Intel Core i7(Nethalem)

[ChedWick]

So, who’s following this one? It made me a sad panda when I got wind of the new flagship processor from Intel. A sad panda because I was so close to just ordering all the parts for my new PC; now I have to wait to see how the new technology works.

I'm very curious to see how these perform vs. the current duo, quad cores and which ever AMD is on top at the moment.

With their release date being sometime in early to mid November the next few months are going to be very interesting. New boards, ram kits, and any revisions to the release processors that will be coming out all of which will need to be tested and benchmarked for all us consumers. I can’t wait to see them.

If these processors show a significant improvement for gaming over the current mainstream processors I'm be spending the extra money to future proof my system a bit. If not I'll just build a mid ranged system for a few hundred and upgrade later on when needed. Well rebuild later since a ground up approach is necessary due to the new socket and DDR3 being a requirement.

What are everyone else’s thoughts or concerns?

[Harner]

I haven't been following, but I'll definitely have to check it out now.

[SneeBeezums]

I was planning on upgrading my rig but now I gotta wait to see what the future holds.

The limit on the voltage for the memory makes me kinda iffy. And DDR3 price needs to fall before I consider it. And also, how much will the new boards and processors go for.

The current quad core chips aren't good for gaming so I'm curious how these ones will perform.

[ephekt]

Nehalem

Beyond reading the article on TechReport, I haven't really paid much attention. I'll pay more attention once the mainstream quads hit. I do intend on upgrading from my Q6600 sometime in the next year or so though.

[ChedWick]

On Monday the articles hit the web. Intel unofficially released their new crown jewl the core i7. Later in the month they will officially release the i7. Currently there are 3 versions of the processor our all of which are pretty impressive.

According to TomsHardware.com the new architecture produces a considerable increase in speed clock for clock, especially in media based applications. There was some concerns regarding over clocking the none extreme version but that was cleared up in a second article. In the third article tom benchmarks SLI and Crossfire systems and the results seem to show better scaling with more than one video card.

Over the next two or so years, once prices come down and new revisions come out, It will be a good idea to use this new platform in home built systems.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...alem,2057.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...e-i7,2063.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ming,2061.html


I like what I've seeing so far. The benchmarks are what I was hoping for, however... I think right now I'm going to do a core 2 duo or quad build to replace my dying Pentium 4 system. I figure going bleeding edge is all fine and dandy if you have a load of money to spare and a need for an insanely powerful system. I don't really fall into either of those categories though. I make a decent amount of money in retail but not enough to throw down 3000 dollars every year, especially since I'm also in school. Also at the moment I really don't need an insanely powerful system to do what I do right now or wish to do right now. Maybe in the future when a few games I really really want come out, I may need a little more power but right now a core 2 and 8800 system will be more than enough. In fact that pair will probably be more than enough for the specific games I'm looking forward to.

So I have reasoned with myself to build a cheaper mid ranged system now and if need be in a year or two when newer i7's, better motherboards and cheaper RAM come out, I'll build again and just replace our 7 year old sony desktop with the one I'm building now.