Upgrading From Pentium 4: E8600 Or Core I7

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Hallo everyone Would really appreciate your input on this as Im a bit lost! I will keep things simple - I have chosen all the components for my new gaming rig but am stuck on the choice of processor. Its come down to E8600 or Core i7 920. The graphics card I have chosen is the HD4870 1GB. Both these CPUs will be a massive leap in performance for me since Im still on a clunky Pentium but thats where the confusion starts Im trying to decide which of the two paths to follow when it comes to a new system. Let me show you both of them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Pentium 4 -----> E8600 -----> Core i7 32nm 2. Pentium 4 -----> Core i7 920 45nm ----->Core i7 32nm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am not technically well-versed on the details of these processors but part of my confusion as to what to do stems from the fact that I've been told to wait by some people till about Q4 2009 when apparently there will be a "2nd generation Nehalem" coming out with a 32nm manufacturing process and this CPU will also have "8 cores". By that time one hopes that games will be coded to take advantage of such a CPU so a big leap in performance would be noticed. Therefore my initial thinking was to get an E8600 as an interim solution till early 2010 and then sell it - putting the money towards a system powered byt the "next gen" Nehalems. the thinking behind this is that all the "growing pains" will be "ironed out" of the Nehalem CPUs and hopefully prices will have dropped a bit too. I actually want to order my new rig within the next 24hrs but I thought I must ask the Avsim simmer gurus what they thought Thanks for reading and I eagerly look forward to your replies

[jwenham 1]

Hallo everyone Would really appreciate your input on this as Im a bit lost! I will keep things simple - I have chosen all the components for my new gaming rig but am stuck on the choice of processor. Its come down to E8600 or Core i7 920. The graphics card I have chosen is the HD4870 1GB. Both these CPUs will be a massive leap in performance for me since Im still on a clunky Pentium but thats where the confusion starts Im trying to decide which of the two paths to follow when it comes to a new system. Let me show you both of them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Pentium 4 -----> E8600 -----> Core i7 32nm 2. Pentium 4 -----> Core i7 920 45nm ----->Core i7 32nm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am not technically well-versed on the details of these processors but part of my confusion as to what to do stems from the fact that I've been told to wait by some people till about Q4 2009 when apparently there will be a "2nd generation Nehalem" coming out with a 32nm manufacturing process and this CPU will also have "8 cores". By that time one hopes that games will be coded to take advantage of such a CPU so a big leap in performance would be noticed. Therefore my initial thinking was to get an E8600 as an interim solution till early 2010 and then sell it - putting the money towards a system powered byt the "next gen" Nehalems. the thinking behind this is that all the "growing pains" will be "ironed out" of the Nehalem CPUs and hopefully prices will have dropped a bit too. I actually want to order my new rig within the next 24hrs but I thought I must ask the Avsim simmer gurus what they thought Thanks for reading and I eagerly look forward to your replies

[jwenham 1]

Well..... for one , there will always be something faster around the corner. If you are ready to buy, then get the best you can for your money today and dont base it on whats down the road or you will wait yourself to death. IMO I would go i7 then if later you want to upgrade CPU you will already have everything else more or less. I bet that MSFS will use the i7 technology somewhat in FS11 but one will never know till it comes out. Take a deep breath and go for it! For you almost anything you go with will be leaps and bounds better so you really cant loose. My opinion may be different if you were upgrading from a Q9650 or such.Good Luck and post back how it goes.

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Well..... for one , there will always be something faster around the corner. If you are ready to buy, then get the best you can for your money today and dont base it on whats down the road or you will wait yourself to death.

That is very true...very true. You have given me much to think about with that statement. The other factor in this of course is the cost but its not a HUGE difference. I am going for a custom build from a well-known UK company.E8600 system, 3GB RAM, HD4870 =

[brucewtb 246]

That is very true...very true. You have given me much to think about with that statement. The other factor in this of course is the cost but its not a HUGE difference. I am going for a custom build from a well-known UK company.E8600 system, 3GB RAM, HD4870 =

[tfm 169]

Hallo everyone Would really appreciate your input on this as Im a bit lost! I will keep things simple - I have chosen all the components for my new gaming rig but am stuck on the choice of processor. Its come down to E8600 or Core i7 920. The graphics card I have chosen is the HD4870 1GB. Both these CPUs will be a massive leap in performance for me since Im still on a clunky Pentium but thats where the confusion starts Im trying to decide which of the two paths to follow when it comes to a new system. Let me show you both of them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Pentium 4 -----> E8600 -----> Core i7 32nm 2. Pentium 4 -----> Core i7 920 45nm ----->Core i7 32nm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am not technically well-versed on the details of these processors but part of my confusion as to what to do stems from the fact that I've been told to wait by some people till about Q4 2009 when apparently there will be a "2nd generation Nehalem" coming out with a 32nm manufacturing process and this CPU will also have "8 cores". By that time one hopes that games will be coded to take advantage of such a CPU so a big leap in performance would be noticed. Therefore my initial thinking was to get an E8600 as an interim solution till early 2010 and then sell it - putting the money towards a system powered byt the "next gen" Nehalems. the thinking behind this is that all the "growing pains" will be "ironed out" of the Nehalem CPUs and hopefully prices will have dropped a bit too. I actually want to order my new rig within the next 24hrs but I thought I must ask the Avsim simmer gurus what they thought Thanks for reading and I eagerly look forward to your replies

