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Convince me to choose Core i7 over Core i5.

StarSolitude

StarSolitude

StarSolitude

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10 Sep 2009
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299
Your task in this thread is to give me reasons to buy a Core i7 system over i5. Convince me to get i7.

Reasons I am leaning toward i5 is that:
- It's better for gaming
- Less power consumption
- Overclocks to 4GHz just fine
- I'm not going to upgrade to core i9
- Would rather save some monet

But I have the money to spend on an i7 and part of me still wants to get the bigger/more expensive counterpart... So giveme reasons to get an i7! If you fail to do so, I'll get an i5!
 
For the reasons you have stated, go i5.

When I first started speccing my new build, I was like, "Biggest, fastest everything", just because I had the money. I was going for i7, GTX 295, 2000mhz RAM etc. But then I thought: nothing that I was ever going to use my computer for would warrant all that power.

I'm now going for an i5 and 5850 - saving myself about £300.

Do the same. Unless you game across 3 screens, Fold 24/7 and/or encode videos, an i5 is perfect.
 
StarSolitude said:
Your task in this thread is to give me reasons to buy a Core i7 system over i5. Convince me to get i7.

Reasons I am leaning toward i5 is that:
- It's better for gaming
- Less power consumption
- Overclocks to 4GHz just fine
- I'm not going to upgrade to core i9
- Would rather save some monet

But I have the money to spend on an i7 and part of me still wants to get the bigger/more expensive counterpart... So giveme reasons to get an i7! If you fail to do so, I'll get an i5!
Click to expand...

Those are the main reasons why you should go i5.

Here are some reason's why i7 might be better for you. :D

If your a gamer , then if you choose i7 1366 platform then you will have 2x 16x lanes for SLI or Corssfire. They will run at x16 -x16 rather than the i5 8x-x8. That is a serious thing for some big gamers.

The i5 is not better for gaming. Its as good. The i7 will just pip it and as more games are made supporting HT then i7 wins again.

I7 uses triple channel memory. upto 6 dimm slots to maximise your memory. The theoretical bandwidths are exciting and as things progress and higher impact cards as we are seeing are released then this might be an advantage.

These are not my personal views on why its better , just some of the potential facts to consider. As you mentioned you have the funds to do either.

McT
 
The truth is that if you have to ask someone to justify i7 over i5 you're just not committed enough to own i7.

You have to want the best to go i7, even though it's much more expensive for just a little more performance, you do get more performance and that's the point.

Now are you a GAMER or not?






LOL:D
 
I went the i7 route, full blown sli/xfire was the main thing that swung it for me, previously i ran sli on nforce 680i (poor quad clocking board), next board was a p5q dlx, (xfire at x8) x58 gives the option of either at full x16, what more could a gamer ask for.:D
 
McstylisT said:
Those are the main reasons why you should go i5.

Here are some reason's why i7 might be better for you. :D

If your a gamer , then if you choose i7 1366 platform then you will have 2x 16x lanes for SLI or Corssfire. They will run at x16 -x16 rather than the i5 8x-x8. That is a serious thing for some big gamers.

The i5 is not better for gaming. Its as good. The i7 will just pip it and as more games are made supporting HT then i7 wins again.

I7 uses triple channel memory. upto 6 dimm slots to maximise your memory. The theoretical bandwidths are exciting and as things progress and higher impact cards as we are seeing are released then this might be an advantage.

These are not my personal views on why its better , just some of the potential facts to consider. As you mentioned you have the funds to do either.

McT
Click to expand...

Yep, If you've got the cash, just get the best. The you can sit back and say to yourself, "I've got best CPU money can buy".

Until the next gen' comes along :rolleyes:

Aint that a bitch :(
 
LOL at the above posts

go for i7, how can you live knowing that a better i7 system is just within £150's reach and you got the inferior i5 :D

.. but me? nah, i would use that £150 towards something like a decent speaker system / graphics card / bigger screen
 
You say you're not going to upgrade to i9, but would it not be great to have the option to upgrade to an i9 sometime in the future?

I know i don't have any plans to upgrade to an i9 straight away, but i might want to go to an i9 one day, so i'd rather not limit myself.
 
Went throught this thought process myself recently, and ended up i5

I guess what swung it for me was the realisation that I really was not likely to actually benefit from any of the i7 offerings, at least not enough to notice/justify the extra pennies.

