Hardware & Technical Time to build a new PC - What CPU?

jxm

J
My PC is 5 years old now, and starting to creak, so it's time to build another one. But I'm somewhat out of date with CPUs, graphics cards and what have you - about 5 years out of date...

So I guess the best place is to start with the CPU and go from there. So the question is what's hot at the moment - AMD or Intel - did anyone win yet? Should I go for one with the fancy graphics built in, or is that a waste of time if I'm going for a honking great graphics card (or two)? (I mean if you have a graphics card and graphics on the CPU do they split the load? or does the cpu basically push all the work onto the graphics card(s))?

I have a 5 year old i7 920 Nehal which was £180 5 years ago, but the i7's now seem to start at £200 for an entry level one. In terms of modern CPU's what is my current i7 equivalent to? would it be out paced by a modern low end i3? or is it still pretty decent?

I use this pc all day for work, some cpu intensive, so I don't want a pure gaming cpu. just something pretty powerful, that can be used for work and gaming. (and the gaming side would be helped by the graphics card(s) anyway...)
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
Personally, I'll be going for a 8 core AMD.

It's listed as being slightly slower than Intel, but Intel is using old technology.

If you are in the UK, Novatech are doing a very nice deal on a bare bones system using AMD 8 core of less than £300
 

GuruNot

GuruNot
A spec/feature comparison of your CPU with the Haswell refresh i7-4790k and the new haswell-E i7-5930k can be found here .

If you do a lot of CPU intensive work that is multi-threaded then lots of faster cores are going to benefit you. I run a fair few concurrent VMs for labs and testing as well as doing some photo editing and video conversions. All of which make use of multiple cores.

I have always used Intel in my builds, but many choose AMD. It is affected by many things especially budget. Do you have a budget ?
 

Cody

Cody
AMD or intel is a personal thing. I favour intel, and if your machine is intended for intensive work too, intel is probably best.
 

jxm

J
GuruNot said:
A spec/feature comparison of your CPU with the Haswell refresh i7-4790k and the new haswell-E i7-5930k can be found here .
Click to expand...
That doesn't really give any idea of performance though. You'd think the new ones would be country miles better than a 5 year old CPU, but looking at that info it doesn't look like there's any major difference...?
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
I've always had AMD. Now I have Intel. The I7 series is fantastic

jxm said:
That doesn't really give any idea of performance though. You'd think the new ones would be country miles better than a 5 year old CPU, but looking at that info it doesn't look like there's any major difference...?
Click to expand...

I7 cores are insatiable. They swallow all work tasks and asks for more
 
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jxm

J
GuruNot said:
If you do a lot of CPU intensive work that is multi-threaded then lots of faster cores are going to benefit you. I run a fair few concurrent VMs for labs and testing as well as doing some photo editing and video conversions. All of which make use of multiple cores.
Click to expand...
Are multiple cores actually an improvement on "less cores"? I remember in the old days when there was one core and a cpu intensive app would take 100% of the cpu. These days I have intensive apps running and I look in task manager and 1 core is getting hammered and the other 7 are sitting there twiddling their thumbs - so isn't a multiple core cpu just a waste and wouldn't a single core be faster most of the time? I mean 64bit windows, multithreading and multiple cores have been around for donkey's years now and I think on my PC I've only seen photoshop make decent use of the features...

Patrick_68000 said:
I7 cores are insatiable. They swallow all work tasks and asks for more
Click to expand...

So are we saying that if I buy a low end i7 it won't be any big improvement over my (cheaper) 5 year old i7 920? That seems crazy, it wasn't even a high end i7 when I bought it. What happened to everything doubling in power every 18months for the same price?
 
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Cody

Cody
Elite: Dangerous is multi-threaded, and I believe it utilises all cores*.


*Is that correct? Awaits a boffin.
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
jxm said:
So are we saying that if I buy a low end i7 it won't be any big improvement over my (cheaper) 5 year old i7 920? That seems crazy, it wasn't even a high end i7 when I bought it. What happened to everything doubling in power every 18months for the same price?
Click to expand...

A new, low end i7 will smack your old i7 around with a haddock :)

Even simple things like multiple SATA6 on newer boards add up.
 

Cmdr Andy B

Cmdr Andy B
Cody said:
Elite: Dangerous is multi-threaded, and I believe it utilises all cores*.


*Is that correct? Awaits a boffin.
Click to expand...

i cant point to the post but Michael Brooks did confirm that fact quite a while ago.


before you decide on a CPU have a look at some comparisons:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

as others have said AMD/Intel is a personal choice, i go with AMD as on a 'bang for your buck' basis they are often a little cheaper, it gives you a bit more cash to spend on the other parts ;)
 
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jxm

J
Thanks, both those tools are useful, and show a low end i7 as about twice as fast (or at least twice the score) of the i7 920. Though after 5 years I'd be expecting a bigger gain to be fair...
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
jxm said:
So are we saying that if I buy a low end i7 it won't be any big improvement over my (cheaper) 5 year old i7 920? That seems crazy, it wasn't even a high end i7 when I bought it. What happened to everything doubling in power every 18months for the same price?
Click to expand...

For my part I have a Core I7 4770K and I find it very very reactive. Compared to older generations. the "recent" cores I7 have a smaller fineness engraving, consumes less energy, releases less heat energy. They have certainly improved architecture, use a different socket and the latest motherboards with new technologies etc ...
 

Zephyriel

Zephyriel
If you just want to play ED, just get a new graphics card, I have an old Core 2 Duo CPU and the game runs like a dream with a Radeon HD7870. For other recent games though, I would recommend getting an i7, but as that's what you've already got, not sire a more recent one will change anything. Have you actually played any recent games to see where you stand ?
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
jxm said:
Are multiple cores actually an improvement on "less cores"? I remember in the old days when there was one core and a cpu intensive app would take 100% of the cpu.
Click to expand...

As many point out, it tends to boil down to preference. This source says go for this, another source says you must have that.

I would opt for AMD 8 cores over Intel 4 cores simply because 4 cores is now quite old.

My PC is over 7 years old. It has 4 cores and one of the earliest to do so. Back then, naysayers said, great if you can find any software to use it. Now most does.

When I buy another machine I expect it to last about 7 to 10 years. Getting the best technology now seems a better bet than going for a brand.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
AMD processors generally offer more performance for the money. They do not offer the highest available CPU performance though.

Coupled with the likely lower price of an AM3+ motherboard with equivalent features, a decently performing PC can be put together for less money.
 

GuruNot

GuruNot
jxm said:
That doesn't really give any idea of performance though. You'd think the new ones would be country miles better than a 5 year old CPU, but looking at that info it doesn't look like there's any major difference...?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I did say spec/feature comparison. I didnt have time to add the performance comparison links last night, although that has now been sorted by other members.
 
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