i5 or i7?

[DeltrusDisc]

So let's just say my desktop more or less broke.... I have a $1,000 budget, and my psu and video card from my old computer will transfer over fine, I think my optical drive should be fine as well.

For what it's worth, here are the items I am salvaging....
PNY NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 1 gig GDDR3
Corsair 650 watt TX PSU
and since I hardly ever do anything with CDs or DVDs, I guess I could just opt to use the old one.

I'm looking at moving to Asus for as many of the products as possible, mainly the mobo. (this'll be the first computer I build myself, thankfully I have a helpful friend who is willing to help out.)

Okay, so, I need to figure out whether to opt for the more pricey mobos and i7 processing cores... or for the less pricey mobos and i5s. The main thing I use this computer for would be WoW, I would like to use Fraps more, it would be cool if I could during raid (25 mans) and that's about all the rough'ness I put my computer through.

The first mobo+cpu that caught my eye would be these..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131665
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115211

If you want to link a mobo+i5 combo please do, I'm not sure as much about those as everyone these days seems to be talking about the i7s and the Sabertooth mobo is quite a badass when you read about it, I mean, military grade. O.o

So I'd appreciate any opinions/concerns with my build. As for case..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119160
or the HAF 922 (its little sibling) since I am not sure if the mobo will fit in the 922, but if it would I'd opt for the 922.
RAM will be...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145315

[Deleted]

Dont buy socket 1366 anymore. Get a socket 1155 Core i5 2500K. Or i7 2600k only if you need HT and do other work than gaming.. Like 3d modelling or multimedia stuff.

I5 2500k can easily (very literally) be overclocked over 4ghz and will perform better than a i7 950

[DeltrusDisc]

Dont buy socket 1366 anymore. Get a socket 1155 Core i5 2500K. Or i7 2600k only if you need HT and do other work than gaming.. Like 3d modelling or multimedia stuff.

I5 2500k can easily (very literally) be overclocked over 4ghz and will perform better than a i7 950

Guessing you meant 1156 socket right?

[Deleted]

Nope. 1155

[DeltrusDisc]

Nope. 1155

The only 1155 things I found on newegg were ram and heatsinks. >_<

[Deleted]

They probaby removed the 1155 mobo's and cpus from newegg. temporarily cause of a issue that caused the SATA II (3gbs) ports to DOWNGRADE. So only the 6gbs (sata3) ports on 1155 motherboards are uneffected.

Theyll probably come back when intel deal with it.
Here you can see some Core i5 2500k vs Core i7 950 benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=100
The i5 2500k can be overclocked to roughly 4ghz on almost stock cooling, and only by increasing the multiplier.

[DeltrusDisc]

They probaby removed the 1155 mobo's and cpus from newegg. temporarily cause of a issue that caused the SATA II (3gbs) ports to DOWNGRADE. So only the 6gbs (sata3) ports on 1155 motherboards are uneffected.

Theyll probably come back when intel deal with it.

yeah those were the ones that were recalled. =S
Are there any others that I could get *within a week*? I am one of the main raiders in my guild and we don't have too many extra spots so I need to get back up and running asap. I'm willing to buy the i7 but I wouldn't mind saving some cash. How horrible would the i5 1156 be?

[Asera]

You can still buy P67 motherboards from NCIX.

[Deleted]

mhm. Just get a SATA III hard drive.

[Stevegasm]

If all you're planning on is games, then the i5 would probably be your best bet. Cheaper CPU and higher clock speeds. For what you want to do, you'll get much more for your money. I went i7 because I do a lot on my computer. And especially if you're just running WoW, you really don't need much. The graphic technology in this game is around 5 years old now (considering upgrades to the engine over the years).

[DeltrusDisc]

You can still buy P67 motherboards from NCIX.

ugh, now I'll toss in that after some recent bad delivery service that may or may not have led to the destruction of my current computer.... I'd rather pick up all the pieces at a store myself, such as the Tiger Direct/Comp USA local store, if possible.

[Deleted]

Wait a while and get the I5 2500k. You will regret it otherwize. It AMAZING.

[DeltrusDisc]

Wait a while and get the I5 2500k. You will regret it otherwize. It AMAZING.

I can't wait. I would have to lose my raider spot and I need to get a new computer anyways, my entire family can't all be on one damned computer... (homework, work, etc, and no video card?! BAH!) So I need to figure something out like, now.

[Deleted]

You should be able to purchase Sandy Bridge processors and baords again but as correctly stated above there are issue's with SATA 3gbs ports with performance decrease over time so if you do wish to move to this format (LGA1155) you may wish to check with the retailer/etailer if they will exchange the board if such an issue occurs (Both Asus and MSI have stated at this time that they will offer RMA's to those who have purchased affected boards. Also not if you intend to just use the 2 Sata 6gbps ports you will be unaffected.

As for the question itself it really does depend on if your confident/competent enough and intend to overclock your system if so then yes the i5 2500k is a steal it can comfortably be overclocked to 4Ghz (has been clocked at 4.7Ghz on air cooling) just remember with any Sandy Bridge i5/i7 CPU's if you intend to overclock the CPU model needs to end wih a k (i.e i5 2500k/i7 2600k) AND the mobo needs to have the P67 chipset and not the H67.

