Core i7 930 now or wait for Sandy Bridge

Which CPU/Platform?

  • Core i7 930

    Votes: 29 42.6%

  • Sandy Bridge to be named later

    Votes: 37 54.4%

  • Other (specify)

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Total voters
    68
B

BBMW

n00b
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
34
This is for a general purpose machine. Maybe some light game play, but it basically needs toi deal with anything I need to do for the next few years. My current PC is now 6YO, and I tend to keep PCs for a while, so I tend to overbuild them.

My prospective configuration is:

Core i7 930
Asus Sabertooth motherboard
6GB or ram
Nvidia 470GTX vido card (single)
100-120 GB Sandforce 1200 based SSD (probably G.Skill)
1TB HD
Will likely do a mild overclock (3.5-3.7 GHz)

I'm not desperate to do this, but I'd like to. I could wait till next year for Sandy Bridge. But don't think I'm seeing value there. I'm not sure I'd get better peformance out of a Sandy Bridge based system. I've heard about the limitations on overclocking, And who know what pricing is going to be. Also I have a Microcenter handy, and they have a great deal on the i7 930.

What does everyone think?
 
i7 930 is a great cpu.
its a good bet.
it is likely it will last you 6 more years.
I voted sb due to if you buy new, and dont need it today, a few more months isnt much.

Most processors today as i7 is top end will last a long time still.
I had a i7 system for now 2 years.
I am not sure I be upgrading as I might wait for the entusiast sandy later next year likely q3.

price/performance, a i7 930 is enough for your use.
 
Will you be overclocking? Sandy Bridge samples are getting 5GHz on air... that plus a 10 - 15% IPC boost means a ~40% performance increase versus your typical 4GHz i7 overclock and thats enough to sway me to wait a couple of months for Sandy Bridge.

Btw, if you're worried about overclocking, there are unlocked 'K' series SB chips... more info at Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row
 
Your setup is very similar to the rig that I just built.

The only suggestion I would make is to pay $15 more and get the i7 950 instead of the 930.
 
Spectrum17 said:
Your setup is very similar to the rig that I just built.

The only suggestion I would make is to pay $15 more and get the i7 950 instead of the 930.
Click to expand...
I didn't see any benefit for me unless your going for a big OC (higher multiplier) so I went witth the i7 930. Hoping the LGA 1336 socket will allow for me to upgrade to a faster processor in a year or two without having to buy a new motherboard.
 
the fact that intel is keeping their 1366 platform around a bit longer makes me scratch my chin and go.... hmmm....
if you think about it the die shrink down to 32nm was quite dissapointing,none of the hexa's were in most consumers budget, and the performance difference wasnt OMG.
 
Balls, i didn't read your post properly so i selected i7 930. I actually want to change that to Sandy Bridge now, i think if it's a new build to last you a few years you'll want to start newest and biggesst.
 
I'd wait but I have a Q6600 running at 3.6 so that's easy for me to say.. I'm waiting for socket 2011 so that there's good futureproofing in the PCI Express area.. 2 running at x8 2.0 simply isn't futureproof enough for me.

In the end you'll have a powerful system either way. If it's only 2 or 3 months away, well that's nothing though. I wouldn't worry about getting 5ghz on air... there are always samples out there which do this and the retail product never matches these results. I'd be happy just to get 4.4 ghz on air, since just getting 3.6 pretty much maxes this q6600 out.
 
Current PC
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1GB DDR RAM (Don't remember specifics/speed)
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD
Video card Leadtek 6800 A400-128MB

Remember, all this stuff is circa 2004

My thinking on Sandy Bridge is that it pretty much replaces the LGA1156 platform (it's an LGA 1155 socket.) The replacement for the LGA1366 is going to be coming later. Is the 1155 Sandy Bridge going to have the same PCI-e lane restrictions as the current 1156?. Finally, I like the idea of the two gig of extra ram I'd get with the 1366, With dual channel memory, I have to go with either 4 or 8GB, which would be, respectively, a bit too small, or more than I want to pay for.
 
If you can, do a temp upgrade of more ram and a better video card unless you don't mind holding out a few months.
 
But if you want to overclock SB, you need to buy a specifically overclockable K series chip, which, of course is going to be more expensive. The allure of overclocking is getting something (extra) for nothing. I can pay $200 for a core i7 930 at 2.8GHz, and spin it up to 4GHz (would probably not go quite that far, probably 3.7 or so). With SB, I'd be paying for every Hz I'd get.

The flip side is that SB will give you more power per cycle.

harpoon said:
Will you be overclocking? Sandy Bridge samples are getting 5GHz on air... that plus a 10 - 15% IPC boost means a ~40% performance increase versus your typical 4GHz i7 overclock and thats enough to sway me to wait a couple of months for Sandy Bridge.

