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Core i7 - to buy or not to buy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stu
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Stu

Stu

Stu

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The reviews are out, and discussion round here is a lot quieter than I anticipated.

So the question is: is the Core i7 worth the money?

For gaming, there appears to be little difference versus a C2 when running current games, unless you have a monster SLI/Crossfire setup that is not GPU limited... if you can afford 3 of the top spec graphics cards, then I doubt you'll worry about the price of a Core i7 setup!:p

The new processors do appear to have the edge when it comes to some applications, but I doubt this difference will be significant for the typical home user.

So, it seems that there is currently little justification to upgrade from a C2 setup to a Core i7.

However, what about those of us that are running older rigs, like Athlons or P4s... those of us that upgrade once every 4-5 years. :confused:

I am considering either a Q9550/Asus P45 Deluxe/4GB DDR2 rig or a Core i7 920/Asus P6T Deluxe/6GB DDR3 rig. There's no hiding from the price difference.... I originally pitched the difference as being £250, but the more I look at it, I think it may be less.

The two processors are similar enough in price to remove from the equation. The x58 mobo is roughly £110 more.
4GB of performance DDR2 is roughly £80. 4GB of 1333 DDR3 can be had for £120, or £140 for 1600. That's £40-60 more expensive.
Admittedly, I would go for triple channel, so lets call it £200... this increases the difference to £120 (hence my original guess of £250 all in), but you're getting more memory - I think that 6GB will be a nice sweet spot with Vista x64, and may be more fairly compared to 8GB of DDR2 when comparing cost.

Future-proofing discussions always throw up strong opinions, and future-proofing is hard to truly do with PCs; however, there's no denying that future software will take better advantage of additional cores (effectively 8 for the i7 vs 4 for the C2Q), hyperthreading, increased memory bandwidth and the additional instruction sets built into the Core i7. So, if you plan on keeping the CPU/mobo/RAM for 4-5 years, will these perceived benefits justify spending an additional £150 on a Core i7 setup?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to throw out a few points to generate good discussion.
 
If you are coming from an older system like the Athlon or X2 from AMD or one of the older Intel P4 systems and dont plan on another major upgrade for the next 4-5 years
then yes upgrading to an Intel i7 system will hopefully keep your system in the mix fro a few years to come.
However if you are coming from a C2Duo or C2Quad from Intel or a Phenomn X4 from AMD then its not really worth the extra expense.
If it was me i would be looking to see how the new CPU's from AMD perform (Denab Core i believe) when they eventually hit the market,
from the speculation ive seen around the forums quite a few belive they may only be able to compete on par with Intels current C2Duo's and C2Quads.
You never know AMD may pull out another Gem like they did when the 4800 series of graphics card hit the market.
The worst thing that can happen while waiting for the new AMD chips come out is the current i7 prices includding mobo's and memory will come down in price.

What am i saying that would be a good thing :D
 
It really depends on what you want your system for and what you are upgrading from.

As previously mentioned if your goal is gaming then there is little justification, but if your intent is to use it as a CAD workstation then the upgrade is really worth it as the Core i7 is looking really good and a big improvement for CAD applications.
 
What do you guys think my brother should do?

He now has a 4400+ with a 8800GT and 2gigs ddr2.

he wants to go for a cheapish mobo with a 8500, but now is tempted with the new cpus. I told him that its better for him to get the 8400+mobo setup, because it will save him on ram, plus he only plays games. Would the i7 mobo + cpu be a better option for him? I mean long term its obviously better, but quad cores are still hardly supported anywhere in games, and the extra price is imo not worth it.
 
Stu said:
I am considering either a Q9550/Asus P45 Deluxe/4GB DDR2 rig or a Core i7 920/Asus P6T Deluxe/6GB DDR3 rig. There's no hiding from the price difference.... I originally pitched the difference as being £250, but the more I look at it, I think it may be less.
Click to expand...

You know thats exactly the same basket shopping ive been doing lately exact same specs ! Its so tempting to just hit the order on the Q9550 setup its neat/powerful well priced :)

Id happily spend an extra £250-300 on a Core i7 setup frankly, but am gonna wait for AMD Deneb and Intel corei7 to release and then better ranges, probably not the best time to go shopping in early/mid December but at least there's better prices/ranges.
 
i wouldn't get one straight away, ide give it 3 to 6 months for more mobo's to come out and for a better chip stepping to be released, when the C2D's where first released, be it the original E6*00 dual core & Q6*00 quad core series, or the later E8*00 dualies & quads, the first stepping was a bit hit & miss clocking & heat output wise. let the process mature a tad first before taking the plunge.
 
