nehalem - the next big thing?

[RanceJustice]

Hey guys. For now, I'm working on a Q6600, which has proven to be a pretty great processor, even overclocked to 3.0. I could probably take it a bit higher if I switched to water. I'm trying to plan my upgrade path, and figure that its probably not worth it to buy another processor until the next "big jump", correct?

Nehalem is going to be a huge reworking of how Intel processors work from what I read, so that seems to be the time to invest, correct?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(microarchitecture)

Westmere looks awesome, but that won't be until 2010. So I expect that Gainstown is what's coming this year, that's the performance part?

 

[Mithent]

It remains to be seen how good Nehalem will be; probably it will be a fair bit faster than current CPUs, but it's speculation at the moment. My view is that it's not a good idea to upgrade just because there's something faster out there, especially for CPUs, though - if your existing system isn't hitting CPU bottlenecks then a faster CPU isn't going to do anything. I don't anticipate upgrading until Westmere or maybe even Sandy Bridge, myself, but we'll see.

Westmere is the 32nm die shrink - it's the Penryn to Nehalem's Conroe. Gainestown is a server part; Bloomfield is the high-end consumer chip. Anything available this year is likely to be a pay-through-the-nose Extreme Edition; you'll probably want Q1 2009 for something that's more affordable.

 

[Down8]

Simply b/c I couldn't resist the urge to pick up a BoneTrail mobo, I am waiting for the Nehalem refresh.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

next year there will be 2 sockets again, one a budget socket (1160) and the other for nehalem (1366). there wont be any nehalem cpus under about $400 until the middle of the year. so if you buy something now, its perfectly reasonable ( unless you have to be the first kid on the block) that you wont be upgrading for up to 18 months. that is if there are no delays. as this is a whole new architecture and intel's first on-board memory controller, there just might be delays. and even after the cpu's are priced at $400 and less, you will need triple channel ddr3 (not cheap) and a new socket/chipset mainboard (not cheap either)

 

[nsx241]

There are also reports floating around that say mainstream nehalem chips can no longer be overclocked, only the extreme versions can. Big, big minus in my book if that turns out to be true unless nehalem is significantly faster at stock speeds compared to (overclocked) core 2's.

 

[pedophilekiller]

Now is almost the perfect time to enjoy the current generation because we are in the drought of new processors. You have almost a full year before the spring releases the affordable Nahalem iterations. The utility you get from owning the fastest current processors outweighs waiting for new improvements.

 

[Gearoid]

There are also reports floating around that say mainstream nehalem chips can no longer be overclocked, only the extreme versions can. Big, big minus in my book if that turns out to be true unless nehalem is significantly faster at stock speeds compared to (overclocked) core 2's.

If this is true, it is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while. Many of the initial buyers of new chips or new architecture do so for this reason and pay a healthy price premium also. I will definately wait to see when happens with this.

 

[bytor7]

Affordable Nahalem chips won't be available for at least a year. it looks like it will be a big step from the current gen, but I wouldn't wait to do an upgrade.

 

[Mithent]

If this is true, it is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while. Many of the initial buyers of new chips or new architecture do so for this reason and pay a healthy price premium also. I will definately wait to see when happens with this.

Initial buyers who pay a healthy price premium will be buying Extreme Edition chips, which I don't believe will be locked? Current Extreme Edition chips are.. less than compelling for the price, so locking down mainstream chips would inflate the perceived value of the Extreme Edition. Although they'll still be way too expensive, unless they also cut the price.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

If this is true, it is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while. Many of the initial buyers of new chips or new architecture do so for this reason and pay a healthy price premium also. I will definately wait to see when happens with this.

this looks to be true. the budget socket chips will be fsb locked, and probably most of the less expensive socket 1366 will be fsb locked also.

so it looks like hello amd again.

 

[TBONEU]

So, for me who has an old P4 and wants to build a gaming PC again. Would I be better off with a P35 chipset, 45nm quad, and a 9800 card or G260 (no SLI), then waiting until the end of the year?
I'm afraid that the new processors will be over inflated in price. With so much hardware changing in the next few months my head is spinning with options!

 

[AndonSage]

So, for me who has an old P4 and wants to build a gaming PC again. Would I be better off with a P35 chipset, 45nm quad, and a 9800 card or G260 (no SLI), then waiting until the end of the year?

Short answer... Yes.

 

[heatlesssun]

Another thing to consider is that Nehalem is a new design. With the amazing amount of power that is already available with CPU's and GPU's, waiting for the bugs to be worked out isn't a bad idea. If you are a Windows user remember that Windows 7 might be out next year. But that's a wild guess. If you need the power now go for. Hell, a high end gaming system is close to the price of filling up an RV!

 

[Mithent]

Windows 7 is more likely to be Q1 2010 (the announcement was 3 years after the general availability of Vista), if Microsoft can keep to their schedule, which would be unusual. Can't say I'm keen to use any new version within the first few months of release anyway though, and I'm skeptical about how likely it is that I'll upgrade from Vista to 7 anyway.

 

[Valnar]

These nehalem threads are as bad as the XP vs Vista ones. I should know, I started one once...

I (personally) would not wait for nehalem unless being the first is more important than using your PC. It's going to be version 1.0 of a totally new design. There is a lot to be said about getting the last bug free design of a generation vs the first of another. Think about cars and engine designs....