Usually don't do this, but I need your advice!

[statikregimen]

Ok, so normally it's pretty easy for me to make these sorts of decisions without turning to my fellow geeks for advice (or clogging up forums with my personal nonsense), but at this point, I am truly torn and have no idea what to do.

I'll spare you the gruesome details, but in short: it's time for me to ragequit AMD. I just want a good computer, and they're not delivering.

Here's what I have in mind:
2x EVGA gtx570 2.5gb
EVGA P67 FTW
i7-2600k
Seasonic Platinum-1000 (I realize that's maybe more power than needed, but Seasonic is great and I may want to add a 3rd GPU later, but at least plan to overclock for now)

Total will be $1,655.78 shipped.

And I already have 2x4gb ADATA DDR3-2000mhz memory, ADATA S511 SSD, case, cpu cooler (Zalman CNPS11x), etc...

My question is this: Risk another excruciating 4-6 month wait (or more? I just got done waiting for bulldozer) for Ivy Bridge and Piledriver, or just do it now and be done with it? Prices are gonna drop when those CPUs come out, but it looks like, Ivy Bridge will be compatible with socket 1155, so I'd have some security there for the future (plus, ability to add 3rd GPU if I wanted).

Advice and suggestions on the above configuration is welcomed, as well...Thanks in advance!

EDIT: i should point out that the alternative is to stick it out with either my fx-8120 or 1100t w/ 2x6970s... Either CPU has proven to seriously bottleneck them, but if I upgrade now, I'll probably sell that stuff, or clone 2 new rigs w/ 1 6970 in each.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Answer the sticky questions please.

 

[Forceman]

Really no point in waiting - boards you can buy now will support IB, so you can always drop one in when they come out - but given that it could be 6 months until that happens, no reason to not start enjoying a SB build right now.

Unless you are going to do a lot of encoding or something, you are likely just as well served with the 2500K over the 2600K, which saves you $100. Likewise, that's a really expensive motherboard - you can easily save another $100 by buying a nice Z68 board that will have similar features and overclocking ability. Couple of good choices here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130611

 

[tiraides]

Back up... you already have two HD 6970 cards, two high-end (albeit AMD) processors, and you want to drop that stuff for the above setup? What games are you playing? At what resolution?

 

[Dangman]

Which A-Data DDR3-2000 RAM do you have?

Also, when it comes to Intel CPUs, they generally don't drop that much in price when newer Intel CPUs are introduced. In fact, Intel generally introduces faster CPUs in the same range as their older CPUs.

How exactly have you figured that your current AMD CPUs have bottlenecked your HD 6970's?

 

[hossdaddy]

overclocked the new bulldozer chips are slower than the i5/i7 but not enough that you may experience the same issues. Can you elaborate on the bottleneck? What is it doing or not doing? What size monitor and res are you playing on? What games?

 

[Deathwish238]

Get the i7-2600k now and don't bother waiting for AMD. I usually stick with Asus for mobos.

 

[statikregimen]

Thanks for the replies, all! I'll go through everything quickly.

Answer the sticky questions please.

I'm pretty set in stone on what I need to do what I want with my computer; was more asking a "buy now or wait", which is why I kind of free-formed my message, but in short:

It's partially a gaming rig, partially a development rig, running sometimes up to 4 virtual machines, do a lot of compiling (not to mention I like Gentoo), and I also do a lot of web development which comes with a lot of multitasking...Having a fast CPU can only help, but I don't see spending $1000 on a 990x or anything like that. 2600k is well positioned, as near as I can tell.

Back up... you already have two HD 6970 cards, two high-end (albeit AMD) processors, and you want to drop that stuff for the above setup? What games are you playing? At what resolution?

I don't want to drop them, entirely...I want to move my existing rig up to my bedroom, where I do all of my recording/production (music) to replace a 945 Deneb. The 1100t or BD would be perfect for that task, I think. Also, keeping a 6970 in each of those builds would give me a nice return on selling one, and allow me to still do some light gaming, late at night when I can't be down stairs, or need a break to get my creative juices flowing again

Which A-Data DDR3-2000 RAM do you have?

Also, when it comes to Intel CPUs, they generally don't drop that much in price when newer Intel CPUs are introduced. In fact, Intel generally introduces faster CPUs in the same range as their older CPUs.

How exactly have you figured that your current AMD CPUs have bottlenecked your HD 6970's?

They're ADATA Gaming Series v.2.0 modules - I've been pretty happy with them so far...Got them on sale, but don't remember how much I paid. Running at 1866mhz, I managed to get them down to 9-10-9-24 cr1, which isn't epic but better than they're rated. Answering the bottleneck part below....

overclocked the new bulldozer chips are slower than the i5/i7 but not enough that you may experience the same issues. Can you elaborate on the bottleneck? What is it doing or not doing? What size monitor and res are you playing on? What games?

