# Go i7 or Stick with Core 2 Duo?



## DanishDevil (Aug 8, 2009)

*PLEASE read all of this before voting.*

Should I stick with the computer in my system specs (the left side) or should I upgrade?

Here are my reasons for upgrading:


I'm afraid that my system is going to go down too much in value with i7 already out and i5 on the way.  
I know that I'm going to upgrade eventually anyway (probably P55/i5)  
I miss having the top of the line products and benchmarking and smoking games and being able to push mad eyecandy and 1920x1200.  
I know that future games are going to need more horsepower.  
I don't pay for electricity now, so I would crunch with it.  
I have the money to upgrade.

Here are my reasons for sticking with what I've got:


I haven't run into any game that I want to play badly enough to have to upgrade anything that I have with my current system.  
I feel like I need a crazy watercooling system for i7 and I can't quite afford both at the moment.  
I'm already nervous about how little my motherboard and CPU will sell for.

You may now vote


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2009)

with p55 launching in a few weeks the 775 stuff will drop in price alot and be almost impossible to sell once p55 launches.

no need for water on i7 unless you want to load your system 100% for long periods of time at 4.3ghz+

good air coolers work great on i7


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## Animalpak (Aug 8, 2009)

Stay core duo, or just go quad core if you really want to upgrade.

You dont need i7 at the moment, i mean for playing games to the maximum. 

I think Duo and quad are still the best choice and reasonable price too.


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## grunt_408 (Aug 8, 2009)

That was what I was thinking when I upgraded . I just went for it the missus nearly killed me but it is worth it. There was nothing wrong with my old setup either just thought now was probly the best time.

EDIT: it was dissapointing letting all the old gear go so cheap too but thats the nature of it all i suppose.


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## farlex85 (Aug 8, 2009)

For practical purposes there still isn't any compelling reason to go for i7 over what you have. That being said it's obviously what you're leaning toward and what you want, so why the hell not. I wouldn't worry about pricing honestly, it'll drop sure but no faster than computer components always do. The longer you hold onto them the less they are worth, this is no different. If you want i7, get i7. If you want a ferarri and can afford, than damn well get it. Who cares that you can go just as fast on state highways in a honda civic? It's a damn ferarri!


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## Animalpak (Aug 8, 2009)

this is the upgrade fever now are numerous innovations to exit before the end of the year and even if your pc is powerful and is good for any game or program you feel as if I had to force " upgrade my components ! " LOL


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## farlex85 (Aug 8, 2009)

Animalpak said:


> this is the upgrade fever now are numerous innovations to exit before the end of the year and even if your pc is powerful and is good for any game or program you feel as if I had to force " upgrade my components ! " LOL



Such is the infection of hobbyist interest, practical use takes a back seat to awesomeness.


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## grunt_408 (Aug 8, 2009)

farlex85 said:


> Such is the infection of hobbyist interest, practical use takes a back seat to awesomeness.



Roger that


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## LittleLizard (Aug 8, 2009)

go i7 before p55 launches.


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## EastCoasthandle (Aug 8, 2009)

It depends...take a look at the i7 870


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## grunt_408 (Aug 8, 2009)

Nice find man


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## DanishDevil (Aug 8, 2009)

Well, I'm now the proud owner of a...






image courtesy of overclock3d.net


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## bogmali (Aug 8, 2009)

Nice DD, now get a 920 D0 for that board


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## DanishDevil (Aug 8, 2009)

Will do on Monday after I cash some checks at the bank!


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## hat (Aug 8, 2009)

If I were you I would stick with the 775. I personally don't care about the monetary value of my parts, as long as they work fine for me, I'm good. Hell, I'm sporting a P2 300MHz in one of my PCs... I have a P3 750MHz for it, but it doesn't get detected properly.


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## grunt_408 (Aug 8, 2009)

DanishDevil said:


> Well, I'm now the proud owner of a...
> 
> http://www.overclock3d.net/gfx/articles/2009/05/02165633832l.jpg
> image courtesy of overclock3d.net



You were hanging out to get that wernt you?


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## newconroer (Aug 8, 2009)

farlex85 said:


> Such is the infection of hobbyist interest, practical use takes a back seat to awesomeness.




Right, it does take a backseat. But who said i7 was awesome? By design, the architecture is cool, good step forward, but the whole package is far from awesome.

Devil is not a professional Synth-Bencher. Eventually practicality must come into play.
A whole new and expensive system for an average gain of maybe 10 fps in real world applications, is not awesome, it's not practical, it's just silly.


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## farlex85 (Aug 8, 2009)

newconroer said:


> Right, it does take a backseat. But who said i7 was awesome? By design, the architecture is cool, good step forward, but the whole package is far from awesome.
> 
> Devil is not a professional Synth-Bencher. Eventually practicality must come into play.
> A whole new and expensive system for an average gain of maybe 10 fps in real world applications, is not awesome, it's not practical, it's just silly.



i7 is by far the fastest processor you can get, that makes it awesome. Again I use the Ferarri (or any other very fast car) analogy. A cheaper car will generally go just as fast anywhere you go, b/c you have speed limits and traffic and you're not going to use the speed 97% of the time. Even though this is the case, some still desire them simply for the fact that they are so damn fast. 

