Bang/Buck Dilemma Core i7 or E8500 system

[dbrinkerlee]

I posted a couple of months and received fantastic advice on my first build and learned a whole heckuva lot. I'm now in the process of putting together a build for my nephew in light of the following considerations. He's 13 and lives in the States; he games, but he only plays MMO's like city of heroes, WoW, and Age of Conan. He's anticipating playing Champions Online when that's released next year. He'll also use the computer for socializing, internet research and surfing and for student/office applications.

My sister has put me in charge of delivering the best "bang for the buck" system that I can. I have two systems planned, one based on the Core i7 and one based on E8500, which I plan to overclock (though I've never actually tried that). The only core components that differ are the i7 related ones:

Intel® Core™2 i7-920 versus Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 CPU;

Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 versus GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ;

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) PC1333 DDR3 versus Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500))

Everything else is pretty much identical (Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 590 RC-590; PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX; Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB). He also be using an existing 22" monitor with max resolution of 1680 x 1050.

Note: I chose the NVIDIA card because I did some homework and I guess City of Heroes, his primary game, has several longstanding issues with ATI cards.

My budget was initially around $1,000, which I can bring the E8500 system in at. The core i7 system will cost around $500 to $600 more than the E8500 system. My sister-in-law is willing to pay this differential if it is "worth it." The problem is, I don't know what to tell her. I'd like the system to meet his needs for 4 to 5 years. I presume that the Core i7 system will have a longer shelf life and can be upgraded to meet my nephew's fairly modest demands for several years. I think I can say the same thing about the E8500, though--given his penchant for playing less demanding MMO's.

So, I guess my question is--if you were my sister in law--would you shell out the extra cash for the core i7 system? Is there another build that you would recommend that would meet my nephew's needs and has a better bang for the buck? Any advice would be more than welcome.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Well 4-5 years i7 , no brainer.

Socket 775 and core 2 duo are old tech now, although still great stuff imo.

core 2 isnt gonna be hanging with the big boys in 4-5 years.

With i7 you need a super fast hard drive setup, or your system speed will be limited by how fast your hdd can run.

 

[kevin1212]

The core i7 system sounds like overkill for just those games, along with the fact that you would be using a high end core i7, 6GB's of ram and an X58 chipset with just a single 9800gt. You would probably get no performance jump with the core i7 setup. The e8500 setup would certainly give you better value.

 

[ragsters]

I would say get the 8400 overclock it to at least 3.6 Ghz, change the ram to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209 and get 2 x Ati 4850's. This will cost you about the same but will dramatically improve your performance.

 

[jeteryankees22]

Okay well I didn't read much of this posts, sorry...but I would say go i7 because if you want any upgrade on hardware, or even future software go i7. lga 775 will soon be very obsolete and you're just better off i7.

 

[angry_ducky]

If he's just going to be playing games and doing internet/office, then why not get a Q6600, 8GB RAM, and bump up the GPU to a GTX 260? You could also save a bit of money by getting the Corsair 650 watt PSU...

 

[roadrunner197069]

Ya, i7 isnt mainsteam yet. It will be soon though.

 

[DXRick]

The LGA1366 slot of the i7 is not really "future proof". It is aimed at servers and enthusiasts right now. In Q3 2009 Intel will release the P55 chipset that will use a different CPU slot (LGA1160). It will be aimed at the consumer market.

Also coming is USB 3.0, and it sounds like it will become available mid to late 2009 as well.

PCIe 3.0 is slated for 2010.

So, paying $500+ for a system that is overkill for what the kid wants to use it for, may not be a good idea.

 

[marcellis22]

Nothing is 4+ years with computers. That said, the P45 with the E8400-8500 is the way to go RIGHT NOW. It'll last 3+ years, the I7 is just out, but as usual it'll be 1 to 2 years from being debugged and mainstream, about the time for a new(er) computer. That's the way I've played it here at my house, Gigabyte P45 motherboard and E8500, up from a Gigabyte 965 and an E6400. Save the money for a killer GPU and I don't think you or your sister-in-law will be dissatisfied!

 

[slomo4sho]

If you want my opinion, build the kid a ~$650 system that is more than capable of playing the games he want. Go with a E7300 based build and get a single 4870 GPU. I am pretty sure its more than enough for a 13 year old.

The money saved now can be used to build a new machine about 2-3 years down for a much better system than the one you plan on making with your current budget.

 

[MikeO89]

I'd say go with the I7. I recently had this same decision to make and chose the I7 920 with Asus P6T motherboard, 3 x 1 gigs of Corsair DDR3 1600 ram. I'd glad I did what I did. I made a good choice. One thing that stands out to me is that this thing is so strong that it hardly breaks a sweat to do anything. I've tried throwing everything I could at it to tax it and it just gets it done quickly and then laughs at me, like it's saying to me, "is that all you got"?

 

[The Third Level]

How about a Phenom II X3 720 BE? It is cheap and will do basically everything he needs.

 

[cadder]

The best bang for the buck is a processor more like the E5200 or E7400. You can overclock them far enough for gaming, in fact Tom's has used them for 3 or 4 of their latest systembuilder marathon machines, and they have benchmark tests where they surpass the speed of an E8500.

Not that an E8500 or an i7 won't ultimately be more powerful, and last longer before you decide you need to replace it, but you did say bang for the buck. The extra $100 you spend for the E8500 doesn't gain much performance, and the extra $250-300 above that that you spend for the i7 doesn't gain you much more.

Take the money that you saved and be sure you have a good gaming videocard, and save the rest for the future.

 

[Akebono 98]

+1 to cadder

Going by the OP, I'd say that best bang for the buck in this case would be an overclocked Q6600, as "obsolete" as that may be.

With the way a teenager works these days--multitasking--a quad core definitely makes sense, but maybe not to the dollar level of the i7, IMO.