HT does not really come into gaming too much, even multi-real-core is not that largely supported.....sure, some specific encoding apps or similar, but % of time likely using such things would be minimal at most.
As for the 16x/16x against 8x/8x argument, doesn't hold much weight imho currently - if so important to gain an extra frame here or there, surely the money saved could go on better gfx cards instead ?
I figured that lower cost, lower power consumption, less heat and - frankly - minor performance differences in terms of what one will truly notice....

But, then, it is horses for courses :) Bottom line, both platforms are pretty special and I doubt there will be disappointment from either :D
 
whatever you choose the core i5/i7 they are both good platforms i have core i7 950 CPU and it very fast!!! and overclocking it is even better!!

geek.
 
I always say go for the best you can afford, some people told me not to get the 965 Phenom II, because it was £30 more and you only get 200mhz more.

Yeh, but if I did get it, I'd have a 965 Phenom II. Same with the i7 argument, the i5 is just never going to feel as good, it'll be great at first but after a few weeks, you'll wish you got the i7, if only because of the number 7. :P

Depends what kind of person you are though, I always feel that if it's not the best, it's not good enough. I'm already feeling a bit sad because I got an £80 motherboard and not a £150 one. :(
 
I'm in the same boat right now was going to upgrade to 1366 i7 920 didn't even know about the newer 1156 i5/7 CPU's doh! I then held back and waited and waited......still not decided which way to go arrggghhh!!! My post over at ExtremeSytems The only thing I decided on was the Corsair HX 850.............just! :D

I like the reasons you stated for the 1156 i5/i7 thats what caught my attention. There seems to be about a 10% hit when using two ATI 5870's in crossfire on a P55 x8/x8 from what I've read and I'm still not convinced I wll ever crossfire, but it's nice to have th option :D

The other worry I have is the new i9 (not that I could afford one) will be not be supported by all current X58 boards? I have read you will need the a newer X58 revision and how would you know that? Also I've noticed Overclockers X58 stock levels starting to diminish including the tri channel memory kits are they coming to EOL:confused:
 
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i think its best to spend as little as you can without affecting performance so you have some money to upgrade later on :cool:

i would get the i5, because everyone seems to forget that power isnt free ;)
 
If you can afford an i7 I'd say go down that lane, if you buy the best stuff you can afford you'll have the best PC you can own, as long as that extra cash spent on the i7 doesn't affect other areas of the PC (such as that i7-i5 money going on a bigger and better GPU).

Personally I'm going for an i5, I could afford an i7 if I got a lower end graphics card, but the graphics power to me is worth more than the boost by getting an i7. Building a PC is all about balance, if you sacrifice graphics power at a huge magnitude, to gain CPU at a small magnitude, its pointless; balance balance balance :D
 
McstylisT said:
Those are the main reasons why you should go i5.

Here are some reason's why i7 might be better for you. :D

If your a gamer , then if you choose i7 1366 platform then you will have 2x 16x lanes for SLI or Corssfire. They will run at x16 -x16 rather than the i5 8x-x8. That is a serious thing for some big gamers.

McT
Click to expand...

Can you show me where x8-x8 has ever been a bottleneck? LGA1156 can handle crossfire HD5800 cards just as well as LGA1366, it's more important to have a decent PCI-Ex controller then it is to have a more lanes. In one report from techpowerup the PCI-Ex channel had to be pushed down to x4 before a single HD5870 started to get bottlenecked.
 
Freddie1980 said:

Can you show me where x8-x8 has ever been a bottleneck? LGA1156 can handle crossfire HD5800 cards just as well as LGA1366, it's more important to have a decent PCI-Ex controller then it is to have a more lanes. In one report from techpowerup the PCI-Ex channel had to be pushed down to x4 before a single HD5870 started to get bottlenecked.
Click to expand...

Someone's getting a bit paranoid. ?? :D

Bottleneck ??? Decent PCI-E Controller ???

Half of what you've mentioned here was never stated at all. However i do not doubt any of what you said either. :)

What was stated is the x58 offers 2x 16x lanes , over the P55 that offer 2x 8x when using crossfire or SLI. I am pretty sure it uses a good controller too.

So that pretty much makes the x58 better on spec ( maybe not as big a margin in real life). That is what the OP wanted. The facts to convince him to use the X58 as he does not seem short for the money.

McT
 
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