You can get a P55 board and still run an i7 -- keep in mind, the i7 designation is spread across the Bloomfield (LGA 1366) and Lynnfield (LGA 1156) processor families. Processor speeds also overlap (e.g. i7-930 Bloomfield is 2.8GHz, as is i7-860 Lynnfield), with the extra memory controller on Bloomfield chips giving them an edge Anandtech measured at an average 3.5%. P55 boards should be cheaper than X58, usually by about $20 for similar feature sets.
(correct me if I get this wrong, but I think I've sorted out the designation fun Intel's having)
i7: 4 or 6 cores, with Hyperthreading and Turbo Boost (Bloomfield OCs better but Lynnfield has better Turbo)
i5: Turbo Boost, 2 cores with Hyperthreading (Clarkdale, i5-6xx) or 4 cores without HT (Lynnfield i5-7xx)
i3: 2 cores, HT, no Turbo
Pentium: 2 core, no HT, no Turbo, small caches
AMD processors, as a general rule, will give you more cores for the same price -- so it's less a matter of which is the more powerful processor for your buck and more a matter of what you want it to do.
That said, last time I priced out i7 systems, going with Lynnfield only saved about $70. And annoyingly, Sandy Bridge (Intel's new architecture) will evidently use yet another chipset, LGA-1155, making it incompatible with current mobos. Real savings occur when you dip into the i5 and i3 chips -- an i5-750 will get you to $200.
(correct me if I get this wrong, but I think I've sorted out the designation fun Intel's having)
i7: 4 or 6 cores, with Hyperthreading and Turbo Boost (Bloomfield OCs better but Lynnfield has better Turbo)
i5: Turbo Boost, 2 cores with Hyperthreading (Clarkdale, i5-6xx) or 4 cores without HT (Lynnfield i5-7xx)
i3: 2 cores, HT, no Turbo
Pentium: 2 core, no HT, no Turbo, small caches
AMD processors, as a general rule, will give you more cores for the same price -- so it's less a matter of which is the more powerful processor for your buck and more a matter of what you want it to do.
That said, last time I priced out i7 systems, going with Lynnfield only saved about $70. And annoyingly, Sandy Bridge (Intel's new architecture) will evidently use yet another chipset, LGA-1155, making it incompatible with current mobos. Real savings occur when you dip into the i5 and i3 chips -- an i5-750 will get you to $200.
