to sell or to use? i7 980x

[thisjustanother]

i am just so torn on what to do with this... i won this i7 980x at a giveaway at a local electronics store. im pretty strapped for cash as it is, but just thinking of giving away a top of the line processor seems a bit farfetched to me. why sell a rolls royce and buy a vw... but being able to build a middle of the line gaming rig sounds nice too.

if i decide to keep the processor, it will cost a minimum of $1000 on other components just to run a computer. but if i sell it, i could get about $900 and take that and build a decent computer.

but if i sell the 980x, the one to replace it will more then likely be replaced quicker in time then if i just keep the 980x... how long will 980x last in the computer world in performance, and how long will lets say a i7 920 last...

 

[Chuplayer]

I'd sell it unless you can really, and I mean really, use it. It would probably kick butt in HD video encoding, but anything else? Games wouldn't benefit that much from it. I can run Crysis in 1080p with a Radeon HD4890 and Core i5 750 at decent enough framerates. As you can imagine, everything else runs nearly perfectly in 1080p.

In fact, I'd totally recommend the i5 750. It's a killer gaming CPU. It's great stock, and it is supposed to overclock really good if you're into that. It's also quad core with none of that hyperthreading crap. Don't bother with the newer dual core i5s. The older 750 beats the pants off of them.