Spec check - i7 or Core 2 system

jeggsy

jeggsy

jeggsy

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Joined
7 Feb 2007
Posts
160
Location
Gloucestershire, UK
Right guys... Been looking at putting a new system together for a few months now and I'm almost ready to part with my cash.

Still a bit undecided what to go for, whether a Core i7 based system or a Core 2 based system. Here's what I've narrowed down to:-

Asus Rampage Formula X48 DDR2 motherboard
Intel Q9650 Quad or E8500 Dual CPU
4Gb Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (2x2Gb)
EVGA 9800GTX+ 512Mb Superclocked
2x Western Digital 640Gb SATA hard drives
Pioneer DVR-216 SATA DVD-RW
Lian Li PC-B25B case
Corsair HX 620w PSU

or

Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard (V2 if it comes out soon)
Intel i7 920 2.66GHz Quad CPU
3Gb Corsair Dominator PC3-12800C8 (3x1Gb)
EVGA 9800GTX+ 512Mb Superclocked
2x Western Digital 640Gb SATA hard drives
Pioneer DVR-216 SATA DVD-RW
Lian Li PC-B25B case
Corsair HX 620w PSU


Still undecided what to go for really as there not a lot to choose between them performance/price wise.

Is the PSU OK ? ? will 620w be enough for the specs above ? ? Not planning on going SLI/Crossfire. If this is not enough, what about the Corsair TX 750w PSU ? ? I know it's not modular but thats not a biggy for me.

Any comments would be great.
 
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Bit of everything really....

I will be using 32bit XP for now so more than 4Gb of RAM is a waste.

I have some games but they tend to be mostly flightsims or driving games. I have FSX, Toca 3, Colin Mcrae etc. Don't play COD, Crysis etc.

I have Autocad and Inventor on my PC as I use these at work sometimes. Don't tend to use it to much but it's there if needed.

Internet, VPN to work, MS Office etc.
 
agreed, i doubt there's that much price difference between the rigs you posted and the i7 will give a performance boost in most things and can only get better as more things are written for hyper threading.
 
Cheers guys for the replys...

Just looked on OCUK and noticed price cuts on the Asus X48 mobo and big cuts on the CPUs as well.

Think I'll get a Core 2 quad and the Asus X48 board for now and then pass that down to my sisters PC in a couple of years time. By then the i7 will have been around for a bit then and improved.
 
Why are you matching a high end C2D or I7 processor with a 9800 graphics card? For your requirements why not save some more money and go for a Q6600 (then buy a good heatsink and overclock it) and a [much] cheaper [than X48] Intel P45 based board [unless you really must have a two16 PCI-E slots for NVIDIA SLI]. The 9800 is really showing its age now and I would not buy one personally at the current price. I’m generally a big NVIDIA fan but at the low to mid end of the market the ATI 4850 and 4870 seem to offer better performance for the money. Also I have a Corsair HX620 PSU and can’t knock it for quality….. but I bought it a while ago for much less than it is selling for now and frankly its overpriced now by quite a lot (along with most other Corsair PSU's) I would say go for a cheaper alternative that will serve you just as well.
 
Just seen that you are not interested in SLI in that case I would really recommend saving some money on the motherboard the cheapest X48 board is £160.99 (OcUK Value JW-X48D2 Extreme-P Intel X48, Whilst a very good P45 board, the Asus P5Q Deluxe costs £159.89. The Asus Rampage Formula X48 is complete overkill for what you need. It was one of the top line enthusiast/overclockers boards when released but now looks a bit silly as a new purchase with the I7 boards out for similar prices with faster I7 chips selling for around the same or even less than comparable C2D chips!
 
Cheers guys for the input... Had a bit of a rethink and come up with this:-

Gigabyte GA-EP-45-UD3P DDR2 motherboard
Intel Q9550 Quad
4Gb Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (2x2Gb)
EVGA GTX 260 (216 core)
2x Western Digital 640Gb SATA hard drives
Pioneer DVR-216 SATA DVD-RW
Lian Li PC-B25B case
Corsair TX 650w PSU

Saved a few £££'s on the motherboard & PSU enabled me to have a better spec VGA card. Looks a better balanced system to me now.

Would that VGA card be OK fitting in the Lian Li case ? ? Noticed the warning on most of the new VGA cards saying about length of the cards.


Cheers
 
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http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-008-ZT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

I'd grab this 260 at the price it's at. Also get a decent CPU cooler and overclock the Q9550. If you don't plan on overclocking, then drop the ram down to some cheaper 6400 stuff.

I have to say though for what your planning on using it for, it seems a bit much. You could get a system put together for much less and would run everything you mentioned with ease.

What size of monitor have you got?
 
Got a 22" Samsung LCD that runs at 1680x1050.

Basically got a budget of £1000 from my Christmas bonus and I have put that away for a new PC. Don't mind if the spec is a bit overkill as I use my PC a lot for home and work stuff.

Basically my CAD software and FSX will use any system resources I throw at it.
 
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