I7 920 OR q9400

Q9400 is a Core 2 Quad on socket 775 - it's end of life and a dead-end. You may get a cheaper system now but you will need to purchase new CPU, RAM and motherboard (at least) for the next machine as there will be no upgrades.

At least the i7 has some degree of lastability in it. When you say the i7 runs at 2.66GHz I assume you're referring to the i7 920? That runs on socket 1366 motherboards and they do have some legs in them with the 6-core i9 on its way next year.

The i7 920 is superior to the Q9400 even at the same clock speed, so personally I'd go with a bit of lastability, make the extra investment now and go i7 on socket 1366. You can go i7 on socket 1156 but I'm unsure how much longevity 1156 has in it.

Definitely go for the i7 model its worth the price and also LGA 775 is EOL(End Of Line).
And that's Hyper threading which some programs(not all)benefit from it like AVG Anti-Virus

Well it will depend on how many threads the program can run on. if the program can run on all 8 threads of the core i7 then it will be a better choice as the the q9400 has only 4 threads. Also the core i7's have turbo boost which will temporary increase the cpu cores speeds.

so u guys are sayin that LGA 775 is too old now?
Well i guess ill have to go for i7

Yes. It's dead, end-of-life, no more, expired (and other things too, but this isn't the Dead Parrot sketch).

At this precise moment in time, if you're on a budget then LGA 775 is OK because we're only just starting to use the power of the i7/i5 and Phenom II BUT it won't last long and is a dead-end for upgrading. Sooner or later you will have to buy a whole new machine.

If budget isn't as much of an issue, or you want to invest in a new foundation for future upgrades, then bite the bullet now and build a system based around LGA 1366.

well yes and no. It's just that the LGA 775 is pretty much over and the lga 1156 and 1366 are the new kids on the block.

What we pretty much look for is:

Ability to upgrade in future

Price to performance ratio

Best cpu for the situation



When we look at your needs/want for the present and future we see the core i7 being the best choice.

The core i7 is a fairly new product that will meet all your needs for the next 2 to 3 years. When needing to up grade to a newer cpu, there will be the core i9 which is a 6 core 12 threaded cpu that will run on the current LGA 1366 socket (just be sure to do a bios update). This means you wont need to replace the motherboard and (maybe) thr ram. The core i7 920 is a great cpu for it's price at $280 - $300 USD (or just around $200 if you got a micro-center near you) and it overclocks very well into the 4 GHz range.

Now dont get us wrong the Core 2 quads are good cpu's that could last someone for while. It just that the core i7 are better and in long term will be more cost effective.

If you don't want to fork out the bucks for i7 then go i5 or Phenom II. Building a new system around C2Q is a thing of the past now (as you have been told, hehe).

Agree fully with warmon6, the overclock is good with the i7 920, plus you have ddr3 memory which adds extra push in speed, MB are really good stuff, I have a Gig MB that is fast and handles all the speed potential for the i7 920.

There was a time many years ago when I started with my own case, I would go with a medium grade processor. Then I realized, putting a little more into the build will save you money in the long run as it will give you 12 - 24 months more service.

"Keep pushing - Let's not go back to dos!"

DDR3 more speed? MHZ maybe, performance - next to nothing.

All i7/1366 boards are esentially the same thanks to only one chipset being abailable, and your gigabyte would overclock about the same as any other board in its class

To the OP - dont go near a 775 build

i7 all the way!!! Simply put it is a far better processor, more power core for core and megahert for megahert !!!

Biggest problem for i7 is the expensive components but prices are slowly coming down, ddr 3 memory has gotten alot cheaper...

Unless you are going to overclock ur memory to 1600 or above you wont see much of an increase in speed, but triple channel memory will make a vast immediate impact...

Save some $$$ and get I7 860 (LGA 1156) instead of I7 LGA1136.... Just built a mild gaming rig (I7 860 / ATI 5850) for under $1300.

@peanutpc:

Yeah, but what if the OP's brother doesn't want a gaming rig? Near 100% load all the time doesn't sound like a gaming rig to me.

@OP:

find out from your bro exactly what he's doing and we can better advise

ended up getting i7 with 8gb of ram (= !!!!
ITS A BEAST!!!

8gb of ram?
I assume your brother bought the LGA 1156 instead of the 1366... Congrats to him, but the lifespan on that socket is quite sketchy... but meh! Its a goood CPU, have fun with it...

If you went 1156 you've shortchanged yourself, if you've gone 1366 with 8GB RAM you're killing triple-channel memory so jump up another 4GB to get it back.

how am i killing it?

You're not running your memory in triples, so the system is downscaling to dual-channel mode. Granted, you only ever see the performance hit in benchmarks, but if you've made the investment then you might as well use it.

Ok so in Hyper Vising will 12 gb of ddr3 be better then 8gb?

You can never have too much RAM when dealing with complex processes. Yes, 12GB will be better on paper than 8GB but unless you have the money available if you're not having any problems then it's not essential you upgrade.

Also it might not be a case of dropping in another 4GB RAM to get triple channel - you may need to get 2 6GB kits. I don't know how sensitive multiple memory channels are these days, but when dual-channel first came out you needed matched pairs of RAM for it to work. If that still applies then you'd need to sell your existing RAM and get matched kits.

Honestly don't know on that one, sorry.