Core i7 leakes

[shaithis]

My i975 board would not take the first generation of Core2 CPUs, so motherboard replacement had to happen for the upgrade. This was due to a change in the CPU voltage specification by Intel IIRC
We were told for a while that i975 chipsets were "core2 compatible".....funny how another small chip can then make the whole board incompatible.

The upgrade then was fine, until I got a Quad core....then I couldn't overclock any more...again, due to information that wasn't available/adhered to at the time the board was made (and the newer CPUs were not available)....and that was all before we talk about replacing the RAM as the CPU FSBs increased a lot and you needed faster RAM to be still able to overclock. PC4200/PC5300 (and DDR1) were the norm around the time Core2 was released and PC6400 was the expensive choice.

The thing with these things is you can never tell in advance. You have no idea if you will need the i7, you have no idea if your i7 motherboard will become a paperweight the day you want to upgrade your i7 CPU for the first time, you have no idea if you will need to spend silly money on RAM today so that you don't have to replace it when you next upgrade your CPU.....


Too many unknowns AFAIC. Hence I am sitting on the fence until the first die-shrink

[j.o.s.h.1408]

in a nushell. what could £700 get me in terms of a core 2? i would want at least a quad core system along with a new case, PSU and everything else. i currently have a p4 so any upgrade i do now or later, im going to have to have the whole package minus the monitor and any peripherals.

[kalniel]

My i975 board would not take the first generation of Core2 CPUs, so motherboard replacement had to happen for the upgrade. This was due to a change in the CPU voltage specification by Intel IIRC
We were told for a while that i975 chipsets were "core2 compatible".....funny how another small chip can then make the whole board incompatible.

I agree - Intel have cashed in on the chipsets and I'm sure they could have kept a motherboard for longer. I now view it as essentially CPU specific, so if I were to get a X58 I'd only assume I could run the CPUs that were released at the same time and nothing else.

in a nushell. what could £700 get me in terms of a core 2? i would want at least a quad core system along with a new case, PSU and everything else. i currently have a p4 so any upgrade i do now or later, im going to have to have the whole package minus the monitor and any peripherals.

All the power you could dream of and then some.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I agree - Intel have cashed in on the chipsets and I'm sure they could have kept a motherboard for longer. I now view it as essentially CPU specific, so if I were to get a X58 I'd only assume I could run the CPUs that were released at the same time and nothing else.


All the power you could dream of and then some.

ha i doubt it. but maybe. i will make a thread soon when nehalem is officialy launched and will ask for some advice on which system is best for my needs at a specific price and will use system A(nehalem) and System B(core 2) and see which comes on top

[MadduckUK]

im waiting on Deneb

yes i know that's crazy talk

[j.o.s.h.1408]

wtf is that?

kalniel: i saw your gaming rig. is that what you have now or you have not updated your profile?

[kalniel]

I have an X2 4400 now, that's the only difference. Oh and I just changed ISP to O2

Deneb is AMDs next chip. Basically a 45nm shrink of phenom, but a few extra bits too. It's not going to be miraculous, but it should allow AMD to up the clockspeed a bit, which is an area they've always struggled with.

[this_is_gav]

ha i doubt it. but maybe. i will make a thread soon when nehalem is officialy launched and will ask for some advice on which system is best for my needs at a specific price

The problem isn't just Core i7, but also motherboards (looking at over £100 for the basic ones at the moment, and it's going to be well over £200 for top end) and DDR3 memory, which is coming down in price, but is still far from cheap.

Value for money is still getting a C2D or Yorkfield and clocking it a bit on a P45 with DDR2.

If you really want to go i7, you'll be waiting a while for the prices of the boards and RAM to come down, not the CPU.

[bidders]

I must agree with the people on here who say buy naow and get the i7 when prices drop. Lets face it theres not a game out there at moment that cannot be at full settings using current hardware.

[magneticman]

i think it would pay to be patient and wait for the 32nm westmare cpus (apparently the core 3 range) The i7 range just seems to be a stop-gap imo, the benchmarks seem to indicate only a marginal improvement (compared to the previous generation against even older cpus) in tasks of a multimedia nature, and it's beaten by some core 2s for gaming.

and there is no such thing as future-proofing, only 18 months-proofing; no point saying your're buying a processor now to run software that will release in 2010/1, that's completely impractical because by then something much better will be announced.

[Webby]

Intel run on a tick tock cycle so the 65nm core2 was a tick, the 45nm core2 is the tock, i7 tick, 32nm i7 tock and so on.

So when they move to 32nm you will perhaps see a small improvement in performance and lower power consumption much like we saw from 65nm to 45nm in the Core 2 series if you are waiting for the next series after the 32nm i7 then you are going to be waiting 2 years at least. Which depending on your current system and needs could be a very long wait!

[magneticman]

32nm is slated for late 09 / early 10

[Webby]

Yeah but it will only be a die shrink with small performance gains over i7 like Wolfdale over Conroe

[j.o.s.h.1408]

more benchmarks and more reasons why i should get this instead of a core 2 http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

and another: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

hexus what u got for us? i know u have a nehalem system in your office, come on!! give is some benchmarks!

edit again! i7 at 5ghz!!!!!! http://uneit.com/2008/11/02/intel-core-i7-at-5ghz/

dam another edit: their out! http://digg.com/hardware/I7_is_out_in_the_wild

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wonder when the Core i7 will become mainstream,ie, when the current Core2 processors will be discontinued!!?? It will probably be the end of next year(or Jan 2010) until I upgrade my computer so hopefully it will be in time for the 32nm version. Should be a good upgrade from a 3ghz Core2!!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

core i7 game benchmarks taken from here http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==







edit: More reviews from different sources

Core i7:
Benchmark Reviews
PC Perspective
Techgage
Techspot
Legion Hardware
TweakTown
Guru3D
Tom's Hardware

X58 Reviews:
Techreport (with 965EE)[/QUOTE]