• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Q9650 or i7 920? First quad & Intel purchase

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
erasmus372

erasmus372

Member
​
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Location
New Mexico
This is getting really difficult for me! I wish it were more cut & dry, but:

1) Q9650 ~ $317 (price cut)
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R ~ $105 (MIR)
2x2GB DDR2 1066 ~ $45-65 (MIR)

2) i7 920 ~ $295
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R ~ $170 (MIR + combo)
3x1GB DDR3 1333 ~ $76 (Viper MIR)

Just use my computer for gaming, WAR & Age of Conan atm. I want a system that will run 24/7 at 3.8-4.0ghz on air and potentially last for 3 years, except for video card upgrades. I will be running Vista 64bit. I was figuring on a Sunbeam Core Contact hsf for the s775 ($30) but what is a good hsf meant for s1366? Does this lowly Gigabyte board have the guts to overclock well, or use a s775 hsf without additional adpaters (I know other, more $$, boards do)? It uses the same X58 chipset as all the others, and comes without all the crap extras I don't use, but does it give up anything besides silly quad SLI and other worthless addons?
 
if i had the cash right now i would go core i7 (hopefully in a month or two) you get futureproofing and if you look hard enough you can get your 920 for signifigantly less. Microcenter still has them at 229 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0300438
and i think frys had them at a similar price but i dunno if you have any of those stores around you as i think these deals were in store only but im sure you can get a better deal with some research
 
Ya, there are no microcenters, frys, or anything decent for hardware within probably 5-6 hours of me :( I'm sure I can find a little discount somewhere online, but the real point is that there is not a significant difference in price between these two configurations. Do you go with the tried and true, all bugs worked out s775? Or do you pick up the cheapest X58 out there and hope things go smoothly?
 
i7 = Waste of money imo. I recently had to make that choice and went immediately with the Q9650, hands down. Two to three times the price for a hardly noticeable difference in performance if at all.
 
Brolloks said:
This should help in your decision

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=583975
Click to expand...

Wonderful work there, I suppose the conclusion is that most of the current game titles are quite GPU-bound at this point. In that I only use a single card, single GPU configuration it would seem that a Q9650 would give me a better (and easier) shot at 4ghz on air with lower voltages and temps.

Does anyone think games, specifically future MMO titles, will start utilizing 3-4+ cores in the next 3 years? Will hyperthreading become a valuable asset to have by then?

Assuming I go with a Q9650 at Intel's price cut, what is a very solid 2x2GB DDR2 1066 kit? I was leaning towards the green colored Viper modules on Newegg with a hefty MIR.
 
OldSkool said:
i7 = Waste of money imo. I recently had to make that choice and went immediately with the Q9650, hands down. Two to three times the price for a hardly noticeable difference in performance if at all.
Click to expand...

Did you look at the totals in my OP? $477 for a s775 and $541 for s1366 build. No one is on such a limited budget that $64 between a cpu/mb/ram will make or break the deal. To me its whether that cheap X58 will run well, and how difficult it is to get a good s1366 cooler.
 
erasmus372 said:
Did you look at the totals in my OP? $477 for a s775 and $541 for s1366 build. No one is on such a limited budget that $64 between a cpu/mb/ram will make or break the deal. To me its whether that cheap X58 will run well, and how difficult it is to get a good s1366 cooler.
Click to expand...

Oh I read it, I just don't expect much from a $140 X58 board, nor does the minute increase with i7 warrant the cost increase at this point imo. Low end i7 for the cost of High end 775.......:thup: I guess. But hey, that's just my opinion. (you asked ;))
 
OldSkool said:
Oh I read it, I just don't expect much from a $140 X58 board, nor does the minute increase with i7 warrant the cost increase at this point imo. Low end i7 for the cost of High end 775.......:thup: I guess. But hey, that's just my opinion. (you asked ;))
Click to expand...

I suppose opting for the Bloodrage would create a significant price difference :D But really how could the low priced Gigabyte be noticeably worse than its own $250-350 models? Same chipset, but I don't want the 6 dimm slots or tri/quad sli, or multitude of other options I will not use now or in 5 years. Are these the X58's that fell on the floor?
 
If he goes the for the i7 though he could just upgrade the cpu only later on. And looking at his sig, he probably won't upgrade for a while. which is the same as me and i'm seriously considering the i7 route.
 
i7 seems to be a likely one time high-end shot by Intel, they are already moving toward new sockets/architecture. If your planning on making a one time shot, then that would be good. If you want to wait, go for lynnfield.
 
Mathis said:
i7 seems to be a likely one time high-end shot by Intel, they are already moving toward new sockets/architecture. If your planning on making a one time shot, then that would be good. If you want to wait, go for lynnfield.
Click to expand...

i7 just seems very rough, crude, and unrefined to me so far whereas the LGA775 quads have had both 65nm and 45nm parts, and has undergone a total of 4 revisions. Maybe once Intel shrinks down to 32nm, the puts out a 2nd 32nm revision I would consider one. Until then I don't see a lot of need to upgrade unless you have money to burn or an image to keep.
 
ghost_recon88 said:
i7 just seems very rough, crude, and unrefined to me so far whereas the LGA775 quads have had both 65nm and 45nm parts, and has undergone a total of 4 revisions. Maybe once Intel shrinks down to 32nm, the puts out a 2nd 32nm revision I would consider one. Until then I don't see a lot of need to upgrade unless you have money to burn or an image to keep.
Click to expand...


Yep, that and a lot of people you see on here who are coo coo for i7 were not around for all of the revisions of LGA775 and the various chipsets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Thales
Overclock setting for Core i7 920 with air cooling and HT off, Aiming 4.2GHz
Replies
6
Views
3K
Thales
Thales
L
Overclock i7-920 or upgrade CPU?
2
Replies
27
Views
3K
UltraTaco
UltraTaco
Q
Intel Core i7 920 Overclock
Replies
4
Views
1K
Badbonji
Badbonji
DragoXT
Drago's First Intel Overclocking Adventure
Replies
11
Views
953
DragoXT
DragoXT
P
Corsair H60 not performing on i7 920
2
Replies
24
Views
4K
Tech Tweaker
Tech Tweaker
Back