Upgrade now? or wait for sandy bridge

S

Stoly

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
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I have a C2D E4500@3.2 ghz. Initially I was thinking about getting a C2Q, but they are still expensive.

So I considered a Core i5 750, a new mobo and RAM, but since Sandy Bridge is coming out soon, I wonder if its worth waiting for or should I go for the i5.
 
The cheapest SB CPU that can overclock is the 2500K, at $210-250. But that chip also starts at 3.3Ghz and goes up from there. 95W, quad, and better IPC than your C2D. The 750 is currently cheaper than a SB build, but if you are considering the 760 it shouldn't cost much extra beyond that. Less than a month now, also.
 
It's also unclear what SB will do to the pricing of comparable current i5 and i7 chips - so even if you don't want SB it may be prudent to wait a month and see how it shakes out.
 
Stoly said:
I have a C2D E4500@3.2 ghz. Initially I was thinking about getting a C2Q, but they are still expensive.

So I considered a Core i5 750, a new mobo and RAM, but since Sandy Bridge is coming out soon, I wonder if its worth waiting for or should I go for the i5.
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MC has Q9400 for $99. It should easily overclock to 3.4GHz if you are running P45 board.
 
I think I'll wait. Hopefully there will be some price drops on the i5-750.
 
Iching said:
MC has Q9400 for $99. It should easily overclock to 3.4GHz if you are running P45 board.
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I don't live in the US, besides from what I've seen I can get better performance from a core i5 750 than any C2Q
 
Filter said:
for there low end chips yes. ill wait till ivy bridge etc.
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Considering that the "low-end" SB chips will be 3 Ghz+ quad-cores that will easily outrun their like-priced predecessors, I think it is worth waiting three weeks. Especially if this is true:

i72600k.jpg


http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2600K+%40+3.40GHz
 
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why wait for the cheap chips.

ill wait for ivy bridge or whatever name it will get.
 
Stoly said:
I don't live in the US, besides from what I've seen I can get better performance from a core i5 750 than any C2Q
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If you say so... I will take Q9550 over i5 and i7... Sorry, but those sockets are old and DEAD. I am getting Sandy i5 2500K and I would recommended you the same.:)
 
Filter said:
2nd half 2011.

1366 is still considered the high end till this is released.
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I believe Ivy Bridge will be the 22nm shrink of Sandy Bridge. what you are talking about is still Sandy Bridge but on the 2011 socket. supposedly socket 1155 will also support Ivy Bridge.

you can consider 1366 high end all you want but a 2600k on 1155 is going to be just as fast or faster than any i7 quad on 1366.
 
cannondale06 said:
I believe Ivy Bridge will be the 22nm shrink of Sandy Bridge. what you are talking about is still Sandy Bridge but on the 2011 socket. supposedly socket 1155 will also support Ivy Bridge.

you can consider 1366 high end all you want but a 2600k on 1155 is going to be just as fast or faster than any i7 quad on 1366.
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im not the one saying that. its Intel saying that.
 
s133 is the premium socket, but performance isn't the only metric for that. The extra PCI-E lanes, dual socket ability, tri-channel, hex-core ability, etc all are s1366 exclusive. Do any of those matter? Depends on what you are doing with the computer.
 
GLSauron said:
s133 is the premium socket, but performance isn't the only metric for that. The extra PCI-E lanes, dual socket ability, tri-channel, hex-core ability, etc all are s1366 exclusive. Do any of those matter? Depends on what you are doing with the computer.
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Good point. What's the benefit of those extra pci-e lanes?
 
Filter said:
sli AT 16X on each card. Thought this was the [H] if you want a mid range chip go buy an e-machine.
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But [H] themselves showed that there was no appreciable difference between x16 and x8 for SLI/Crossfire.
 
atm video cards can't use the x16 bandwidth, but they probably will at some point. I've seem some SB benchmarks and the improvement is VERY little. I'm not sure if they will oc better or anything, but as of now I doubt they're worth waiting for.
 
ramenraider said:
atm video cards can't use the x16 bandwidth, but they probably will at some point. I've seem some SB benchmarks and the improvement is VERY little. I'm not sure if they will oc better or anything, but as of now I doubt they're worth waiting for.
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I disagree - 4.5 - 5Ghz OC with air cooling is IMO pretty good reason to wait 2 weeks :)

I am waiting for Socket2011
 
Rebel44 said:
I disagree - 4.5 - 5Ghz OC with air cooling is IMO pretty good reason to wait 2 weeks :)

I am waiting for Socket2011
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you seen what like one chip that did that from intel? could be some super chip from a super batch. Ill wait till the real benchmarks come out from production chips, not just certain chips from intel's PR team.
 
