I've been thinking, E8500 vs i7 930

[Getback]

Obviously the i7 is the latest and greatest. Especially for video editing. However, if what I have read on the forums is true, then the E8500 is the ticket for Aces High. Its cheaper, its faster, and AH only uses 2 cores anyway.

Please correct me if I'm in error.

[Fulmar]

If you're on a budget even more than that, I've been looking to upgrade my E6400 (Conroe 2.16ghz) to the E6700 (Wolfdale 3.2ghz).  It's only $100 (half of the E8500), a little faster stock speed.  Down side is it has a 2mb cache vs 6mb and 1066 fsb to 1333fsb.  Should be an easy overclock to 3.8ghz.

It'd be a temporary upgrade.  No change in motherboard (may have to update your BIOS), can still use DDR2.

[Getback]

If you're on a budget even more than that, I've been looking to upgrade my E6400 (Conroe 2.16ghz) to the E6700 (Wolfdale 3.2ghz).  It's only $100 (half of the E8500), a little faster stock speed.  Down side is it has a 2mb cache vs 6mb and 1066 fsb to 1333fsb.  Should be an easy overclock to 3.8ghz.

It'd be a temporary upgrade.  No change in motherboard (may have to update your BIOS), can still use DDR2.

That's about right.

E8500 is 195 vs 285 for i7 930.

[TilDeath]

That's about right.

E8500 is 195 vs 285 for i7 930.

The 930 can be had for 220

[68valu]

Obviously the i7 is the latest and greatest. Especially for video editing. However, if what I have read on the forums is true, then the E8500 is the ticket for Aces High. Its cheaper, its faster, and AH only uses 2 cores anyway.

Please correct me if I'm in error.

I just built  a new setup with a msi p7n MB an e8500 processor, a 8800gt and 4gb ddr2 800mhz, windows XP 32 bit  and get 59-60 frames constant with all settings on and 1024 textures.
I am very pleased with the performance for a "discount" build.

[guncrasher]

If it was me (I just upgraded last year to an e8400 and i love it), I would probably look at the i930 like TD suggested not much more expensive and it will last a couple of years longer than the e8500.  But if all you want to spend money on is cpu then i guess e8500 would be cool.

semp

[eagl]

You didn't say what you are upgrading FROM, so I'm assuming you already have a socket 775 system.  If you have anything other than that, then it is a simple choice, buy a complete upgrade package including an i7.

I have an E8400 and if I was looking for just a cpu upgrade I'd probably just go for one of the faster quad core socket 775s, on the theory that a poorly behaved single thread is less likely to pause my computer if I have an extra 2 cores.  I wouldn't do that particular upgrade for higher game framerates however.  If I was looking for game performance rather than just a bump to system responsiveness, I would certainly go for an i7 cpu, no question about it.  It is a generational leap ahead and while some games will run "just as ok" on the older cpu line, do you really plan on playing just those games for the next few years?

Even civ 5 on my computer would benefit from a couple of upgrades.  It pauses during drive accesses even though I have a WDC caviar black, one of the better 7200 rpm drives.  An SSD just might fix that, but for the price of a good SSD I could do a complete system refresh with a new i7 mobo, cpu, and ram.  So I'm keeping my pennies for when I need it.

If you are happy with your system and just want a faster cpu, then get a fast dual or quad core upgrade and be done with it.  But if you are looking for noticeable speedups across the board and not just in AH, then you might not be happy unless you jump to the current generation of cpus.