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VoG said:
i wouldn't get one straight away, ide give it 3 to 6 months for more mobo's to come out and for a better chip stepping to be released, when the C2D's where first released, be it the original E6*00 dual core & Q6*00 quad core series, or the later E8*00 dualies & quads, the first stepping was a bit hit & miss clocking & heat output wise. let the process mature a tad first before taking the plunge.
Click to expand...

Wish I could wait but currently am lucky if this PC I use now will switch on next time ;)

Its sad but true in 3-6 months time a new cpu/mobo/ram/graphics card will be out and will cost half the amount I paid now and even faster....

Tis why my PCs only last a good 3-6 months before I sell it on ;)
 
VoG said:
i wouldn't get one straight away, ide give it 3 to 6 months for more mobo's to come out and for a better chip stepping to be released, when the C2D's where first released, be it the original E6*00 dual core & Q6*00 quad core series, or the later E8*00 dualies & quads, the first stepping was a bit hit & miss clocking & heat output wise. let the process mature a tad first before taking the plunge.
Click to expand...

From nearly every review I've read, the 920 will easily clock to 3.6-3.8, and everyone is reporting that the Asus P6T board is performing well and is rock solid... so I don't have any concerns with these first releases.

I don't think that we will see new steppings until next summer at the earliest, and there is no way I'm waiting that long... just opening iTunes takes 30 seconds, which feels like an age!

HighlandeR said:
Id happily spend an extra £250-300 on a Core i7 setup frankly, but am gonna wait for AMD Deneb and Intel corei7 to release and then better ranges, probably not the best time to go shopping in early/mid December but at least there's better prices/ranges.
Click to expand...

One might argue that the extra £200 might be used to buy a 4870x2 or 280GTX rather than a 4870 or 260, which would make the C2Q system faster for gaming than the Core i7... however, I typically keep my CPU/RAM/mobo for 4-5 years, but I usually upgrade gfx every 2 years, so I don't see buying an expensive gfx card as being an equivalent investment.
 
Wish I could last 4-5 years :)

My m8s have told me I upgrade every 3-6 months with a new pc, they have to inform me of that since I purposely do not monitor it :)
 
re

i think im gonna wait till new year for a major overhaul...the game i play most is bf2 and the system i have now plays it at 1900*1080 with full detail at 40-60fps so i think im gonna wait a little longer....
 
Release prices for i7 at the minute don't make it worth considering in my opinion and you will certainly benefit from waiting a little to have a good idea of how it really performs and if there are any problems with the early release hardware. Also waiting a little will see the release of the new amd hrdware which may also have a beneficial effect on pricing and you never know maybe the new amd will be competition for the i7.

Right now i can see some disadvantages to buying i7 straight away 1 you risk paying a lot more and then seeing prices come down quite a lot quite rapidly which will take the shine off your purchase, 2 amd might shock us all and you will find you have paid a lot more for not much more performance. There are times where waiting is pointless but i don't think this is one of them and were i upgrading now i would wait and let the waters calm before jumping in for a swim.
 
Am hoping AMD does launch its 3ghz Phenom Deneb update later this month, even if it is not as fast as Intels and if its £250-300 it may proove the better bang for buck ;)
 
chrissss said:
What do you guys think my brother should do?

He now has a 4400+ with a 8800GT and 2gigs ddr2.

he wants to go for a cheapish mobo with a 8500, but now is tempted with the new cpus. I told him that its better for him to get the 8400+mobo setup, because it will save him on ram, plus he only plays games. Would the i7 mobo + cpu be a better option for him? I mean long term its obviously better, but quad cores are still hardly supported anywhere in games, and the extra price is imo not worth it.
Click to expand...

Just get a better graphics card. The rest is fine.
 
If you're keeping it for 4-5 years then no point getting the current C2Q.

It doesn't look like you are short of money either so definately go for i7, better future upgrade path. Tbh even 3Gb DDR3 tri-channel should do just fine.
 
I'm in the same boat at the moment, I've got a Athlon 64 setup which has lasted me a while but its time to upgrade.

I'll be spending about £1000 on a new pc, and my justification on choosing the i7 is that I don't upgrade often, and new motherboard sockets don't come out very frequently so getting a core2quad setup would drasticly decrease any future upgrade possibilities.
 
If you have the money and are happy to pay high initial prices then go i7 it will be the most future proof you can buy at the minute. If your like me and resent paying more then you have to for hardware then wait a little while give prices a chance to drop and pick the same kit up for less. All down to personal preference really which is same as always lol.
 
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