Deal: Pickup Core i7's for Less than Core 2's

By Tuan An Nguyen
published

Browsing through online retailers for the latest prices on CPUs, we came across some good prices on the latest AMD and Intel offerings.

 

For example, a quick run over to PriceGrabber looking for Core i7 CPUs, lands us with some attractive figures. You can pick up a quad core Intel Core i7 920 for around $$279 but buying a quad core Core 2 Q9650 will set you back $324.99 at the same retailer. Likewise, you can also pick up an AMD Phenom II X4 940 quad core for less than $235.

At this point, if you're looking for parts for a brand new system, a Core i7 or Phenom II would be the way to go. There's no sense still picking up a quad-core Core 2 system when prices are the way they're going. If you're looking to build a budget system or one for HTPC duties, a Core 2 Duo would be a good bargain as well.

Prices above are what we found at the time of this article.

If you're building a high end gaming rig today, which would you vouch for? The latest Phenom II or the latest Core i7? Or skip a PC altogether and go for a console?

42 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cheepstuff
    it's so weird. an 8-thread cpu cheeper than a 4-thread c2d? the 920 is even more OCable than the other C2D's.
    Reply
  • megabuster
    Why buy Core2Quad? Well Q9400@4Ghz for $207.00 at eWiz = gaming performance of i7 920@4Ghz but runs much cooler and DDR2+p45 mobo much cheaper setup.
    Reply
  • Claimintru
    Core2Quad is better for backwards compatibility and single threaded apps by far.
    Reply
  • tayb
    The CPU hasn't really been what makes Core i7 expensive. All the additional cost with the motherboard and triple channel ram drives the price up.
    Reply
  • i dont know. you still need to get a board and ram which wont be cheap compared to a socket 775 and ddr2 ram
    Reply
  • cheepstuff
    it wont be to long before ddr3 gets cheep to. there are so many companies involved with ram that the prices will be driven under.
    Reply
  • Raidur
    Phenom II for sure, spend the saved money on GPU power :).

    I7 if your wallet is big.
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    Well the problem with i7 isn't getting a cheap cpu the 920 is a decent price but it's the like 400+ dollar board and 100+ dollar ram that makes people afraid to go the i7 path.
    Reply
  • cruiseoveride
    I'm going to wait. The i7 doesnt seem like much of an increase from a C2D, nor does the Phenom have anything to shout about. Maybe the 32nm chips will be better.
    Reply
  • mcnuggetofdeath
    wow. way to be uninformed. C2Q's still remain superior on single threaded apps as theyre not hyperthreaded. a Q9650 will reach 4GHz on stock voltage, and can do 4.4 on air. a Q9650 has 12mb of L2 cache vs the i7 920 with only 1mb. even if you throw in the L3 cache of the i7 it only ends up with 9mb, still less than the Q9650 which has its 12 running at a much higher speed. As such the C2Q will easily beat out a core i7 in gaming and anything that isnt specifically written to support multiple threads for what is all in all a cheaper platform. (775 vs 1336)
    Reply