First off, thanks for all the kind words, gents. I am however, no tech "guru". I probably am guilty of spending too much money on tech magazines and lurking around some of the more reputable tech review sites and forums. That doesn't make me any kind of expert though.
What I've done here as in the past, is looked at budget constraints, user needs as well as concerns, then come up with what I see as the most practical, cost effective, future-proof, and best price vs performance hardware array I can put together.
The suggested hardware array leans heavily toward future-proof when compared with an LGA775 platform, regardless of dual core or quadcore processor choice. One may not realize any
amazing performance benefits of running an i7 920 vs an e8600 (which incidentally is clocked higher out of the box) particularly where OFF or BIA is concerned, but I will bet you there would be benefits regardless of the lower stock clocks on the i7.
When you consider also, the i7's new built in triple channel memory controller is
capable of translating into 25.6GB/s of memory transfer @ even just 1,066MHz speeds vs 10.6GB/s @ 1333MHz on a core2 duo dual channel system, the choice of the i7 coupled with 64-bit triple channel DDR3 seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me. I won't bother going into the benefits of Quickpath Interconnect technology, as it's basically part of the overall memory controller enhancements which are present in the new Nehalems. The hyperthreading and turbo-boost features of the i7 aren't just smoke and mirrors either.
It is my humble opinion that the Nehalems quite literally leave the Wolfdales and Conroes in the dust in terms of sheer bang for your buck performance levels....even at stock clock speeds. It may or may not be true, but I have read that a chimpanzee can overclock the i7 920 to 4 GHz without even taking time out for a banana break.
If you're going to go with the C2D based system, you'll need to trade the DDR3 memory in for some DDR2. The P5Q won't support it. Best to go with 4 Gig of some good, fast PC8500 (or higher). You might also consider going to the ATI 4870 to allow for a Crossfire arrangement if you decide on a quick upgrade later on. The P5Q doesn't support Nvidia SLI. Also bear in mind that Crossfire on that board will reduce your PCIe 16x slots to x8. If ATI isn't your cup of tea, I'd take the 185 dollars in savings and throw it at one of the GTX280 cards. It'll make up for some of the lost performance realized by going with a last generation platform.
Oh.....in order to to do that, you'll also have to return the breadmaker.....lmao.
Quite honestly OvS, I'd still recommend going with the newer platform. When you consider the amount you'll save with the older hardware coupled with the fact you really
do limit the system's overall upgradeability by doing so, it just ain't worth the money you'll save.
I'll leave you these links to some info and benchmark results of the i7 vs the older Intel processors. You might wanna' pay attention to the fact that the benchmark testbed pits the i7 against the higher end Intel Quads including the ridiculously priced QX series. The e8600 doesn't even get to make an appearance.....and I think I know why
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16187
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16189&page=1
Cheers guys :ernae:
