Intel! (Time for the waiting game.)

N

NKDietrich

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 25, 2004
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Well, Intel AND Nvidia/ATI, really. Currently using an Opteron @ 2.7GHz and a 7800 GTX 256MB. I've decided to wait for Nehalem (and the next iteration of Nvidia or ATI video cards) to do my new build. The upside is I will have more cash saved by then.

So, I broke down and replaced the dying Panaflos in this machine with some shiny Noctua's I had saved for my new machine, and will be replacing the 7800 with a 9600 GT. I figure my CPU's overclock has saved it from the garbage bin, and the 9600 GT with passive cooling will eliminate the dying noisy little bugger of a fan on my aging 7800, while giving me a significant gaming boost. Might also replace my old PC P&C PSU with something with a less archaic cooling solution than a 80mm rear fan.

I figure this will be a nice "service pack" to put 8 more months of service into this machine.

Anyone else get pressured out of buying by the latest Nehalem rumors/information?
 
I have a Q6600 at 2.4 Ghz which I feel is good enough for now until the new Nehalems come out. I am definately going to wait until then. The current stuff out now will be obsolete when that time comes which should be later this year or early next year so therefore I won't buying another 775 pin based cpu chip anymore, at least not for my main system.

It was nice for Intel to release details of this new chip several months early. :)
 
"Anyone else get pressured out of buying by the latest Nehalem rumors/information?"

Not at all. My current rig (E2160 3.0) built over Xmas got 4G and I would definitely go 16GB for the rig after it. The current pricing of DDR3 simply isn't allowing that not to mention poor performance. The latency at 1333 is just pitiful.

I'll just grab a X3350 within the next month and keep it until 2nd gen Nehalem based chip comes (Westmere ).
 
Hypernova, 16gb! is that ddr2? i have 8gb.

on the Nehalem cpu, i was thinking too about waiting for whats next what we have now, supposed to have that memory controller or something. exciting!
 
JVC said:
Hypernova, 16gb! is that ddr2? i have 8gb.

on the Nehalem cpu, i was thinking too about waiting for whats next what we have now, supposed to have that memory controller or something. exciting!
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Well I plan to get 16GB in my next build and that would definitely be DDR3. I plan to have 6GB set as side as RAM drive for scratch space.

When I build my current 4GB I thought it was plenty, but now every time I look at the RAM gadget on my vista sidebar I go hmm...
 
A Q6600 is so inexpensive now that IMO waiting isn't really necessary. I had an X2 running at 2.6GHz prior to upgrading to the Q6600 and the difference is amazing, especially in some newer games. It's also powerfull enough, especailly when OCed that you will have all the performance you need all the way up until the 2nd revision of Nahalem which will have less bugs, be faster, cheaper and probably consume less power than the first revision.

That's my plan anyway.
 
dont wait man.

whatever you buy will be outdated in less than 6 months anyways.
I think you made the right choice.
if youre feeling that your system isnt up to snuff, then maybe you need to do a small upgrade patch. then, once its really getting you down, build a new one.
if money allows of course :D

its only worth waiting if youre fine with what you have, or if what youre waiting for is around the corner.

no pressure. sure you want the latest and greatest, but just stop reading all the reviews and the want will go away. :D
 
I am in a similar position. I keep reading about all the new Intel chips and how much better they are than my AMD X2. But for what I do (mostly gaming along with some general web surfing and the like) the GPU is much more important. Since the new graphics cards are very underwhelming compared to my current one, and the CPUs don't make a huge difference for what I do. I figure the sensible thing to do is to wait for the next generation of parts.

However, I have been itching to upgrade for a while now and it is hard to resist.
 
Unless something is coming out next wait, I'm not waiting for it. There's a lot of hype about Nehalem and not a lot of facts. Also, I would bet that you're going to waiting AT LEAST 10 months before you can get your hands on a processor, if not longer (unless you drop $1K+ on an extreme). Personally, I'm planning on waiting for Nehlam die shrink to drop prices on first gens and buying a first-gen Nehalem processor. I think my Q6600 should be more than enough to last until then.
 
Just pick up a E8400 or Q6600 and OC the heck out of it. That's more than plaenty to hold you over for a year when Nehalem comes out. $200 is CHEAP!!! I remember paying close to $400 for my E6600 when they were gouging us on them years ago...
 
I have to reiterate was was posted before.

If what you have is not allowing you to run the programs you currently have or anticipate picking up shortly at an acceptable level of performance, then upgrade now. Don't upgrade for upgrading's sake, upgrade for a reason.

I went from a dual Xeon 2.66 system to a Q6600 only because my old MOBO was AGP only. My processors were ok at the time, but I didn't want to buy an AGP GPU at the time so I upgraded the whole rig.

I could have waited 3 more months till now to upgrade and saved a couple of hundred bucks, but oh well. You never know for sure when price breaks will come.

I would never put an upgrade on hold for a YEAR because the part may be allot better. If it is double the performance, you can bet that Intel will price it at quadruple the price!!!:rolleyes:

Don
 
Going from an Opty 165 @ 2.9 to a Q6600 @ 3.0 was a major bump in gaming/app performance.

+1 Q6600
 
ilikecake said:
I am in a similar position. I keep reading about all the new Intel chips and how much better they are than my AMD X2. But for what I do (mostly gaming along with some general web surfing and the like) the GPU is much more important. Since the new graphics cards are very underwhelming compared to my current one, and the CPUs don't make a huge difference for what I do. I figure the sensible thing to do is to wait for the next generation of parts.

