i7/i5 is it worth the upgrade?

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MrGiggles

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Nov 18, 2010
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Hey guys. I am new here. I am looking to upgrade my system very soon (after xmas) wondering what my best bet is. I hope this is the right thead.

I currently run

E6750 2.66 core 2 duo OC to 3.46ghz on air cooling
4gigs of DDR3 dual chan Corsair domminator low timing 1333mhz
XFX I790 Ultra Motherboard
XFX 6870 Video card
850watt psu

it is starting to show its age with the games I play BF2 COD mw2 and black ops etc.

I have about 1900$ budget I would like to throw at this.

I will be getting a new video card because I do not like SLI etc. I ran 2 9800GX2 before i bought this card.


what should I get? I 80% game 20% edit some GoPro HD videos and photos.

Please help me! what will last me the longest.
 
Intel's new architecture Sandy Bridge will release on Jan 5th, so wait and get something from that line.
 
should I go i5 or i7? I also really do not know what board I should get with the setup. any opinions would be great.

What is the diff between i7 and i5? besides cores?
 
Seriously, if you aren't going to upgrade until after Christmas, then wait another week and see what Sandy Bridge brings to the table.

The real difference isn't so much between i5 and i7, it is between socket 1366 and socket 1156 - 1366 is the high end part that supports multiple full x16 PCIe slots and triple channel memory while 1156 is the more mainstream part that uses double channel memory.
 
is that somthing people can see in games? dual to triple? I run 2 WD 300gig velociraptors also.. which seem to help with loading times etc.
 
Forceman said:
Seriously, if you aren't going to upgrade until after Christmas, then wait another week and see what Sandy Bridge brings to the table.

The real difference isn't so much between i5 and i7, it is between socket 1366 and socket 1156 - 1366 is the high end part that supports multiple full x16 PCIe slots and triple channel memory while 1156 is the more mainstream part that uses double channel memory.
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Sandy Bridge will be using LGA 1155 or 1356, or 2011 for servers I think. The main difference between LGA 2011 and LGA 1356 is 2 QPI connections on the LGA 2011 and 1 QPI connection on the LGA 1356. According to wikipedia the new top line sandy bridge Core i7-2600K will require LGA 1155.
 
edruns69 said:
Sandy Bridge will be using LGA 1155 or 1356, or 2011 for servers I think. The main difference between LGA 2011 and LGA 1356 is 2 QPI connections on the LGA 2011 and 1 QPI connection on the LGA 1356. According to wikipedia the new top line sandy bridge Core i7-2600K will require LGA 1155.
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That's the first I've heard of a 1356 variant. Personally, I'm waiting to jump on an 1155 part - I don't know that I'll see the benefit from 2011.
 
In BF BC2 I could not run on max settings. I heard it helps if I had a quad processor. pretty much every other game I own runs perfect on max settings I run on a 24HD" monitor and sometimes a 23" HD monitor. I would like to run max eye candy on games if possible.

If sandy bridge is the next step. I will wait and buy then. Ive had this setup for over 4 years I think.
 
MrGiggles said:
In BF BC2 I could not run on max settings. I heard it helps if I had a quad processor. pretty much every other game I own runs perfect on max settings I run on a 24HD" monitor and sometimes a 23" HD monitor. I would like to run max eye candy on games if possible.

If sandy bridge is the next step. I will wait and buy then. Ive had this setup for over 4 years I think.
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BFBC2 really does love more cores. I upgraded from an E8400 mildly overclocked to an i7 950 and doubled my fps with the same GTX 280.
Most modern games improve a lot going from dual to quad core because the 360 has 3 cores and the PS3 has 2 + SPUs.
That said, more cores beyond 4 doesn't do much and triple channel barely makes any difference in games.
The new sandy bridge i5 is probably what you want.

Edit: didn't notice you said you edit HD videos and photos. In that case, the i5 might not be enough. It really depends on how much you care about editing. It can use as much hardware as you're willing to throw at it.
 
