i5 750 or i3 530 or wait?

A

aznx

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 17, 2005
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Thinking of doing this. I know it's overkill on the PSU and watercooler but should I wait for Sandy Bridge? I'd mostly just play SC2 and some FPSes. This would be my main computer. Else I'll be using a Athlon 3000+ with a 6600...:(

corsair h50 $80 w/$10 bcb
nzxt beta evo $55
scythe 140mm x2 $24
akasa apache black 120mm x6 $78
xfx xps 850w $150
core i5 750 $200 w/$25 bcb
gigabyte ga-p55-usb3 $130
corsair xms3 dhx 8gb 4x2gb $190
xfx 5870 $410 w/$50 bcb

How's that motherboard btw? Anything out of everything I should change?
 
I just built an i3 system for myself, with the intention of using it as my HTPC when I build my next system (possibly next year if games I want come out on it). Plays Crysis super smooth at 1920x1080 with everything on high, at a comfortable 40fps with a stock 5770 (grrrrrr @ XFX for reference board shenanigans). I don't play RTS though, so I'll be safe with a dual core for a while yet.

Since you'll be playing at least one RTS, get the 750. Take it easy on the fans, unless you don't mind a loud case, everything runs cooler than it used to! Personally I'd tone down the power supply, when you upgrade farther down the road there'll be better options out there. I upgraded the PSU in my old Athlon XP system with the intention of using it in a future build, but now I don't trust it!
 
No point in waiting for sandybridge IMHO if you are using an Athlon 3000+ for gaming. You seem to use your parts longer so if you don't want to upgrade again in the next 3-5 years, i'd be willing to bet a core i7 860 would be just fine. If that CPU is too much though, Core i5 750 is enough and will last you for a while as well since most games don't utilize more than 2 cores yet.

Edit: also, no idea how well all in one water coolers are in the long run, i'd grab this for 45~ + shipping after coupon if I were you. I think this beats out the H50: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-VENOMX&title=Thermalright-Venomous-X-CPU-Cooler
 
piscian18 said:
Whats your current setup? What do you use if for primarily?
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A WHS Athlon 3000+ with 2gb memory, 6600 128mb, and about 18TB. :) Had a 8800GTS but everything at 1920x1200 was held back by the slow CPU, so I eventually sold it.

I primarily use a uMBP atm, but that's leaving soon so I'll soon be left with the WHS. :(
 
Primarily just to check email and surf the web haha. Nothing too creative.
 
RickyJ said:
I just built an i3 system for myself, with the intention of using it as my HTPC when I build my next system (possibly next year if games I want come out on it). Plays Crysis super smooth at 1920x1080 with everything on high, at a comfortable 40fps with a stock 5770 (grrrrrr @ XFX for reference board shenanigans). I don't play RTS though, so I'll be safe with a dual core for a while yet.

Since you'll be playing at least one RTS, get the 750. Take it easy on the fans, unless you don't mind a loud case, everything runs cooler than it used to! Personally I'd tone down the power supply, when you upgrade farther down the road there'll be better options out there. I upgraded the PSU in my old Athlon XP system with the intention of using it in a future build, but now I don't trust it!
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The Akasa Apache's are 16db each and the Scythe's are 14db each. Gotta keep things cool :)

I have a 620HX that powers the WHS now, very handy :) The reason for the PSU is a decent 500-600W one costs $100 so for a measily $50 more, I'd have a lot more leg room for those crazy ass video card requirements these days.
 
dennisjai said:
No point in waiting for sandybridge IMHO if you are using an Athlon 3000+ for gaming. You seem to use your parts longer so if you don't want to upgrade again in the next 3-5 years, i'd be willing to bet a core i7 860 would be just fine. If that CPU is too much though, Core i5 750 is enough and will last you for a while as well since most games don't utilize more than 2 cores yet.

Edit: also, no idea how well all in one water coolers are in the long run, i'd grab this for 45~ + shipping after coupon if I were you. I think this beats out the H50: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-VENOMX&title=Thermalright-Venomous-X-CPU-Cooler
Click to expand...

The i7 860 doesn't seem to bench too much better than the i5 750 since the only real difference is HT and VT and a few mHz. Right?

And that cooler is HUGE. May consider it. Will have to buy more fans :)
 
If you're planning to run this thing as your main rig for several years I'd go with the 860. It doesn't bench much better than a 750 now because most apps still aren't highly threaded but I'd expect that to change in the future and then you could see a nice boost.
 
That's true and Microcenter does have it for a mere $200. Will definitely consider.
 
aznx said:
That's true and Microcenter does have it for a mere $200. Will definitely consider.
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2nd for the 860 at Microcenter for $200. For only $20 more than the 750, it was a deal. Mine was an easy overclock to 3.6Ghz, with only a minor voltage bump. Using the reasonably cheap ($30) Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus heatsink with a single quiet fan. Most the noise is from my drives now.
 
Yes, I agree with the recommendation for the i7-860 at current Microcenter prices. But I would pick a Gigabyte or Asus motherboard (with the Intel P55 chipset) rather than an Intel-branded motherboard if the MB also has to be purchased at Microcenter simply because the Intel-branded P55 motherboards carried at Microcenter do not have fine-enough intervals on their clock speed or voltage settings (for example, the DIMM voltage settings could only be set at 1.5V, 1.6V or 1.65V, but not in between any of those).
 
