Core i3 550 or E8400?

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Hi guys,

Which will perform the best ,the i3 or the core 2 duo ?IS it worth to upgrade to core 2 duo on these days ?Is there big difference between core i3 and i5 in performance ?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

i3 performs better. What is the price you can get them at? Do you currently have a 775 motherboard?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

planning to upgrade or change the hardwares,so which is better and why?

 

[iqvl]

Low end Core i3 will perform and OC much better than high end C2D E8xxx.

Dual core i5 is theoretically better than i3 in OCing due to it having higher multiplier and extra free multiplier from Turbo. However, i3 should performs on par with dual core i5 when OCed to the same frequency.

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

I dont OC!,can you explain what is the turbo?

 

[iqvl]

http://www.intel.com/technology/turboboost/

 

[xaira]

i had an E8500, bought an i3 540 for the power savings + the fact that its westmere 32nm, there is a slight boost in performance, + the i3 works better in multithreaded apps

check the benchies
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i3_540_530/1.html

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

So if we enable turbo boost,it goes to 2.66 to 3.20 in i5 750,that is overclocking itself,so did it voids the warranty?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

i had an E8500, bought an i3 540 for the power savings + the fact that its westmere 32nm, there is a slight boost in performance, + the i3 works better in multithreaded apps

check the benchies
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i3_540_530/1.html

Thanks for that review!

 

[iqvl]

So if we enable turbo boost,it goes to 2.66 to 3.20 in i5 750,that is overclocking itself,so did it voids the warranty?

(Stock, 4 Cores Active, 3 Cores Active, 2 Cores Active, 1 Core Active)
Intel Core i7 870 (2.93GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.46GHz, 3.60GHz)
Intel Core i7 860 (2.80GHz, 2.93GHz, 2.93GHz, 3.33GHz, 3.46GHz)
Intel Core i5 750 (2.66GHz, 2.80GHz, 2.80GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.20GHz)

Turbo Mode is a "feature" of Lynfield CPUs and so it doesn't void the warranty. Besides, manual OCing doesn't void the warranty as well as long as there is no significant burnt on CPU due to wrong OCing and you are not clever enough to tell Intel.

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

ok,thanks iqvl for solving one of my big doubts,So which will you choose ?

i3 550 or the E8400? or an i5 650?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

i3 550=138$
i5 650=176$

Which one is worth buying?The i3 has no turbo boost technology and the i5 has,3.20 to 3.46,Does the 300mhz increase show a big difference?

 

[iqvl]

You will only notice the difference in CPU intensive apps. I suggest that you get a Hyper212plus and OC the i3. It will only cost $12 more than a single i5-650.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Ok,Thanks all for your help,
what abt a budget ATX motherboard for it?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

What about the MSI P55 CD53?

 

[iqvl]

I have no idea about MSI. ASUS and Gigabyte are my favorite MB brand.

Check ASUS P7P55 LX. It has better rating than CD53 at Newegg and costs only $5 more.

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Ok,Thanks Guys!

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

i3 is better
upgrading depends on current specs.
which i3 and i5 models were you talking about.?

i3 550 and i5 650

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

OK.
I asked because there are two i5 models that do not have HT (hyper-threading); the i5-750s ans the i5-750.
The i5-650 is cool, has all the features.
i3-550 of course you know is a dual-core @ stock tops out about 3.2Ghz.
The i3-540 is the embedded version but slightly slower @ 3.12Ghz.

Did i3 550 has HT? Any thing special with this HT,coz i am using an old p4 630 with HT!

 

[iqvl]

HT makes CPU more efficient in certain conditions, such as video encoding. P4's HT sucks and leads to performance drop in some cases BTW.

 

[xaira]

the i3 has (SMT) thats (HT) done right

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

So the i3 550 will perform better than the E8400,Right?

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Ok,Thanks Guys ,Thanks for all who helped me!