Btw, if you're worried about overclocking, there are unlocked 'K' series SB chips... more info at Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row
Click to expand...
 
BBMW said:
But if you want to overclock SB, you need to buy a specifically overclockable K series chip, which, of course is going to be more expensive. The allure of overclocking is getting something (extra) for nothing. I can pay $200 for a core i7 930 at 2.8GHz, and spin it up to 4GHz (would probably not go quite that far, probably 3.7 or so). With SB, I'd be paying for every Hz I'd get.

The flip side is that SB will give you more power per cycle.
Click to expand...

K series chips only carry a small premium over 'non K' chips. The i2500K is rumoured to cost ~$200. This chip doesn't have HT enabled, but at 5GHz + IPC improvements it'll still beat an i7 @ 4GHz in pretty much everything.
 
^
Where did this 5GHz number come from? I heard there are some pretty solid physics limitations on CPU clock speed, and that's right out there.
 
BBMW said:
^
Where did this 5GHz number come from? I heard there are some pretty solid physics limitations on CPU clock speed, and that's right out there.
Click to expand...

5GHz? From what series SB chip? the one that will cost $1000 I'm sure. I'll keep my 930 for the time being.
 
I'm surprise that SB is getting so much love. This is going to be Intel's "value" platform, replacing the 1156.
 
harpoon said:
K series chips only carry a small premium over 'non K' chips. The i2500K is rumoured to cost ~$200.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you'd also have to factor in the cost of an aftermarket CPU cooler. This makes the cost of a K-series CPU running at stock speed relatively pricey. So if all you want is stock speed, skip the K's. Otherwise, buy the K's only if you want to overclock and have a relatively crappy set of memory that doesn't work reliably at elevated memory clock speeds.
 
BBMW said:
I'm surprise that SB is getting so much love. This is going to be Intel's "value" platform, replacing the 1156.
Click to expand...

Because it's going to be a nice increase over current i7 1156/1366 CPUs, and it's right around the corner. Otherwise, we're looking at at least another year for the "enthusiast" SB chip, which most of us aren't patient enough for :)
 
I agree for the 1156. Not so sure for the 1366, because I think the 1155 platform is going to have a lot of the same bottlenecks the 1156 currently has. On the flip side, the 2011 platform seems to be massive overkill (which, of course, many people will absolutely love :D ), and won't be out till toward the end of 2011.

lockheed2266 said:
Because it's going to be a nice increase over current i7 1156/1366 CPUs, and it's right around the corner. Otherwise, we're looking at at least another year for the "enthusiast" SB chip, which most of us aren't patient enough for :)
Click to expand...
 
Why does everyone say SB is going to be 5GHz on air? I did a search on google "SB+overclock" and got 4.9GHz on air in like 100 results, are people just rounding up to make SB sound cooler? I agree with others though, SB is going to be expensive, I think the i5 760 will give people the most bang for the buck, it should be around $150 when SB comes out (all speculation of course, just like 99% of the posts on this forum).
 
Hulk said:
Why does everyone say SB is going to be 5GHz on air? I did a search on google "SB+overclock" and got 4.9GHz on air in like 100 results, are people just rounding up to make SB sound cooler? I agree with others though, SB is going to be expensive, I think the i5 760 will give people the most bang for the buck, it should be around $150 when SB comes out (all speculation of course, just like 99% of the posts on this forum).
Click to expand...

That's speculative at best. Intel has not lowered its prices on any of its older processors in the past few years even when the i5 and i7 first came out. Heck, the Core 2 Quad Q9550's price remained flat even after the Socket 1156 CPUs have been out for over a year, which means that Intel is keeping the older CPUs' price relatively high until their official discontinuation.

Hence, expect the i5-760's price to remain flat or even increase slightly when the new SB CPUs come out.
 
Do we have any indications what the pricing on the various SB processors are going to be?
 
If you waited for 6 years, then you could wait for another 6 months. Do you really need it now? I recommend the SB 1155 i7 2600.
 
^
You're not wrong. I could wait till they come out (although I just received a case I ordered, and am now jonesing to fill it :D )

But I can get an i7 930 for $199 (I think, if the Microcenter special is still on) I have no idea what the 2600 is going to run for (and what the motherboards are going to cost). I'd hate to wait, and not like what comes out. I also have the same reservations about the 1155 platform that everyone has about the current 1156 platform (only dual channel memory, limited PCI-e throughput/lanes, etc).

And then, of course, once the 1155 chips come out, everyone will start pimping the 2011 platform. :p
 
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