This makes me laugh; shut up with your ridiculous comments.
If you already have a Core 2 system then don't bother with Core i7 unless you want to of course.
Me on the other hand; I had no system at all so I wasn't going to waste my money on an ageing core 2 system. Core i7 is quicker than core 2 for gaming if you have a multi card setup, fact.
RoEy
That's not really the nicest way of saying you disagree with somebody. In fact, you don't even disagree. Just because mikehunt79 made a sweeping statement with inferred context (I suppose he assumed an audience who would get the context) doesn't make it incorrect.
If you have a system like mine (as posted above) and need to upgrade with a budget of around £1k, then i7 makes reasonable sense for the non-PC literate buyer: it provides a viable, future-proof (i.e. the socket will continue for the next couple of years) platform which can be upgraded by a simple chip swap by the Purple Shirts.
If the buyer is PC-literate, however, then talking of a future-proof system is pointless as he/she may well flog the motherboard/CPU combination and buy the latest and greatest thing a year down the line. As such, the money saved by going to a Core2 setup now and upgrading to something faster than current i7s now will be quite noticeable, IMHO, and performance will be on par for the Core2 and better in a year's time.
If you want to justify your purchase, then great: Core i7 is the fastest basic platform out there, in that it has the highest performance for the highest-end chips from a non-overclocking perspective (dual Q9775s are still faster for some applications, though). However, when a system is taken as a whole (i.e. buying Core2 and Core i7 for £1k), the Core2 setup will yield a better user experience because of either:
1) Better graphics cards
2) Bigger monitor
3) Faster storage subsystem (why bother playing a game 1fps faster if it still takes a minute to load?)
4) Quieter cooling...?
Just my perspective - doesn't make it the right perspective, however.
