Gaming desktop - worth waiting for Ivy Bridge?

FelixC said:
Back on the Intel route, this is what I'm thinking about at this point - get a solid SB rig now, an i7-2600K on an LGA1155 P67 platform. The way I'm looking at it, if I managed to get nearly four years of use out of a standard clocked C2D E6420, I should be able to stretch out a highly overclockable 2600K for a similar lifespan. And judging by what you guys have been saying here (and that I don't believe Sony and Microsoft will push a new console gen before 2013), PCIe 2.0 should probably have me covered for the next two years at least. At that point, if I need to switch to PCIe 3.0 I should be able to pick up an LGA2011 motherboard reasonably cheap. Yes, it would be an extra expense on top of a new graphics card, but I'm no longer entirely certain PCIe 3 will be such a make of break factor within the next 3-4 years (and I have managed to drag out PCIe 1.0 so far), so I might end up not having to do it at all.
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If you are looking at the SB 1155 right now, I'd go with the Z68 platform as many reviewers had noted that the Z68 is what the P67 should have been. And they are pretty much the same price from what I've seen.

Second, next year's IB platform will still use the 1155 socket and have PCI-E 3.0 as well.

So if you're not thinking about a 6 core+ for this system's life span, you can still have the PCI-E 3.0 upgrade path with a change of motherboard as of next spring if the video card makers get their act together with a worthy product.
 
I would just get a 2500k now and a p67/z68 board and be done with it. What comes after IB will be Intel's tock - new micro architecture. We won't see a significant boost outside synthetic benchmarks from SB to IB like we will from IB to Haswell. So realistically looking at 1.5 to 2 years to enjoy SB now and upgrade to Haswell. Life is too short to wait, anything can happen
 
FelixC said:
Thanks for the input everyone, this is all very helpful! I think at this point I'm starting to lean strongly towards the upgrade now route. I see the point in holding out statistically speaking, if not for Ivy Bridge, then at least for LGA2011 and getting the PCIe 3 support, but it seems like the risk in going with the current SB might not be as large as I thought originally.

From what you guys have been saying here it doesn't look like Ivy Bridge will be that much of a step forward, not in the desktop form-factor at least. It looks like more of a big deal in the portables area, with the biggest performance increases at lower voltages and all, but - if I'm reading the stuff on Anand right - the clock-for-clock gain with desktop CPUs appears to be expected of the level of gain that series 6 had over series 5, 15-20%. Sure, that's good, but CPUs get faster all the time, it's just the way of things. Out of everything mentioned, the PCIe 3.0 support for the 7th generation motherboards was the real attraction here.

Which brings me to the LGA2011 suggestion, and that's really the most interesting thing to hold out for. PCIe 3 support and 6 core support, and all in a few months. Catch here is that it still misses the release dates for the games I'm most interested in now, if the thing launches in December then it's probably a good bet that I'd be able to put a system together with it in January. Though as a point here, I'm not sure I'd get any real use out of 6-core support, I don't expect they'd seriously break into mainstream within the next two-three years, and Extreme range units are just out of my budget (if the 990x is anything to go by).

E^vol - I'm looking at pouring something in the £900-1100 range into the new system, and I want to get 120 gigs' worth of SSD in that as well, hence while I really don't see an SB-E processor as an option. If I went LGA2011 it wouldn't be for that.

Some of you have suggested building a intermediate system, AMD, or high-end Intel series 5, or low-end series 6, to keep me going until LGA2011 and/or IB are out. Thing is I'm not too tempted because it's going to be a relatively short term solution, comparing to what I'd originally set out to do, and I think I'd be better off with putting those ~ $300 (and what that will mark up to around here) towards a higher end rig currently available.

Xaeos - the AM3+ solution does seem interesting. Get a current gen system right away that's readily open to the next-gen processor? Sounds good. But it's been a while since I've last had an AMD processor, and I'd have to look into where they are right now and especially how Bulldozer's expected to measure up to SB/IB.