On a decent MB, on air, the E8600 will overclock to 4.33GHz (mine does, anyway) and apparently a Q9650 will overclock to about 4.00GHz. The track record of the i7 920 has yet to be established, but a quick search on Google for Superpi performance (which is a good predictor of the CPU's contribution to FSX) shows a mixed picture. Without overclocking, it will be beaten by an overclocked E8600 or Q8600. Even with overclocking, my strong impression is that you are unlikely to be able to push an i7 920 far enough to out-pace either an overclocked E8600, or an overclocked Q9650. I think that if you look for Nick_N's thread about the i7, you will find something similar based on actual experience. It is different with the 940 (which is "binned" higher) and 965 (which is "binned" higher and has an un-locked multiplier): both of these versions of the i7 can sustain higher overclocks and so compete much more strongly with the E8600/Q9650; but the 920 is not nearly so well positioned.On that basis, an i7 920 is likely to fall uncomfortably between the best of what the old and new technologies can do. Therefore, IMHO, the logical choice (purely for FSX) would be between (i) a well-equipped E8600 (or a Q9650) PC as an interim solution pending the 32nm processors; or (ii) an i7 940 or 965 in the expectation of skipping out the first generation of 32nm processors. TimEdit - I've just seen that you've already chosen to go for a 920. Please don't start worrying about it: a 920 coupled with the right GPU should still give you much better performance than your P4.

[Guest Alphahawk3]

Hallo everyone Would really appreciate your input on this as Im a bit lost! I will keep things simple - I have chosen all the components for my new gaming rig but am stuck on the choice of processor. Its come down to E8600 or Core i7 920. The graphics card I have chosen is the HD4870 1GB. Both these CPUs will be a massive leap in performance for me since Im still on a clunky Pentium but thats where the confusion starts Im trying to decide which of the two paths to follow when it comes to a new system. Let me show you both of them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Pentium 4 -----> E8600 -----> Core i7 32nm 2. Pentium 4 -----> Core i7 920 45nm ----->Core i7 32nm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am not technically well-versed on the details of these processors but part of my confusion as to what to do stems from the fact that I've been told to wait by some people till about Q4 2009 when apparently there will be a "2nd generation Nehalem" coming out with a 32nm manufacturing process and this CPU will also have "8 cores". By that time one hopes that games will be coded to take advantage of such a CPU so a big leap in performance would be noticed. Therefore my initial thinking was to get an E8600 as an interim solution till early 2010 and then sell it - putting the money towards a system powered byt the "next gen" Nehalems. the thinking behind this is that all the "growing pains" will be "ironed out" of the Nehalem CPUs and hopefully prices will have dropped a bit too. I actually want to order my new rig within the next 24hrs but I thought I must ask the Avsim simmer gurus what they thought Thanks for reading and I eagerly look forward to your replies

I just went through what you are getting ready to do. I went for the i7 920. I had an old P4 with the primary HDD an 80gig! It was time to upgrade all of it. I bought the 6 gig of mem for when and if I go to an 64 bit OS or when Intel comes out with another line of 1366 chips and if I can move up to a bigger better CPU. I was going to spend 800$ if I went with the Q6600 build I had started looking at and would have been stuck with the 775 sockett set for my next upgrade. Had I already had a 775 board I would not have gone i7. I have mine clocked at 3.4ghz. I am very happy with it. Coming from a P4 I would have been happy I guess with anything else. I have all of the Orbx scenery and the YMML airport. I get around 17 to 20 FPS on the runway in an SF 260...Cessna 172....and even my SR22. Once airborn FPS goes to 30....which is where I have it locked and it stays there. But even at th 17 FPS the sim is very smooth. The YMML addon hits FPS hard...but is a great peice of work....3d lights and much more. With my P4 I could not even use the SR 22. I had it on my machine for over a year I guess but at 4 FPS....the avionics in it are awesome.....I could not use it. With the 920 it is no problem. I think you will be very pleased with your new system. Regards

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Hey guys thanks a lot for taking the time to reply I really appreciate it! I still have not bought the system and plan to order it tomorrow. I was going to order it on the day I started this thread because the company had a special offer going - free copy of Far Cry and free shipping. However they have extended this offer till 2359hrs GMT so I thought I would take a little more time to configure 2 systems - an E8600 & Core i7 system. I will now go to bed and sleep on it. Once I get back from work I will have 6hrs 29mins to make the order if I want the special offers. Here are the specs of both custom-builds, do tell me what you all think -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E8600 Gaming System * Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 590 Black Case * Lights & Illumination: NONE * Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum Case Cooling Fans for your selected case * Power Supply Upgrade: 630 Watts Power Supplies (Hiper 630W Type-M SLI/CrossFire Ready Power Supply) * CPU: (Sckt775)Intel

[carrotroot 77]

If you can afford it then would go with the Core i7. The LGA775 is fast becoming a dinosaur platform. At least going with the LGA1366 will make it easier/cheaper for you to upgrade in the near future since you won't have to ditch your mobo and memory whenever you do decide to upgrade.

[Guest djt01]

The LGA775 is fast becoming a dinosaur platform. At least going with the LGA1366 will make it easier/cheaper for you to upgrade in the near future since you won't have to ditch your mobo and memory whenever you do decide to upgrade.

Yes the LGA775 is going to be a dinosaur platform in the very near future, but LGA1336 is looking like it might have a very questionable life span.

[scott967 62]

Based on those 2 MSI mbs offered, I think I would go with the MSI X58 /i7 board.scott s..

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Hey guys I just placed the order for an Infinty Core i7 920 Gaming computer!! ETA January 1st! Will be posting photos of it and eventually detailed reviews on how FS9 and FSX run on it :(