E4g1e said:
Yes, I agree with the recommendation for the i7-860 at current Microcenter prices. But I would pick a Gigabyte or Asus motherboard (with the Intel P55 chipset) rather than an Intel-branded motherboard if the MB also has to be purchased at Microcenter simply because the Intel-branded P55 motherboards carried at Microcenter do not have fine-enough intervals on their clock speed or voltage settings (for example, the DIMM voltage settings could only be set at 1.5V, 1.6V or 1.65V, but not in between any of those).
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Should I get the Gigabyte board I have listed or a different one? 6gb SATA doesn't really matter to me but 3.0 USB ports are nice indeed.
 
If you plan on getting the i7 860 you might want to consider spending a little extra on a 1336 MB and getting i7 930.
 
cleiomar said:
If you plan on getting the i7 860 you might want to consider spending a little extra on a 1336 MB and getting i7 930.
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We're already talking him into spending a little extra to go with the 860. He's gotta draw the line somewhere.
 
cleiomar said:
If you plan on getting the i7 860 you might want to consider spending a little extra on a 1336 MB and getting i7 930.
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Actually, that would be a significant increase in cost, given that we had recommended the OP to spend the extra $20 for the i7-860. You see, a good motherboard for the i7-930 would have cost at least $70 more than the P55 motherboard the OP had picked, and then he would have had to purchase a triple-channel memory kit to make the most of that platform (sure, the i7-930 can run its memory controller in dual-channel mode, but the performance would have been slightly slower than an i7-860 with the same memory). Currently, triple-channel 6GB kits cost nearly double (on average) those of 4GB dual-channel kits. Hence, what you consider "a little extra" ends up being more than $150 extra for a properly functioning setup since going with a 1366 platform but only dual-channel memory is penny-foolish (meaning that the price would have been significantly higher without anywhere near a commensurate increase in performance).
 
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Go with the 750. I really doubt you will see much of a real worth difference between the 860 and the 750 tbh.
 
Alrights. Well if I can get the 860 for $200 that's not a bad deal at all.
 
I opted for the GA-H55M-S2H + i3 530 combo at frys for $110 and am thoroughly enjoying this set up.

It replaced a q6600 n680 set-up, which has now been relegated to home server duty.

The i3 530 is paired with DDR 1600 and is running at 3.54 ghz with only setting the cpu multiplier to 22x.

Idle temps are in the 20s and power consumption is ridiculously low, 32nm for the win!
 
You can always drop an i3 now and drop i7 860 later until you get some more money.

That's what I did. i3 is plenty fast. I have mine overclocked to 4.2ghz at the moment and can go easily higher if wanted.
 
It kills me that Fry's had a i3-530 w/gigabyte mobo for $88 last month, and I missed it.

Completely slays me. That was exactly what I wanted and what a deal!

Linezilla, did you pay $110 this week or was it during the sale last month?
 
Last month, yea I never got around to turning my extra rebate money, but the deal was good enough as it was!
 
dont wait no significant change will happen anytime soon. get the i5 750 if you really want quadcore for specific reasons.
 
vibe said:
It kills me that Fry's had a i3-530 w/gigabyte mobo for $88 last month, and I missed it.

Completely slays me. That was exactly what I wanted and what a deal!
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Yes, the Gigabyte H55 mATX board in that deal is not one of the UD-series models -- but is one of their "energy-saver" models. In other words, it caters to those who want to reduce power consumption, and thus it uses lower-power-consumption components and thinner PCBs. As such, it does not overclock as well as the UD-series models. But low energy consumption is the key feature to the S-series Gigabyte boards, so very few people who use such a low-power mobo overclock their CPUs much (if at all).

In other words, the GA-H55-S2 mobo is a sure way for a full-blown i3 system to actually beat those low-power Atom desktops and netbooks in "performance for the watt". That is until you start loading it up with multiple drives and a superpowered GPU.
 
Decided I didn't really need a gaming computer. Now just going to get a 13" MBP 2010 rev. Thanks for all the help everyone!
 
good decision :), i might get a 15inch mbp and sell my 5870 when it comes back from rma.
 
I've never had any issues with the i5 750 in my wife's pc for gaming. Works like a charm, great performance.
 
I think an i5 750 is fine. I run an i5 750 in my home PC and use it for number crunching and gaming, no worries at all, it has an excess of power for gaming and for number crunching it's only slightly slower than the i7 I have at work (instead of a sim taking an hour on the i5 750, it might take just over 50 minutes on the i7, which I wont really notice unless I'm actually looking at the clock).

If you have programs that are highly threaded the i7 might be worth waiting for, though I dont think so. I've actually disabled HT because it hurts performance in more applications than it helps (at least for all the programs I run, obviously YMMV :)).
 
do alot of video work? get the 860. basic pc user/ gamer 750. The i5 750 is a fast chip if you can get it to around 3.5+ghz
 
i5-750 is a great bang for buck performance upgrade for you right now.

Sandy Bridge takes things to the next level with 4/6/8 core chips and for the first time puts a gpu on the cpu die. Since real gamers will want a discrete graphics card anyways, arguably with Sandy Bridge, you are paying for something additional (on die gpu) that you won't really be using (unless it can somehow cooperate with a discrete graphics processor or offload some processes?).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20002617-64.html

Considering that a lot of PC games right now are console ports... I doubt there will be a huge need for 6-8 cores to get optimum gaming performance in the near future.
 
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