I currently have an Intel core two duo 6600. And it is time to upgrade but, I would like to be as wise with my money as possible. I noticed that the i9 series of processors have recently been released. I do gaming and general computer use. , I was considering the i7 860 series but then I discovered that the 1156 socket type could likely become outdated quickly. My question is should I get an i7 9xxx series now or should I wait for the i9 to drop in price. I would like to spend somewhere in the $200 range for a CPU I wouldn't mind waiting for or five months, I have gone this long with a dual core setup. I know that six cores will not be used by many programs but if I do spend the money to upgrade I would like to be state-of-the-art or close to it for at least a while. I like to spend around $600 on the whole upgrade RAM CPU and motherboard.
I would go with an I5 for now. It gives remarkably good performance for what you have to spend, can support SLI or Crossfire (depending on the mainboard, of course), and tends to be much more affordable than building a 1366-based system. Yes, it may become an abandoned socket soon...but Intel abandons sockets all the time, and the 1366 might get the ax first for all we know. Also, your budget of $600 limits you to the I5...$200 for a cpu, $150 for a mainboard, $230 for ram, $20 for a cpu cooler. As for being "State of the Art", the CPU alone will cost you $1000, the mainboard will cost about $400, the ram will cost $345, and each video card (you need 2) will cost you $530. You will also need a PCIE SSD, that's about $2000...you might be able to get close to "State of the Art" for about $5000.
Perhaps, state-of-the-art was the wrong phrase to use. I don't want or need to be state-of-the-art, I guess I just want technology that won't be out of date in for more five months. I already have a GTX 260 core 216 graphics card and I'm not going to upgrade that. All I would be buying would be a motherboard, RAM and CPU. Just now I quickly speced out a system quickly on new egg with an i7 860 a gigabyte motherboard and four gigs of 1333 RAM and it will only cost me $520.I would probably actually go with 6 GB of RAM but then still should fall well within my budget. Certainly technically this is not state-of-the-art. But it's something that I think will not be outdated in six months. Would this be a good build, or would I be just better off waiting so that I am not outdated within a few months. The i9's will be dropping in price I don't know how soon but, by that time the RAM and motherboards will drop in price as well. I'm definitely not going for state-of-the-art guest technology that will stay current for a while. After all, my graphics card is probably close to outdated anyway.
Don't use multiple threads for the same question. "Yes, it may become an abandoned socket soon...but Intel abandons sockets all the time, and the 1366 might get the ax first for all we know" Since when? LGA775 was abandoned in 2009 after 5 years of use. That's hardly 'all the time'. Personally I say go i5/i7 on LGA1156, it's much better value now, and it's getting plenty of investment, so not going away any time soon. Also, you want 4GB or 8GB with an i7 860, as they're dual channel CPUs. Don't mix memory sizes.
