Torn between I7 and c2q

J

jedi

New Member
Hello all, this is my first post here on the forums.

I'm looking to build my first pc. I have about 900 saved up so far, and my first "wishlist" build I made was a 775 one the specs are:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R (probably switch to the evga 780i let me know if thats a good choice)
EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

Now I built a second one just for fun for a 1366. and it turns out its only 250 dollars cheaper than my 775 build. But I was sacrificing HDD memory from 640 shown to 320, to make up for the price hike. Oh and I was also somewhat planning on having my mobo sli supported. Just in case I'd want to upgrade.

I'm basically building my computer so I can play the more modern games I'm unable to play on my Dell Pentium 4 2.66 ghz, 512 ddr, and geforce fx 5200. As you can see I'm in need for a desperate upgrade lol.

Is i7 really worth the money? I mean a q9550 on newegg goes for 269.99, when the i7 goes for 230, but then factor in all the cost for the mobo, ram, then cpu again it gets pretty high. I was planning to overclock the q9550 to 3.0. I also was planning on overclocking the i7.

Just wanna know if the i7 is worth about 3 more weeks of my hard earned checks.

Thanks guys!
 
To my knowlege there are no games that you cant play using a C2Q and there wont be for a long time. Question is how often do you upgrade your comp? If its often id say save the money right now and get a good C2Q if its not that often get an I7 so you will be a little bit ahead.

PS: Id say dont get the superclocked edition of that GFX, i have the reg version and with evga precision it over clocks like a dream.
 
IMO, Q9550 is already the high end LGA775. So you would unlikely to be able to upgrade for that in future. If you are likely to have CPU upgrade in 2 years time, go for Core i7.
 
+1, the i7 is the latest chipset and the socket 775 is almost end of life as far as new processor releases are concerned.
 
From a person who had this same dilemma, and chose the more expensive route, I'd have to say that you probably won't notice a performance difference spending the extra money.

The Core 2 Quad system you've put together is pretty bad @ss and you'd have no problems doing anything you need to on that system.

So, I'd say save your money, and in a couple years when you want something new, the i7 hardware will be much cheaper. :)
 
Thanks guys!

I rarely upgrade. My last dell computer has lasted me 8 years, and still going strong. The fastest thing I've had is my laptop that I'm typing on now that has a T5250 core 2 duo. lol. So yah any jump from my 2.66 P4 will be awesome.

I've decided on the core 2 quad. Mainly because it will, like a couple of you have said, do anything I throw at it.

On another note, could someone please tell me what a good sli motherboard for the 775 is? All I keep reading on newegg reviews is just horrible with all of the sli boards. It seems to me that all of the non-sli boards are more stable than all of the sli boards.

@drdallon
But I love that card so much :D. So it's not worth the extra 20 bucks?
 
Unless you're going to rate your pc gaming experience with Benchmarks, you
don't need an SLI board.

One killer card will do you fine.
 
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