i5 / i7 / or wait

Fred

Fred

Fred

Associate
Joined
3 Apr 2006
Posts
1,274
Location
Scotland
Current system is in my sig, the E6600 is running at 3.39

Used mostly for gaming.

I'm thinking of upgrading cpu/ram/mobo/cooler to either an i5 build such as

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Game £159.99
MSI P55-GD65 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £132.99
Geil Ultra Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-17000 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GU34GB2133C9DC) - OEM £84.99
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler (LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £58.98

Sub Total : £379.95
Shipping : £9.50
VAT : £58.42
Total : £447.87
​

or an i7 build such as

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Game £207.99
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £199.99
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-14400C9 (1866MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1866C9DF) £189.99
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £57.99

Sub Total : £570.40
Shipping : £10.00
VAT : £87.06
Total : £667.46​

I'm just wondering will I really see that much improvement on what i have atm, and whether its worth the extra 200 quid for the i7 build.

I'll get round to changing graphics cards at a later date.
 
I'm in the same situation as yourself. Wondering whether to upgrade from a core 2 duo to i5/i7 or just wait. And I think I'll wait tbh, to maybe christmas or january and see how prices are.

I'm the same with the new radeon cards, I won't upgrade until the prices settle a little bit or at least until we see some custom coolers on them.
 
yeh im waiting until next year too - at the momment my machine runs literally anything i throw at it quite beautifully so i see little or no point paying top whack for new tech that i simply dont need.

Hopefully prices will come down a little in Jan. My girlf has been ordered to help towards a new 24" monitor for christmas so a new machine will probably go nicely with it!
 
i5 all the way, there is little to no performance gain by going the i7 route. Unless you want to do some heavy cpu intense editing.
 
no for gaming purposes there wouldnt be much improvement at all, if you did drop in a better gfx card such as a 5870 that would make a massive imporvement re gaming, the above choices would prob slightly improve your all round experience but no marked difference and certainly not for gaming
 
Yeah, i5 would probably be best for you.

But you could close the gap price wise by getting Corsair XMS3 RAM @ 1600MHz, it's only £94.99 and just as good. You won't really notice the boost to 1866MHz. 1600MHz is kind of the sweet spot, and generally easy to get bang on with a RAM multi of 8 on a 200 BLCK on the i7.
 
Thanks for the replies. :)

Kinda sounds like the best upgrade route would be to just slap in a new gfx card although I'm not sure a 5870 is that much better than my gtx260 Maxcore OC ...which is almost as good as a gtx280 from what I've read.

for more info I run this on a 24" Dell at 1900x1200.

Maybe I'll have to join the wait-and-see brigade, I'd like another 2gb of ram but I'm loathe to throw away the money if I'm gonna replace all in the near future.
 
Last edited:
Depending on what games / resolutions you play at, i don't think you would see enough of an improvement to warrant spending £400+
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom