Go with i7 or with Phenom II X4 955?

[R35]

Heya. I have a quick question: Should I go with an i7 920 and an X58 motherboard NOW, or go for the million-times-cheaper Phenom II X4 955, with an Asus AM3 motherboard?

~I play games, I use Photoshop, I use Sony Vegas, I do lots of Winrar archiving, I sometimes do video converting and encoding. (Sometimes.)

EDIT: I could even opt for an i5; only thing holding me back is lack of hyper threading. How does it fare?

Phenom II: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16819103674
Asus 790GX: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16813131366

Intel Nehalem i7 920: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16819115202
Asus P6T SE: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...%20X58%20ATX%20LGA1366

 

[BaboonGuy]

Depends on your budget really. Since it sounds like it's not huge then I say go for the PII 955. I run a PII 940 at 3.5GHz and for Photoshop, Vegas, and video encoding I feel it runs extremely well. The only game I play is old so I can't comment on performance there, and I don't do any Winrar archiving.

If you can put the money you'd save towards an SSD, then the PII 955 is the way to go. 955 + SSD (X25M G2 is what I run and what I'd recommend, though any Indilinx based one should be alright) = better than i7 920 without SSD.

The i7 920 is significantly faster for video encoding though and that's something to keep in mind. Personally, besides web browsing I mainly use my computer for video editing/encoding and I am happy with my PII 940's performance.

I think you can also pick up the i7 920 for $200 ($110 cheaper) at Microcenter if there's one near you. Then you'll also be able to get a D0 stepping guarenteed... I also recommend overclocking

 

[Fox5]

Well, it's really a cost thing, since in general the i7s are faster.
BTW, consider an i7 860.

Baboonguy has a point that an SSD (and a lot of memory) will help for the workloads you're doing. 12GB of ram in the x58 mobo would be pretty nice too....

But the i7 has a big advantage in photoshop and sony vegas, and the i5 probably does too. The Phenom II might have the advantage in winrar, but consider using 7zip, it's more multithreaded than winrar and has 64 bit support.

 

[R35]

Hmm, is the 860 a better value than the 920? And if I get a SSD, I can still use a 1TB platter-based drive as a secondary, right?

 

[alyarb]

well he seems to be in canada and canadian lynnfield/p55 pricing is more outrageous than X58 pricing. do you have any friends in the states?

 

[R35]

No, however I live 5 minutes from the border, so I can go anytime. I don't think there's a Microcenter in New York, so I really have no reason to go, considering the US prices are almost on the level of Canadian prices.

 

[alyarb]

i have to disagree there. you can get several great X58 boards from newegg US for $200. with a i7 920 for $200 at microcenter, that is the same board/chip cost as the canadian-priced AM3 setup you mentioned in the OP, and the i7 will really shine in vegas/encoding. If you wanted a canadian-priced i7 your best value would be an X58 system which would be about $100 more. the nearest microcenter is in patterson new jersey, and i can see a roadtrip like that costing you $100.

 

[R35]

Alright then, thanks. I'll see what I can get from Newegg.com and go from there. I'm hoping for a substantial price difference (lower, anyways..)

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: R35
Hmm, is the 860 a better value than the 920? And if I get a SSD, I can still use a 1TB platter-based drive as a secondary, right?

The 860's turbo mode will clock much higher (helping out with single or dual threaded work loads), and it has a faster stock clock. Motherboards are probably cheaper too, but you do lose out on the ability to have 12GB of ram. (actually, some 1156 motherboards have 6 ram slots anyway)

And yeah, you could have the SSD + a 1TB hard drive. Whichever you want to use as your primary is up to you. An SSD would make a good drive for working with photo-editing/video apps, but smaller ones can't really hold Windows. Windows till take up most of a 30GB SSD drive, so you either need to shell out money for a larger one, or put windows on the 1TB drive and just use the SSD for apps + scratch.

And just like any drive, you need to keep 20% free space for optimal performance (just the way file systems work), so that's even more space of the SSD you'd be unable to use.

 

[heyheybooboo]

You should probably look at the Phenom 945 instead of the 955BE --- save a bunch of those Canadian dollars without a big hit on your OC headroom ....

 

[R35]

Alright, I'll take a look at that and see how it compares.