i5 any good ??? worth the monies ??

[wazi]

just wondering whether anyone had upgraded to i5's and found it not worth the monies ???
or has it been life changing experience ???

[kalniel]

just wondering whether anyone had upgraded to i5's and found it not worth the monies ???
or has it been life changing experience ???

What's your usage?

[Zhaoman]

depends what you have currently and what you use it for. if you're going from a pentiumIII to i5 and you use it for video encoding then it'll certainly be a life changing experience. going from your current setup to i5 and you don't encode video wouldn't make too much difference tbh...

[wazi]

i just was wondering how many peeps jumped on the bandwagon, there has been quite a feww people selling up QUAD systems recently, i am just curious
is there any games out there designed to run on the i5 i7 ie made specifically for it ??

[Jay]

nope, no games made for them.

[Jasp]

I was under the impression the i5 is basically a jumped up quad core with intels so called "turbo" since it lacks hyperthreading, personally if i owned a Q6600 or higher i wouldn't be looking at upgrading but thats me.

[Pob255]

I'll be going from an e6600 @3.2ghz to ether an i5 or i7 socket1156, but not for a month or so when I can afford to get all the bits.

Your going to see a simular boost as you would going from a dual core to a quad core, so as has been said, depends on your usage.

The main difference between a c2q and an i5 is ddr3 memory controller and pci-e both on the cpu not the motherboard.
That "should" reduce latinces and allow for faster communication, how much will it give over a c2q at the same ghz rating??
No idea untill we see some tests.

[rushholme]

I was under the impression the i5 is basically a jumped up quad core with intels so called "turbo" since it lacks hyperthreading, personally if i owned a Q6600 or higher i wouldn't be looking at upgrading but thats me.

I think it does more per clock, with the same cache - could be wrong tho.

[simonw]

i just was wondering how many peeps jumped on the bandwagon, there has been quite a feww people selling up QUAD systems recently, i am just curious
is there any games out there designed to run on the i5 i7 ie made specifically for it ??

Even today, despite the fact that quad cores have been available for quite some time, many games still do not take advantage of 4 cores.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

For multi-tasking a quad is better but TBH, even a dual core still does the job in most cases. More and more games are going to take advantage of quad core processors but with most of the gamers still on a dual core I do not see having one a major limitation for the next year or so.

To the OP, I would recommend getting a quad core like a Q6600 or Q6700 and extending the life of your system for another 18 months or so. I have done so with 975x based system and it will fine for the next year or so IMHO. A second-hand Q6600 can be had for well under £100 on Ebay. Even on stock voltages and a 975x I have got my high VID Q6600 to 2.91ghz on stock voltage and a better example would be capable of going even higher IMHO!!

Remember that most quad cores out there are still either Core2, Phenom and Phenom II architecture ones and not the Core i5 and Core i7.

Remember most games reviews test games at very low resolutions and settings and when they are tested at higher settings and resolutions the differences are not that high if you already have a decent processor.

The graphics card is still the most important component in most games and even with an older quad you will have a better specced rig than most people.

[McstylisT]

Personally i cant see the benefit in spending money on a 775 upgrade if you can look to build a whole new i5 system.
If the Core 2 Quad prices fell dramatically making it a decent and cheap upgrade then , hell yeah. But to be able to get a brand new i5 750 CPU for the same price shows how over priced the c2q currently are.

My opinion is to sell your current stuff for as much as you can gather. Then get yourself and i5 cpu , a half decent mobo, and 4GB DDR3 mem to start with. With selling your old components you will probably spend around £250 of your own money. If you looked at a Q6600 / Q6700 it would be £100+ just for the old cpu.

Yes more outlay indeed , but worth it if this lasts at least 3years+. And your on the newest sockett meaning future upgrades are pop right in.

McT

[arthurleung]

Personally i cant see the benefit in spending money on a 775 upgrade if you can look to build a whole new i5 system.
If the Core 2 Quad prices fell dramatically making it a decent and cheap upgrade then , hell yeah. But to be able to get a brand new i5 750 CPU for the same price shows how over priced the c2q currently are.

My opinion is to sell your current stuff for as much as you can gather. Then get yourself and i5 cpu , a half decent mobo, and 4GB DDR3 mem to start with. With selling your old components you will probably spend around £250 of your own money. If you looked at a Q6600 / Q6700 it would be £100+ just for the old cpu.

Yes more outlay indeed , but worth it if this lasts at least 3years+. And your on the newest sockett meaning future upgrades are pop right in.

McT

Until Intel suddenly decided to change socket again. Or old motherboards may not get BIOS update for new CPU even if the socket is the same.

And buying a Q6600/Q6700 then selling the old CPU will probably cost significantly lower than £100.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Until Intel suddenly decided to change socket again. Or old motherboards may not get BIOS update for new CPU even if the socket is the same.

And buying a Q6600/Q6700 then selling the old CPU will probably cost significantly lower than £100.

MY Q6600 cost under £80 months ago. After selling my old E4500 the upgrade cost me under £40!!

[Krakkenbus]

I've found mine pretty cheap to put together, it's came in at under £300.

Hopefully its a decent upgrade over my AMD X2 6000+ but only time will tell, i haven't done any testing yet as i'm still waiting on my ram

[danroyle]

i sold my 9550 and core 2boards for £210 and spent about £230-240 on the i5 setup as i already had RAM so for me it was worth it provided i can g et some money back soon on the asus i bought as i have two boards

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This article does look interesting:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3639&p=3