LGA755 vs. i5 builds

[tjgraf]

I am a new PC builder, and have set my goal to build my wife a new PC over Thanksgiving, then build my 3 sons each a new PC over Christmas. We will have a home coming PC building party! What a blast!

None of us is a real gamer type, but we do MS Office, some photography stuff, and just want fairly quick performing equipment that is functional and current. We want snappy video for our new 23” Samsung flat panels we bought last weekend, lots of USB jacks, and a computer that just gets out of our way and lets us fly, so to speak. One of the machines will run Auto CAD Lite 2010 (for my son the contractor). Reliability is paramount, with quiet as a second requirement.

I’m (literally!) agonizing over Rob Williams insistence of simplicity and the 6 month rule versus taking advantage of current hardware advances and OS versions that the WiseMonkey advocates.

If I go with Rob’s philosophy, I buy his dual core Intel E8400 or quad core Q9550 with LGA775 Gigabyte mobo and running Vista or XP 32 bit, if I’m reading his input correctly. His argument for the old OS in 32 bit is that drivers will be easily found and function properly without a lot of wasted time doing the installation. We are not overclockers and gamers, and his conservative philosophies appeal to me from one standpoint

WiseMonkey on the other hand is building with some state of the art equipment including an i5-750 and appropriate Gigabyte P55 motherboard in his budget+ build. WM goes with Win 7 64 even on his lowest end budget build!

I already sprang (sprung? sprong?) for a sharp looking Ikonik aluminum case, a Corsair TX750 power supply for rock solid performance, a Sony optical drive and a very standard 640 gb HDD for my wife's machine.

I’m looking to spend about $1200 or so on each machine, but the budget is not hard and fast.

Deep down inside, I really want a cutting edge machine like what the i5 will offer, with all it’s energy savings, and forward leaning abilities like capability of adding a lot more than 4 gb of future RAM on the P55 platform. But I’m scared of the driver installation nightmares I may be getting myself into.

Rob and WiseMonkey, could I get both of your comments on this dilemma and how each of you, or other readers might respond to this set of concerns? I want to make a decision on mobo, processor (i5 P55 or LGA755 compatible) and OS (Win 7 32 or 64?) in the next few days if possible but will wait a while if this thread generates a lot of input. The video board to me is a no brainer. Rob has chosen a hot EVGA GT260 in my book. I’ll go with 4 gb of quality Ballistix RAM for the LGA755 or 8 gb for the i5, so that’s not much of an issue to decide over. Cost wise, both systems come out pretty close in price if you put 4 gb of RAM in each machine.

[tjgraf]

Sorry folks. Here's my system information to date:
Case: IKONIK Zaria A20 3IC-Z2DSM Silver Aluminum / SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
Motherboard: undecided
CPU: undecided between LGA755 and P55 based CPU's.
RAM: undecided but probably 4 gb for the LGA755 since that's all it can read, or 8 gb for the P55 if I go that route
Graphics card: probably will be a EVGA Geforce GTX 260 core 216 896 MB DDR3
Sound Card: motherboard
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB cache SATA 3.0 GB/s Internal Hard Drive - Bare Drive
Optical Drive(s): Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - OEM
Monitor: SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 2333SW High Glossy Black 23" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 20000:1 (1000:1) w/ HPCP Support - Retail Full 1080P
Speakers:
Operating System: undecided, deciding between Win 7 32 and Win 7 64 home premium

[tjgraf]

Is G.Skill the new standard for RAM now? No longer Crucial?

[RickyTick]

Is G.Skill the new standard for RAM now? No longer Crucial?

Not necessarily. I prefer G.Skill, but just stay with a major brand like G.Skill, Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, A-Data, OCZ, or Kingston. They are all very good, and very reliable.

[The Wise Monkey]

Hi tjgraf, welcome to the forums.

Firstly, RickyTick is the one who maintains the recommended builds, so all credit goes to him. :D

As for the rest of it, I would definitely recommend going with the i5 setup. 8GB of RAM is massive overkill though, as you will never use anywhere near that much; 4GB is more than enough.

We recommend a 64-bit OS because drivers are much more prevalent than they used to be. As RAM prices have dropped, more people are coming up against the 4GB limit imposed by a 32-bit OS. As such, 64-bit OSs have become more popular, and manufacturers have had to respond to this by making compatible drivers.

Another thing to bear in mind for drivers is that Vista has been out for 2-3 years, and Windows 7 is very similar to Vista, so if a driver works in Vista then there's a 95% chance it will work in 7.

[tjgraf]

Thanks RT and WM for quick response. It's Win 7 64 bit and the i5 for my first build.

