i7 Or QuadCore?

Shaye87 · 9 May 2009 at 13:52

Hey guys
Gonna buy a new gaming rig soon

Not sure whether to get i7 or a quad CPU.
I keep hearing that i7 is no better than a quad cpu when it comes to gaming, is that right?

reflux · 9 May 2009 at 14:02

If you've got around £600 to spend, going for anything other than i7 is a waste of money. If you've got half that, go for a quaddie and clock it.

Shaye87 · 9 May 2009 at 14:19

£800 actually, need a monitor too though. i will open a new thread soonish just wanted to make it clear, i7 or quad

.
cheers

cmndr_andi · 9 May 2009 at 15:05

For your budget, which will need to include monitor and tower; a quad core or fast dual core are the best bets. A basic i7 gaming tower will set you back around £850, add on a £150 monitor thats £1000.

That said, with a nicely clocked quad/dual and a good graphics card you will hit similar framerates to an i7 rig, but within your budget.

Vidar · 9 May 2009 at 15:21

I7 is the way to go mate if you have a good sized budget like yours, there maybe not much difference in gaming but at the end of the day the I7 is going to last a lot longer...

I have one and couldnt be happier... I7 I mean

MachIN3 · 9 May 2009 at 15:33

reflux said:
If you've got around £600 to spend, going for anything other than i7 is a waste of money. If you've got half that, go for a quaddie and clock it.

? I7 for £600??? how!?!? going for the cheapest mobo and ram sets you back a bit under £500. Exactly how are you going to get a whole I7 rig for £600? Tbh i'd get that amd 720 tri core.

reflux · 9 May 2009 at 15:40

He didn't specify whether he wanted the entire PC, including case, screen etc. or whether he was saving parts such as the PSU, graphics card etc. You can buy an i7 setup for around £450 these days which still leaves some cash for other things.

Shaye87 · 9 May 2009 at 15:48

I do actually, need a case and everything that's in it

and a monitor. (no need for a keyboard/mouse etc).
although i will open a new thread for that, just wanna make sure that i get the best cpu for my needs/budget.

VoG · 9 May 2009 at 17:13

Shaye87 said:
I do actually, need a case and everything that's in it and a monitor.

you won't do a full i7 rig & monitor for £800. a C2Q rig yes, i7 not a chance. unless of course you don't mind a smallish monitor, and even then it's gonna be over budget by £50.

VoG · 9 May 2009 at 18:01

just to show the difference in pricing between i7 & C2Q ive priced up 2 rigs.

i7 rig
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping £241.98 inc VAT click me
Asus P6T SE Intel X58 mobo £164.99 inc VAT click me
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 ram £61.98 inc VAT click me
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB PCI-E gfx £79.34 inc VAT click me
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W PSU £67.99 inc VAT click me
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB hdd £40.24 inc VAT click me
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99 inc VAT click me
Samsung T190 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor £126.49 inc VAT click me

TOTAL £850.83 inc Del ( £15.50 )

now for the C2Q rig

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 CPU £211.59 inc VAT click me
Asus P5QL Pro Intel P43 mobo £75.89 inc VAT click me
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 £39.99 inc VAT click me
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB PCI-E gfx £79.34 inc VAT click me
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W PSU £67.99 inc VAT click me
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB hdd £40.24 inc VAT click me
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99 inc VAT click me
Samsung T190 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor £126.49 inc VAT click me

TOTAL £709.33 inc Del ( £15.50 )

the C2Q works out to be a whopping £140 cheaper than the i7, and an AMD Tri core would work out to be even cheaper still.

apeZ · 9 May 2009 at 18:10

Not quite a fair comparison, the i7 rig has 6GB. Plus you have specced quite a cheapy motherboard with that quad setup.

IMO, I wouldn't go i7 (including monitor) without at least £1000. I know it can be done for less, but you end up sacrificing performance or quality of some components, and when you spend £250 on the processor alone, you don't really want to cut quality down too much anywhere else.

