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Upgrade: i7 or Q9550

T

TekRok

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
2,279
so its time to upgrade my AMD system. Judging by the results i am not going to get Phenom 2, really wanted to though. I had my 6000+ for probably about 2.5 years and thats about the time i want my next CPU to last me for. i am not a crazy OC'r or anything, must want a solid system.

With upcoming price drops i would like to get either i7 920 (295$) or Q9550 (265$) with the upcoming c2d price cuts

It seems the 9550 performs just as good as the 920 and much cheaper for the whole package and should keep me going for 2 years or so. I would save about 350$ with just getting a new mobo/cpu/ram with a c2d system than an i7

thoughts?
 
Well if your mobo supports Phenom II and your not doing any super CPU intensive things, that may be the way to go for you.

If you have your heart set on Intel, no reason to go to i7 unless your running a multi GPU rig or plan on it (having both crossfire and SLi is great, especially if you have no brand loyalty) or if your going to do some that can utilize all 8 threads that i7 has.
 
i actually DONT plan on doing SLI or Crossfire, i was always the kind of person that single car appealed better to, price/performance isnt that great.

i DONT want a phenom 2 because of my current mobo and the overall results that i have been seeing, i was some more kick. my m2n really sucks at OC'n AMD chips, maybe it was just the 6000 design that made it crash after .2ghz boost.

so what you are saying is the Q9550 IS better to go with since i wont be running SLI or anything of that sort. i probably wont take advantage of i7's threads so thats a good point.

is the q9550 relatively easy to overclock? does it run cold? good chip all around for the most part?

thanks for your help
 
They are very easy to OC, you should be able to get 3.4GHz easily by just upping the FSB to 400 and I got 3.6GHz on stock voltages by upping to 425FSB (I may be wrong). Mine had no problem running at 3.83GHz with a OCZ Vendetta II cooler and some more voltage. It only hit 59ºC load at that speed as well.
It's definitely a good chip!
 
If you tend to do memory intensive tasks, the triple channel memory the i7 uses offers a potential 33% increase in band width. Something to consider ...

And the i7 cpu is newer tech with a longer lifespan. However, if cost is a factor, the Q9550 is a solid choice.
 
nice to hear it can OC well. can i ask why you upgraded to an i7? you had the 9550 before it correct? what made you switch?

also, whats the best ddr2 memory to run with the 9550? looking at Gskill as i have always used them http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231226 or a better clock of 5-5-5-15 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166 for 10$ do you think it will be noticiable or should i just go for the first ones.

I already settled on a mobo which would GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R, seems like a solid choice for sure.

Video card would be an EVGA 280SSC if buy.com comes through with it
 
i7 goes to 3.8Ghz easy as pie, mmmmmm pie, and 4Ghz with little work and all on air. I'd go for i7 for the overclocking simplicity and the fact it's the newer of the two.
 
and its 350$ more...

like i said i am not a crazy score keeper and liquid nitrogen cooler person, simply need a good machine for the money.
 
Considering the next time you upgrade all your 775 still will dump to the garbage while i7 you will keep your mobo and ram if not more. X58 is coming down, or better yet, wait a little more for the budget nahelem line coming this summer. At the end it's all up to how much you are willing to spend and do you care about new tech.
 
If you are building from scratch, get the i7. The memory you buy for it now will be good for your next build (unlike DDR2) and the motherboard will likely support the "tick" chip when it comes out in a year or so also. The Q9550 is the right choice if you already have a 775 system, but DDR3 RAM prices are dropping and there are now cheaper (sub-$200) X58 motherboards.

Also, where did you see the Q9550 for $269? Or is that on a pricing roadmap somewhere?
 
If you don't have the money or don't want to spend it on the i7's I'm sure the Q9550 will do you well for a wile, depending on what you do. And yes, they OC VERY easy (see sig). However next time you upgrade you will not be able to take anything with you, but then again by that time I'm sure all the i7 stuff will have come down a good bit in price by then. I'm hoping for 2-3 years out of my chip, the only "upgrade" I have planed in that time is an SSD.

I got my Q9550 for like 240 or 250 and if you take out the cost of the mobo that came with it (60 bucks on newegg) it was under 200, though that was with the Live cashback. I also have the 2nd kit of RAM you listed, spend the 10 bucks, will be worth it.
 
I went i7 because a friend bought one of my 4870x2's and I do a lot of video and photo work. Also because it's new and it's shiny. Plus it's nice to have SLi and no nvidia chipset.
 
why is everyone getting the p6t motherboard with their i7 chips, i read such horrible reviews all over the web about it, out of 5 seems 2 people have issues with it. i am looking at the evga board, seems like a better choice
 
iGrooCk said:
why is everyone getting the p6t motherboard with their i7 chips, i read such horrible reviews all over the web about it, out of 5 seems 2 people have issues with it. i am looking at the evga board, seems like a better choice
Click to expand...

See sig:

3dm06_24179.jpg
 
well thats what i mean, why the Asus board? Even Newegg reviews out of all the websites out there gave Asus a bad review, ranging from Lan issues and others. not that i will be using Lan but it just tells you how it was put together...
 
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