upgrade now or wait till next intel release?

D

DReborn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
364
you can see my current system in my sig. It's fine but is starting to show it's age with encoding (handbrake) and pushing SC2 beta at 2560x1600

was thinking about moving up to an i7 930.

worth it or should i hold out till the next "tock" of intel? I know the current chipset (x58) been out for a healthy time so don't want to buy 4-6 months before whole new chipset comes out.

I know there is always something better on the horizon so I usually just buy when the things I want to do I can't do (like play sc2 at 2560x1600 at ultra which is why I got the 5870).

thanks!
 
Overclock your cpu more, otherwise gaming wise you aren't going to notice a huge difference between the Q9*** and the i7. Encoding would be another case, assuming that it is multithreaded the i7 would be an upgrade, but you have a very solid system as it is, so I would just O/C as high as you can before you make any new purchases.
 
unless you plan on a multi-card setup, the x58/930 may not help enough to justify it's cost -- though, i haven't looked into sc2 performance yet, so... hopefully someone else who has will chime in. :p
 
thanks for the replies!

Hmmm...ya this little CPU has stayed strong over the years.

also reading a prelim performance report at Tom's on SC2 performance, seems like it's gpu limited. I basically get the same fps as i7 920 OC'ed to 3ghz at 2560x1600 with ultra settings (~45 fps)
 
I was in the same position about a month ago. Wait 6 months for Sandy Bridge to come out or build it now. I decided a few seconds in a benchmark wouldn't make much of a difference to me, so i pulled the trigger on my new build. Plus, one benefit if you're doing it now, you have a couple of years worth of reviews to look at as oppossed to being the 'early adapter' people come to for reviews.
 
ha, ya, it seems like im always behind the curve. The new chipset comes out and one silly reviewer concludes their review with: "Well this latest intel release is a solid upgrade but the REAL jump in performance will be the next iteration of <latest intel chipset> that will be release in 3 quarters from now."

But then we get to 3 quarters from now and I'm not overly impressed. I dunno. =)

maybe ill do a bit more research on sandy bridge and see if its worth anything worth waiting for
 
Can you push your CPU higher? I was able to get 3.6ghz out of my Q6600, but it failed after 10 hours of prime.... rock solid at 3.42ghz indefinitely though. I would assume (perhaps incorrectly) that you can push your Q9450 further.
 
you know, maybe but i was trying to go with a quieter system and i only have a noctua cpu cooler. I recently upgraded to a corsair 800d case so many i'll have more airflow, dunno.

case is definitely not silent so has to be some air going on it...... =)

i belive when i initially was trying i could hit aroud 3.2 but it wasn't rock stable. maybe didn't feed it enough juice
 
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