IB Upgrade question(s)

[Relativist]

So, I'm still on an overclocked Q6600 & my trusty P5E-VM that has served me well - which I added a new video card for last year, a GTX 560 Ti. I am considering three choices, but before I lay them out I want to say that I will be getting at least one GTX680 for gaming and I do not care if it is 'CPU Limited' because I'd rather turn off some goodies for better scores, plus I game at 1920x1200, but I do want to get the most out of my system. (Multimonitor may be something I do once I upgrade) When I do eventually upgrade the GTX560Ti I have in my current system will likely go back into it and it will live on as an extra PC for whatever I can think of to use it for.

So... I noticed there is quite a bit of unloading of Q9550 CPUs out there, probably some people selling their old stuff getting ready to buy IB. So should I:

1. Go with a used Q9550 to get me to Haswell. or,
2. Build an Ivy Bridge ATX system when released. or,
3. Leave my system alone and live with a nice GTX680 running on a Q6600 and try and push the OC a bit more.

My computing is mostly done with my Macbook, iPad, etc. when I'm home I use my PC for graphics intensive gaming and a bit of computational stuff (CUDA related) for my research. It is also left on BOINCing 24/7 (Einstein@home). Also I am interested in trying multi-monitor eventually, but that can wait till I upgrade if it won't work for some reason with a GTX680/Q6600.

P.S. last time I checked my CPU usage while gaming I was at about 80% on all 4 cores while OCed at 400MHz FSB with an 8x multiplier, giving 3.2GHz. My OC is by no means optimized, I just don't spend the time to fiddle with it any longer. Oh and money isn't a big concern for me, it's just that as we all know delaying a large purchase can sometimes be very good for the long term (like using a paid off car as long as reasonable).

 

[Fort_Major]

If it's wait versus buying an outdated chip I would wait.

Even an i7 is better than a 9550 and can probably be had brand new for only a bit more.

Honestly, I'm hesitant about 1st gen IB. So my recommendation would be, if possible, maybe get an i7 and wait for IB to work out the kinks, prove itself and then drop in price.
I have an i7 950. It handles everything I've thrown at it. Only thing I could do different is spend 2k and go all SSD.

 

[ZoNe]

If it's wait versus buying an outdated chip I would wait.

Even an i7 is better than a 9550 and can probably be had brand new for only a bit more.

Honestly, I'm hesitant about 1st gen IB. So my recommendation would be, if possible, maybe get an i7 and wait for IB to work out the kinks, prove itself and then drop in price.
I have an i7 950. It handles everything I've thrown at it. Only thing I could do different is spend 2k and go all SSD.

Hey there is a sweet deal on Mushkin 34nm 480GB drive over in hot deals. I got one and am now 100% SSD. So happy, hate noise. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682897

OP buy a GTX680. Will scale a lot better than your other proposals IMO.

 

[Advil]

You have a 560 Ti and you have what is honestly a very old Q6600 and P5E-VM. Get an Ivy Bridge MB/CPU. Even if it's the i5 version, you will demolish your Q6600 in everything from desktop responsiveness to gaming.

It's been long enough, replace the CPU/MB. You'll be impressed with the improvement. More than you expect. Also, 4GB DDR3 RAM is still crazy cheap. It is as good a time as any.

You will NEED the new MB/CPU combo to properly use the 680 card, no matter what you think. Your setup is old enough there might be compatibility issues with a 680 on a P5E. Not saying there will be, but it's getting iffy.

 

[nOrVow]

I'd get an ivy bridge + the gtx680 as they're easier to overclock and the operational costs would lower considering how much less your systems overall power consumption would be compared to your current setup. You'd have a cooler system to live with as well.

 

[pelo]

If you're going to be using CUDA then you may want to wait for some CUDA benchmarks on the 680. nVidia sacrificed GPGPU for pure gaming performance this go around and it's still not clear whether the 680 tops the 580 in CUDA but I'd be a bit hesitant as it's slower in openCL. My gut instinct is it's going to be a worse performer in CUDA tasks than the older gen 580. You can also pick up a 580 for really cheap now

If you're going to wait for IB, which would be my suggestion, you could probably pick up a used 2500K or 2600K for cheap and put the rest of the cash towards bumping up another piece of hardware. The difference between IB and SB will not be large and it likely won't OC any better so a difference in price can buy a larger SSD or better GPU that would probably be the better idea.

 

[Relativist]

Hey there is a sweet deal on Mushkin 34nm 480GB drive over in hot deals. I got one and am now 100% SSD. So happy, hate noise. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682897

OP buy a GTX680. Will scale a lot better than your other proposals IMO.

I'm getting a GTX 680, that's a given. I guess the majority advice is to wait. I'm thinking that's the smart call is to wait till IB is out and maybe even till after Windows 8 has been released.

 

[RamonGTP]

Or just buy IB when its released and then buy windows 8 when its released.

 

[Relativist]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to keep my rig, upgrade to a GTX 680 for now (once the 4 gig evga classified comes out). After IB is released I'll evaluate my computing needs again. It will be a choice at the time between a dual socket 2011 (SR-X) and whatever the 1155 socket chipset is the best (Z77 maybe). Haven't done much research into how much better windows 8 is with many cores, something I'll wait to see. Really liking GTX 680 though, mostly because of the power/performance. Maybe I can do one of those neat CPU limitation tests.