Need cpu recommendation: Core 2 Duo or Core i5

[executioner]

Been going around for months trying to decide what to buy for the new PC. After a lot of consideration bought a nice case (probably will never buy another case for the next 10 years), traded a couple of games for a nice graphic card with a forum member (9600 GT) and was just about to buy a Core 2 Duo E8400.

So I placed an order for the board and two weeks later it gets canceled because its out of stock. Deciding which board to buy took me months now I have to go at it again! And what do I find? Intel decides to release even more cpu's and another socket. Core i5-750 cost only $30 more and the few things I've read tell me it would be silly not to get one since performance increase is considerable.

It will be a gaming machine but don't need it to run the latest directx192 but need it to last about 4-5 years like my current one. I don't usually play the latest game but its time to move on to something that can actually play HD videos (everything stutters now) and can keep me from buying a PS3 for a few months.

Current Specs:
P4 2.4ghz
512MB DDR - one stick died
Geforce 6600 256MB - died a month ago so for now its onboard video

Budget for CPU: $200
Budget for board: $150

Motherboard recommendations? Needs to have onboard video, in case something happens to the card or want to sell it next year would need something in between and hdmi would be nice. What would you guys do?

[Hobie-wan]

Just a recommendation that's sort of outside your post here. If you've had memory and a video card die, You might want to look at your cooling and/or power situation a little closer. Too much dust/not enough fans and things will die of heat death. Crappy power supply will endanger everything else in the case.

[Ziggy]

I wouldn't go with the i5 at all. I'm not sure what the deal is with that 1156 socket. The Core 2 line is great, but now the old and "dead" socket. Go with an i7 on the 1366 socket. The 920 is $300 but worth every penny. I think it'd be worth waiting to gather the extra $100 for it. From what I read, the i5 line is pretty much an i7 with no HT. Maybe it has other lesser specs, I haven't checked. But if you want your computer to last you, well, I plan on using my i7 920 PC for the next 10 years.

[Dylan]

512 GB is a lot of RAM.

[Amon]

Lynnfield is the second processor sold under the Core i7 brand, while at the same time being sold as Core i5. Unlike Bloomfield, it does not have a QPI interface but directly connects to a southbridge and other devices using a 2.5 GT/s Direct Media Interface and PCI Express links in its Socket 1156. Core i7 processors based on Lynnfield have Hyper-Threading, which is disabled in Lynnfield-based Core i5 processors.

If this helps

[tbeeghly]

+1 vote for the i7 920. I just built my Hackintosh with it and she handles ANYTHING I throw at it. Geekbench score of 8000.

[executioner]

Just a recommendation that's sort of outside your post here. If you've had memory and a video card die, You might want to look at your cooling and/or power situation a little closer. Too much dust/not enough fans and things will die of heat death. Crappy power supply will endanger everything else in the case.

Yes, dust and heat were a big issue. The video card fan stop working once and I didn't notice for a few days, and its usually over 30 celsius in the day here. After replacing the fan it the card lasted about a year. So far the only two problems I've had with pc parts dying ever. This time I spent extra on a good power supply with nice reviews and used a power supply calculator to figure out how much I needed and chose one with more capacity for the future. Also I chose the case based on its cooling performance.

I wouldn't go with the i5 at all. I'm not sure what the deal is with that 1156 socket. The Core 2 line is great, but now the old and "dead" socket. Go with an i7 on the 1366 socket. The 920 is $300 but worth every penny. I think it'd be worth waiting to gather the extra $100 for it. From what I read, the i5 line is pretty much an i7 with no HT. Maybe it has other lesser specs, I haven't checked. But if you want your computer to last you, well, I plan on using my i7 920 PC for the next 10 years.

10 years is a lot yeah maybe mine has more than 5 and probably will use it for another project like a mame pc or htpc. Will consider the 1366 socket, which could be upgraded with the cpus their realeasing next year but looking back I've never really upgraded cpu only always do a big upgrade couple of years. $100 more doesn't seem that much but it will depend big on the price of the board. What about power consumption and heat on 1156 vs 1366? I'm into the whole less heat less noise is better.

512 GB is a lot of RAM.

You got me there! lol btw RAM has almost like doubled in price lately!

So glad that I didn't buy that Core 2 duo.

[Ziggy]

Lynnfield is the second processor sold under the Core i7 brand, while at the same time being sold as Core i5. Unlike Bloomfield, it does not have a QPI interface but directly connects to a southbridge and other devices using a 2.5 GT/s Direct Media Interface and PCI Express links in its Socket 1156. Core i7 processors based on Lynnfield have Hyper-Threading, which is disabled in Lynnfield-based Core i5 processors.

If this helps

Ah yes, that's what it was. The i5 doesn't use the QPI. Hyper-Threading and Quickpath Interconnect makes the i7 shit all over the i5.

Will consider the 1366 socket, which could be upgraded with the cpus their realeasing next year but looking back I've never really upgraded cpu only always do a big upgrade couple of years.

Well that's just it, if you go with the 920 you wont have to upgrade it. Thing is nuts.

[Whatever]

This is not on the topic, but I would look at the AMD cpu's. They offer some
impressive cpu's around 100 bucks. Leaving your with more money to spend were it is needed for a gaming rig.

[executioner]

This is not on the topic, but I would look at the AMD cpu's. They offer some
impressive cpu's around 100 bucks. Leaving your with more money to spend were it is needed for a gaming rig.

Benchmarks and reviews of the Intel cpu's tell me otherwise, AMD is falling behind a little but I'm an Intel guy always had their cpu's so I'm kinda biased already and won't bother looking at the AMD stuff.

Some good articles on to read on tomshardware regarding the i5.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cor ... ,2419.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/int ... ,2410.html