However, I have been itching to upgrade for a while now and it is hard to resist.
Click to expand...

With your CPU (whcih is what I had prior), gaming is MUCH improved. It's really no comparison. Unless you're gaming above 1600, it will make a big difference. As stated previously, if you're happy with it's performance, no reason to upgrade. But don't be missled at the same time into thinking there won't be a big difference.
 
Tbh, the rig in my sig is what I'm building in a week or 2 and I'll use it for @ least a year, ofc it's 88GTS instead of GT and case might change. Most games are more GPU bottlenecked so I don't care much about nehalem or such since I'm just getting the E84 wolfdale.
 
Hypernova said:
Not if you drink Fanta.
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QFT hehe but yea why wait when you can upgrade now? good luck findingb a nehalem quad core for teh same price has a q6600 at launch. o and ddr3 prices? LOL good lukc with that too.

q6600 is an overkill atm so imagine a nehalem? q6600 system will last u 2 years AT least if not more before the cpu becomes a bottleneck for gaming and i HIGHLY DOUBT gpu's will require a new socket like agp to pci e
 
RamonGTP said:
With your CPU (whcih is what I had prior), gaming is MUCH improved. It's really no comparison. Unless you're gaming above 1600, it will make a big difference. As stated previously, if you're happy with it's performance, no reason to upgrade. But don't be missled at the same time into thinking there won't be a big difference.
Click to expand...

Hey, stop that, I had almost convinced myself not to upgrade. :p

I game at 1920x1200 in every game that can take it (basically all but Crysis, which I didn't buy yet). I imagine the Q6600/E8400 would be an improvement, but I dunno if it is worth it. Like was said previously, I don't have any programs that run unacceptably slow yet, so I guess I can hold off on upgrading.

I won't like it, though. :D
 
Hypernova said:
Well I plan to get 16GB in my next build and that would definitely be DDR3. I plan to have 6GB set as side as RAM drive for scratch space.
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What is your application of the machine, if you don't mind me asking?
 
16gb? are u bloody insane? 4gb is already abit of a overkill now 16gb? LOL you are one rich kid
 
jonneymendoza said:
16gb? are u bloody insane? 4gb is already abit of a overkill now 16gb? LOL you are one rich kid
Click to expand...

Or simply just "talking"

Let's face it, a lot of people talk about what their next build will be like and often times it never comes to fruition. Heck, I'm guilty of it too from time to time. When I had my Athlon X2 I swore up and down my next processor was going to be the Q9450, but when I saw the prices of the Q6600 plummeting, the desire for saving money and still maintaining 90+% of the performance outgrew the desire to have the newest CPU around.
 
RamonGTP said:
Or simply just "talking"

Let's face it, a lot of people talk about what their next build will be like and often times it never comes to fruition. Heck, I'm guilty of it too from time to time. When I had my Athlon X2 I swore up and down my next processor was going to be the Q9450, but when I saw the prices of the Q6600 plummeting, the desire for saving money and still maintaining 90+% of the performance outgrew the desire to have the newest CPU around.
Click to expand...

4gb is not even the norm, nto even 6, note ven 8 for crying out loud. it will be a looong time before 16gb is acceptable
 
jonneymendoza said:
16gb? are u bloody insane? 4gb is already abit of a overkill now 16gb? LOL you are one rich kid
Click to expand...

Virtual machines and I usually give them 1GB each. Plus you can use the ram for ram drives. Things work alot better when all that temp file R/W works on ram.

I wouldn't need so much ram if we had affordable SATA ram drives around (2 grand for a 16GB HyperDrive WTF) for my system drive.
 
jonneymendoza said:
4gb is not even the norm, nto even 6, note ven 8 for crying out loud. it will be a looong time before 16gb is acceptable
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No, it's not the norm, but normal people don't often come on to these forums either. I know for what I do 2GB isn't quite enough. 4GB is perfect, but with DDR2 prices being so cheap, I went ahead and maxed out my system to 8GB. Plus, with Windows Vista, and RAM that isn't being actively used by you is being used by superfetch, so it isn't like it's going to complete waste.
 
You guys running all this RAM must not worry about OCing to the max. 2x2GB is about all I'll mess with. Any more DIMMs and my OCs always suffer.
 
NKDietrich,

I'm in the same boat.

I have a crappy Opteron 165 @ 2.6 GHz and it requires a lot of air through the Ultra-120 to stay cool. I knew i should have bought it from newegg and zzf.

Anyway, i'd wait for Nehalem. You'll probably not be able to get it at launch as i'm sure they'll be expensive and hard to find, but I would give them about a quarter or so to start ramping up production of Nehalems.

The Core 2 is what 20% faster than the old X2s (more or less) and the current predictions place Nehalem about 30% clock for clock than Penryn.

They'll supposed to use 30% less power at the same performance as Penryn or run 30% faster at the same power plan.

So. Also, with Nehalem, you get SSE4.1 and 4.2. SSE4.1 helps a lot with DIVX, and you get HT as well as CSI so i say stick it out. I'm in the same boat.
 
werd, i dont dont i dont even feel the need to upgrade yet, i could wait at least another year...

system in sig
 
Brahmzy said:
You guys running all this RAM must not worry about OCing to the max. 2x2GB is about all I'll mess with. Any more DIMMs and my OCs always suffer.
Click to expand...

My Q6600 pretty much tops out at 3.2GHz, any higher than that and it just needs more voltage than I'm comfortabel giving it. This is the case weather I'm running 2 or 4 sticks, so it's a non issue for me.
 
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