need some general help and advice on what parts to get for a new powerful PC

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Well seems like parts are about 30% more so yeah you probably could afford a i7 pretty easily. A decent starter level i7 build is probably around $900 USD so you would just need to add the soundcard and extra hdd space. However if you don't think you really need it you could spend a little less on a c2q or c2d build. But unless intel was planning on coming out with better lga775 chips later you wouldn't really be able to upgrade because i7 is skt1366 and the next chips will be that and lga1156. Also even if Intel did come out with better 775 chips they probably won't be as fast as i7. So yeah you will probably end up having to upgrade everything.

In America you would start off at around

base of core i7
motherboard - $200
i7 920 - $290
3gb ddr3 ram - $75

base of c2q
motherboard - $80
q9400 - $230
4gb ddr2 ram - $40

base of c2d
motherboard - $80
e5200 - $73
4gb ddr2 ram - $40

You could of course spend more (especially on the dual cores) but thats a starting point.
 
Well seems like parts are about 30% more so yeah you probably could afford a i7 pretty easily. A decent starter level i7 build is probably around $900 USD so you would just need to add the soundcard and extra hdd space. However if you don't think you really need it you could spend a little less on a c2q or c2d build. But unless intel was planning on coming out with better lga775 chips later you wouldn't really be able to upgrade because i7 is skt1366 and the next chips will be that and lga1156. Also even if Intel did come out with better 775 chips they probably won't be as fast as i7. So yeah you will probably end up having to upgrade everything.

In America you would start off at around

base of core i7
motherboard - $200
i7 920 - $290
3gb ddr3 ram - $75

base of c2q
motherboard - $80
q9400 - $230
4gb ddr2 ram - $40

base of c2d
motherboard - $80
e5200 - $73
4gb ddr2 ram - $40

You could of course spend more (especially on the dual cores) but thats a starting point.

Thanks !

Yes, what you are saying about the upgrading is exactly what I was thinking, too.
It's not per se that I am trying to spend as little money now as possible, I saved up quite a bit, so I can spend like 2000 US$.
I am only wondering whether I really need the i7, but if it's the future, then I think I should not get something that won't be upgradable (socket 775 based cpu).
So, am I going wrong by getting i7, even if it's probably overkill in terms of power and speed for what I will be using it for?
 
Hard to say really. It all comes down to what you think is actually worth it. Performance per dollar is easy to figure out but ability to upgrade in the future is a bit hard to. Also theres a lot of other things to take in to account like, when you say audio recording are you talking just ripping cd or are you editing? Also does it need to be super super fast? Will you multitask? What programs will you be using? For instance Lame MP3 doesn't take advantage of quads so its as fast on a $160 e8400 as it is on the i7 920 but many other programs are far faster on the 920.

I would suggest looking at some reviews (preferably with programs similar to what you will be using) and see if the i7 is really worth it to you.
 
Hard to say really. It all comes down to what you think is actually worth it. Performance per dollar is easy to figure out but ability to upgrade in the future is a bit hard to. Also theres a lot of other things to take in to account like, when you say audio recording are you talking just ripping cd or are you editing? Also does it need to be super super fast? Will you multitask? What programs will you be using? For instance Lame MP3 doesn't take advantage of quads so its as fast on a $160 e8400 as it is on the i7 920 but many other programs are far faster on the 920.

I would suggest looking at some reviews (preferably with programs similar to what you will be using) and see if the i7 is really worth it to you.

Thanks again ! I appreciate your help !:)

What I will use it for is home recorsing, I'm a musician, so I will record my guitar playing in a sequencing software and add programmed drum samples and maybe software synths and stuff like that.
Some of those programs run at the same time which is sort of like multi-tasking (eventhough they are opened within the sequencing program as a VST plug-in software), but the mroe of thoser plug ins I will be using the faster the CPU needs to be. And since I'm just at the start of doing stuff like that I can't really tell how many plug ins I will be using in say a year or so. With that in mind, haveing an upgrade option and/or a fast CPU seems to be a good idea to me.

See, the one thing I am a bit concerned about is that fact that the i7 processors are still kinda new, so they will most likely drop in price quite a bit in a few months, but I cannot wait for another few months, I have been very patiently saving up money for the PC for many months, so now that I have it saved up, I WANT the PC as soon as possible !:)
 
Of course I can't say for sure but I wouldn't expect a big price drop anytime soon. Normally Intel waits a bit longer than a few months for price drops and significant drops only happens when AMD has a very comparable chip for less money. Right now Phenom 2 is nice but its not as fast as i7. So I wouldn't worry about price dropping right after you buy it to much.
 
Of course I can't say for sure but I wouldn't expect a big price drop anytime soon. Normally Intel waits a bit longer than a few months for price drops and significant drops only happens when AMD has a very comparable chip for less money. Right now Phenom 2 is nice but its not as fast as i7. So I wouldn't worry about price dropping right after you buy it to much.

OK, Thanks again!

Right now I think I'm leaning more towards i7 then. (i7 920 that is)
Taking the more expensive mobo and RAM into consideration it will be only about 300 Euro more than the core 2 quad rig I was thinking about.:cool:
 
I think you might only need a quadcore.. plus there cheap right now, since the Phenom II came out. The i7 is for extreme gamers, and benchmarkers. It's not worth it for the expensive RAM, and mobo that won't be as much of an upgrade from quadcore, for you.
 
I think you might only need a quadcore.. plus there cheap right now, since the Phenom II came out. The i7 is for extreme gamers, and benchmarkers. It's not worth it for the expensive RAM, and mobo that won't be as much of an upgrade from quadcore, for you.

Thanks!

I know, you're right, but I thought, since the extra money spent on a CPU, mobo and RAM is actually not THAT much compared to the quad Q6700 I was gonna get initially, I thought, it can never hurt to have more.
But I'm torn right now.....
 
^ actually, the core i7 ($300) beats the Core 2 Extreme ($999) in almost all tests. the core i7 is def worth it if you have the money. it's also the most "future proof" of the two.
 
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