Next logical step from a 775?

J

jnick

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My current system is going on three-years and I have an itch to upgrade it. My current specs are as follows (non-overclocked):

Q9400
8800GTX
ASUS Maximus Formula
2x2GB DDR2

I am looking to upgrade around the beginning of January. I hear Sandy Bridge may be out Q1 2011, however there is no guarantee that it will be out by then or what the prices may span. So I am trying to gauge, if Sandy Bridge is not an options, what should I upgrade to?

For the past few weeks I have done casual readings and searches on this forum in regards to my upgrade path. However, I keep reading:

"Don't bother with 1156, it's practically dead/end of life" --OR-- "I wouldn't advise getting a 1366, it's rearing up on becoming a dead platform".

I have seen both said NUMEROUS times. In that regard, I guess there is no upgrade path...? Why is it that I keep hearing both of Intel's current platforms are near "pointless" to upgrade to?

Thanks!
 
If your hardware hasn't failed yet, hold out for Sandy bridge. It is over 20% faster clock per clock and won't dead end like 1156 and 1366. Buying either of those now would be like buying AMD socket 754 or 940 after 939 was already announced. They may see a token cpu release here and there, but the shiny new stuff is all going to be SB.

You have gone three years already, 3 months shouldn't kill you :p
 
Another thing to consider is the cost of upgrading.

Sandy bridge will probably be worth it, but figure on a 300 dollar cpu, a 200 dollar motherboard, and at least 100 dollars in ram. You're at 600 out the door.

I ended up snagging a great deal on a used motherboard x58 motherboard *70 dollars*, a 930 for 200 from MC, and 90 dollars for 6 gb of corsair ram off of ebay. 360 dollars.. total. It will probably be a wash when I sell my q6600 setup.

Sandy bridge will be better, and it will have alot of features, but if you're willing to scour the forums for a deal hear and a deal there, you can upgrade now... for alot less money than you will when it's time for sandy bridge.

But if you don't mind spending the extra money, by all means get sandy bridge... it should be phenomenal. I just don't see the point in paying for on board gpu... that I'll never use.
 
I'm in a similar situation. On a ~ 3 year old system with an e7500, 4890 and 4gb of ddr2 RAM and i currently have the upgrade bug. Honestly the i5/i7 didnt interest me in the slightest because it was only about a 20% performance increase from what im currently running (i only mainly game, browse and do the occasional video encoding) and i dont believe that kind of increase justifys having to buy a new CPU, motherboard, and DDR3 RAM. However, from what ive read, Sandy Bridge will be ~20% faster than current gen CPU's, coupled with the fact that the K series should be able to hit at least 4.5 to 5 ghz pretty reliably, means that from my current setup i should see closer to a 40-50% performance increase, which i think IS worth spending the $500+ upgrading my system ( i plan on buying a XFire capable mobo and some high speed low latency RAM and an unlocked 2500K)

Intel has already started mass production of SB, and has promised high volumes available at release in the first weeks of January. As it's already been said, you've waited 3 years, why not wait two more months and you'll have the latest and greatest for at least another 9-12 months SB-E is released, and even then it will still be more than powerful enough for most users.
 
You should take the advice of anyone who tells you that a particular socket is 'a dead end' and tell them to kindly shove it up their ass. Seriously.

Truth be told EVERY socket reaches an end at some point. The idea of a universally upgradeable socket went out with the original Pentium chips when AMD and Intel decided to start spitting out completely different sockets.

People were saying LGA775 was 'dead' two years ago, yet you still find them being sold everywhere and you still find people buying them and using them.

My advice would be to grab an LGA1136 or LGA1366 (The LGA1366 gives you triple channel DDR for not much more money) and be happy. Or if you want to wait for Sandy Bridge do so and THEN pick up a 1366 for even cheaper.
 
I agree with Blue Falcon in that if you want to upgrade on a budget, then buy a LGA 1156 or 1366 and you'll see a decent performance increase for good value.
However, if your wanting to upgrade because you have the itch and NOT because you feel your current system is holding you back, then i suggest you wait 2 months for SB. I think you find it alot more satisfying, and at least you wont feel the need to upgrade again as soon.
 