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MrGiggles said:
In BF BC2 I could not run on max settings. I heard it helps if I had a quad processor. pretty much every other game I own runs perfect on max settings I run on a 24HD" monitor and sometimes a 23" HD monitor. I would like to run max eye candy on games if possible.

If sandy bridge is the next step. I will wait and buy then. Ive had this setup for over 4 years I think.
Click to expand...

If you want to spend $1900 you will need to wait until Q3 2011 for LGA 2011 hardware. That will be the high end sandy bridge with 6 and 8 cores and more PCI-Express lanes for SLI and CF.
 
I do not want to do SLI or CF. I will most likely buy the 6970 or whatever is higher. I am looking for above avg gamer and editing use. No need for the stuff I will most likely never take advantage of.
 
MrGiggles said:
I do not want to do SLI or CF. I will most likely buy the 6970 or whatever is higher. I am looking for above avg gamer and editing use. No need for the stuff I will most likely never take advantage of.
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In that case, just get a 1155 setup in January.
 
I guess my choice of Mobo in January will be limited.. will it be etter to upgrade the ram to 1600 from 1333 or will the ram work well enough? with 1155 are choices of Air cpu coolers limited?
 
Lol, showing it's age with mw2. Better spend that $600 in upgrades quick!

Seriously, for gaming purposes, no reason to spend that kind of dough. I'm thinking what game needs an i7 quad and truth is there isn't a game out there that does - Unless the game itself is poorly optimized to begin with.
 
I was also thinking the new i5 I might as well. like stated for video and photo editing Adobe will eat up as much processor as I can throw at it.

I5 looks to be the best bang for the buck. I will most likely get a new case as mine is about I dunno 8 years old.

does anyone know when the newest ati card will be out? anyone wanna buy a cheeeep 6870 haha.
 
MrGiggles said:
I guess my choice of Mobo in January will be limited.. will it be etter to upgrade the ram to 1600 from 1333 or will the ram work well enough? with 1155 are choices of Air cpu coolers limited?
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Gigabyte and Asus have already announced about 10 motherboards each for socket 1155, I'm sure the other manufacturers will have a bunch also. Reportedly the 1156 heatsinks will also work on 1155, so there are plenty to choose from there as well. And 1333 RAM will work fine with socket 1155.
 
Im going to be upgrading my old 4600+ Asus Crosshair Mobo to the new Sandy Bridge, the current i7 should take a decent price drop.
 
MrGiggles said:
Sounds good. i5 it is. :) any mobos have better OC then others?
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Flipping through the thread, everyone is talking about the unreleased i5's on the 1155 platform. (So I assume that you mean the new Sandy Bridge i5's)
Since they are unreleased we have very little info about how overclocking will work on them.
 
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DaFox said:
Flipping through the thread, everyone is talking about the unreleased i5's on the 1155 platform. (So I assume that you mean the new Sandy Bridge i5's)
Since they are unreleased we have very little info about how overclocking will work on them.
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This is the exact reason I went with my i7-950 recently. Can't go wrong for $200. Still doing initial setup, but if I can get it stable around 3.8-4ghz it will last a very long time. Hyperthreading is nice for day to day as well. Too many unkowns with SB, especially price. And since you can only OC on unlocked chips, and via multiplier only, it doesn't seem that there is much flex room on these chips. The 9xx series is proven.
 
Don't rush your decisions and wait for Sandybridge. I noticed that you made a mistake buying your 6870 and I assume you also rushed in buying it since you just said you are selling it already. Don't make the same mistake again. I know you are just tempted to buy upgrades to your setup atm.
 
oh no I am rushing I bought the 6870 just for fun to see how it was. plus to cool my case down. cause 2 9800gx2 running around 70 Idle and 99 full tilt SUCKED.

it was only 270 bucks.

I will wait till SB comes out with the whatever higher end rage of I5 is 3ghz prob and get a good mobo.

I like the UD3R mobo. I do not need the UD7
 
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