Core i7 or Wait?

PatZ1989 · 20 Jul 2010 at 10:37

I'm having some issues with a new graphics one, and i feel im being to hasty to blame it on the card. after the numerous previous issues ive had with my motherboard i was going to replace the mobo/cpu/memory first.

But ive heard a lot of talk about end of life for the socket etc and just wanted to know if it was really worth it or wait till next year?

Mr Krugga · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:03

What system have you got currently?

PatZ1989 · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:14

Currently:
Core2Duo E6850 3GhZ
4GB DDR2 800 (SLI Mem)
EVGA 680i SLI MoBo

ATI HD 5870

Thanks

NathWraith · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:18

Core i7 isnt going to be end of life for a while and even so you cant beat it for performance.

Mr Krugga · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:21

Get an overclockable Q6600 from MM, run it at 3.4GHz or so and hold on till the new CPUs come out next year.

Redmint · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:34

The Nvidia 600 chipsets are pretty rubbish for Q6600 OCing, you'll probably get 3GHz max out of it (obv depending on the board). Still it'd be better than a C2D at 3GHz of course...

PatZ1989 · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:38

I'm hearing a yay for the i7 system?

mame · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:50

what issues are you having? I don't really buy motherboards and CPUs expecting to upgrade the CPU later on. Thats how I looked at it when I bought the i5 in January. If a 4ghz i5 quad came out next year for £150 I'd have a look at it but thats quite unlikely to happen. Even if it did, it would be a silly price and also if it did happen, there would probably be a better alternative in a new platform. I used to think like that. When I had s939 I was gutted when I first saw AM2 boards/CPUs go on sale here. At that point I just thought I'd be buying a new CPU every 12-18 months. One thing to consider, when I spent £421 on the i5 parts, I sold the C2D parts for £255. It wasn't that expensive really.

sk3lph · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:10

If you can comfortably afford it (as well as the other parts you'll need) and you need the performance then an i7 should last you quite some time.

Redmint · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:13

On a related note, wtf has happened to the i7 920 price in the last 2-3 months?! I swear the exchange rate hasn't changed that much otherwise RAM and other prices would be up too...

Mr Krugga · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:17

Redmint said:
On a related note, wtf has happened to the i7 920 price in the last 2-3 months?! I swear the exchange rate hasn't changed that much otherwise RAM and other prices would be up too...

What happened? It got EOLed

Redmint · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:18

I thought it was getting EOL when it was £160

Mr Krugga · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:21

Redmint said:
I thought it was getting EOL when it was £160

High demand and low stock explains the price jumps

Dark_Angel · 20 Jul 2010 at 14:44

Q6600, OC it and wait. I'm holding on to my current system for this reason. There's no worse feeling than several months after upgrading you see all shiny new hardware released.

Even if there's only a 5 percent difference, you want the shiny!

AiiR · 20 Jul 2010 at 15:35

If you want it now, buy it now. The i7 is still a superb performance chip and will last you long enough. The Q6600 is how old? Even that's still holding up, so an i7 will be more than enough for a good few years.