Back on the Intel route, this is what I'm thinking about at this point - get a solid SB rig now, an i7-2600K on an LGA1155 P67 platform. The way I'm looking at it, if I managed to get nearly four years of use out of a standard clocked C2D E6420, I should be able to stretch out a highly overclockable 2600K for a similar lifespan. And judging by what you guys have been saying here (and that I don't believe Sony and Microsoft will push a new console gen before 2013), PCIe 2.0 should probably have me covered for the next two years at least. At that point, if I need to switch to PCIe 3.0 I should be able to pick up an LGA2011 motherboard reasonably cheap. Yes, it would be an extra expense on top of a new graphics card, but I'm no longer entirely certain PCIe 3 will be such a make of break factor within the next 3-4 years (and I have managed to drag out PCIe 1.0 so far), so I might end up not having to do it at all.
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very sensible reasoning; by the time pcie 3 really matters, pcie 4 will be out, lol. i use my pc primarily for gaming and i was in the same boat as you with a dual core amd processor for 4 years and recently upgraded to a 2500k a couple of months ago and there is no looking back! it's a night and day difference. that and something like a 6950 will give your gaming experience a humongous leap in performance. i say go for it.
 
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The main advantage from PCI-E 3.0 early on will be an increase in the number of backwards compatible slots capable of PCI-E 2.0 x8 (PCI-E 3.0 x4 link) and PCI-E 2.0 x16 (PCI-E 3.0 x8 link) bandwidth, rather than the increased bandwidth of a PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot. Less of a need for things like the latency inducing NF200 bridge chips, and worrying about not having full bandwidth for your secondary GPU or add-in cards.

If you aren't [H] enough to use 2+ GPUs, HBA/RAID storage controllers, many add-in cards, and/or bandwidth hungry GPGPU workloads, there will be little benefit from PCI-E 3.0 for years into the future.
 
MacLeod said:
If you need a new rig now, build it now. A Sandy Bridge will be more than enough power for a gaming rig for a while to come. You've made it 4+ years with a 2 gig dual core, just think how long an i7 at 4.5 GHz will last. Hell a i7-2600 is overkill for a gaming rig now at stock speeds! And judging by recent trends, games certainly aren't becoming more and more CPU dependant.

Wait 9 months for the latest new thing and by that time I guarantee you something newer and better will be right around the corner. Technology moves way too fast. Waiting 9 months when you aren't even sure if IB will be released then when you're needing a new rig now is ridiculous IMO.
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Truth. Playing the waiting game with the time of, "a few months" is silly if you have the upgrade itch. Just scratch it already and be done, you won't be satisfied until you do.

Core 2 to SB is a noticeable upgrade.
 
E^vol said:
If you are looking at the SB 1155 right now, I'd go with the Z68 platform as many reviewers had noted that the Z68 is what the P67 should have been. And they are pretty much the same price from what I've seen.

Second, next year's IB platform will still use the 1155 socket and have PCI-E 3.0 as well.

So if you're not thinking about a 6 core+ for this system's life span, you can still have the PCI-E 3.0 upgrade path with a change of motherboard as of next spring if the video card makers get their act together with a worthy product.
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Sure I'll go throw away my perfectly 100% working P67A-UD4-B3 just because. :rolleyes:
 
MrMike said:
Truth. Playing the waiting game with the time of, "a few months" is silly if you have the upgrade itch. Just scratch it already and be done, you won't be satisfied until you do.

Core 2 to SB is a noticeable upgrade.
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I completely agree. Specially considering that a 2600K is kinda equivalent to a gulftown $1000 processor of the past generation.
 
