Processor question

[hendo]

I haven't been a hardware geek in almost 10 years, and a lot has changed since then. So I am posing a question for those here who might know. Are the new Intel i7 processors really worth the extra money. I know that they are currently blowing away the latest AMD line, but is it really all that much better than the Core2 Quad Intel chips? The reviews seem to be mixed, and the i7 is a helluva lot more expensive than the core2 chis.

[Shardik]

1. I'm using an AMD 9950 quad core (true native quad) and according

to Sisoft Sandra I am comparable to many of the Intel high end chips for a fraction of the price. However, this is with 4 gigs 1066 DDR RAM and one of the higher end Asus boards M3N-HT Deluxe. I'm running VIsta 64 and after a few days of tweaking the system have been very happy with it.

You can take the money you save on the CPU and put it into a pair of good video cards and have a great gaming/graphics box.

[Gore1FL]

2. i7 don't use FSB use hyper threading, and have shared L3 cache

I'd wait for a the price to drop a little, but yeah are better.

Anything Intel is going to blow away AMD for PCs. AMD doesn't include enough L2 cache, IMO. L2 cache and FSB limitations are major concerns when choosing a CPU.