So I may be joing the Dark Side...

L

Light1984

Gawd
Joined
Dec 31, 2004
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616
I have been contemplating recently about doing a fresh build from scratch, but I was thinking about using this i7 thing I keep hearing about. Supposedly it simply obliterates my poor little Phenom... I have never built an Intel rig and I have been in the hobby since the Athlon XP days. I wouldn't say I am a fan boy, simply someone loyal to the brand. I am comfortable with AMD and as such never saw a real reason to switch. I guess I never felt there was much of a performance gap worth switching over until now. This Nehalem seems to be the best choice for whatever type of high performance computing you wish to do.

Would someone mind getting my up to speed on whats what with Intel and what supporting products I should look at. I will be using Asus for the mainboard as they have always taken care of me with my AMD chips over the years and prove to be rock solid. I will be using an nvidia GPU and would like to have the option to go SLI in the future, and I plan to water cool, so cheaper CPU and then an overclock to get me up to the speeds of the $1k parts. The computer will be mainly a gaming rig and will be used secondarily for your standard web surfing and downloading. I would like to get this build at or barely over $1000. This would be no sweat with an AMD build, however, I believe will be near impossible with Intel. I can save a little by using my current equipment. Carry-overs will be the case, fans, dvd drives, hdds, power supply, GPU (for the meantime), and thats all I can think of right now. I guess another issue to address is power. Will my current PSU be enough? I really have no idea what kind of power an Intel system draws as compared to AMD. Really my only focus for research at the moment is the CPU, Mainboard, and Ram. What are advantages, disadvantages with different products and so forth.

Thanks in advance for advice.
Josh
 
Your thread subject line might be a little turned around. Some might argue that you're coming from the dark side into the light. In any case, good luck with your venture into the wonderful world of Intel.
 
I would go with any of these motherboards.

ASUS Motherboards

If you have a Microcenter near you, buy the i7 there for $30-ish less.

i7 920

I doubt your PSU will be enough seeing as it's probably not as efficient as it is brand new anymore, and 610 really isn't enough for SLI.
 
The 610 would be fine for most mid range SLI setups and doubt he'd need to consider upgrading at all until he was going to SLI (if then).

Since you want ASUS, its hard to beat the P6T if you don't need the extra ports on the deluxe, but deluxe is a good choice too if you will be buying a new HS as well. The i920 overclocks better then any CPU I've every dealt with (especially for a quad) and is the cheapest option.
 
darkpaw said:
The 610 would be fine for most mid range SLI setups and doubt he'd need to consider upgrading at all until he was going to SLI (if then).
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610W is not enough for an i7 system with SLI video cards to remain within the peak efficiency zone of the PSU. For a single card it would be plenty, but for an SLI setup, it would certainly be a good idea to upgrade to something with at least 52A or so on the +12V rails.
 
Awesome stuff. Thanks. Any comments on the differences between those Asus boards that were linked a few posts up?
 
Light1984 said:
Awesome stuff. Thanks. Any comments on the differences between those Asus boards that were linked a few posts up?
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Honestly, I'd probably just go for the P6T, since neither of the other two boards offer very much more. Unless you want some specific features that one of the other two boards has, I would just recommend that board.
 
Zero82z said:
Honestly, I'd probably just go for the P6T, since neither of the other two boards offer very much more. Unless you want some specific features that one of the other two boards has, I would just recommend that board.
Click to expand...

I'd second this.

I've been running a P6T. Solid board and I've been able to achieve a solid overclock on it as well. Had little to no issues with the set up, and it's been running like a champ. (Price was a factor as well. :p)
 
If your board can support Phenom II, it would be much cheaper to upgrade to PII 955. Sure it won't be as fast as the i7 but you will save a lot of money and for the price, I think that it is a better deal than getting a new mobo, RAM and CPU.

Edit: I see that your mobo supports the PII 955
http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=8jYT1euVL4wCyH04
 
The problem is, if I were to upgrade to the top of the line AMD chip, I would want to run AM3 to get use of its full benefits. I dunno... so many choices. Don't we live in a great country when our tough decisions are "what processor do I want to buy today?" Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate the input.
 
The difference with using AM3 and AM2+ is very minimal. Afterall it is not worth it to replace the mobo and RAM if you can just drop in a new processor for an upgrade and you can do it for much less money. You can always upgrade to AM3 mobo later when DDR3 price has dropped and new chipsets are out.
 
I must admit, your logic is sound. You have placed me in quite a predicament though... sigh... haha.
 
Light1984 said:
I must admit, your logic is sound. You have placed me in quite a predicament though... sigh... haha.
Click to expand...

On the other had, there are comming hexa-core i7 to socket 1336...that would be your upgradepath then...the upgrade path for AMD is what...something in 2011?
 
I was just like you Josh, been an AMD guy for a looong time. But I just couldn't resist the talk and now I have my i7 920 rig up. It is without a doubt the fastest system I've ever seen. It blows away any computer I've ever had by ten miles. I went with the Gigabyte UD4P mobo. Not cheap, but the end result has been well worth it. I upgraded from an AMD 4200 X2 Manchester core.
 
I play a lot of ETQW online but I also do a lot of multi-tasking in Linux and would load the system down pretty good. I'm anxious to see how much I can load this system up.
 
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