Want a new computer - which CPU, quad or i7?

[Grinder]

Is it best to play safe with tried & testing core 2 quad, or perhaps this Core i7 which I've never heard of?

[gingerjedi]

I'm going i7 but waiting till October as I don't want Vista bundled with it.

Mesh are doing quite a good spec one at the moment, should be a bit cheaper by then too.

Linky It does depend on what you want it for, I'm not playing games at the moment but it would nice to have a super duper 'rig' should I want to.

[Grinder]

Ah interesting - I was looking at this http://www.chillblast.com/product.ph...cat=324&page=1 which comes with Windows 7 candidate + free upgrade to final version when its released.

[Fred Bloggs]

Don't discount an AMD Phenom II based machine. With a socket AM3, DDR3 ram set up it should give the intel box a run for it's money. My next project within the next few weeks is a Phenom II 720BE box based on an ASRock M3A790GXH/128M mobo.

[d000hg]

Ah interesting - I was looking at this http://www.chillblast.com/product.ph...cat=324&page=1 which comes with Windows 7 candidate + free upgrade to final version when its released.

Looks nice.

Quick question, I noticed it comes with 6Gb RAM. Does W7 still come in 32/64 bit flavours, or is it fully 64bit and able to use >3Gb RAM in all versions?

[Fred Bloggs]

Looks nice.

Quick question, I noticed it comes with 6Gb RAM. Does W7 still come in 32/64 bit flavours, or is it fully 64bit and able to use >3Gb RAM in all versions?

The website says-

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM

[Ardesco]

Don't discount an AMD Phenom II based machine. With a socket AM3, DDR3 ram set up it should give the intel box a run for it's money. My next project within the next few weeks is a Phenom II 720BE box based on an ASRock M3A790GXH/128M mobo.

I prefer AMD's because they have a much better design for utilising memory IMHO. If intel started to make memory controllers like AMD's we would have some killer machines knocking about!!!

[Fred Bloggs]

I prefer AMD's because they have a much better design for utilising memory IMHO. If intel started to make memory controllers like AMD's we would have some killer machines knocking about!!!

Thanks, I didn't know that. I don't understand the hardware angle really, beyond selecting compatible components.

[Grinder]

Thanks, I didn't know that. I don't understand the hardware angle really, beyond selecting compatible components.

Same here. I've built my last 10 PCs from components, usually carrying forward the main hard drive as a 2nd drive until I'm sure everything is carried across.

But now I am thinking off-the-shelf because I can't be asked to do all the research.

I got Quake 4 for Christmas, and then went on the bench. It plays poorly on my 3ghz single-core with a 8500GT nvidia. I'm back to old-style Unreal Tournament in my leisure-time. I've already replayed Half-Life 2 twice.

For my new system I want a 22" monitor (possibly 2) and a display-card that can drive it. The rest is not really of interest as long as its good enough to play Quake 4 it should be OK for everything else.

[minestrone]

Ah interesting - I was looking at this http://www.chillblast.com/product.ph...cat=324&page=1 which comes with Windows 7 candidate + free upgrade to final version when its released.

Now that is tempting.