After much deliberation and about a hundred different threads on the subject (this is the last one), I've finally decided that I can't financially justify forking out £470 on an i7 950 (as much as I want to!) considering the i5 760 performs SO similarly in almost all tasks except heavily threaded ones. I don't video encode. There is apparently only a few seconds difference on most image renders. And most games don't see the benefits. The extra cash could probably be better spent on an SSD or GPU (*cough* ATi 6-series). As for the board, I'm ready to go with CPC's suggestion of the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, but would it be better to spend a bit more on a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55 Express? Only difference is the first one is MicroATX as far as I can tell. But if anyone has any really good reason why I should still go with the i7, please let me know so I can prepare to sell my kidney to finance it.
I am running my system on Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 and the only difference is that it has USB3 otherwise GA-P55M-UD2 is a very good mobo to go with and save some money for the GPU!! Edit: I am very happy with my system which pretty much does everything I throw at it. It would be worth telling us what the system is going to be used for i.e. just gaming and normal browsing and watching movies...
Going on your advice, I decided to take the plunge and go with the above specs; I only use it for gaming and the odd graphics editing package anyway. If it struggles, I'll OC. I wanted to hold out for Sandy Bridge, but if I look at the landscape now - the i7 920 was *the* CPU to have last year. Now it's been phased out and usurped by a similarly priced 930 and 950. How long before those go out as well? Once Sandy Bridge runs it's course and becomes cheaper into next year, I might consider another cheap upgrade then, a bit like waiting for scraps to fall off the cart.
Mate I don't see the point in investing in i7 if you just use it for gaming. I think One should always get a good graphics card and that's where you will feel the difference while gaming.
I agree completely; the beauty of the i5 is it lifts the CPU bottleneck (which I think I have at the moment) which scales well as it OCs, freeing my cash up for a 6 series ATi for Christmas. Before the VAT increase.
The i5 is an excellent processor for its price. It's especially good value if you plan to overclock it. Since your budget is lower an i5 build is a good choice.
