Thread: Should a NON-GAMER upgrade to i7?

Right now im recovering from weeks of computer downtime and I believe my MB is damaged. will turn on but no picture signal with multiple graphics cards, psu, cables, switched out etc. possible pci-e socket damage but the other one doesn’t work either so, I need a new MoBo. The setup below has served me well for 3 or so years and im thinking of upgrading it but im a little confused at the performance gain. i do a little video editing for friends and family and a lot of uncaring, multitasking, and watching a lot of Blu ray/ hi def stuff and that’s pretty much it with cpu intensity. I don't mind spending 650 or so but if i truly don’t need it could someone let me know?
This is the setup now:

MB -broken Asus p5w DH deluxe
GPU -Ati 4670 - 512gddr4
RAM -corsair 1gbx4 6400 c4
CPU -e6600 2.4 -which id like to overclock to 3.0 again
PSU -Antec hx520
Chassis -Antec p180
Raptor -os Windows 7 RC1
Storage -1tbx2 Seagate barracudas

Any suggestions on a cheap new socket 775 that will more than do the job to replace the broken one or:

Consideration config:

Msi eclipse SLi -because maxpc says its the best, even though I would only have 1 vcard - (hmm is the MSI overkill?) i7 920, 6 GB corsair uh 10333 or 13000? (The faster speed whatever it’s called)

Depending on the software packages you use a non-gamer could benefit even more from the i7 upgrade than someone mostly interested in gaming.

i7 would be a good upgrade but realize that you're going to be spending at least 600....if you don't think that's worth the cash I recommend a Phenom II 940 or 955, and AM2+ MoBo. You can get both of those together for maybe 350.

Thing is, you never see i7's benched at 'comfortably priced' do you?

It's still all about the CPU and GPU with gaming. If you're a gamer then always buy a cheaper CPU at the expense of a faster GPU. Unless you are buying the fastest gpu now, and plan to upgrade it every time a faster GPU is released then don't even consider i7 for gaming.

I know what you mean. I would normally try a new graphics card, cpu or psu first too.

It looks to me like you have done already so that only leaves the MoBo or cpu. Why not try your cpu in your friends MoBo so you can discount that possibility.

If you can use your friend’s pc then you can switch out every part and try out every combination. I've been doing the exact same thing these past few days.

In the end, I knew I had broken my bios by trying to flash it in windows so I finally had to give up and just buy a new one. A new bios that is, not a new mobo.

If you think thats the most likely fix then you can probably get one on eBay. Here are two I just found -

i7 your a none gamer and even if your a gamer you don’t need to go with 17 right now the best quad x4 processor for the money is the Phenom II am2+ 940 running at 3ghz you can over clock it to 3.6 GHz right out of the box. ddr2 1066mhz. you can get 8gig of the ddr2 for about $100 you will save alot of money going with AMD Phenom II because you don't need to buy DDR3. DDR3 is still new so you will have to pay 6x what you pay for ddr2 right now. and for a motherboard you have a ATI video card. ATI & AMD are one in the same AMD owns ATI. So if you want to give your card a boost in power get a board with AMD new chip set HD3300/790GX this 55nm AMD chipset supports all of the same features as the earlier 780G plus more. Among these features are ATI Hybrid Graphics, PowerPlay, side-port memory, CrossFireX, and OverDrive. AMD 790GX motherboards can choose to support CrossFire through dual PCI Express x16 slots but with only PCI-E x8 bandwidth per slot. While not related to the graphics front, 790GX motherboards are also able to utilize AMD's newer SB750 Southbridge, which is a modest upgrade from the SB700. AMD as just put out the most powerful motherboard ever. And you can crossfire you GUP you havew now with the one in the Board so you will have 2. Its says you can only do 3200 and 3400 series but thats off i have a HD 3870 and it working sweet. • Your display card is significantly more powerful in raw performance • Your display card has all the required features thats how much this chip set helps out the video and the HD 3870X2 doesn't even have have the power of the 4850. i put together this say tem for %$580 ad the only 3 things i did by My HDDs, DVR burns, and Windows. and i haven't been able to push 50% of my systems power running anti-virus, anti- spy 3 at time. running Cususoft 7.07 converting movies to dvd format and playing agame. so you don't need to spend the extra for a i7. Right now the best bang for the buck is the Phenom II its only 200-210 and you sure to be able to pull a combo deal and save a few hundred bucks. and ddr3 lowest level is 1066. get that wait a few years then when DDR3 drops then go get a i7 or a am3 processor. thats my plan DDR3 does hit speeds of 2000mhz but you should see the price on them and most boards only handle 1333mhz right now DDR# is nice that it tripple channel. THE board I got to go with it was ECS A790GXM-A because 32gig ram max and its got a easy overclocking engin takes the guess work out of knowing what then clock speed will be you just set it to how ever far you want and it how you 3100 3200 exc. the HD3300 runs at 700mhz got 128mbs GDDR3 and you can give it up 512 more for a total of 700mbs. And AMD broke records with this CPU overclocking 6073MHz using liquid nitrogen the Dragon F1 Extreme, and i would like to see i7 keep up with that even with DDR3 do you know where i can get a liquid nitrogen cooler I have looked can't fine one.

The i7 is not a game friendly CPU. It is however, excellent for intensive multi-threaded applications. It DOMINATES video encoding, rendering and other media tasks.

If you want a gaming PC, go with an Phenom II 955 or a Intel Q9650. They both surpass the i7 in games.

If you do encryption and decryption, the PII 955 is the way to go.

Is the board's clear cmos or clear bios jumper on "clear cmos or bios spot" it’s a small jumper to clear the bios memo, make sure the power is unplugged first.

Some boards actually are shipped with the jumper in the clear cmos position, they won’t post until you move the jumper.

look in the book and make sure the jumpers are all in the right spots,
i have not seen any boards not post at all, this is actually not that common, usually when a board dies it has things stop working like the hdd controller or sound card, it is possible for the PCIe controller to die but I haven’t seen that yet.

If you have onboard try the onboard maybe the PCIe slot is not enabled in the bios.

run it for a while and see if your cpu feels warm or stays cold, if its cold it could be the cpu, if you think its the cpu find a friend with a socket 775 system, its easy to change CPUs and try it.

- take the board out and try it with just the card and p/s on the cardboard motherboard box, maybe a screw is shorting it out on the bottom or something in the case.