ShuttleLuv said:
You could be dead by then. Get a sandy now with a p67 or z68 and be done with it. Easy 4.5 ghz, moderate 4.7, maybe 5 ghz
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Great advice. :rolleyes: OP, most of the people telling you to "upgrade now" and "you could wait forever" are people who have already invested into Sandy Bridge and just don't want to feel bad about their purchase or, in some cases, lack of patience. E^vol's post said it best on the second page of this thread. Wait it out if you can.

plugwash said:
IVY bridge is a die shink of sandy bridge so i'd expect improvements in performance per clock to be marginal and AFAICT we are still quite a long way from saturating 2.0 x16 at least with single card setups. Clock speeds will probablly go up a bit but I'd still expect an overclocked sandy to be comparable to a stock ivy.
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This is not true. Ivy Bridge will utilize Intel's new Tri-gate tech. They're expecting a 37% speed increase and 50% less power usage with the new 22nm Ivy Bridge compared to the current 32nm Sandy Bridge. More here.

All that said, if you really don't want to wait, don't feel bad about making a jump on the current Sandy Bridge offerings. The current generation of hardware is very nice, is being offered at an amazing value, and will last a long time. Not to mention RAM and GPU's are dropping in price like crazy. Now is a great time to buy if you don't feel like waiting for Ivy Bridge.

I think Ivy Bridge might utilize the new LGA 2011 socket only, meaning you wouldn't be able to drop in an Ivy Bridge CPU into a Sand Bridge motherboard, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
 
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Jon55 said:
Great advice. :rolleyes: OP, most of the people telling you to "upgrade now" and "you could wait forever" are people who have already invested into Sandy Bridge and just don't want to feel bad about their purchase or, in some cases, lack of patience. E^vol's post said it best on the second page of this thread. Wait it out if you can.



This is not true. Ivy Bridge will utilize Intel's new Tri-gate tech. They're expecting a 37% speed increase and 50% less power usage with the new 22nm Ivy Bridge compared to the current 32nm Sandy Bridge. More here.

All that said, if you really don't want to wait, don't feel bad about making a jump on the current Sandy Bridge offerings. The current generation of hardware is very nice, is being offered at an amazing value, and will last a long time. Not to mention RAM and GPU's are dropping in price like crazy. Now is a great time to buy if you don't feel like waiting for Ivy Bridge.

I think Ivy Bridge might utilize the new LGA 2011 socket only, meaning you wouldn't be able to drop in an Ivy Bridge CPU into a Sand Bridge motherboard, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
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Ivy Bridge sounds quite nice. :eek:
 
Jon55 said:
Great advice. :rolleyes: OP, most of the people telling you to "upgrade now" and "you could wait forever" are people who have already invested into Sandy Bridge and just don't want to feel bad about their purchase or, in some cases, lack of patience. E^vol's post said it best on the second page of this thread. Wait it out if you can.



This is not true. Ivy Bridge will utilize Intel's new Tri-gate tech. They're expecting a 37% speed increase and 50% less power usage with the new 22nm Ivy Bridge compared to the current 32nm Sandy Bridge. More here.

All that said, if you really don't want to wait, don't feel bad about making a jump on the current Sandy Bridge offerings. The current generation of hardware is very nice, is being offered at an amazing value, and will last a long time. Not to mention RAM and GPU's are dropping in price like crazy. Now is a great time to buy if you don't feel like waiting for Ivy Bridge.

I think Ivy Bridge might utilize the new LGA 2011 socket only, meaning you wouldn't be able to drop in an Ivy Bridge CPU into a Sand Bridge motherboard, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
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There really isn't any bad advice here because it all depends on what the individual value's in life. Life is fleeting just enjoy it now. Between today and IB release is a ton of gaming ie Skyrim, BF3, MMO's. Ivy might come in Q2, I wouldn't wait over 6 months personally for paper specs that are not guaranteed to translate outside synthetic benchmarks. How much more FPS in games is it going to really translate to vs a SB rig?
This is still the 'Tick' in the Tick Tock Intel plan. Haswell will be a bigger improvement than going from SB to IB. I didn't buy a Sandy Bridge because I won't have the funds until Sept but I would today if I could.

edit here's the latest news on release date btw: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Leaked-Intel-Roadmap-Confirms-Ivy-Bridge-Q2-2012-Launch-202474.shtml
 
