Page 1 of i5/i7 vs skt775 Core2Quad..

just curious, i`m trying to research the new i series cpu`s, trying to decide which direction to go when i upgrade (months away yet) my current pc is going to my son as he wants to play modern warfare 2 :)

basicaly, are the new i5/i7 cpu`s worth the extra over an older skt775 variant (ie, Q6600 clocked to 3ghz) taking into account the extra cost of the newer mobo`s & the DDR3 memory, starting from scratch, here are the current hardware sets i`m looking at.

decent "generic" skt775 mobo £40
Q6600 (second hand) £100
2gig ddr 2 £30
GTX260 1gb (second hand) £95

£265

vs..

i5 i5-750 / 2.66 GHz - skt 1156 retail (new) £135
decent "generic mobo (i5/i7 compatable) £70
2gig DDR3 £35
GTX260 1gb (second hand) £95

£335

+ point for an "i" based system = some future proofing........ & unless it offers a significant power boost, thats the only advantage it has, so, i could really do with a bit of first hand info from someone thats used one :)

I think gaming has only recently got the hang of dual core, I`m not sure any make significant use of 4 cores, or will in the near future. The effort of coding things this way vs the % market that has them, is much the same as supporting SLI/Crossfire, very badly swayed in the favour of not bothering.

You`d be better off spending the money you`d save from sticking with 2 cores on a faster GPU.


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Chris, I always think the benchmark charts give you a good appreciation of the sort of difference between the CPUs to give you an idea of whether it`s worth the extra cash.

[url]http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/compare,1401.html?prod[2884]=on&prod[2638]=on[/url]
Those are the two CPUs you`re looking at, but obviously you`re clocking the Q6600 0.6Ghz above it`s usual, so it`s not quite as clear cut.

If it were me, I`d be going for an i5/i7.

split down the middle lol :)

i have a little incentive to save the extra for the newer generation cpu, as an example, the rig i`m using now is this.

E5200 2.5ghz dual core, clocked to 3.01ghz (old wolfendale core, not a core duo or core2duo)
8800gt superclocked edition (as fast as the stock GTX)
2gig ddr 2 @ 800mhz

& it`s hitting 11000 ish on 3dmark06.

whilst my previous gaming rig =

Q6600 2.66ghz running at stock speed
8800GTX 758meg
2gig ddr2 @ 800mhz

would hit 16000 3dmarks, yet on paper, they should be fairly equal, i`m hoping the new gen "i" cpu`s have the same boost

The latest PC Pro has a comparative review of 50 CPUs.

In summary.

AMD Phenom 965 is best bang per buck.
Socket 775 is now `retired` Although you can obviously still build a very capable systems on that platform the benefit of a new build really doesn`t compete with the top end Phenoms.

i3, i5 and i7 are looking good but currently at a price premium.

cheers :)

i looked at the AMD`s, & your right, they do seem a lot more punchy for the money, their quad core phenom 665 running at 3.4ghz is around £140, which is massively cheaper than an intel equivelant.

You should be able to get a 125W 965 for around £130.

I built one recently on a cheap Asrock m/b. My nephew has just put one together using a £60 packaged water cooler and is running at 4.1 GHz stable without any voltage tweaks