When does someone NEED an i7

[armi]

A friend of mine and I were debating, when does someone NEED an i7?

It seems that most of the people that have an i7 and use it for gaming are just using it for bragging rights and there are many reasons for supporting that, one of which is most games don't even fully utilize 4 cores yet...

Can I get an insight of when you guys think someone needs an i7?

Thanks in advance.

 

[LePhuronn]

Media creation, especially 3D work, will eat up as much processing power as you can throw at it.

 

[sminlal]

My last system was a Pentium 4 @2.4GHz that served me well for almost 7 years. It started out with 512MB of memory and a 40GB hard drive, and has graduated to 2GB and over a TB.

I bought an i7 because I hope to use it for a similar length of time. It's overkill for me today, but I expect it to serve me well for many years.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

IMO, I doubt anybody ever needs a CPU, at least not in the same sense as, say, a heart transplant for a congestive heart failure patient .

It really comes down to how much you have to spend vs. how you're going to use it. If you're just gaming, maybe the i5 might make more sense, or a P2 for that matter. But I guess bragging rights have to factor in there a bit, at least for some. OTOH, when you die you can't take your $$ with you, so might as well blow it on something good ...

 

[medjohnson77]

For most games at this point in time it is over kill, but in time, as more games are released it may not be overkill. So In the long run it may not be a waste, and last for several years. As LePhuronn points out, it is not over kill for certain task's.

 

[silent_744]

In a few years you'll wish you bought something cheaper to hold you over for a fraction of the cost, and then bought the i7 when it costs 300 for the cpu and mobo combined instead of 5-600.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

In a few years you'll wish you bought something cheaper to hold you over for a fraction of the cost, and then bought the i7 when it costs 300 for the cpu and mobo combined instead of 5-600.

Actually the i920 is frequently on sale at Microcenter for $200, and you can get a decent X58 mobo for under $170 nowadays.

 

[medjohnson77]

fazers is right, we have Mirco center up in Chicago, and if hes only going for gaming you might be right about the price performance issue, but you can find I7 Motherboard cpu combos for less then $500-$600 if you look around.

 

[megamanx00]

If you need to do alot of heavy HD media encoding quickly then you may need an i7. Otherwise it's just nice to have ^_^

 

[daship]

If you multi task, you need i7.

 

[cjl]

I use my setup for both school and gaming, and while the i7 was not necessary for gaming, it is wonderful for Solidworks and Matlab. Interestingly, enough, Matlab seems to get the greatest benefit from the massive memory bandwidth, not the number of cores.

 

[sminlal]

In a few years you'll wish you bought something cheaper to hold you over for a fraction of the cost, and then bought the i7 when it costs 300 for the cpu and mobo combined instead of 5-600.

That logic doesn't necessarily apply in an industry where prices are always falling. You can always buy something cheaper next year, if that makes you afraid to buy then you'll never get anything.

My P4 2.4GHz system cost over $2000 when I bought it in 2003, and year or two later I could have bought the same thing for a fraction of the price. But I don't regret buying it for a second - it's served me very well and as planned I was able to upgrade the memory and storage to meet my needs over time.

The computer is a tool, and if you use it heavily then it makes sense to spend the money it takes to get a good one that will last.

 

[medjohnson77]

Which I7 has plenty on the bandwidth side. So if your going straight gaming, and have to watch your money or it is a concern there are other options, if money is not an issue then go with I7

 

[silent_744]

That logic doesn't necessarily apply in an industry where prices are always falling. You can always buy something cheaper next year, if that makes you afraid to buy then you'll never get anything.

My P4 2.4GHz system cost over $2000 when I bought it in 2003, and year or two later I could have bought the same thing for a fraction of the price. But I don't regret buying it for a second - it's served me very well and as planned I was able to upgrade the memory and storage to meet my needs over time.

The computer is a tool, and if you use it heavily then it makes sense to spend the money it takes to get a good one that will last.

You pretty much stated my point, the i7 combo will be half as much as it is now eventually, and by the time it is, software might finally catch up to it.

 

[xaira]

no one needs an i7 in a desktop pc, its just cool to have one

 

[Shadow703793]

Media creation, especially 3D work, will eat up as much processing power as you can throw at it.

Yup.

3DS Max
CS4
SolidWorks
Inventor
CFD software (ie. FloWorks)
can all eat up CPU power quite easilly.

 

[purist]

If you need an i7 you'll know! Running out of CPU is a pretty hard thing to do these days and yes, I know there's big 3D rendering etc but again, if you're doing this for a living (or hobby) then everyone you know will have or want to have an i7.

Outside of gaming or business there's not that much requirement for a big CPU. Most CPU bound tasks are done almost instantly. Those that are not tend to require monstrous amounts of computation and take many minutes or hours to complete. If you are not in business then you'll probably set the task and go for a coffee or browse some pron like the rest of us and return to the task when you've washed your hands. Getting a faster CPU won't help with these tasks.

Yes, gaming is a special case and there are doubtless others but if you had any of these requirements then you'd know already.

i7 is nice and it's fun but it's not a requirement!

 

[loneninja]

I7 would be nice for my 3ds max rendering, but my Phenom does more than a good enough job.

 

[medjohnson77]

I have to say I am more then happy with my Phenom II 940 at 3.6ghz, it handles everything I need to do, very well. It would of been nice to wait until now to buy because back when I got the 940 I gave $235 for it, and upgraded my board to a M3A79-T deluxe. Look at the the 955 now, it is down to $199 on the egg. But if you wait you will always be chasing the next best thing, and never end up buying anything.

 

[armi]

Thanks for the insight everyone =) I can go back to talking to him about it. He's considering an i7 for gaming only and i'm telling him that its a waste but in the end its his decision.

Any more insight is appreciated =)

 

[dkenz]

If he has the money than yeah in my opinion. I do some mapping in some games and i've seen my core i7 920 go to 100% for over an hour. Only wish i woulda went with 12gig ram insted of 6. Friend of mine had to compile a map cause I needed more than 6. Guess all depends on what you are doing. With my Core i7 I'm always the first one to enter the game. I'm glad i went with it.

 

[medjohnson77]

One of the things I have noticed since they did the new DOW II patch and really like about one of the things they did is, they show you all six players in multi online battle load times to get into the game. With my 940 B.E. at 3.6ghz and my Raid 0 wd 640gb blacks, I am always in the top 3 in load times. So the rest of the time, and some times I am looking at 3-4 min difference easy, I am waiting on other players, so sure it is nice to load faster, but theres nothing like the concept of, "hurry up and wait"

I think it has to do with alot of factors, big factors are Internet speed, and Hardrive speed, more so then having a I7 CPU, IMO.

 

[blackhawk1928]

People who need an i7 are mostly either enthusiasts of gaming or just people who do video/photo editing which need lots of resources Plus, the godly ability of the i7 processors to overclock like crazy and still be stable makes them very valuable also for people who need lots of (*"horsepower"*) in their machine for intensively power consuming programs.

 

[UltraO]

But come on! The i7s aren't that great. I have own and I know it, sure they are nice and gives you this cool feeling but come on! Too many people overrate them, maybe they are just n00bs or fanboys I don't know but trust me, you won't notice any big difference...

 

[fuksi]

i7 was meant for server computers and technologicaly advanced chemical/weather/physical tasks. But intel needed to open market branch with low priced i7 920 and high priced x58 motherboard chipset.
And for that mission is best to folow old roman rule of Bread and Games for all. So emperor can become popular all ower the world with luxuring tiny population.
Nowdays its caled promotion.