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Vexerz said:
There really isn't any bad advice here because it all depends on what the individual value's in life. Life is fleeting just enjoy it now. Between today and IB release is a ton of gaming ie Skyrim, BF3, MMO's. Ivy might come in Q2, I wouldn't wait over 6 months personally for paper specs that are not guaranteed to translate outside synthetic benchmarks. How much more FPS in games is it going to really translate to vs a SB rig?
This is still the 'Tick' in the Tick Tock Intel plan. Haswell will be a bigger improvement than going from SB to IB. I didn't buy a Sandy Bridge because I won't have the funds until Sept but I would today if I could.

edit here's the latest news on release date btw: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Leaked-Intel-Roadmap-Confirms-Ivy-Bridge-Q2-2012-Launch-202474.shtml
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This is true. It really is a toss-up. It's also really unfortunate that Ivy Bridge has possibly been pushed back to Q2 2012. :(

The X79 chipset (X58 replacement) is slated to come out in Q3/Q4 2011, which will utilize Sandy Bridge-E CPUs. That is the high-end stuff (which will probably cost a good chunk of coin). At the end of the day, it's hard not to say "fuck it" and just check into a Fry's/MicroCenter/Newegg and buy everything then and there.
 
I upgraded to a Sandy Bridge 2500k for 250 bucks including the motherboard. No waiting involved. I figured it will last me another 2 years till I upgrade again.
 
ShuttleLuv said:
Sure I'll go throw away my perfectly 100% working P67A-UD4-B3 just because. :rolleyes:
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Next time read the thread before making a fool of yourself. The OP does NOT have a P67 like you. I wasn't telling anyone to upgrade from a P67 to a Z68, just that if you don't already have a P67, go straight to Z68 (for an upgrade now).
 
IMO always go with the "tock" vs. Intels "tick"

Video card upgrades help too and can somewhat forestall a new system replacement.
 
Vexerz said:
There really isn't any bad advice here because it all depends on what the individual value's in life. Life is fleeting just enjoy it now. Between today and IB release is a ton of gaming ie Skyrim, BF3, MMO's. Ivy might come in Q2, I wouldn't wait over 6 months personally for paper specs that are not guaranteed to translate outside synthetic benchmarks. How much more FPS in games is it going to really translate to vs a SB rig?
This is still the 'Tick' in the Tick Tock Intel plan. Haswell will be a bigger improvement than going from SB to IB. I didn't buy a Sandy Bridge because I won't have the funds until Sept but I would today if I could.

edit here's the latest news on release date btw: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Leaked-Intel-Roadmap-Confirms-Ivy-Bridge-Q2-2012-Launch-202474.shtml
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SB is the 'Tock', the 'Tick' was Clarkdale and Gulftown.

http://www.intel.com/technology/tick-tock/index.htm

Otherwise, I agree with what you're getting at. SB is a solid value. SB-E is worth waiting for at this point if you want quad-channel memory or a hexcore, but you're probably already ready for the price premium it would carry. As was already mentioned, you can drop an IB chip in next year and sell your old one in FS/FT.
 
I'd go for the upgrade now. I've got a few dual core boxes and one Q6600 and there are several game I've got that I cannot stand to play on the lesser machines. Not that my Q is a powerhouse by todays standards but those additional 2 cores really have gone a long way. If I didn't have them I'd have gone Sandy by now for sure.
 
If you have to start playing games this year buy Sandy Bridge. If you think you can hold it for another year, then buy the Ivy Bridge. :) Btw, there are many sales going on for Sandy Bridge chipset.
 
MrMike said:
SB is the 'Tock', the 'Tick' was Clarkdale and Gulftown.

http://www.intel.com/technology/tick-tock/index.htm

Otherwise, I agree with what you're getting at. SB is a solid value. SB-E is worth waiting for at this point if you want quad-channel memory or a hexcore, but you're probably already ready for the price premium it would carry. As was already mentioned, you can drop an IB chip in next year and sell your old one in FS/FT.
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You misread within the context of my paragraph as it relates to waiting for Ivy Bridge, I said Ivy is tick. It think that was obvious as I was referring to Haswell as tock.
 
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