Filter said:
you seen what like one chip that did that from intel? could be some super chip from a super batch. Ill wait till the real benchmarks come out from production chips, not just certain chips from intel's PR team.
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why are you fighting this? just wait 2 weeks and see that the 2500k/2600k cpus will blow away the kind of overclocks you see on a 750/760.
 
cannondale06 said:
why are you fighting this? just wait 2 weeks and see that the 2500k/2600k cpus will blow away the kind of overclocks you see on a 750/760.
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thats the thing your missing. i dont buy low-midrange chips. I think the majority of the people dont realize this first batch of sandy bridge that are coming out our low-midrange chips.


give me ivy bridge and socket 2011 and then i might get excited.
 
Filter said:
thats the thing your missing. i dont buy low-midrange chips. I think the majority of the people dont realize this first batch of sandy bridge that are coming out our low-midrange chips.


give me ivy bridge and socket 2011 and then i might get excited.
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well thats you. 99.99999999999% of people have zero interest in purchasing a $1000 cpu like you currently have. for the OP and almost any one else the 2500K/2600K is going to be the cpu to get and is a much better choice than i5 750/760.
 
cannondale06 said:
well thats you. 99.99999999999% of people have zero interest in purchasing a $1000 cpu like you currently have. for the OP and almost any one else the 2500K/2600K is going to be the cpu to get and is a much better choice than i5 750/760.
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see i disagree if someone already has the 750/760 they would be better off till socket 2011.

i think alot of early adopters that are going to be disappointed when socket 2011 comes out.
Thats all im saying this 2500k/2600k isnt some super chip everyone is calming its going to be.
 
Filter said:
see i disagree if someone already has the 750/760 they would be better off till socket 2011.

i think alot of early adopters that are going to be disappointed when socket 2011 comes out.
Thats all im saying this 2500k/2600k isnt some super chip everyone is calming its going to be.
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um what? I said nothing about someone upgrading from i5 750/760. of course going to 2500K/2600K would be very minimal for them. I said people like the OP who are looking to build a new pc should skip the i5 750/760 and go for Sandy Bridge.
 
Filter said:
thats the thing your missing. i dont buy low-midrange chips. I think the majority of the people dont realize this first batch of sandy bridge that are coming out our low-midrange chips.


give me ivy bridge and socket 2011 and then i might get excited.
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They are mainstream parts (and pretty highh-end ones according to the roadmap) not low-mid range. The 2600K is replacing the i7-950, which is not exactly low-end. There are only three chips (plus the extreme edition) above the 2600K on the roadmap.

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cpu/intel/sandybridge/preview/roadmap.png
 
Technology always moves forward, so waiting for 2011 is doable for those who can, but then why not wait till 2012 or 2013?

Right now, we are 3 weeks away from getting a chip that will get the same performance as the 980, but cost a whole lot less :p (OCed of course)
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=660266

P.S. it's not that we don't like you Filter, it's that we're jealous that we can't drop $1K on a CPU and $80k on a car ;) and talk about it over an ostrich egg breakfast like it's last year Armani suit that we donated to the salvation army.
 
Filter said:
thats the roadmap for sandy bridge. and you notice all the 1366 chips are still considered the high end.
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Yes, that is the Sandy Bridge roadmap, which shows 3 non EE chips positioned above the chips that are releasing in two weeks (and 13 below) which indicates that the LGA 1155 chips will not all be low to low-mid range. The i7-950 is a 1366 chip, right, and pretty high-end at that?

No one is saying there isn't a place for 1366 chips, just that it doesn't make sense to upgrade now, when in two weeks you'll have more options at almost all price/performance ranges.
 
Forceman said:
The i7-950 is a 1366 chip, right, and pretty high-end at that?
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It depends how you define the ranges, I would class the six-core (with triple-channel mem) i7's as high end, quad-core i7's as midrange and i3/i5's as low end.

The first batch of SB's coming out next year will only have quad cores and limited to two memory channels - So this won't be replacing the high (but maybe stepping on its toes).

The main thing that SB's brings to the table is that Intel never released 32n quad-core i7's (but they did release them in both the low & end brackets), 130w TDP @ stock speeds is allot of heat to get rid of before thinking about over-clocking. Another improvement is per clock-for-clock improvements (~15%). Granted that none of these are massive on there own but together there is something there, especially for the q6600 owners which seem to be the most interested in these.

As for being disappointed when the second batch of SB's come out on socket 2010. It depends what you are after. It's is unlikely to see any increase in clock speeds, the real gain is more cores (throughput). Will you make use of these extra cores? It's only servers, bench-markers and folders (like Filter ;)) that will notice the improvements.
 
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"I would class the octo-core (with triple-channel mem) i7's as high end"

there are no 8 core i7 cpus
 
Wiseguy2001 said:
It depends how you define the ranges, I would class the six-core (with triple-channel mem) i7's as high end, quad-core i7's as midrange and i3/i5's as low end.
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Wait, so you only see Intel as having 2 high-end chips (970 & 980X)? Seems like a pretty high bar to "high-end".
 
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