Some newb questions

[krogen]

I have not been paying attention to computer hardware for about four years now. I have been asked to put together some kind of mid-range PC (~$750, no monitor or peripherals). I did a bit of research myself but I'm still not completely caught up. My questions are...

1) Ivy bridge vs Haswell future upgrade options. These use different sockets from what I have read. What are the upgrade options when new mobos and CPUs come out? I've heard this happens in the fall? Are both lineups dead?

2) Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Haswell started to have built-in GPUs, correct (on-die? not sure about the correct choice of words)? Seems like a pretty big waste if the plan is to get a mid-range graphics card for some gaming. Are there benefits of such configuration? Or is it best to disable the built-in GPU? Is that even doable?

3) Not planning on having the CPU overclocked. However, out of curiosity, I remember when Sandy Bridge (or Ivy Bridge?) came out there was some outcry that CPUs won't be able to be overclocked. Is that the case? How are CPUs overclocked now? Changing the multiplier?

4) K vs non-K CPU, probably related to the last question. I see that there are minor differences between the two, like higher turbo. Is this also overclocking related (unlocked multiplier)?

5) On Haswell, I see that almost all high-end CPUs have HD 4600, with a single having Iris Pro 5200. Is this only about performance, or are there other considerations?

6) Audio over HDMI. Is this doable with these integrated GPUs? Actually, I don't even know if this is doable with "normal" graphics cards.

 

[striker444]

1) Ivy bridge vs Haswell future upgrade options. These use different sockets from what I have read. What are the upgrade options when new mobos and CPUs come out? I've heard this happens in the fall? Are both lineups dead?

Broadwell (the one that is replacing Haswell) won't be out this year for us desktop users. Best to get a Haswell, it will use less power, better IPC, and a newer socket.

2) Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Haswell started to have built-in GPUs, correct (on-die? not sure about the correct choice of words)?

You are correct.

Seems like a pretty big waste if the plan is to get a mid-range graphics card for some gaming. Are there benefits of such configuration? Or is it best to disable the built-in GPU? Is that even doable?

Not really many benefits, some support using the GPU to enhance the addon, lookup Virtu MVP if you have some free time, but from what I hear its complete garbage. The on die GPU will not be used if you set your BIOS to use the addon video card (almost all motherboards will do this automatically)

3) Not planning on having the CPU overclocked. However, out of curiosity, I remember when Sandy Bridge (or Ivy Bridge?) came out there was some outcry that CPUs won't be able to be overclocked. Is that the case? How are CPUs overclocked now? Changing the multiplier?

Most folks who overclock will get a K series, see below

4) K vs non-K CPU, probably related to the last question. I see that there are minor differences between the two, like higher turbo. Is this also overclocking related (unlocked multiplier)?

K will have an unlocked multiplier which will make it very easy to overclock

5) On Haswell, I see that almost all high-end CPUs have HD 4600, with a single having Iris Pro 5200. Is this only about performance, or are there other considerations?

Besides gaming performance the only other thing that comes to mind is faster speed in transcoding via Quick Sync

6) Audio over HDMI. Is this doable with these integrated GPUs? Actually, I don't even know if this is doable with "normal" graphics cards.

Yes to both

 

[EvilWays]

snip

2) You can disable the on-chip GPU through the motherboard BIOS/UEFI.

3) A combination of B-clock and multiplier.

4) K CPUs have their multipliers unlocked.

 

[plugwash]

3) Not planning on having the CPU overclocked. However, out of curiosity, I remember when Sandy Bridge (or Ivy Bridge?) came out there was some outcry that CPUs won't be able to be overclocked. Is that the case? How are CPUs overclocked now? Changing the multiplier?

Since sandy bridge Intel tied the base clock to the PCIe clock. This means you only have a very small range of adjustment in the base clock before things get unstable.

So the only way to get significant overclocks nowadays is to buy an unlocked part. Unlocked parts tend to start out with stock clocks towards the top end of the range and prices to match. The days of buying a low end chip and OCing it to the point where it would match the top of the range are gone.

They recently threw the low end OC crowd a bone with the Pentium G3258, it's fairly cheap, it's stock speeds are moderately but not super high and it apparently OCs well BUT it's only a dual core with no hyperthreading so performance in multithreaded apps will be limited.