Thinking about a new system build

[Silmatharien]

Basically I am just looking at a little input on the CPU. I am going to do be doing gaming as well as using my system as a HTPC and for work-related stuff like Latex coding and programming in Matlab or FORTRAN. No video editing. I also plan on overclocking the CPU (already have a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme from my current system). Price is really no object for me but I'm not gonna go for the i7 980X because that's way more than I need.

One CPU that caught my eye was the Intel Core i7-930 which I can get off of newegg.ca for $290 + tax and shipping.

Looking at all the i5 offerings as well is making things a bit confusing though. Reading reviews hasn't been all that helpful in me making my decision. I am looking for an opinion on this processor and am wondering if there is anything else out there that would perhaps suit my needs better.

 

[alyarb]

if you aren't doing any video encoding, just get the i5 750. i can't think of any practical, real-world scenarios that would benefit from hyperthreading. at least not in your case. going with an i5 750 on a nice P55 motherboard will free up some funds for a big GPU, SSD, or higher density RAM. all of these things will make your system better than the extra $100 spent on hyperthreading.

 

[KingerXI]

Too bad you aren't near a Microcenter. The same i7-930 is $199 USD. I have a Xeon W3540 (basically a 940), and I love it. I have it OC'd to 4.1GHz, and I actually disabled hyperthreading as there are few programs that make use of 4 cores much less 8, and it helps the temperatures at load with it disabled. Get some good ram if you are going to push the OC.

 

[Silmatharien]

Thanks for the input. The i5 750 looks like a nice CPU.

 

[Ichigo]

Too bad you aren't near a Microcenter. The same i7-930 is $199 USD. I have a Xeon W3540 (basically a 940), and I love it. I have it OC'd to 4.1GHz, and I actually disabled hyperthreading as there are few programs that make use of 4 cores much less 8, and it helps the temperatures at load with it disabled. Get some good ram if you are going to push the OC.

lol so you basically turned your Xeon into an i5.

I don't get you guys.

 

[KingerXI]

HT has been shown to decrease FPS in games, and I typically use my system for gaming. I don't encode music or video and don't need 8 cores. In addition, I like the triple channel memory and x58 chipset. All HT did for my rig was run it hotter when at full load.