If you have no intention of overclocking the LGA1366 i7 CPU's are still very good and are slowly starting to fall in price it'll handle WoW/Fraps/background webb browsing easily and should serve you well for a few years if WoW's the extent of your gaming. Only thing with this build is the RAM you linked at the bottom isn't optimal for this settup you need DDR3 tripple channel ideally to get the most from it, good news in this regard is DDR3 is only getting cheaper as are the tripple channel kits.

Ohh and yes the sabartooth is a great board but try and avoid the military grade BS as the high point of it all you need to know about this board is its well organised with great heat sinks and comes with a 5 year warranty (something i've not seen before on a mobo). The boards also not too expensive by comparison either so you could do a lot worse.

The HAF series cases are actually quite good for me personally I prefur to build mine whisper quiet so a case of this type isnt suitable for that but its not too shabby at airflow which is important for overclocking and even running at stock speeds. Both the HAF932/922 support full ATX motherboards so you should be fine with either choice.

Hope this helps : )

Exo

[DeltrusDisc]

You should be able to purchase Sandy Bridge processors and baords again but as correctly stated above there are issue's with SATA 3gbs ports with performance decrease over time so if you do wish to move to this format (LGA1155) you may wish to check with the retailer/etailer if they will exchange the board if such an issue occurs (Both Asus and MSI have stated at this time that they will offer RMA's to those who have purchased affected boards. Also not if you intend to just use the 2 Sata 6gbps ports you will be unaffected.

As for the question itself it really does depend on if your confident/competent enough and intend to overclock your system if so then yes the i5 2500k is a steal it can comfortably be overclocked to 4Ghz (has been clocked at 4.7Ghz on air cooling) just remember with any Sandy Bridge i5/i7 CPU's if you intend to overclock the CPU model needs to end wih a k (i.e i5 2500k/i7 2600k) AND the mobo needs to have the P67 chipset and not the H67.

If you have no intention of overclocking the LGA1366 i7 CPU's are still very good and are slowly starting to fall in price it'll handle WoW/Fraps/background webb browsing easily and should serve you well for a few years if WoW's the extent of your gaming. Only thing with this build is the RAM you linked at the bottom isn't optimal for this settup you need DDR3 tripple channel ideally to get the most from it, good news in this regard is DDR3 is only getting cheaper as are the tripple channel kits.

Ohh and yes the sabartooth is a great board but try and avoid the military grade BS as the high point of it all you need to know about this board is its well organised with great heat sinks and comes with a 5 year warranty (something i've not seen before on a mobo). The boards also not too expensive by comparison either so you could do a lot worse.

The HAF series cases are actually quite good for me personally I prefur to build mine whisper quiet so a case of this type isnt suitable for that but its not too shabby at airflow which is important for overclocking and even running at stock speeds. Both the HAF932/922 support full ATX motherboards so you should be fine with either choice.

Hope this helps : )

Exo

Thanks much for the extensive post! I am not so sure I am interested in, or comfortable with over-clocking, I did none on my E5200 2.5 ghz processor and that one did alright, and that thing was HORRIBLE compared to an i7, so yeah the prices might be there but it also seems rather painfully difficult right now to find the P67 chipset and i5 2500K.

If you could possibly link to the RAM you speak about I'd appreciate it. I know you're a new user, well I think you know what to do, (and I don't think the mods will mind.) :P

[Deleted]

Sure (as you can see i dont post here often so if im given a forum vacation its not big deal ).

6GB should be enough tbh and again I could have picked some DDR3 PC12800 but most i7 1366 boards (as at time of posting this inc the sabertooth) require you to manually overclock the speed so as you wish to avoid that heres a DDR310666 choice that is not bad at all:

Ok after making the attempt the forums kindly told me i couldn't anyway ><

If you just paste N82E16820145220 into newegg's search bar it'll bring up the same page.

If you wanted to go nuts you could find a 12Gb tripple channel set but to be honest its not really worth it right now

[DeltrusDisc]

Sure (as you can see i dont post here often so if im given a forum vacation its not big deal ).

6GB should be enough tbh and again I could have picked some DDR3 PC12800 but most i7 1366 boards (as at time of posting this inc the sabertooth) require you to manually overclock the speed so as you wish to avoid that heres a DDR310666 choice that is not bad at all:

Ok after making the attempt the forums kindly told me i couldn't anyway ><

If you just paste N82E16820145220 into newegg's search bar it'll bring up the same page.

If you wanted to go nuts you could find a 12Gb tripple channel set but to be honest its not really worth it right now

Thanks! And oh they do like nice! Though there is this one review that makes me wonder, thoughts?
Pros: On motherboard Asus Sabertooth X58 does not show like tripple.

Cons: May be problem of motherboard.

[Deleted]

Ok heres an alternative N82E16820145258

But its highly likely its a out of date BIOS the user had but its best to be sure : )

If you install the Asus update software included with the mobo it will auto check and install any new BIOS that is released for the board but to be honest this is not terribly important when your systems stable and detecting all your hardware correctly.

[DeltrusDisc]

So hey, check this out...
http://www.compusa.com/applications/...257&CatId=4149

Has the case I want, pretty much the same RAM I am looking for, same processor, same mobo... how'd this magic happen? O_O

[BicycleMafioso]

So hey, check this out...
http://www.compusa.com/applications/...257&CatId=4149

Has the case I want, pretty much the same RAM I am looking for, same processor, same mobo... how'd this magic happen? O_O

Looks good - I'd advice you to get a 7200 RPM HDD as well - running games by a 5900 RPM is too slow to some =)