i5 vs i7 vs Quad?

[Llhweiir]

The i5 has caught my attention... Could it be a worthy alternative to the more pricey i7?

I was thinking about a Duo thanks to Poasters advice in the system build, but since my build was delayed the i5 was introduced and suddenly the choice of CPU was not so easy anymore....

In my local store the i5-750 sells for 1915 SEK, the i7-860 for 2795 SEK and the Core 2 Quad Q9550 2090 SEK.

The i7 is - as  you can see - much more expensive than the Quad or the i5... The i5 is even cheaper than the Quad..

My question:

Is the i5 - in your opinion - good enough the validate the higher price on the 1156-motherboard compared to the 775-motherboard of the Quad?

[pat]

Is the i5 - in your opinion - good enough the validate the higher price on the 1156-motherboard compared to the 775-motherboard of the Quad?

I believe it is. But there is more to consider, first off is that even though you can buy an inexpensive 775 board, would you? From what I've seen most of the 1156 boards and 775 boards with a mid range set of features are not that different in price. The 1156 boards use the DDR3 ram and the 775 boards use DDR2 ram, some price difference there but not that much.

I am reading reviews now and starting to put together ideas for a new build as well. I am most likely going to use a i7 860 although I haven't ruled out an i5. And you never know what AMD may do to offset the impact of the new releases by Intel. An AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition at $150-180 would certainly get my attention, but at the $245 they are now selling for they are just priced way to high.