is this worth the upgrade?

paradisiac · 11 Jan 2010 at 08:26

ok currently i have a Q8300 @ 2.8GHz, P5Q-E Motherboard, 4x1GB DDR2 1066 Ram. It does everything i need it to do pretty well (mainly use it for games and watching films) but would like a little bit more.
these are the 2 systems i was thinking of, any pro's/con's for either (other than the price difference) would be helpfull. cheers.

i5 661 3.33GHz
GA-P55-US3L
2x2GB DDR3 1333MHZ CL9

£317.30

OR

i7 920 D0 2.66GHz
GA-EX58-UD3R
TEAM XTREEM 6GB DDR3-1866 TRI CHA 999-24

£469.63

ejr22 · 11 Jan 2010 at 09:32

People say that the i5 can be slightly better for gaming in the majority of games so if gaming is all you do then go for the i5.

Personally I would choose i7 over i5 just for the performance increases in other non-gaming applications. However, if you don't really need that boost then why bother?

The way I look at it is: i3 < i5 < i7 < i9

paradisiac · 11 Jan 2010 at 09:40

ok cheers, do you it for a bit of other stuff but we have 2 laptops we mainly use for office/net based apps. are the systems spec'd up ok or should i be looking at making some changes?

cmndr_andi · 11 Jan 2010 at 10:07

Just so you're aware, the i5 611 is a dual core with hyperthreading, so in multi threaded apps it will be no faster than your current core 2 quad system. Only in single threaded apps will it be quicker. The reason for the extra price over the 750 is the integrated GPU on the chip. As you already have a decent GPU then you would be much better off looking at an i5 750 quad core.

Personally, I would go for the i7 system as the performance increase is larger and thus justifies the cost of the upgrade more.

How much are you getting the "Team Extreme" RAM for? Usually I would suggest a corsair or OCZ kit.

Also, make sure you get a nice cooler for the i7 system (socket 1366 compatibility). It puts out 130W at stock, so I wouldn't suggest migrating your current cooler. As the i7 920 D0 can almost always hit 4GHz on sifficient cooling, I suggest getting this at the miniumum and this (or this) if you can stretch.

paradisiac · 11 Jan 2010 at 10:12

cmndr_andi said:
How much are you getting the "Team Extreme" RAM for? Usually I would suggest a corsair or OCZ kit.

£123.37 inc vat and del.

cmndr_andi · 11 Jan 2010 at 10:17

paradisiac said:
£123.37 inc vat and del.

Fair enuf. Its plenty fast enough and has lifetime warranty

paradisiac · 11 Jan 2010 at 10:19

lol ok kool. just got to shift my internet pc now and a few other little bits to raise the cash

paradisiac · 12 Jan 2010 at 19:19

ok well still a little longer left before it all sells, and not going as well as i hoped, but providing everyone pays my budget will be atleast £350. now my dilema is, do i go for an i3 system and wait a week and get a HD5770, get an i5 system and stay with the 9800GTX+ for a few more months atleast, get 2xHD5770s, get a HD5850.
my current system is very unstable on any kind of OC so its now all at factory settings, but soo far it doesnt struggle with what i use it for, my worry is if i upgrade the gfx, will the cpu/ram be a bottleneck.
all suggestions/input will be greatfully recieved.

setter · 12 Jan 2010 at 19:22

paradisiac said:
£123.37 inc vat and del.

Slightly off topic, didnt even realise team group were still in the ram bussiness, had some of there xtreem ddr2 pc6400, probably the best ram ive ever owned.

paradisiac · 12 Jan 2010 at 19:24

setter said:
Slightly off topic, didnt even realise team group were still in the ram bussiness, had some of there xtreem ddr2 pc6400, probably the best ram ive ever owned.

its pretty much all our supplier stocks so, but as i get it at cost then cant really go wrong, although other than ram OCUK seems to beat our suppliers prices at cost, shocking really.