PC Build advice

I'm needing a new PC that will be able to be used straightaway after building (and not require days of tweaking, modifing, testing, stabilising).
My only requirments are multitasking and stability. (Affordable too)

I have 3 choices infront of me:

#1 q9550 + Asus P5Q SE ip43 ...... ~£430
#2 Amd PII X4 955 + ASUS M4A78T-E ...... ~£390
#3 i7 920 + Gigabyte ex58-udr3 ...... ~£580

I'd rather not wait for lynnfield i5/i7, but if I do: what is the chance that the lynnfield/p55 combinations will be as stable and bug free as #1 and #2?

And how long would it take for prices to drop after the introduction of lynnfield? (I'm thinking months at the very least?)

- hope that makes sense

Im sure you can wait a week for lynnfield.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Infinite

Im sure you can wait a week for lynnfield.

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I'm not usually an early adopter of processors/motherboards as there seem to be numerous faults/bugs in initially offerings. I usually buy after a revision or two or wait until it has enough good reviews.

Seeing as stability is one of my priorities can p55/lynnfield offer me this? (from any previous experience you may have).

I never seen any real stability issues with cpu's only when you look at overclocking does stability come into play.

Motherboards and chipset on the other hand can be plagued by them.
Some of the eairly socket775 chipsets where pritty bad for long term, developeing issues after a couple of years.
Although the later ones have been rock solid.

For long term stability don't scrimp on the motherboard and don't overclock.
A good motherboard can run without fault for years.
Same goes for psu, look for quality not wattage.

Unless you need integrated graphics this DFI 790X based motherboard is excellent value for under £100:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-L...-SATA-RAID-ATX

The 790FX is the highest end AMD chipset currently available. The motherboard is usually over £130!!

It is also on the Scan Today Only web-page currently for around £90:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

The Phenom II X4 955BE is the same web-page for around £140:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Built 2 PCs one around a 940be with DDR2 and one around a 955be DDR3, both have been rock solid and never bluescreened, bearing in mind they are running stock with no overclocking, both using gigabyte motherboards of the X series.

As has been mentioned you should not expect any instability from a new CPU/Mboard combo. I understand your concern having had compatibility issues with chipsets in years gone by. However in my experience it's not the CPU and board that are the biggest concern, it tends to be motherboard chipset vs other compenents.

What other components do you plan to use?
In recent years it's been hard-drive firmware that caused me the most issues but that was when the common size was 250Gb and was tied to a certain on-board (the drive) controller.

All the hardware you mention should be mature enough to have had BIOS updates to cover any stability issues. If you do choose the Q9550 route I'd consider an ASUS P5Q3 and DDR3 memory - if only to offer the best value future RAM upgrades.

The other thing to mention in the last couple of years concerning compatibility issues was older chipsets needing BIOS updates to recognise newer cpu's.
Angain with the newer chipsets it's not a problem and as I very much doubt we'll see any more socket775 cpu's come out this will not be an issue.

If you buy an i7 setup now and don't upgrade the cpu when a new one comes out just to have the latest cpu, again this shouldn't be an issue.