upgrade to i7 worth the $$

[Doozer]

Should I upgrade to an i7 from my Q9450?
I know that I will get more PPD out of the i7 but is it worth it?

 

[Pretiacruento]

IMHO I say go for it, mainly because your rig will last you longer, since pretty soon Intel will release i7s with 6 cores and your level of upgradeability (sp?) on your rig will be higher than with the rig you have now. Don't forget Nvidia's GT300 series coming out soon.
Get the best X58 mobo you can find, it'll last you longer than expected! Lots of cool upgrades to come

 

[nitrobass24]

I'd wait because the six core, and gt300 is coming soon.
Once it does you can decide to jump to that, and if not all the stuff you can buy right now will be on sale, and tons of stuff will be on sale here on [H].

 

[Parja]

Should I upgrade to an i7 from my Q9450?
I know that I will get more PPD out of the i7 but is it worth it?

Gotta weigh the cost/performance, as far as Folding is concerned. I see you're already rocking a GTX 260 and have a single full PCI-E slot board, so there's not a ton of PPD increase you could do there economically.

Since really any upgrade would involve a new mobo anyway, I would think shooting for an i7 system with multiple PCI-E slots for future GPU additions would definitely be a good way to go.

 

[capreppy]

Going i7 can be a pretty heft (dollar wise) change. You're talking new MoBo & new RAM, not including the cost of the i7 itself. There are definitely more options for MoBo (relative to 6 months ago) and RAM prices have definitely come down. My next dedicated boxen is going to be an i7 because I have a spare i7 waiting for parts.

 

[Kendrak]

I have always existed in the upper middle range. I will be faster than most people but I didn't pay the crazy premium to be at the very top.

I see myself with my Q6600 for another 6 months or so. I'll pick up I7 chips and boards used from people that needed to do another upgrade to stay on the bleeding edge.

 

[natermeister]

Intel's Gulftown processor (6-cores) won't be here until probably the end of Q2 2010. Then, only in Extreme Edition form. nVidia's GT300 probably won't be here until Q1 2010, unless nVidia executes perfectly and honestly, they haven't been lately.

I'd wait and see until at least September to see how the whole Core i5 situation shakes out.

 

[dr.stevil]

I'd wait because the six core, and gt300 is coming soon.
Once it does you can decide to jump to that, and if not all the stuff you can buy right now will be on sale, and tons of stuff will be on sale here on [H].

x2

IF you already have a decent c2quad rig, there is no reason to go with an i7 build at the moment other than it's 'because you want to'.

With that said, If I had the cash to play with, I'd build one right now... but plan on waiting till a consumer level 6/8 core processor hits the market before going to an i7 setup

 

[Pretiacruento]

Intel's Gulftown processor (6-cores) won't be here until probably the end of Q2 2010. Then, only in Extreme Edition form. nVidia's GT300 probably won't be here until Q1 2010, unless nVidia executes perfectly and honestly, they haven't been lately.

I'd wait and see until at least September to see how the whole Core i5 situation shakes out.

Yup that's a pretty good advice too =) I'm in the process of building an i7 rig so I should be alright with that until either the Gulftown or the GT300 prices drop, hopefully

 

[Doozer]

You guys have given me a lot to think about.

Keep the comments and opinions coming.

 

[Pretiacruento]

It comes down to how much money are you willing to spend... I'm pretty sure I'll be getting an i7 920 within 2 months from now, by then I'm sure the prices will drop a little bit more, thus making it more affordable for all of us... if you have the $$$, go for it!

 

[Zero82z]

Not worth the cash unless you have a ton of it lying around . An i7 is good for about 4k more PPD compared to a C2Q at the same speed, but that isn't really a significant enough difference to warrant the cost.

 

[SmokeRngs]

IF you already have a decent c2quad rig, there is no reason to go with an i7 build at the moment other than it's 'because you want to'.

For a pure folding box, I agree. If it happens to be your main system which also folds, that's a different story depending on what you do with the system.

Let's just say if I could afford an i7 system right now I'd jump on one in a heartbeat. Then again, I do a lot of video encoding and while the Q6600@3.6 in my main system is no slouch, I would save a lot of time by moving to an i7. At least until I can build a new system I have another two Q6600s to help with my encoding tasks. Encodes running multiple days on a single box can be annoying.

That said, for a pure folding box it's not worth the money over a Q6600 or similar. The i5 may not be the route to go either. I mention this because of the number of PCI-e lanes most of those boards are going to have. They won't have nearly the number of lanes the i7 motherboards have and if you're building a multi-GPU box the i5 might not cut it. However, I don't know the specs for motherboards for the i5 so this may not be a problem.

 

[natermeister]

If I had the money, I'd definitely build an i7 rig around a Classified board. But I don't, so I'm sticking with my Q6600 and swapping my 8800GT for a GTX 285 and I'll stay with that for the rest of the year.