@ OP - Get a core 2 duo or quad depending on use (how many applications do you use regularly that would take advantage of 4 cores?) and clock it up. £800 gets you quite a reasonable c2d machine.

arc@css · 9 May 2009 at 23:20

If it was me I'd spend the money on an i7. Though I'd sacrifice gpu and audio (don't forget you get onboard audio) till a later date and put the money towards a very, very good mobo and psu. Plus, of course, the cpu and cooler and ram. You could spend more money on a better video card but I always consider the mobo and cpu to be the underpinnings in building terms

. Once bought your kind of stuck with it and can swap video cards in and out as much as you like, no limitations.

scotty99 · 10 May 2009 at 16:51

i7 Components are dropping in price by the day. I was going to go for a Q range quad pc, but i stumped up not much more for the overclocked i7920 bundle on here. Budget 1366 components supposedly, compared to top end 775 components. If you can find a bit more cash i would go i920 DO. I use my pc for pro audio (DAW) and im finding it hard to get the CPU meter in Nuendo to go over 12%! thats at stock speed! music software is very cpu intensive, im not a gamer so cant comment on that side of things.

Your purchase decisions should never be based on future compatability/upgrades, but i reckon there will be more chance of DDR3 RAM being around, more than DDR2 in the near future. I had to buy a new PSU, graphics card etc. because i came from a old athlon xp3000, so had to buy these whether i went 775, or i7, made sense for me to go i7. If you spend on a high end 775 socket system, it will be a great system, but if you can afford an i7, which it sounds like you can, Id go for it....job done,.....rapid system.

yashiro · 10 May 2009 at 18:41

Set yourself a budget and stick to it. There is always bigger and better. At a cost.
Keeping a cutting edge PC is a very expensive hobby. And while it is fun when you have the money to spend, it's hard when you don't.

For 800 you can easily buy a very capable machine.

CK61938 · 10 May 2009 at 18:46

I agree with Scotty99...if you have the cash go i7...I am lucky enough to have both C2Q (Q6600) and Core i7 (920 D0)...and even though people say Core i7 doesnt improve gaming, well I beg to differ cos i have noticed significant improvement in games as I do game a lot of the time...that said, it all depends on what you are using the machine for...but you can be rest assured you will have a machine that will last you at least 3yrs...

easyrider · 10 May 2009 at 19:09

No point in buying dead tech in s775 if you have the money.

Thread end....

Glaucus · 10 May 2009 at 19:42

If you have he money i7 all the way.
C2Q isn really worth it as the savings from an i7 are now marginal.

However with your budget Phenom 2.

Phemo · 12 May 2009 at 12:17

scotty99 said:
I use my pc for pro audio (DAW) and im finding it hard to get the CPU meter in Nuendo to go over 12%! thats at stock speed! music software is very cpu intensive, im not a gamer so cant comment on that side of things.

Slightly OT but the reason you're not seeing it go over 12% is because it's only using one thread, so the 4 virtual HyperThreaded CPUs are doing nothing and 3 of your physical cores aren't even being touched. You may be seeing activity on multiple graphs, but it's not really making good use of your CPU. You might want to see if there's a newer multithtreaded version or a way of enabling multithreading.

555BUK · 12 May 2009 at 14:06

My most recent jump has been from a Dual-Core E8500 @ 4.5GHz to an i7 920 @ 3.8GHz.

*In Windows usage (Vista64) there is no difference.
*In gaming I notice no difference.
*In general applications I notice no deference.
*For video encoding there is big difference.
*In benchmarks there is a big difference.

Unfortunately I do not encode or benchmark very much, so other than increasing the size of e-monster it was a pointless upgrade.

If you have the money to burn, burn it. If you do not, buy a socket 775 dual or quad. The i7 is not a large step ahead.

linktoinsanity · 12 May 2009 at 14:33

I'd just say it depends on your budget. Socket 775 is an older socket but it's not dead yet. It won't really die until i5 and its socket is released. Higher budget = i7, lower budget is probably a Core 2 Duo, as there's not a huge difference between one of them and a Quad performance wise tbh as a higher clocked duel will be faster at 90% of applications then a closer priced, slower clockspeed quad.