensive. Furthemore, that's if you only look at the price of the mobo, cpu, and ram. If you look at the total price of the rig including case, psu, graphics card, the difference from i7 to i5 falls under 10%.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. By space heater, I was referring to the 470. Overclocked and overvolted, it honestly feels just like a hair dryer. By contrast, a friend's 460 768 overclocked literally blows cool air out of the back. We ran them side by side w/ Kombustor in unlock power draw mode and the difference in heat output's really something to witness.

If by high end, you mean a Quad 480 setup, then yes, I've had the misfortune of playing w/ one of those. Dirt 2 sure did look nice though!

You know, it really depends on where you live and the region of the country/world too. I'm living in an old apt in the desert and it's summer right now. I've got very little motivation to put more heat in here. Now, if I were making this decision in the winter, I may well have tricked myself into the i7, haha.

I do wish I could compare an i5 side by side though. The i7 definitely feels smoother, even messing about w/ Firefox, Zune, and a couple social apps. I'd imagine adding an SSD to an i7 would make everything snap and feel instant. For now, I'm cheating by leaving everything open.

I live in North Texas, we'll average 20-30 days of 100Degree+ weather, and it's not a dry heat either.

Furthermore, I doubt you used a Quad 480 setup to play dirt 2, as Quad-SLI only supports 3Dmark Vantage IIRC.

I would recommend an SSD though. They're one of the best cost effective upgrades out there.

 

[Jodiuh]

If you use similar ram (which you can), the i7 is 23% more. No where near, 50% more expensive.

I wouldn't use 2 x 2 GB on the 930/X58. But if I did, then I may as well go w/ the Lynnfield i7 and save some bucks on the board too. Of course none of that matters because neither option is appealing to me, only the 2 I posted up top. You can swap parts around all you want, but the way I've got things configured, it's still quite a bit pricier to run w/ the 930/X58.

Furthemore, that's if you only look at the price of the mobo, cpu, and ram. If you look at the total price of the rig including case, psu, graphics card, the difference from i7 to i5 falls under 10%.

Ugh...I'm not looking at the price of the PSU, GPU, or anything else. It's all in the top post, really.

I live in North Texas, we'll average 20-30 days of 100Degree+ weather, and it's not a dry heat either.

Why are you even telling me this? This is not a "my state gets hotter than your state" thread.

All I wanted to do was explain that my place gets hot enough without electronics running rampant and that even 200 watts will go a long way towards keeping the place cooler. That's all...just a point of reference.

Furthermore, I doubt you used a Quad 480 setup to play dirt 2, as Quad-SLI only supports 3Dmark Vantage IIRC.

I would recommend an SSD though. They're one of the best cost effective upgrades out there.

Whoops, yup, just checked the pictures, it was TRI SLI. Bastards still got crazy hot AND LOUD though. Intel held a big LAN a few months back and Asus brought all kinds of goodies with them.

I'm really trying to hold off for whatever Intel's got next. But if I go w/ the i5, I'll have an extra $200ish of unallocated upgrade funds yearning for a Vertex 2/Agility 2/????

 

[djoye]

The reason I bought an i7 over an i5 was because of advantages of the X58 chipset over the P55 chipset. This was some months ago that I did the research so I can't even remember exactly what the advantages are. I think advantages involved SLI speed, SATA3 and USB3 handling.

 

[vengence]

I wouldn't use 2 x 2 GB on the 930/X58. But if I did, then I may as well go w/ the Lynnfield i7 and save some bucks on the board too. Of course none of that matters because neither option is appealing to me, only the 2 I posted up top. You can swap parts around all you want, but the way I've got things configured, it's still quite a bit pricier to run w/ the 930/X58.

Then this isn't a "is i7 or i5 better thread" that can be universally relevant to people who are making this choice in the future that you've made it out to be. This is a "my specific needs" based on some very perticular board choices.

Why are you even telling me this? This is not a "my state gets hotter than your state" thread.

All I wanted to do was explain that my place gets hot enough without electronics running rampant and that even 200 watts will go a long way towards keeping the place cooler. That's all...just a point of reference.

First off, it's not 200 Watts. The i7 to i5 at similar speeds is going to be less than 40Watts. Even if you change graphics cards (something that has nothing to do if you run an i7 or an i5) the whole change will be ~150Watts, not 200. That's the same heat that's put out by 2-75 watt lightbulbs. It's not much.

Feel free to do what ever you want with your system, really. And feel free to justify it to your self how ever you want to. But the larger conclusions of "the i7 is 50% more!" and "zomg so much hotter than an i5" are no applicable to the "future readers" you're trying to benefit.

 

[vengence]

The reason I bought an i7 over an i5 was because of advantages of the X58 chipset over the P55 chipset. This was some months ago that I did the research so I can't even remember exactly what the advantages are. I think advantages involved SLI speed, SATA3 and USB3 handling.

More PCI-E lanes and Tripple Channel memory are the biggies. Oh, and faster CPUs.

 

[Mosher]

If you can swing it, the I7 - 930 is a great chip and will serve well for a long time. That's what I voted for.

However I am running and I5-750 OC'd to 4Ghz and man it's really good. You still can't go wrong. If you don't have a Microcenter then you may want to go the I5-760 route to save a little green.