Rig Build. Q9550 or I7 for ~1000?

Apathy

Apathy

Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
890
My buddy wants to build a new pc. His budget is about $1000 USD with some flexibility. He'll be gaming mostly, and doing some minor video/photo editing.

His current rig is something along these lines:
AMD 3200+
1GB RAM
ASUS A8V Mobo
ATI 9800 Pro

I put him together a rig for about $997, $930 with rebates.
Q9550
4GB OCZ Reaper
Gigabyte UD3P P45 Mobo
XFX 4890 1GB
Corsair 620HX
WD 1TB Black
Dark Knight CPU Cooler
Samsung DVD Burner
AS 5 paste
Coolermaster RC690 Case


Then I went back and looked at what I could do with a little bit more cash, and I came up with this for about $200 more.
I7 920
6GB OCZ Gold
ASUS P6T
XFX 4890 1GB
Corsair 850TX (this is just incase he decides to crossfire in a year or so)
WD 1TB Black
Dark Knight CPU Cooler
Samsung DVd Burner
AS 5 Paste
Coolermaster RC690 Case

He only has XP at the moment, and I am thinking of just letting him sit on that until windows 7 has been out for awhile. Maybe he can grab it in a year for an upgrade.

Anybody have any alternative ideas here or see an area to change that'd make sense? He's planning to move on this as early as next week.
Forgot to mention he'll be gaming on a 24" LCD.
 
I would forget about that Q9550 and go with the i7 already. I am sure you are looking at the Core i7, Asus P6T and OCZ 6GB ram combo for $558?
 
^
+1 or tell your friend to cough up the dough for i7 for overkill.
 
This is a very good option also. The Athlon 64 3200+ single core cpu is ridiculously slow in general compared to anything right now. If it's mainly gaming, a Phenom II X4 Quad build will do. Plus, your friend only does light video/photo editing anyways.

lowteckh said:
Phenom 2.
Click to expand...
 
i appreciate the phenom 2 suggestion, though i dont know much about the cpu/mobo combinations, but im sure a quick look around here will point me in the right direction.

also, thanks for pointing out that combo hardwareguru. that saved my buddy about $80 if he ends up going with the i7.
 
If he's planning on Crossfire in a year or any time soon the I7, other wise C2Q or Phenom II will be fine.
 
do a pricing and see what the difference between a phenom II build and an i7 build and see where you end up.. there has been some killer phenom II cpu+motherboard combos on newegg recently.. might want to take a look at those..

crossfire is perfectly fine on the phenom II and gets the same performance as the i7 with a simple overclock to 3.5-3.6ghz on the phenom II 940 and the phenom II 955 doesnt require an overclock at all since it runs a faster HT clock, altcon..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
crossfire is perfectly fine on the phenom II and gets the same performance as the i7 with a simple overclock to 3.5-3.6ghz on the phenom II 940 and the phenom II 955 doesnt require an overclock at all since it runs a faster HT clock, altcon..
Click to expand...
Please bother to read these two reviews before you answer:
1) [H]
With a Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX configuration powering our games we found the Core i7 920 at 3.6GHz allowed us to get the most performance out of this graphics combo. The AMD Phenom II CPUs simply held this multi-GPU configuration back.
Click to expand...
2) Guru3D
But in retrospect the Core i7 platform is a fantastic platform for multi-GPU gaming as you'll gain heaps... seriously heaps and heaps more performance opposed to today's regular PCs with a Core 2 Duo processo
Click to expand...
If you feel there is another "truth" out there, please link it and don't waste my time with your personal fancies or fantasies about what the performance of a system is.
After you've read and understood , please edit your response to reflect REALITY, and not your personal wishes.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3506&p=1

Even in the [H] review I'm not really sold on the i7. Yeah...it is better...but not enough to make me go spend double on a cpu/mobo/RAM combo. But, I guess if you can afford 2x4870x2s I'd get an i7.

IMO: Get a decent monitor (non TN panel), get decent speakers (z-5500 and everything else from logitech doesn't count), THEN get your i7.
 
Jospeh said:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3506&p=1

Even in the [H] review I'm not really sold on the i7. Yeah...it is better...but not enough to make me go spend double on a cpu/mobo/RAM combo. But, I guess if you can afford 2x4870x2s I'd get an i7.

IMO: Get a decent monitor (non TN panel), get decent speakers (z-5500 and everything else from logitech doesn't count), THEN get your i7.
Click to expand...

Man they OC'd the balls off those CPUs - 4 Ghz on Phenom II? You don't see that every day.
As for the results, yeah I guess they're all fine at hose speeds. I think it's safe to bet on 3.6-3.7Ghz for Phenom II BE but not more than that without big voltage tweaks, and I'm still not sure it's the way to go if you have the cash.
 
If your friend wants and needs to upgrade his computer now then theres little reason not to spring for the i7 over the core2.

Otherwise, I would suggest holding out a couple months and seeing the prices and performances relevant to the i5 / i7 on the 1156 platform before pulling the trigger
 
Alright, well i think the combo that HardwareGuru linked is going to seal the deal for the i7 platform. Just one quick thing, will the Dark Knight S1283V be enough heat sink to get a decent OC on the 920? Or should I get him something more, like a V8?

Also, is there a big difference between these two xigmatek models? I see the cheaper one has copper heat pipes, while the more expensive has only aluminum. Eh?

S1283V - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

S1283 - $37 ($27 with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

V8 - $62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055
 
Last edited:
Yes, it would. The Xigmatek Darknight is a great heatsink for the price. No sense pay extra for the Coolermaster V8.
 
Dark Knight is nickel plated and comes with the backplates needed. Standard S1283 does not come with backplates, you'll have to buy them separately, and no nickel plating (exposed copper/aluminum). Dark Knight is shinier, *BLING!**BLING!* :p

lt_shiro has a link to a cheaper CM alternative than the Xigmateks.
 
If you go for xigmatek for an AMD build then do not buy any tall memory sticks. The xigmatek mounts only horizontally over the memory ports on AMD motherboards.
 
If you go for the AMD, get the CM alternative I mentioned earlier.

$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-GP 120mm Long life sleeve CPU Cooler
 
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