i5 vs i7 vs AM3 quick build question

SqualidChimp

SqualidChimp

SqualidChimp

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I am going to upgrade my system, since I think my E6600 C2D processor has become the new bottleneck. I currently have a radeon 4850 gfx card. I also have win7pro64 ready to go on my new system.

I was considering i5/i7/AM3 upgrade routes, and tbh it will _mostly_ be used for gaming, but I do do video encoding and other processor-intensive stuff very occasionally. I realise the whole "buy the best you can afford that meets your needs now" mentality, but a bit of common sense can go a long way :)

Originally I was thinking, yup that's it, upgrade time - time for an i7+migubbins. I'd looked at i5 and was willing to shell out the extra for an i7 of slightly better performance. But then a guy I know said, "you dont wanna do that, you wanna do this!" in a most harry-enfield-like manner... directing me to getting an i5 since, and I quote, "The future of the 1366 platform is bleak, intel always go with the newer platform which is the 1156 used by i5. Your upgrade path will be better, and you'll save a few quid now."

So I looked at some benchmarks, did the usuall research, and thought well, the AM3 aint so bad...

roughly priced, trying to keep mobo prices for "i" processors at roughly £150, I got

  • i7 + socket1366 mobo + 6gb ram ~£444 (i7 920)
  • i5/i7 + socket1156 mobo + 4gb ram ~£376 (i5 750)
  • Phenom + mobo + RAM ~£280 (Phenom II X4 965)

So what do I do? i7 bling, i5 mediocrity, or AM3 value?
 
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When it comes to gaming thery'll all perform very similarly within a few fps, nothing to write home about with the differences anyway. If you're going for a single card gfx set up then for gaming i7 is not worth it imo. Either go i5 or AM3, again these perform very similarly, for the best upgrade route Id lean towards AMD as they tend to make their stuff backwards compatible a lot more than intel do (eg AM3 CPUs fit AM2+ boards)
Have a read of the thread in my sig if you like for a couple of example builds of each
 
Its not that its not a good idea, but the i5 (1156) would outperform it due to its on chip PCI-E controller, i7 (1366 not 1156) only gets the edge when youre looking at multi gpu set ups due to the increased bandwidth of running at x16/x16 vs x8/x8, but as I say its all only a matter of a few fps, but that combined with the lower cost of i5 means I'd lean towards i5 for single card set ups (mainly budget reason tbh) if gaming is primary concern, if you do a lot of encoding then the HT of i7 would be worth the extra outlay but for purely gaming reasons i5
 
95thrifles said:
Its not that its not a good idea, but the i5 (1156) would outperform it due to its on chip PCI-E controller, i7 (1366 not 1156) only gets the edge when youre looking at multi gpu set ups due to the increased bandwidth of running at x16/x16 vs x8/x8, but as I say its all only a matter of a few fps, but that combined with the lower cost of i5 means I'd lean towards i5 for single card set ups (mainly budget reason tbh) if gaming is primary concern, if you do a lot of encoding then the HT of i7 would be worth the extra outlay but for purely gaming reasons i5
Click to expand...

100% agree. I have been doing a lot of researching as I am also upgrading soon and the difference in gaming between the 3 CPU's does not justify the difference in price. I would go for the I5 personally as I would say its slightly more future proof then the AMD. Not to mention the money you save from not getting the I7 could be spent on a better GPU maybe ? This way you would probably see much more of an increase of performance in game. As the 4850 ( whislt still been a good card ) is starting to show its age. Just another possible revenue for you to bear in mind ^^
 
hmm I'd really like to upgrade before the end of the week. So, even though the AM3 is much better value now, you'd say go for i5? At the moment I doubt I'd see any difference between i5 + 4850 and Phenom + 4850, but would the differences be more marked with a 5870 ( I was thinking 5850 or 5870 for a present to myself for christmas :) )

or indeed with a 58xx would I benefit from the i7? Surely games will be coming out soon that will take advantage of all these cores flapping around? :)

I do do a bit of photoshoppery and encoding but hey I've been doing it with an E6600 pretty much since those were the 2nd or 3rd best C2D around... so any performance boost at all would be great for those.
 
