Core i7 vs Core 2 Duo 8600

[Sentry11]

I notice both CPUs are pretty much at the same price point, it's such a difficult call. If you were me, which I would you get?

 

[Martimus]

Well, it depends. A E8600 can be MUCH cheaper than a i7 920, because the motherboarda and RAM that are available for it can be much cheaper. (try finding a X58 board for less than $250, or getting 8GB of DDR3 ram for $80 like I did with DDR2-800 RAM about 3 weeks ago.) The i7 platform is much more expensive than the S775 platform. If money was no issue though, I would wait a few months to see what issues that i7 computers have and if they are relatively issue free, I would buy one.

 

[Sentry11]

Point taken. But then which one is faster 8600 or i7? Budget is not a concern to me.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Sentry11
Point taken. But then which one is faster 8600 or i7? Budget is not a concern to me.

This question is already being discussed here.

A review is shown with the Q9770 and all i7 variants here.

The E8600 at stock is only 4% faster in clock speed than a Q9770, so the difference in performance would be negligible, unless more than 2 cores are being used where the Q9770 would come out on top.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Sentry11
I notice both CPUs are pretty much at the same price point, it's such a difficult call. If you were me, which I would you get?

E8600

 

[TidusZ]

what's the typical overclock range on good air cooling for e8600? I seem to see numbers from 4ghz to 6.76ghz and I'm not sure what one could expect with say, a coolermaster HAF 932 and TRUE 120.

 

[Tempered81]

I feel that an average is 4.3ghz:

see the bottom of the page here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

 

[Cheesetogo]

The i7 is faster in the majority of non-gaming applications. i7 is also faster in gaming when using SLI or Crossfire. Since a budget is not a concern to you, I'll assume you have the money for SLI or Crossfire and would strongly reccomend i7.

 

[eternalone]

Wait for Deneb in January its looking good.

 

[tim924]

Originally posted by: Sentry11
Point taken. But then which one is faster 8600 or i7? Budget is not a concern to me.

What is the point there if price is not a concern?Want that extra ghz to amaze your eyeballs like the E8600?Get the i7 965e or 940,any of those will be better than a E8600 at this point.But If price does matter suddenly,I would still recommend a Q9550 or Q9650.Going duo at this point is just pointless.

 

[VI3L]

(From another post )

Man I am in love with my new PC, I can't pick my jaw up off the floor............I say go I7!
I don't think I can describe how fast this thing really is...I run games, scan anti virus and spyware, burn dvds and open random crap all at the same time...I can't slow it down at stock speeds lol..........


BTW if you do go I7 www.ncix.com has the new Thermalright ultra 120 Extreme cooler for I7 in stock, but hurry cause they will sell out soon!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: VI3L
(From another post )

Man I am in love with my new PC, I can't pick my jaw up off the floor............I say go I7!
I don't think I can describe how fast this thing really is...I run games, scan anti virus and spyware, burn dvds and open random crap all at the same time...I can't slow it down at stock speeds lol..........

As long as you have multiple hard drives (which applies to the i7's, also), you can do all of that simultaneously with any quadcore.

 

[VI3L]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: VI3L
(From another post )

Man I am in love with my new PC, I can't pick my jaw up off the floor............I say go I7!
I don't think I can describe how fast this thing really is...I run games, scan anti virus and spyware, burn dvds and open random crap all at the same time...I can't slow it down at stock speeds lol..........

As long as you have multiple hard drives (which applies to the i7's, also), you can do all of that simultaneously with any quadcore.

Ok mr negative, but other quads won't do it as smootly.

 

[tim924]

Yea,some people just cant accept the fact that technology keeps moving forward everyday,and their current hardware gets behind once something better kicks in,they do not have it therefore they tend to rather mentally devaluate the new one to make themself feel better,I learned that from my psychology course back a while ago

 

[Dadofamunky]

If I were doing a new build at this point, I'd go for i7 slam-dunk...

 

[tim924]

Originally posted by: Dadofamunky
If I were doing a new build at this point, I'd go for i7 slam-dunk...

Exactly,others than financial difficulty,dont give yourself an excuse to jump on a dead-end socket worse yet a duo core at this point

 

[Dadofamunky]

Yeah, even though the i7 has a higher entry point, (and I don't think it's THAT much higher) I also think it's the better long-term prospect. I changed my mind when I started seeing the published results. And if I were a Photoshop hound, I'd go for i7, 12 GB of RAM and a fast NVidia card. Even with that the entry point isn't even as high as the high-end Mac Pros.

The cool thing is, the 920 is priced at the level where just about any enthusiast can build around one. I can't recall a single build I've done recently that didn't wind up costing me $1400-1500 minimum.

Remember when 386-25s cost $800? I sure do. $284 isn't nothin'. (Unless you're out of work God forbid)