i7 980X now or wait for SB (i7 2600?) in January?

A

Armpit

Gawd
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Need to upgrade my aging PC soon, not just because it is old (it still serves me quite well especially after upgrading the video card recently) but also because I can write off all the expenses from my income for tax reasons. I was thinking of either getting the i7 980X now (bigger writeoff) or getting most of the components now and waiting for the i7 2600 in early January. I use the system for a lot of video encoding and occasional gaming. From a performance standpoint, what is the better option?
 
I'd just get the 980x if thats what youre interested in. Is Sandybridge going to be good? Sure, is it going to be THAT much better? Doubtful. Im not going to drop my i7 950 to go out and buy SB on release day...
 
The 2600 is roughly as fast as a 980X despite having two less cores and a significantly smaller price tag. Do you plan on upgrading your processor ever in the future? If not, I'd go with the end-of-life 980X to get the benefits of extra PCIe lanes and more memory.

Anyone building new and planning on a non-extreme edition processor really should hold out for 1155, its just that much better.

The other thing to consider: how many video cards are you planning on? I'd take 2x GTX 580 and a 2600 over 1x GTX 580 and a 980X. Would be the same price
 
Heebs said:
Is Sandybridge going to be good? Sure, is it going to be THAT much better? Doubtful. Im not going to drop my i7 950 to go out and buy SB on release day...
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It seems like you're just talking to yourself, nothing to do with the OP question.
 
if you can find a good deal on the 980X then why not? It looks like you are going to get good use of it now... there are always reasons to wait but what are your needs today?
 
id say get everything in order for the new SB build...why buy brand new, top of the line, end of the line? SB at least leaves ya options for down the road, and make sure you get the 2600K
 
I'd wait for the SB release in like a month and a week simply because its so close.
 
If you do video encoding, 980x will clearly be better than the 4-core SB. If you do gaming, the SB will be just as fast or maybe a tad faster if it can over-clock higher.

Also, just like 980x, the early release SB 1155 socket will be phased out in quick order for enthusiast CPU's leaving not much of an upgrade path. Since I have a i7 920 D0 @ 4.55Ghz, I doubt the 980X nor SB 2600K would give me more than a 10% improvement in games. That is why I think I'll wait until the latter part of next year for socket 2011 enthusiast "Ivy Bridge" chips and DDR4 memory.
 
Vega said:
If you do video encoding, 980x will clearly be better than the 4-core SB. If you do gaming, the SB will be just as fast or maybe a tad faster if it can over-clock higher.

Also, just like 980x, the early release SB 1155 socket will be phased out in quick order for enthusiast CPU's leaving not much of an upgrade path. Since I have a i7 920 D0 @ 4.55Ghz, I doubt the 980X nor SB 2600K would give me more than a 10% improvement in games. That is why I think I'll wait until the latter part of next year for socket 2011 enthusiast "Ivy Bridge" chips and DDR4 memory.
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Depends on how the video transcode engine in SB gets implemented - it may bring substantial improvements over the current i7s. SB 1155 isn't going to be phased out - SB 2011 is replacing 1366, leaving SB 1155 and SB 2011 going forward.
 
Forceman said:
Depends on how the video transcode engine in SB gets implemented - it may bring substantial improvements over the current i7s. SB 1155 isn't going to be phased out - SB 2011 is replacing 1366, leaving SB 1155 and SB 2011 going forward.
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Actually, SB-2011 is not the replacement for 1366, that would be the domain of the 1356 chipset due to arrive third quarter.
Intel is separating their markets,
general consumer/most-gamers/ 1155
Professional/Enterprise/Workstation / Extreme Enthusiast -2011
Enthusiast/Entry-level Workstation / 1356
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/video/pcw/docs/360/112/6.pdf

What's interesting is that ivybridge is expected to arrive in 2011. 22nm of 8 core, and yes 16 core goodness.

Either way, maybe there will be a point to all this insane amount of cpu power.
 
Actually, SB-2011 is not the replacement for 1366, that would be the domain of the 1356 chipset due to arrive third quarter.
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There are a lot of conflicting rumors on the 3 and 4 channel versions.

what's interesting is that ivybridge is expected to arrive in 2011. 22nm of 8 core, and yes 16 core goodness.
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I am confused on that one. Why release a 32nm 8 core if less than 1 quarter later you replace it with a 22nm part?
 
avddreamr said:
Actually, SB-2011 is not the replacement for 1366, that would be the domain of the 1356 chipset due to arrive third quarter.
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Why is there no other documentation/rumors on that socket? All I can find is that PC Watch PDF.
 
Forceman said:
Depends on how the video transcode engine in SB gets implemented - it may bring substantial improvements over the current i7s. SB 1155 isn't going to be phased out - SB 2011 is replacing 1366, leaving SB 1155 and SB 2011 going forward.
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If you read what I wrote, if you buy the top of the line "enthusiast" 2600k on 1155 early in the year, you have no upgrade path when 2011 comes out later in the year which takes over the enthusiast CPU's. I could care less about cheap mainstream CPU's.
 
Vega said:
If you read what I wrote, if you buy the top of the line "enthusiast" 2600k on 1155 early in the year, you have no upgrade path when 2011 comes out later in the year which takes over the enthusiast CPU's. I could care less about cheap mainstream CPU's.
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If all you care about is having the top of whatever line is available, then you are correct, the 1155 has no future for you. But for everyone else, 1155 is not being "phased out" by socket 2011 by any stretch of the imagination. Plenty of enthusiasts are buying LGA 1156 chips now, and I don't think I'd call an 3.4 Ghz, 8MB cache, 4 core, 8 thread, possibly capable of 5Ghz on air chip, a "cheap mainstream CPU".
 
Plenty of enthusiasts are buying LGA 1156 chips now, and I don't think I'd call an 3.4 Ghz, 8MB cache, 4 core, 8 thread, possibly capable of 5Ghz on air chip, a "cheap mainstream CPU".
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Especially when at stock this cpu will be faster than any current AMD cpu overclocked to less than 4.8 to 5 GHz.
 
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