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SqualidChimp said:
hmm I'd really like to upgrade before the end of the week. So, even though the AM3 is much better value now, you'd say go for i5? At the moment I doubt I'd see any difference between i5 + 4850 and Phenom + 4850, but would the differences be more marked with a 5870 ( I was thinking 5850 or 5870 for a present to myself for christmas :) )

or indeed with a 58xx would I benefit from the i7? Surely games will be coming out soon that will take advantage of all these cores flapping around? :)

I do do a bit of photoshoppery and encoding but hey I've been doing it with an E6600 pretty much since those were the 2nd or 3rd best C2D around... so any performance boost at all would be great for those.
Click to expand...

The thing with I7 is that it is faster for processing certain software such as photoshop, but game wise there is not a massive difference. Every game is different, some rely much more on CPU ( L4D ) others eat up your ram ( BF ) others rely pretty rely more on your GPU ( F.E.A.R ). I have a friend at uni who is on a games developing course. He runs a I7 for his course but for gaming he purchased an I 5.
The 5870 is a good card and a decent upgrade ill have a little look into it now and comment back.
 
I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but there have been reports of socket burn when overclocking 1156 cpus using high voltages.

From what I have read, it seems to be attributed to faulty Foxconn 1156 sockets (ASUS/Gigabyte use these) not making adequate contact with the cpu.

More information can be found at the following locations:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1460140
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=234723
.this happend to me on a asus maximus .still waiting for a rma 3 after 2 weeks lol i did not buy the kit from overclockers just my memmory .god what a mistake that was lol .its just the foxconn chipset socket
 
You had exceptionally bad luck then, those articles do state that this is only an issue with extreme voltages and extreme OCing, eg use of liquid nitrogen, not really something your average consumer has to worry about
 
AM3 its cheap and can easily run left for dead 2 - why pay more for a few fps,

i spent 220£ on my pc

my mate payed 1000£

at a lan party both playing tf2 no difference only when a lot going on
 
Just thought I'd consider some options while I mull it over...

Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
£155.99
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
£149.98
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Dual Channel
£62.99

Total £368.96

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz
£145.98
Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£82.98
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
£79.99

Total £308.95

Now, which of the above systems would be better, purely for gaming? (of course, RAM costs above are interchangeable to make AMD cheaper, i5 more expensive, blah)
 
Posted three times now with my opinion. Very last time now, I5 will be better and more futureproof, you would have a more up to date MOBO which will mean you could upgrade in the future to a new CPU which in the long run would save you money. Not to mention the i5 easily OC to 3.4 on air cooling. Its your choice but intell ( atm ) are in front of AMD. Im not a fanboy as im currently talking from a AMD machine and its never let me down. Ultimatly your choice I know for a fact im going for the I5.
 
ok Im gonna go for the compromise: the i7 860 on the 1156 platform.

I just need to work out which memory now and Im golden. I was thinking of going for the gigabyte P55A-UD4 because it supports USB 3.0, as does the P55A-UD3, but the UD4 does a bit more than the UD3... eSATA and so on - then again it does cost a bit more.
 
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Are you gonna use eSATA? Or you just gonna pay £40 them and not use them? From the overclocker specs they are nearly identical.
 
just gone i15 and very happy with the gigabyte matx mobo and everything really its performed very well in benchmarks

not over clocked yet but even with my old 3850 its played everything i want to on a 17 inch monitor which will do till i upgrade both of them after xmas
 
hmm... I dont have external SATA at the moment, but the UD4 does do PCI 8x on the second pci-e slot, whereas the UD3 does pci 4x on the second slot. I was just thinking incase I ever wanted to crossfire... thinking on it Im now trying to work out if the UD4 does justify the additional £40... comparison here http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/WebPage/mb_091020_333/data/tech_090814_p55-models.htm

Does the UD4 justify the extra cost? Will I ever need dual gb LAN which seems to be the only tangible benefit of the UD5... bah!

Well at least I've narrowed it down this far... thanks for all the input and advice guys :)
 
i'd go with the AMD , so much better value for money .... will last you at least 2 years at which the money you saved now can go towards upgrading again then (which is a more effective way of doing things although i doubt you'll save the money but you see what im getting at :P )
 
From never owning a intel CPU moving from an aging X2 4200+ to an i5 was brilliant. Even made my 280GTX look a lot better due to the bottleneck from the X2 so was a very nice upgrade.

With no knowedge on Intel overclocking after about half an hour messing around with setting i got 3.3Ghz easily on stock volts and Stock cooler.

This thing will fly with a new bigger cooler beyond 3.8 which i havent seen an Phenom 955/965 go above 3.8 but the builds are slightly cheaper all in all im 100% happy with jumping to intel n payin that little bit extra.
 
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