Now, how about energy efficiency of video boards? Are most pretty good at powering down when the computer is not under heavy load? Fans slowing down, etc? My wife tends to use her PC heavily, leave for an hour, come back use it heavily, leave for 2 hours. Sometimes wakes up at midnight, works for an hour, then off the rest of the night. Basically leaves it on all the time, so I have an interest in finding the most energy efficient video card, but still have snappy video response. Which are more efficient than others? Anyone ever do an article on this?

[The Wise Monkey]

nVidia do a piece of software called nTune, in which you can set up profiles that are activated based on certain criteria e.g. when an application is run, and so on:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

Every modern video card has an idle mode where they deliberately underclock themselves in order to save power.

[RickyTick]

Like WM said, the newer cards downclock when at idle, and iirc the Intel processors have Speed Step that does essentially the same thing.

And there are power management tools in Windows that set up things like hibernation and screen savers.

[RickyTick]

OK tjgraf, this is what I would recommend.
Intel core i7-860 $280 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P $170 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128400
4gb (2x2gb) DDR3 1333 $95 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180

And on that hard drive, change it from Blue to Black.
Everything else looks great.
Windows 7 64-bit

[tjgraf]

Thanks RT. What is significance of HDD color Blue vs. Black other than looks. Is this color a compatibility code of some kind?

[RickyTick]

Thanks RT. What is significance of HDD color Blue vs. Black other than looks. Is this color a compatibility code of some kind?

The black is faster and has a better warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014%2050001306%20103530113%201035335532&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=N82E16822136218%2CN82E16822136319

[tjgraf]

OK, black it is. Man, there are a ton of subtle details to improve performance when doing a build. I sure do appreciate your insights!

Since I'm building my wife, 3 sons, and later me, a PC, I'm going to keep costs down a little by sticking with the budget+ mobo, i5, and G.Skill RAM.

But now I'm trying to find a good cpu cooler for the 1156 based i5, and am finding there is not much out there yet for this unit. Do you have any experience with this one? :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134 It looks like it gets pretty good reviews, is cheap (appears to have a great heat sink, but inexpensive fan) and will fit the 1156 due to a new revision available at newegg.

[tjgraf]

I could buy the heatsink and replace the fan with a high quality Sunon or something similar if the fan bearings weaken.

[RickyTick]

But now I'm trying to find a good cpu cooler for the 1156 based i5, and am finding there is not much out there yet for this unit.

Why? The Intel cpu will come with a cooler that works just fine. In your original post you said you're not an overclocker, so why the need for a cooler.

[RickyTick]

btw, if you wait til the day after Thanksgiving (black friday), Newegg is having some great deals.

[RickyTick]

Since I'm building my wife, 3 sons, and later me, a PC, I'm going to keep costs down a little by sticking with the budget+ mobo, i5, and G.Skill RAM.

I updated the BUDGET BUILD PLUS+ today and renamed it A STEP ABOVE.

[The Wise Monkey]

Good job Ricky. :)

[tjgraf]

Why? The Intel cpu will come with a cooler that works just fine. In your original post you said you're not an overclocker, so why the need for a cooler.
I quote the first page of the web site that directed me to this (great!) forum: "Purchasing a CPU cooler separately allows you to have something that cools better and performs more quietly than the CPU cooler that comes in the retail package."
That's the main reason I was assuming I needed a larger cooler, so the machine could be quieter. Rob picked a Zallman after market cooler with his LGA 775 on the first web page.

The i5 uses a new chipset that moves some of the chipset functions over to the cpu, according to an article I read in the latest CPU Magazine. Do you think the i5/i7 LGA1156's will run hotter because of that, even if it's just used for routine functions?

Let me ask you this: would it be acceptable for someone not over clocking/gaming to just install a large heat sink on the CPU, and depend upon the case exhaust fan for cooling of the heat sink if you could establish adequate airlflow over the heat exchanger? It would save energy! But would I toast my cpu in the end because it's an LGA1156?
Your thoughts?
Honest, I'm not trying to drive you guys nuts with these questions. Reliability, performance, energy efficiency and quiet are my 4 goals.

[RickyTick]

Don't get me wrong, I like aftermarket coolers for the cpu, even if you don't plan to overclock. I only made the suggestion as a way of cutting expenses. However, they are not terribly expensive. Installing one during the initial system setup is the ideal situation, so if the extra $50 or so is ok, then go for it. :)

[kris77]

Newegg on Black Friday?

Any link to the deals? Looking to build another system for christmas and trying to get under 700$.

A few deals could help the matter alot...

[RickyTick]

Newegg on Black Friday?

Any link to the deals? Looking to build another system for christmas and trying to get under 700$.

A few deals could help the matter alot...

Go to Newegg and sign up for their newsletter.

Check this out.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SpecialPromotion.aspx?storeid=67&cm_sp=Homepage_topright-_-NEProPreBF2009-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fNEPro%2fPreBF 2009%2f362x130.jpg