Question Low-budget streaming PC - i5 2400 or i7 920 or other choice?

[mossi]

Hi all

I'm trying to make a low budget streaming PC for 1080p gaming.
For the budget I have I was thinking of going with the i5-2400 but I was wondering if a 1st gen i7 might be better given it has more cores?
Something like the legendary i7-920?
Can anyone recommend a different CPU perhaps?
Thinking of buying 2nd hand around £35 maybe £40 at most for the CPU.

I'm open to all suggestions!

Thank you!

 

[SamirD]

The single thread performance in the i7-920 is much less than the i5-2400 and this is where you will feel the performance lag. Even the i5-2500 is a good bump up from the 2400:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-i5-2500-vs-Intel-i7-2600K/834vs793vs803vs868

If number of cores are the issue, the i7-2600k stomps the i7-920 and is probably cheaper if not the same price depending on the local demand.

 

[jasonf2]

As a word of wisdom. Obsolescence is the word of the day here. The 920 was launched in 08. That was one full year before windows 7 (October of 09). I absolutely loved my 920, but extended driver and os support from 08 on any second hand motherboard of that era is going to be fun, especially if you are using a cheap board. The 2400 was at least in 11, post win7 (drivers should work), but still pre win 10. If going back that far go for the I7 2600 and decent integrated graphics. FYI CPU and motherboards have kind of a weird pricing cycle. They tend to come out at their highest price, then fall way down after the next generation comes in, then go back up as supply diminishes. Personally if going intel I would be looking at something in the Kaby Lake generation I5. Hardware is still new enough for great driver support, but prices should be depreciated a bit and not be back on the upswing. I would stay away from anything AMD pre Ryzen. They were cheap, but IPC was not great. Also if just going for a budget streamer integrated graphics can be your friend.
(Updated) I had not looked at CPU availability for a while, Kaby lake has started back up the other side on pricing. Go twards Coffee Lake (8000 series) it is in its down cycle.

 

[SamirD]

FYI CPU and motherboards have kind of a weird pricing cycle. They tend to come out at their highest price, then fall way down after the next generation comes in, then go back up as supply diminishes.

It's supply and demand at work--supply is short when something is new; production ramps up, supply goes up, demand is steady, prices fall. The something new comes along and the newness has worn off so it drops in price. Then it drops so low that they're thrown away until supply is less; once supply dwindles down to where demand catches up to supply, prices start to rise again--but that is only a last hurrah before prices and supply plummet to the floor and no one cares about it anymore.

And this applies to almost anything from cars, to planes, to houses, and more. Even stocks move based on this to a certain extent.

 

[jasonf2]

It's supply and demand at work--supply is short when something is new; production ramps up, supply goes up, demand is steady, prices fall. The something new comes along and the newness has worn off so it drops in price. Then it drops so low that they're thrown away until supply is less; once supply dwindles down to where demand catches up to supply, prices start to rise again--but that is only a last hurrah before prices and supply plummet to the floor and no one cares about it anymore.

And this applies to almost anything from cars, to planes, to houses, and more. Even stocks move based on this to a certain extent.

The last hurrah thing in CPUs doesn't really happen though. Supply goes so low that they go premium priced on anything new. Used gets so old that the quality is really questionable (but cheap). So unlike your typical Ford Fusion, which is worthless after ten years a new in the box cpu that is ten years old will typically be worth what it was new, or even more, even though no one is buying them.

 

[SamirD]

The last hurrah thing in CPUs doesn't really happen though. Supply goes so low that they go premium priced on anything new. Used gets so old that the quality is really questionable (but cheap). So unlike your typical Ford Fusion, which is worthless after ten years a new in the box cpu that is ten years old will typically be worth what it was new, or even more, even though no one is buying them.

Have you seen the price of a 486DX33 lately?

The bathtub curve is the same even though the time spans are different. No one wants a Model T anymore but there was a point when they were the most expensive classic car you could buy. And that Ford Fusion will be worth a lot in 30 years--probably even more than they were new at some point.

 

[mossi]

As a word of wisdom. Obsolescence is the word of the day here. The 920 was launched in 08. That was one full year before windows 7 (October of 09). I absolutely loved my 920, but extended driver and os support from 08 on any second hand motherboard of that era is going to be fun, especially if you are using a cheap board. The 2400 was at least in 11, post win7 (drivers should work), but still pre win 10. If going back that far go for the I7 2600 and decent integrated graphics. FYI CPU and motherboards have kind of a weird pricing cycle. They tend to come out at their highest price, then fall way down after the next generation comes in, then go back up as supply diminishes. Personally if going intel I would be looking at something in the Kaby Lake generation I5. Hardware is still new enough for great driver support, but prices should be depreciated a bit and not be back on the upswing. I would stay away from anything AMD pre Ryzen. They were cheap, but IPC was not great. Also if just going for a budget streamer integrated graphics can be your friend.
(Updated) I had not looked at CPU availability for a while, Kaby lake has started back up the other side on pricing. Go twards Coffee Lake (8000 series) it is in its down cycle.

thanks for the reply
I was looking for a used machine for a prospective client.
I expect a barrage of CPUs being listed on ebay once the AMD 4000 official announcement comes in (if it hasn't started already)
I was actually looking at 4th gen as well i7s with decent prices which also seemed like an enticing offer!

 

[logainofhades]

Maybe check out tech yes city's youtube channel. I forget which ones they were, but he has some low buck Xeon build ideas, that would probably work for you. What is the actual budget, though, for said PC?

 

[bohemond1099]

Hi all

I'm trying to make a low budget streaming PC for 1080p gaming.
For the budget I have I was thinking of going with the i5-2400 but I was wondering if a 1st gen i7 might be better given it has more cores?
Something like the legendary i7-920?
Can anyone recommend a different CPU perhaps?
Thinking of buying 2nd hand around £35 maybe £40 at most for the CPU.

I'm open to all suggestions!

Thank you!

I have an i7 920 as well as Ryzen 2600X; i7 920 is a fantastic overclocker and keeps up neck to neck with my 2600X in games; but I wouldn't recommend either cpu you mentioned unless you are ok with potentially going through the hassle of returning nonworking parts. I've built i7 870, 920, 960, and 980X systems in the past few years; had one bad mobo and one bad cpu. Now if you're good with that; the i7 920 over i5 2400, but keep in mind that due to pcie implentation, you are capped at around 1070Ti level GPU on it. I'd look at an i7 2600K instead if you are pairing it with a higher end GPU.