is a i7 worht the extra over i5 for £140 ?

Meridiusuk · 30 Dec 2009 at 11:47

Hi all

I have priced a i5 system (4gb mem) and a i7 (6gb mem) and the cost of a i7 system is about £140 more is it worth it ?

I dont game on my machine i do watch mkv files and movies and serf the net and graphic work and some mulitasking.

so what would you do ?

heres a run down of what i was going to build

i5

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156

Asus P7P55D Pro Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard

Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + Ruby

Fractal Design Define R2 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply

2 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366)

Pioneer DVR-S18L 22x DVD±RW SATA Labelflash ReWriter - Black (Retail)

or

i7

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz

Asus P6T SE Intel X58 (Socket 1366)

Asus ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + Ruby

Fractal Design Define R2 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl

Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply

2 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366)

Pioneer DVR-S18L 22x DVD±RW SATA Labelflash ReWriter - Black (Retail)

mmm what to do

Robert1986 · 30 Dec 2009 at 12:46

What cpu do you have just now?

shinester184 · 30 Dec 2009 at 13:37

It comes down to what your uses are, and whether you think its worth it.

Vision · 30 Dec 2009 at 13:41

I don't think you'd notice much of a difference at all between the two for the uses you've listed. Both are great chips.

jrwagh333 · 30 Dec 2009 at 14:01

If I am recall correctly. The i7 (1366) socket is more future proof?

PakJai · 30 Dec 2009 at 14:07

I think an i5 system is suffice to what you do.

i7 starts to shine only when you do a lot of rendering, encoding/decoding etc.

dan7777 · 30 Dec 2009 at 14:10

i use a i7 and to be honest i should have saved the money and gone i5 my vote go i5 unless you do lots of video encoding etc...

Meridiusuk · 31 Dec 2009 at 08:54

I have a single core intel prescott 3.6, had this machine 5 years as i dont upgrade very much which i should notice a hugh improvment, lol

Infact i never seem to change any parts in a pc and i normaly build a new system from the ground up when i do upgrade. I have encoded films before but i dont do it often at all just the odd time.

I do use my pc for work and do some multitasking and 1080p mkv/blu-ray movie watching which i can not do very well on my old system at the moment but never gaming.

so would a i5 chip be ok not to bothered about future proof as tI am hoping to keep this system another 5 years and by that time intell will have a different chip and socket out by then anyway. and i did notice you can get the same spec chip as a i7 later on to fit this motherboard the only difference is the buss speed i think.

DavieJG · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:01

i5 currently offers best price/performance for demanding applications.

By the sounds of things though even that will be overspecced for your uses.

coupe69 · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:13

If you're not doing any gaming whatsoever, then what is the point in speccing up a £120 video card :confused:

That's just throwing money away.

evoyear · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:19

I thought i7 is better at multi task

Robert1986 · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:41

Meridiusuk said:
I have a single core intel prescott 3.6, had this machine 5 years as i dont upgrade very much which i should notice a hugh improvment, lol

You can go cheap and get a duel core and notice a huge improvement. No need to spend all that money on an i7 if you have been coping with a single core cpu for the last 5 years.

Seriously though, an E5300 would more than suit your needs and give you a huge increase in multi-tasking and what not.. and for only £50.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-273-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

coupe69 · 31 Dec 2009 at 11:43

evoyear said:
I thought i7 is better at multi task

The op could always upgrade to i7 at a later date if he felt he needed more power. My guess is the quad core i5 750 will be more than adequate for the ops needs for the time being though

airrunner · 31 Dec 2009 at 13:17

coupe69 said:
If you're not doing any gaming whatsoever, then what is the point in speccing up a £120 video card That's just throwing money away.

i have to agree there there really isn't much point save yourself £120

chippy08 · 31 Dec 2009 at 13:32

airrunner said:
i have to agree there there really isn't much point save yourself £120

+1

Sharpsilver · 31 Dec 2009 at 14:02

Since the OP's query seems to have been answered, I'll quickly hihack the thread with a question!

I'm in a similar position tothe thread starter. However I plan to purchase a 5870 with a overclocked i5 4ghz bundle. Will this bottleneck? I hear stories of people purchasing high-end graphics cards and getting lesser performance because of a certain other components.

This rig wont be used for video encoding, just Gaming, MS Office, Music and browsing, films.

Will a overclocked i5 4ghz processor, the p55 Gb p55 board and 4gigs of DDR3 1600mhz complement the graphics card enough compared to the I7?

coupe69 · 31 Dec 2009 at 15:12

Sharpsilver said:
Will a overclocked i5 4ghz processor, the p55 Gb p55 board and 4gigs of DDR3 1600mhz complement the graphics card enough compared to the I7?

Will be fine