Well I think LGA 1366 is a great platform. Pretty much all of the newer boards come with SATA 6gbps ports as well as USB 3.0, so you will be covered in that department. It allows for full x16/x16 Crossfire or SLI. Lastly, don't forget about Gulftown! If you go to a 950 or something in January, don't forget you can upgrade to the 6 core, 12 threaded 32nm Gulftown CPUs (something like a 970) down the road when the prices drop. LGA 1366 as a platform is going to last a long time.
 
^agreed.1366 is a solid platform and can always upgrade to the 32nm 6c/12t gulftowns later.
and its a proven platform(no more bugs and glitches) and it will be around for some time,and
prices will just get better:D
 
if you don't really need more speed, then why bother. few of my friends love to upgrade every 3-6 months. video cards, mobo, cpu.
 
hah, i havent upgraded a computer in 2 years... ever since i sold my desktop and bouight an extra 2GB:s of ram for the lappy, the only "upgrade" i've gotten (didnt even purchase it) was a 320GB External Western Digital passport that I got thru a bad drive at work, LOL...

If its fast enough for you OP, dont upgrade... it won't be worth it unless you have a specific need for the upgrade (e.g. you want to play at "x" resolutinop but CPU is bottlenecking you)
 
"Don't bother with 1156, it's practically dead/end of life" --OR-- "I wouldn't advise getting a 1366, it's rearing up on becoming a dead platform".
Click to expand...
1156 is relatively low on PCIe, you get 16 fast (2.0 speed) lanes from the CPU and a chipset dependent (2-8 iirc) number of slow (1.0 speed and bottlenecked behind DMI) lanes from the PCH. what that means is that if vendors want to add stuff that isn't in the chipset they either have to reduce the number of slots or reduce the width of the graphics card slot to x8 (or use something like a NF200 bridge chip but that is expensive so only very high end boards use it).

1366 OTOH has far more PCIe, 36 fast lanes from the IOH and 6 slow ones from the ICH (Afaict there is only one IOH and ICH combination used for single socket LGA1366 boards). That gives motherboard vendors more space to put both plenty of slots AND extra features like USB 3 and sata 6 Gbps.

The first sandy bridge chips will be on LGA1155 which is intended as a replacement for LGA1156 so i'd expect LGA1156 to be phased out sooner than LGA1366.

Finally LGA1366 has an extra ram channel which means slightly better memory performance and (more importantly IMO) 50% higher max ram. Often ram is the limiting factor on the useful life of a system as software gets ever more bloated (though recently ram availability has run ahead of software's demand for it)

All of these factors mean that 1366 is the more future proof option right now but you are right that we are at the point in the cycle where whatever you buy it will be a legacy socket in the not too distant future.
 
a2gtinut said:
if you don't really need more speed, then why bother. few of my friends love to upgrade every 3-6 months. video cards, mobo, cpu.
Click to expand...

Also, far more people than what the current software situation warrants wait a decade or more before upgrading. I'd consider a PC "totally obsolete" if it can't properly run current OS and security software without having important features crippled (i.e. that old system has no available Windows 7 drivers for many of its components or that some of its hardware has proved incompatible with Win7).

With that said, the OP should upgrade only if he feels that his current system is deficient in some way with the software he uses frequently. Otherwise, he should wait until Sandy Bridge at the earliest.
 
good advice on both sides. 1366 is certainly a solid platform, and there's no guarantee that 1155 will see hex-core chips. On the other hand, 1155 boosts some nice features and an nforce 200 chip will take care of the pci express limitations. I like to buy the latest and greatest in mid-range, and it doesn't look like Intel is going to rape us on the price of their Core i5-2500K, so I'll probably go 1155. I don't like messing around with selling what I have, and buying used stuff, and my current rig is going to turn into a second HTPC anyways. I want the WOW factor that upgrading a rig with socket 775 and only PCI express 1.1 on it with no SLI capabilities will bring. :D These chips are already running faster in turbo mode then I can get my Q6600 to run... just being able to overclock these to 4.4 on air would be a real treat.
 
Last edited:
stockwiz said:
{snip}
it doesn't look like Intel is going to rape us on the price of their Core i5-2500K
{snip}
Click to expand...

Sure, the CPU might cost a few dollars higher. But don't forget that if the i5-655K and the i7-875K are any indication, you'll have to purchase an aftermarket HSF with the forthcoming K-series Sandy Bridge CPUs since neither one of the current K-series CPUs come with one at all whatsoever. That alone makes the K-series CPUs relatively uneconomical at stock speeds.
 
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