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For future and longevity, you should go with a quad. It doesn't make a big difference now, but in the future games will become more multithreaded and you will want a quad. If you want this build to be able to play games and such for the next 4 years, then i7 is the way to go.

That is way too much for an E8400, Most places have it for $170 or less.
 


Ok fine so go quad core...but Socket 775/ AM2+ or go LG1366/AM3?

I prob wont go AM3 cuz right now their pretty crap. But do I go socket 775 and get a Intel Quad Core? Or AM2+ and get a Phenom II X4? OR do i go hard and go for the i7?

Thing is will the i7 last that long? or will that also get dated???? And is there any possibility of i7's coming down in price soon? Maybe i should wait a bit longer?

These are all issues I am concerned about.

Ofc cost/price factors in, but its mainly:

performance/price ratio
Longevity before needing upgrades
and Future upgrade possibilities (clearly with a AM2+ or 775 mobo I wont have much for future upgrade choices....but at the same time if i can get a am2+ or 775 and it can last 3.5-5 years id be fine with a complete overhaul after that time span.)
 
It's probably just not a great time to buy a 4 year build, but xthekidx is right about i7. At least you would be getting the fastest processor you can today, with lots of GPU upgrade choices and at least one more wave of CPU upgrades.
 
Why is today not a good time for a 4 year build? and when would be a good time?

What difference does it make? Cuz i have no problem waiting, but what am i waiting for?
 
Who knows? We know that LGA 1160 is coming sometime in 2009.

We know that AM3 is supposed to be the platform for AMD for a bit, but AMD doesn't have all the DDR3 issues worked out apparently.

What are you waiting for? A motherboard that will have CPU upgrades possible for a few years. We don't have one, and we don't know when we might get one.

So, just pick the fastest processor that's affordable today, the i7 920.
 


Yah but you just said to wait lol????? Shold i get the i7 or should i wait for the new i5's and AMD to pick up its game?
 
You know as much as I do now :) I'm not a fortune teller. I didn't say that you should wait, I said now was not the best time to buy.

We won't know when the next good time to buy is until it arrives.

Ok so I'll give you my best guess. It will be a full year before we see anything that actually beats the current i7 CPUs, except for i7.
 

'
So wouldnt that make it a good time to buy then? lol or more easier put.... WHAT IS A GOOD TIME to buy? How can I identify a good time to buy?
 
Great advice from Proximon and xthekidx above. I'll just add a different angle. 😉

First, if you want to go i7, you can actually squeeze that into your budget. I'd go with xthekidx's build, with slight modification:

Mobo: Asus P6T, $299
CPU: i7 920, $369
RAM: G.Skill Pi CL8 (LINK), $220
Heatsink: Scythe Mugen 2, $47
HDD: WD Caviar Black 640GB, $90
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2, $10

Total CAD$1035 before 5% taxes and shipping.

I've priced off NCIX.com's current sale, and they only charge GST and not PST when shipping to Ontario. Given that all of the items that you need to buy are rather compact and ship well, I think that this is another reasonable way to save money. I think that if you do it this way, then you can come in below your original CAD$1300 budget for sure.

I think that if you go this route, then you'd be going with incremental upgrades, so these are the only parts that you need to buy right now--reuse everything else (yup, including your 32-bit XP and optical drive). Upgrade everything else incrementally and buy Windows 7 when it comes out later this year instead.

An alternative route that has not been suggested is to build around:

CPU: E5200, $88
Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-DS3L, ~$105
Heatsink: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 & Thermalright LGA 775 Bolt-Thru kit, $47.34
Other parts the same as listed above.

While not an ideal build, it only costs you $560, or *half* your budget. And a highly OC'd E5200 is pretty decent for pure gaming.

Now the reason that I suggest this second build is that your games aren't that intensive and I think that you could do just fine with this much cheaper build. This way, you spend a small amount to play your current games well and some future ones too, bank some cash, and then do a complete overhaul down the line. And it addresses your question of "when is a good time to buy?" by only buying what you need and not trying to futureproof too much.
 
It's this whole 4 year thing. I just can't see a way to build a 4 year computer, without having a way to upgrade the processor later.

So, if you have to get 4 years out of a motherboard, you'll have to wait until we can clearly see a platform that will survive a few years and have good future CPU options.

4 years. Do you know what processors we were using 4 years ago? Single core Athlon 64s. They were the best. Athlon FX if you had the cash. How many are still in use and satisfying their users? Not many.

No, I think you have to build an i7 today and maybe squeeze 2.5- 3 years out of it.
 
Agreed.

Somehow I'm not so sure that the LGA 1366 is going to become a dead-end. In my mind, it's more likely that Intel positions i7/LGA 1366 as the high-end, i5/LGA 1160 as the second line, then Core 2 Quads and Duos as the "budget" third line. Blanketing every inch of the market...

If they did that, it would also be interesting to have overlap between C2Q and i5--true quad core vs. virtual quad core.

Might also depend on their view of the market's uptake of i7 too.
 
I think you can expect to see a slight decrease in i7 prices in the upcoming months, seeing as how they are planning the release of a 3.04ghz i7-950 and 3.33ghz i7-975. I'll bet the new 975 occupies the $1k mark and the rest adjust accordingly. I'm interested to see how intel's new integrated graphics will be...apparently its supposed to be pretty good, comparable to our current GPUs...
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-i7-Clarkdale,6987.html
 


Yah clearly I know that my Processor and GPU etc and things might need upgrading before 4 years....But my main thing was my MOBO...its such a bitch when your mobo gets dated before anything else...

So yah I guess my question was, when would be a good time to upgrade in terms of having a mOBO platform that will see some future options and last for maybe 3-4 years.
 
Maybe from your perspective, it might be worthwhile to see how the new P55 chipset pans out and the market shifts that go along with that. It would seem to be the reasonable price/performance balance, with a high degree of futureproofing. However, staying on Intel's cutting edge right now is also a reasonable place to be, IMO.


@xthekidx: I think that the i7 950 would only be worth it if it came with higher stepping than the current C0 of the 920 and 940. I wouldn't pay more for that extra 1x multiplier but I would surely be happy if it pushed down the price of the 920! And integrated graphics... for my mom's computer only. :na: SLI GTX 285 FTW!!!
 
LOL yeah I agree integrated graphics solutions suck...but My father in law happens to be an intel HR manager and alluded to the kind of performance that they are aiming for, who knows how good it will turn out to be. I doubt it will be very popular though, builders want to be able to customize their graphics solutions. Their target market for those processors will more likely be for pre-built dells and HPs and whatnot rather than homebuilds.
 
Well hey, they gotta find a use for all those virtual cores and that 6th gig of RAM! And I guess that it might make it easier for us to recommend a build on all those threads that start out "I'm not a gamer..." That's a pretty big market too!
 
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