Which is BEST - i7 @ 2.66 OR quad @ 3.0 ?

[Hefemeister]

gulftown 32nm is going to be 1366 released mid 2010.

 

[Brtnboarder495]

Future proofing is an oxymoron. Don't blink, because i7 will become "old" within a year. Core 2 Quad 3.0ghz is still a very respectable processor, and with the savings, you can buy a larger monitor. The only times you may notice a difference, is if you're doing some hardcore encoding.

 

[Druid]

Future proofing is an oxymoron. Don't blink, because i7 will become "old" within a year. Core 2 Quad 3.0ghz is still a very respectable processor, and with the savings, you can buy a larger monitor. The only times you may notice a difference, is if you're doing some hardcore encoding.

The future proofing bit is the fact that he will have an x58 mobo, and he won't have buy a new one to upgrade to another socket 1366 cpu.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

i7 is actually not futureproof in the sense more chips won't be mad for socket 1336l.

Intel just announced a 6 core 32nm cpu that will be lga1366 and compatible with current x58 motherboards. It is expected to be released sometime in 2010.

 

[tastegw]

Future proofing is an oxymoron. Don't blink, because i7 will become "old" within a year. Core 2 Quad 3.0ghz is still a very respectable processor, and with the savings, you can buy a larger monitor. The only times you may notice a difference, is if you're doing some hardcore encoding.

c2q 3.0 =$325
i7 920 = $280

but when you factor in the mobo and the ram, ya you can save some with the c2q, not a whole lot tho, because chances are if your buying a $325 cpu, your not getting a cheapo mobo/ram.

you would be silly not to get i7 over the 3.0 c2q at this point.

 

[baron5]

c2q 3.0 =$325
i7 920 = $280

but when you factor in the mobo and the ram, ya you can save some with the c2q, not a whole lot tho, because chances are if your buying a $325 cpu, your not getting a cheapo mobo/ram.

you would be silly not to get i7 over the 3.0 c2q at this point.

You could easily overclock a q6600 to 3ghz it doesn't have to be stock 3ghz. But it's true, good mobo's (p6t/tpowerA) will set you back mid $200. And ddr3 ram has seen a huge decrease in the last 6 months or so, it is very affordable now, i.e ocz plat's or gskill Pi

 

[zedman3d]

If you check out 3dmark06 cpu scores, a 2.9GHZ clocked i7 is roughly equal to a score of a Q6600 clocked at 3.8GHZ.
I realize cpu scores dont tell the full story but its an indication.

 

[baron5]

If you check out 3dmark06 cpu scores, a 2.9GHZ clocked i7 is roughly equal to a score of a Q6600 clocked at 3.8GHZ.
I realize cpu scores dont tell the full story but its an indication.

yeah the performance per clock they have is amazing, but i still wouldn't mind having a q6600 at 3.6ghz, you could still game at max on a 22 incher with a respectable graphics card in most games. I guess the real selling point for the i7 is not gaming but apps performance. Man this p4 is slow!

 

[tastegw]

dont worry mate, we all (or almost all) have had slow pc's in recent years if we still had them 2day

in 07 i sold my intel celeron rig. @ 2.0 single core sold the whole pc for 100 bucks.

as for the c2q @ 3.0, i thought he meant stock speed q9650?

 

[hikaricloud]

i7 is actually not futureproof in the sense more chips won't be mad for socket 1336. i5 will be coming out and so will a new chipset from intel.

I lol'd. You really need to do some research before you say things like that. It's true that i5 is coming out and it's a different socket, but that's basically going to be Intel's "budget line". Gulftown will come out on 1366.

Future proofing is an oxymoron. Don't blink, because i7 will become "old" within a year. Core 2 Quad 3.0ghz is still a very respectable processor, and with the savings, you can buy a larger monitor. The only times you may notice a difference, is if you're doing some hardcore encoding.

Well, it's been about 5 months since i7 launched, so I'll see you in 7 months and we'll see. When Gulftown comes out, the i7 will no longer be "bleeding edge", but it won't be "old", because it will still outperform everything else. AMD is starting to catch up, but I can't see them coming out with anything that's going to compete with the i7 yet.

Also, you don't really save anything by going to a Q9650. First off, as taste mentioned, the CPU is more expensive. And you may argue that the mobo and RAM for an i7 is more expensive, but I don't see 775 producing anything higher end than a Q9650 any time soon. If you want to talk about old, you could technically call the Q9650 old, since it pales in comparison of the i7.