What CPU do I get? ={

[RhysAndrews]

Hey guys.
I want to get a new system, soon - but I don't want to do what I did last time and buy something which became redundant a week later (The phenom's came out a week after getting the Athon x2 6400).

I was going to go with the Core i7 920, and the p6T-SE motherboard, however apparently the i7's are going to be non-existant at the end of the year. Is it worth waiting for something else that is expected to come out @ same price yet better performance? Is anything going to be improved very soon that I should wait for?

Thanks
Rhys

 

[foothead]

naw.
I think the new 6-core CPU's will cost a lot more.
Get the 920 or a P2 955.
IMO the 955, but either one is great.

 

[PokerDegenerate]

If you buy an I7 you wont have a problem with it. The chip only is going to be phased out but the socket will remain so you will still be able to get new motherboards and things. A lot of people are worried about them phasing out but if you have one now its not going to effect yours at all. The new Hex chips are going to use the 1366 socket as well so you really aren't losing anything by buying it now. I don't think that you will be able to get the new chips for the same price as the I7 now but I could be wrong. I mean if you are fine with your system now and want to wait that would be fine too because I really don't see how they are going to be much more than the I7 is now so if anything you will only really be paying a little more but it might even be the same price but there is no way to tell what the release prices are going to be.

 

[RhysAndrews]

naw.
I think the new 6-core CPU's will cost a lot more.
Get the 920 or a P2 955.
IMO the 955, but either one is great.

Why the 955? Looking at this article, the Core i7 920 blows every other processor out of the water in terms of value:http://techreport.com/articles.x/16570/11

-Rhys

 

[foothead]

Yeah, but all their benches are horribly unfair.
They put triple channel DDR3 and tend to pit it against a P2 on an AM2+ board with dual channel DDR2.

EDIT: Yep. that is one of them. They only have AM2+ CPU's listed.
The 955 is actually a better value unless you NEED speeds over 4 GHz.

 

[RhysAndrews]

Hmm, ok - can you show me some benchmark articles foothead? I'm not so convinced yet.

 

[foothead]

There's actually not a whole lot of them.
http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/497132-phenom-ii-955-benchmarks.html

 

[RhysAndrews]

None of them make a comparison to the 920, though.

 

[foothead]

Yeah actually the 955 gets pretty close and it is a lot cheaper when you include the mobo.

 

[RhysAndrews]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=88&p2=47
The Core i7 925 still seems to perform better, and even when putting motherboard into consideration i'm only spending an extra $100.