[pravius]

I have been beating myself to death deciding whether or not to go to I7. I just recently bought a Q9550 from an E8500 to get better performance out of newer games like BC2, I am satisfied with it's performance however I feel I may be more satisfied knowing I have something not a generation too old.

I have a few extra dollars and I am determined to spend it on something with my computer (I need something to do.. OCD). Anyway my question to you guys is how long do you think that the socket 775 chips are going to stay relatively competitive and do you think it is worth another upgrade from a Q9550 to a 920?

I have looked at some benches and it does not seem worth it based on the performance, however this upgrade would leave me with an "open" upgrade path of only having to buy X58 processors instead of being in the situation I am now for at least a couple years.

Thoughts... suggestions?

EDIT: I do plan on getting a GPU upgrade regardless of this upgrade but that is another speedbump because I can never run Xfire with this board and with Fermi I cannot trust that they will be reasonably priced when they come out. With the X58 I can get a 5870 and not have to worry in the future about Xfire.

 

[MiniDragon]

It really depends of your needs, if you need the latest & greatest, go with I7, I'm happy on socket 775 personally.

 

[TurboHertz]

To me 775 is DEAD, no worth buying as it's not gonna see much action or upgrade-ability, if price is an issue get an i3 or an i5.

 

[Acoma_Andy]

The Q9550 offers plenty of performance and can easily match an i5 or i7 in gaming performance (or at least when overclocked). Getting a HD5870 would be a huge boost in games for you.

 

[Coldharbour]

I agree with a new graphics card it could boost your performance multitudes. I believe that socket 775 will surely last another 4 years at the least. Look how long pentium has lasted! Good luck mate!

 

[pravius]

Like I said it's not that I am having a hard time now... games are all ok, given some FPS issues but I know that is my dated Video card... I just wonder really how much longer do you guys think the higher 775 chips will be within reach of the socket i7's .

 

[pravius]

Plus I look at it, if I was to upgrade now... I could sell my Q9550 and not lose my arse on it, if I wait a year I am sure depreciation is sure going to set it's teeth in it.

 

[Nick911]

If you can get a good deal like I did, sell your 775.

Selling off my 775 system(Q9550,MEM,MOBO), it costed me about 100 bucks to upgrade.

It should last a very long time. Def more then 3 years.

 

[Aawa]

as of right now quad core 775's will last for probably about a year for being able to play games at high settings (depending on graphics card also)

I spent 2 years on a dual core and have been about 7months on a quad. Games utilizing quad core technology have just recently become more prevalent.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurboHertz To me 775 is DEAD, no worth buying as it's not gonna see much action or upgrade-ability, if price is an issue get an i3 or an i5.

Yeah, pretty much that. Socket 775 is still competitive but it is already dead-ended. You'll be able to get another year or 2 out of that q9550, but there isn't any upgrade path from there.

What worries me, and a big part of the reason I didn't upgrade this year, is that Intel is using 2 different sockets, just like AMD did back in the 939/754 days. It wasn't too much of a problem when AMD did it, because even the 939 parts were fairly cheap. I knew 754 would be a dead end path too, so I skipped over it. With Intel, I figure the 1156 socket will have an early demise with limited upgrade potential (like 754 was for AMD) but I couldn't justify the cost of going up to 1366. Yeah it is much, much faster than what I have now, but I don't really need it.

I liked 775. The mobo I'm using now has been through 3 different CPU's, and I still have plenty of upgrade potential if I need it. Unfortunately, you're already at the limits of 775.

 

[pravius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick911 If you can get a good deal like I did, sell your 775. Selling off my 775 system(Q9550,MEM,MOBO), it costed me about 100 bucks to upgrade. It should last a very long time. Def more then 3 years.

Kinda where I am right now. I figure right now I could sell my 775 stuff for at least $350 with my video card.

Microcenter has the 920's running $200, Mobo figure about $200, and RAM like $170.. $140 after rebates... so thats like $550 + tax about $200 out of pocket..

Of course that is depending on IF I can sell my stuff.