Who said he was an avid gamer? Most people really just surf the web these days, which in that case he's already far over what he needs. But it's a matter of enthusiasm.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 8, 2009)

so i would guess your getting one because i see your still on a C2Q


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## PaulieG (Aug 8, 2009)

Animalpak said:


> Stay core duo, or just go quad core if you really want to upgrade.
> 
> You dont need i7 at the moment, i mean for playing games to the maximum.
> 
> I think Duo and quad are still the best choice and reasonable price too.



One of the key things he's worried about is resale value. The longer he waits, the less his stuff will be worth. Quick resale is thge only reason why I'm able to upgrade as often as I do. I don't take much of a loss on anything.


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## farlex85 (Aug 8, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> One of the key things he's worried about is resale value. The longer he waits, the less his stuff will be worth. Quick resale is thge only reason why I'm able to upgrade as often as I do. I don't take much of a loss on anything.



If you add up the little losses you take with each transaction over time though I'd wager you'll find your total losses come in roughly the same as if you held onto hardware for a while then sold it off at a lesser value than it was initially purchased for. The only way to truly keep from losing any money is to buy products considerably cheaper than their new MSRP then sell them less than 2 weeks later. That's too much of a pain in the ass for most though, and impossible sometimes. For practicalities sake there's no reason to be concerned with such things imo, we aren't talking huge sums of money here. If your proc sells for $100 less than you bought it for (and that would be about a year's use roughly for a normal mid-range proc, only the overpriced ones would drop more) and you're really that concerned about the money, then you probably don't need to be upgrading to something you really don't need. That's my reasoning anyway.


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## PaulieG (Aug 8, 2009)

farlex85 said:


> If you add up the little losses you take with each transaction over time though I'd wager you'll find your total losses come in roughly the same as if you held onto hardware for a while then sold it off at a lesser value than it was initially purchased for. The only way to truly keep from losing any money is to buy products considerably cheaper than their new MSRP then sell them less than 2 weeks later. That's too much of a pain in the ass for most though, and impossible sometimes. For practicalities sake there's no reason to be concerned with such things imo, we aren't talking huge sums of money here. If your proc sells for $100 less than you bought it for (and that would be about a year's use roughly for a normal mid-range proc, only the overpriced ones would drop more) and you're really that concerned about the money, then you probably don't need to be upgrading to something you really don't need. That's my reasoning anyway.



Well, I rarely buy anything at MSRP, and quite often used. Actually, with my last few transactions, I've come out about even. For me, this all works out great. It's what's allowed me to try 6 different i7 boards, 4 CO chips and 5 DO chips. I've maybe taken a $50 loss over all of those transactions. Pretty good considering how much fun I've had testing of of this hardware.


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## farlex85 (Aug 8, 2009)

Paulieg said:


> Well, I rarely buy anything at MSRP, and quite often used. Actually, with my last few transactions, I've come out about even. For me, this all works out great. It's what's allowed me to try 6 different i7 boards, 4 CO chips and 5 DO chips. I've maybe taken a $50 loss over all of those transactions. Pretty good considering how much fun I've had testing of of this hardware.



Yeah if you switch out often buying used is the way to go for sure. $50 is a lot though, that's maybe 6 months worth of depreciation, so you see what I'm saying. Holding onto hardware is no less monetarily advantageous than switching out frequently. It just depends on what you like. 

I personally enjoy fiddling with my computer a bit, but heatsinks infuriate me to no end, and I couldn't handle switching out procs and boards any more than maybe once every 6 months. I recently sold my e6750 that I've used for 1.5 years for roughly $100 less than what I bought it for and bought a new q9550 on sale for roughly the same price I bought my e6750 for a year and a half ago (actually a bit less). So waiting for the good deal netted me a new E0 q9550 that does 3.6ghz undervolted for about $100. I don't even really need a quad in the slightest, but at that price I figure what the hey. So holding onto my hardware actually worked out for the better for me, and I even sold the e6750 for a bit less than I thought is was actually worth to make sure I could snag the deal. It all depends on what you want.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 8, 2009)

If your mainly a gamer/internet user, no need for i7. If you want to sell the system you already have for some reason then yes, you should do it quick. I would go i7 if you are going to be doing lots of CPU intensive stuff, photoshop, video editing and a boat load of gaming cause thats where it really shines.775 is still great for your average user/gamer. i7 does have alot of horsepower but theres not really much of a point in going with it if it going to be used lightly. The system you currently have is really good, and as long as those games in the future aren't all CPU hogs(you average game generally relies on the GPU), your current system should run those games fine. Now, if you have the cash and you really want to have the best possible, then go ahead and go i7, its a great platform with lots of power behind it(and no you don't need to have watercooling, unless your trying to do some extreme clocking or something). But best not waste your money and instead wait for the new line of cards or something to spend your cash on. Considering you only mentioned gaming and some crunching, Core 2 is still more then capable of taking that on. What you have now if more then enough imo. For an average user, i7 is definitely more of a want then a need. The future of games may use i7 to it's fullest but i don't see 775 phasing out anytime soon.


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