Core i7 upgrade worth it?

[Sem]

im considering selling my Q6600 @ 3.6 to fund a i7 920 upgrade
hoping for 4Ghz with the D0 stepping

after selling all my old gear the total cost of the upgrade will be around £180-200

i am hoping this new system will last me till late 2010

think it is worth it?

my current rig is fast enough for what i use it for but im worried that if i wait
the resell value of my Q6600/mobo and ram will decrease so it might cost more money to do the upgrade in the future as i doubt the i7 parts will reduce in price anytime soon

i just dont know what to do

thanks

[piggin23]

I have recently done the same thing.
My Q6600 was clocked @ 3.6 and now I have a core i7 D0 @ 4.1
The performance I have gained is noticeable and I am enjoying my new setup.
My only problem is Intel, they are about to release core i5 and stop making the 'cheaper' core i7 chips.
This has angered me greatly as I have now invested in a new motherboard and ram that I will not be able to use in my next upgrade in a few years time, as the physical layout of the chip is different.

The decision you now have to make is either purchase a core i7 now (prices have tumbled recently from £270 (what I payed) to £220 (SCAN today price) OR see what the core i5 have to offer.

[kalniel]

I would have said it's not worth it, but apparently the poster above can notice the difference, which amazes me to be honest!

What sort of things do you use your computer for? And piggin, in what way did you notice the difference?

i7 parts will continue to reduce in price over time.

[Phage]

This has angered me greatly as I have now invested in a new motherboard and ram that I will not be able to use in my next upgrade in a few years time, as the physical layout of the chip is different.

The decision you now have to make is either purchase a core i7 now (prices have tumbled recently from £270 (what I payed) to £220 (SCAN today price) OR see what the core i5 have to offer.

I agree with most of what you said - but there is no talk of discontinuing the 1366 pin based system. rather, the new i5's and their 1156 set up will fit into the line up alongside them. There's a very good article on this at Anandtech. Page three gives a very good summary.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=3570&p=3

I'm still looking at a i7 becuase I will have headroom in the future.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you can sell your existing bits for a good price and hence have a relatively cheap upgrade to a Core I7 based system then it maybe worth it TBH. However remember that next year better,faster and cheaper processors will be out too from both Intel and AMD. I would think that your overclocked Q6600 would be still good enough for at least another year or so. Remember that most people do not have a quad core let alone one that runs at 3.6ghz as most people do not overclock.

[ice_chill]

Intel are discontinuing the 45nm Core i7 in favour for 32nm Core i7, same as they discontinued Q6600 for Q8xxx and Q9xxx.
They will also be introducing 6-core and 8-core Core i7 that you can use on your X58 motherboard.

Personally I would wait for Core i5 and P55 motherboards.

[Phage]

Intel are discontinuing the 45nm Core i7 in favour for 32nm Core i7, same as they discontinued Q6600 for Q8xxx and Q9xxx.
They will also be introducing 6-core and 8-core Core i7 that you can use on your X58 motherboard.

Personally I would wait for Core i5 and P55 motherboards.

I'd be interested in your thinking on this.
A 920 @4.0GHz is fantastic value for money and the X58 boards will be upgradeable. The i5 will no doubt be cheaper, but will it have a better bang/buck ratio than the OC 920 ?

[piggin23]

kalniel, to answer your question, I use my system for video editing and game play.
I can now render a film in half the time and games such as GTA4 (which is very cpu orientated) play very smooth. Also the spinning hour glass is a thing of the past.
I am sure Sem could carry-on with his Q6600 system if he chooses.
I decided (as Sem is now) to sell my old system when it was still worth a good price and purchase a new setup.

[kalniel]

Certainly if you do such computationally intensive tasks as video editing and rendering then you would see a benefit.