 

[ned99]

If the q9550 does everything you need it to why bother upgrading aside from increasing the length of your e-peen. As other have said it will probably be fine for another couple of years and by then there will be hexacore chips or something equally awesome to spend money on. Just keep on trucking with 775 until something really worthwhile comes along... like hoverpacks

 

[Blade1000000]

To be honest if you had a high end mobo like Asus Rampage Extreme/ Asus Striker II Extreme / Xfx/evga 780i/790i with DDR3 Q9550/E8400 and a decent video card then you will still be able to take advantage of 3-way sli, DDR3 and all the other quirks of having an i7 (except the insanely easy overclockability) so i think if you were to have top end 775 then you will be fine for 2-3 years. then see which socket intel chooses to stick with (unless they create another)

 

[2thAche]

Disclaimer: I have alot of high-performance systems (4 @ home, 3 @ work) rather than one single uber-machine. If I had only 1, it would be new and i7 based. That being said:

The only reason 775 can even be considered "dead" is because there is a new platform out. Fanboys needs to stop fooling themselves. Software has not out-run the 775 platform.

It used to be that big platform shifts let you do things the last platform didn't, like huge increases in FPS in games, more cores for multi-threaded apps, chipsets that supported new tech like SDR vs DDR.

Honestly performance did not drive the move to i7/i5. Intel is stretching the gap between it and AMD because they can. i7 is faster, but a Q9650 is already more than fast enough.

Only people doing things like on-the-fly blu-ray decoding, professional Vid editing, or gaming on ridiculous resolutions would notice any difference from a 775 system.

The platform will artificially "die" when manufacturers stop releasing the hardware, which will be Intel's decision and not because the platform has been out-run by software. Unless there is a huge revolution in gaming engines or native 64-bit multi-threaded apps, I don't see true obsolescence for 2-3 years which is a long time in PC years.

The only reason enthusiasts like us care or know any different is that we upgrade alot more often than a common user.

 

[{uZa}DOA]

Alot of life left in that Q9650.. You've got a good 2 years left in it!! I went from a Q6600 G0, XFX 780i mobo w/DDR2 800 to an EVGX x58 w/DDR3 1600 and i7 920 there was a performance increase but, it wasn't Earth moving for gaming IMHO

So, if you can live with not being on the cutting edge save your money and buy a new GPU...
And OC that Q9650 to elevate any bottle necking..

 

[pravius]

Perfect stuff guys thanks for all the advice. +rep given. Keep it coming if you have something to add still wanting to know opinions.

 

[identitycrisis]

I was in your boat a couple of weeks ago.

I had an E8400 @ 4.0GHZ, P35-DS3L, and 2x2gb DDR2.

Ran everything great until I got BC2 and it really did leave something to be desired.

I was tempted to buy a Q9550, but couldnt justify it without a new board (as the P35 supposedly doesn't OC the 45nm Quads well). I then could not justify either, as the S775 Quad cost more than the i5 I ended up with.

If I already had a quad, I would probably still be on S775. I don't need top of the line performance, but it got to the point where the memory and motherboards for 1156 seemed to be inline as far as price goes, and in my case the cpu was cheaper. So that is the way I went. But again, I didn't have a Quad already.

I don't regret it... yet. I just got windows reinstalled late last night. I need to install some games and finish updates before I decide for sure if it was really worth the money.

I would say since you already have it, keep it. See if you can get the OC you are satisfied with on the quad. Otherwise, again, since you do have it, pick out a nice p45 chipset based motherboad, probably one of the Gigabyte flavors if you don't plan to SLi with your future GPU upgrade. I am sure you will have a lot left in that system!

 

[GhostSenshi]

775 is still a great socket. But you won't see anything super performing being released for it really anymore. That and the core 2 extreme is WAY over priced.

 

[arbalest]

Everyone that has said 775 is going to be around awhile, and still keeps it's value is on the money!

I actually had an i7 setup about 5 months ago. I'm one of *those* people (and a libra) so I LOVE everything that's newer and faster, even if I can't even tell the difference. Long story short: I SOLD the i7 and went back to my 775 setup.

Unless you're doing a LOT of encoding, and I mean a LOT, you don't need i7. Get yourself a Q6*** series, or a Q9*** and pair it up with some good ram and a nice GPU, and you've got a very potent gaming/media machine! Heck, I've seen some scenarios where a nicely OC'ed Q95** or Q96** is mopping the floor with i7's in gaming!

There is also the Nostalgia factor!

 

[woodpigeon4]

I've got an i7 system at work, and whilst I obviously don't game on it, I notice no difference between it and my sig rig. Looking at benchmarks, it really doesn't seem to be worth it - you should wait until 8 and 12 core chips IMO