I've put two potential systems together, one of which is based around an i7 870 and a P55 board, the other around an i7 950 and the recently-reviewed Gigabyte motherboard. This is for both work and play and "work" involves a lot of video editing and rendering, so I definitely want an i7 either way. The question is whether the extra £100 worthwhile for the higher end 950? Many people have told me it isn't worth it, but I'm happy to spend the money if there's at least some sort of benefit involved. X58 motherboards seem to have more toys, too. 10 SATA is nice. I'm also looking for a graphics board in the £150 range. ATI seem to have the cost edge at the moment but I've always had nvidia before on the basis that ATI was probably cheap for a reason. Suggestions? Thanks, P
I'd go with the 950 mate Also with ATi... could pick up a decent 5870/6870 if you wanted to, they've got some serious power behind them. They're between £200 - 300 aswell, I think some of the XFX 5850's hit the £150 target aswell.
Wouldn't a I5 760 (2.8ghz, 4C no HT) also be sufficient for your purposes? It would also save you around £50-60. GPU wise I would be looking at either the GTX460 1GB or the HD6850. You won't be dissapointed with the performance offered by either card (especially for the price).
End of the month sees the 69k series released; these may not have any impact though on your price range. Unless of course the 6950 is £200 odd! The 580 is out too (maybe on paper) but will be pricey. Atm 470 looks very good value for money but is a little pricey about 180 iirc; I'm under the imprssion a non ref cooler would be a good investment. The £150 limit is either a 460 1gb or a 6850.
i don't think it's worth for the extra £100. look at it this way, you'll get less than 5% performance increase for £100, is it worth it? the x58 platform is only worth it for multi graphics card setup.
and decent powerhouses, this guy is rendering... so it may help to have abit more power there if he needs it. Heck I use an i7 for some stuff I do and I know I love the extra power. I personally would look at the i7-950 and probably a 5870/6850 for the GPU
the 870 and 950 have exact same processing power as each other, ONLY difference is the 950 has server grade memory bandwidth for IO intensive stuff. that's why 950 may edge out no more than 5% in some benchmarks while same in others. as i said, for consumer, only difference that is of concern is whether you'll be running multi-graphics card, if not, save the £100 and go for 870 platform
Bugger, sorry only trying to help you save a bit of money. Looking Here The Phenom X6 processors seem to do a good job in both after effects and Cinebench (proxy for rendering). Perhaps they are another option for you?
It never will on these forums mate, everyone has different views and opinions, Being the God-Emperor of mankind I'm ALWAYS right >.< I joke I use that kind of setup and never have lag or any issues mate
There's another argument for the 950: you can put 12GB RAM in quite cheaply-this must come in handy for video editing?
Gigabyte or Asus? Do I really need DDR3-2200 or will the vastly cheaper 1333 do? Do I need a shiny aftermarket cooler for the 950 or is this the computing equivalent of writing "Panasonic" on the nearside wing of your car?
Go for 1600 mate. Get a more decent cooler, the Intel one is crap imo. I use a huge Noctura thing, but thats literally because I played with overclocking, go for a smaller fan setup just to make sure the cpu is nice and cooooooled for when you're working on it mate. Found my i7 to be warming a fair bit when I play games (thus the huge cooler)
OK. It has just occurred to me that I'm making purchasing decisions based on the advice of someone who refers to himself as "captain awesome", but I suppose that's OK...
ha, No I'm good when it comes to high-end demon machines. Mid-range doesn't exist to me... you either build a machine that can compute the universe, life and everything, or just don't try (I usually need this much power aswell...) The Captain Awesome thing comes from the fact I drink nothing but rum when I go out "Captain" and Awesome is because I wear a T-shirt saying "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how AWESOME I am"... often amuses people enough >.< So don't think me egotistical D:
I7950 has the better motherboard more ram and more memory bandwidth, both useful in the work your doing
On topic, the 950 (or even a 930 if you can pick one up) will give you the extra memory potential that high-end editing desperately needs. The arguments have been said up above, but time is money in the work situations, so the initial extra outlay should recoup itself. In the £150-£200 range, consider the nVidia cards, IF your programs or work stuff could benefit from CUDA. If not, I'd go ATi - purely because I'd end up buying a Vapor-X graphics card (LOVE those coolers!), and Sapphire don't do nVidia.
