Which barebones setup would you keep?

[Humminn55]

I've got two barebone setups, can keep only one and sell the other and need help deciding.

So, here's what will be constant between the two barebone setups as hardware:

1 WD 1TB Black hd (OS)

1 WD 1TB Green hd (storage)

ATI 4870 1GB video card

Obligatory optical drives (2 DVD+/-RW's)



Now, for the barebones to pick from:


Setup #1

Asus Maximus Formula mb
Q9550 cpu.....has hit 4GHz on 1.35v, 3.7GHz on 1.16V (SLB8V, L839A)
4GB (2x2GB) Mushkin Redline DDR2-1000 RAM



Setup #2:

MSI X58M mATX mb
Core i7 920 cpu (SLBEJ, 3845B) unk. OC'ing ability
6GB (3x2GB) Patriot Viper DDR3-1333 RAM (7-7-7-20 timings)



So, which to keep? Figure both will/would perform about equally, but the i7 system does have some longevity to it.


Guess I gotta figure out how to rid myself of a decent Q9550 cpu and X38 mb and some Redline, huh?

[clayton]

Setup #2 by far.

[Mk]

Setup #2 by far.

+1

[perkam]

This is a no brainer m8. See above.

Perkam

[Damian^]

Why would you ask?

[mcmeat51]

Ill have your 1st system mate, that leaves you with an easy decision

[Humminn55]

Why would you ask?

It's like this....my husband is in the hospital after suffering a quite severe heart attack and subsequent open heart surgery.

His "little baby" is his X38-based computer, the parts listed as the X38 parts (Maxiumus Formula mb, Q9550, etc., etc.)

He's scheduled to come home in two days from the hospital and I wanted to surprise him with a nice upgrade to his system. He's been wanting to upgrade to i7 lately but just didn't want to justify it due to costs (both our jobs have been negatively impacted by the current economic downturn.....he owns a small computer repair shop and I work for a supplier of components to industry, of which about half our output goes to automotive manufacturers.)

Anyway, rather than a video card upgrade, which he was contemplating doing just before his illness, I spent a few days after he was admitted doing some quick research on i7 components, and did a quick trip to MicroCenter and Fry's to "secretly" buy an i7 920 cpu, mb (and I'm stll torn about my choice of the MSI X58M, but Fry's was out of the Asus RII Gene, and the Patriot Viper memory....he does have an infatuation with Mushkin.)

I'm putting it together today/tomorrow and hope to have it up running for him when he gets home Tuesday. (Yes, I'm a 54 y.o. woman who can build computers....... He was and is an excellent teacher and has done a good job teaching me about them. And to think when I met him I was really hardware illiterate...did software quite well, but hardware was off putting. )

So, I just wanted to ensure the parts I chose would be at least satisfactory as an upgrade from what he has. Otherwise, I'd take them back and just get him a new 4890 video card or something like that.

That's why.

[Bradan]

X58m is a good board as-per the reviews, and I am a patriot fanboy.

The asus gene doesn't have much on the X58m in terms of design, but has a slightly better heatsink. I think it looks a ton better though (X58m).

[ILikeCosmosS]

Second one, because you can upgrade later on and wont be stuck at the dead end of 775

[dengyong]

Keep the i7.