It's that time of a year again! and I can't keep myself away from an i5 or an i7.. right now the i5 750 looks quite tastey and it doesn't fall short of the i7 920 by much. Not to mention the nearly $200 different when the motherboards are usually $100 more and the processor itself is $100 more. (Mind you I usually pick up ASUS boards and the cheapest i5 is like $150 and the i7 is $250ish).

So far I'm looking at this...

i5 750 $234
Cosrsair 2GB x 2GB DDR3 -1600 8-8-8-24 $128.78
ASUS P7P55D LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI 7SATA CrossFire $149.99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W $79.70 ($30 mail in rebate too)
BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE55 $200.51 ($25 mail in rebate as well)
and a free copy of Batman Arkham Asylum! haha not that I care, but it comes with it.

Totaling in at $801.97 or $906.22 after taxes of course.

I plan to overclock, I got a nice beefy zalman already for it (if it fits though, it a 775).
Armor series full tower with already too many fans! Eventually I'll throw more ram in later. But I figured you could easily OC a i5 750 to take down a 920 at stock on air and not spend the extra $200 on getting that setup. Most of the benchies Iv'e seen place them fairly close to each other. So price/performance I've been aiming at the 750. It's just the hose.. lack there of hyper-threading that worries but, although the benchmarks didn't seem to show a big different for it not having it. Any thoughts?

I'd go I7 just for the HT. Then again I could use HT 24/7.

Not to sound like a noob, but what exactly is HT going to have the advantage on ? I do some moderate gaming, but I use a lot of 3D Software as well, Zbrush is the only thing I think I've seen.. but I think thats multi-threading .. not HT.

EDIT: All hell why did I wikipedia that.. the moment i saw multi-tasking it could easily sell me. I have like 8 things open all the time! and its worse when real programs are up like photoshop, AE, Maya and Zbrush are all up.. thats probably where it'd make a huge difference.

Hey,
I built a similar system a few months ago and its been running great so far.

i5 750
Asus P7P55D Pro
4GB Super Talent DDR3
Antec Sonata III case (w/ 500W PSU)
500GB WD Cavier
ATI HD 4770 512MB

In installing multiple programs at once, copying multiple files at once and running 2 games at once I've had no noticeable slow downs. I work on an Xenon Quad Core(HT) system with 12GB DDR3 ram and with rendering on both I dont see an noticeable difference over the i5 750. This using Microstation V8 for 2D and 3D modelling, Rhino and AutoCAD 2009. To give an example of scope of work it is typically compartments of Naval ships including hulls, and chamber and sheer of decks. The only difference is at home I only have 1 monitor currently. I've never used benchmarking tools and wouldnt be able to at work so I cannot give you hard numbers to look at but you should be able to find them.

SideWinderDX

HT won't give you a difference in games no. But in rendering, transcoding, etc there is a difference with HT. It's very nice to have and worth it's weight for the cost difference.


The 750 cpu has had seom good reviews from what I have read.

If you are going to be overlocking anyways stick with what you have. This is mainly because when overclocking a i7 with HT on it is much more hot. The only way I achieved a high OC on my i7 with HT was with water/TEC cooling. Without I had HT turned off for air.

Ah so if i wanted to OC I'd be turning off the HT anyways.. so the i750 does sound more attractive, and SideWinderDX post was pretty comforting. I usually run Maya and zbrush and stuff. But I think an i750 should do just fine, I could also throw that money towards a higher end videocard or ram if I wanted to anyways right? Achieve some similiar scores probably.... one random question is..

Do I catch the sales on now, or wait until boxing day?

Yeah I can understand the confusion within the reply.

I'd say you'll be alright with the 750 with a TRUE or a Coolermaster V8 on it. Which will be my next plan anyways.

As to the higher end video card I would personally keep my eyes peeled on a 5850 or if someone is selling a 5870 cheap.

With boxing day coming up I would just keep a eye peeled. For I cannot confirm anything that may be coming. Although it would be a good post to put up for any available sales.

there is someone on kijiji that's still got a 5850 up for ~275.

AD ID: 171012645

I'll point out that this wont fit the i5 750 socket (which is 1156). Thats why my i5 still has the stock till the new year. One issue with getting it so new was that there was not many new coolers out there for the 1156 socket.
I have since seen a review and comparison of several 1156 Socket coolers although I cant find the artical for it. I did however find one that I read through before on OCing the i5 750 on air.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-750-overclock,2438.html

Hope it helps.

SideWinderDX

Seems solid I'll be going with the i5.. and a bfg 260 i think.. I'm working in at a studio and we had an episode held back.. I'm just freelance right now so I'm laid off until the episoide resumes and the client reaches an agreement.. so the i750 is also on the affordable side right now being $200 cheaper. I'm picking the nvidia bfg 260 just because I have a 9800gtx right now and bfg has served me well.. and so has nvidia.. I bought an ATI for my machine, the 2900XT and it died in 6months and i had to buy the 9800gtx. Then I had a 1950XT for my girlfriends machine that crapped out after a year. I'm not saying ATI is bad, I just personally had bad experiences with them.

Silverstone Strider ST85F 850W SLI Ready ATX12V 24PIN Modular Power Supply Active PFC 8PIN PCI-E

G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO Eco PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL7-8-7-24 1.35V Memory
XFX Radeon HD 4890 HD489XZSFC 1GB 850MHZ 1GB 3.9GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDTV

Intel Core i5 750 CPU
Gigabyte P55A-UD4P DDR3 CROSSFIRE/SLI Motherboard

Was my final decision (due to awesome sales!) I went against what I'd usually do which was ASUS and Nvidia.. because the Gigabyte had a good deal and so did the HD 4890.

Hmm i replied to this, but I think it got deleted

Sure wish there was an explanation as to why...

Oh I had a couple posts deleted the past week, looks like someone is on the prowl.

After a lil light reading about the comings in 2010, the i9 cpu is 'supposed' to offer a general 50% performance boost over the i7.

Good things in the way of cpu's in general, Nvidia's Fermi work, ram, ssd's the list goes on.

50% increase on programs that utilize that many threads. Most games still utilize duals still..

The cpu market is no different tham mem sticks. But that's how we make the big bucks eh.