Really, the bottleneck isn't severe, I don't think, and some of it looks like it is related to certain games that favor Intel CPUs (like FarCry 2), where the frame rates are literally 50% lower than expected....Any time I check benchmarks for a specific game, I notice the setups have an Intel CPU and the framerates are most always higher, if not way higher.

The bulldozer is just flat out bugged in some of the games I play: DX:HR, Portal 2, Shogun 2 and others....and the list just keeps on growing daily with no word from AMD when that might be addressed. It's been almost a month now and I'm fed up. That CPU is going regardless of what else I do. Also, take a look at the BD multi-gpu review [H] just did, and you see why my frustration has been fortified.

EDIT: derp... I play on a 27" 1080p monitor right now...I'm going CF/SLI more for games like Crysis/Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 - basically, I want to play any game out now or in the near future smoothly, on fully maxed settings, without issues....For games that don't scale (or are buggy), i disable it.

 

[statikregimen]

Get the i7-2600k now and don't bother waiting for AMD. I usually stick with Asus for mobos.

Sorry, meant to include this...I'm not set in stone on any brand names yet and saw a couple of mid-range Asus boards suggested. I'll take a closer look at them...Nothing specifically about the Evga board has me hooked, except I like to try different things from time to time. Never owned any Evga product, so why not feature them in a build? Right now, I'm featuring MSI and ADATA in my existing rig (signature). I also have OCD about matching brands - it's not brand loyalty, per se, but it really screws with my head to, say, pair an ASUS board with a sapphire graphics card. Silly and pointless I know, but that's why they call it OCD...lol!

 

[Dangman]

They're ADATA Gaming Series v.2.0 modules - I've been pretty happy with them so far...Got them on sale, but don't remember how much I paid. Running at 1866mhz, I managed to get them down to 9-10-9-24 cr1, which isn't epic but better than they're rated. Answering the bottleneck part below....

Well an issue then:
Intel's max RAM voltage for Intel Core i7 is supposedly 1.65V. However, it's been recently noted that's actually lower by an Intel rep:

Ok this is an issue that I have spent a lot of time on. I have even sent this up to an engineer to find out on this. The issue with this is the 1.65v memory is pushing the tolerances on the processor too much. Over on Tom's they did some testing on the memory to see where the point is and they found that anything above 1.575v can damage the processor. In most cases if you have 1.65v memory before you do anything else go into the Bios and set the memory at 1.5v to avoid this issue.

So in other words, see if that RAM can run at 1.55V or lower. Otherwise, you're gonna have to get a new set of RAM unless you want to increase the chance of your Core i7 CPUs dying.

Well as noted earlier, that eVGA mobo is really overpriced. In fact, a lot of eVGA socket LGA 1155 mobos are overpriced in general considering that their Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI counterparts have the same or higher quality in that price range.

 

[statikregimen]

Thank you; I had no idea. Thought RAM voltage was supplied by the motherboard and never would have guessed it could affect the CPU in anyway. I'll check to see what my modules can do. I also have some ADATA XPG 1600mhz modules that seemed to tolerate pretty low voltages (think I had them at 1.3v before I realized the motherboard wasn't setting them right), compared to their specs. I can use those, or buy new, if worse comes to worse. Also, I have no issues downclocking this RAM, if it means saving some cash and would probably get even tighter timings, in exchange.

I'm looking at a few MSI and Asus motherboards, right now. I don't mind paying for a high end board, but after closer examination, I couldn't see where the Evga one was any better than offerings for much cheaper by the competition. They all seem highly rated on newegg reviews, as well as independent review sites, so I feel like it will be hard to go wrong, shy of problems that can afflict any hardware (namely, DOA, although I've never once had that happen to me in 15 years of system building).

Another thing I'm noticing is an overall shortage of gtx570s. Especially those 2.5gb versions. They were in stock last night, and I was about ready to pull the trigger. Then today, all gone. Considering a gtx590 instead, though I'm not terribly impressed with the performance/cost, but would have the advantage of an easy quad-sli upgrade in the future...The gtx580x2 and even gtx580 SLI is just a bit too salty for my taste...I like premium high end, but the prices for those two options, make absolutely no sense.

 

[statikregimen]

Well, this is not going well for me. Loads of supply issues, so I'm going to hold off for a little bit, and see if any of the stuff I want gets back in stock. Being "black November", I guess it makes sense. Lots of sales and lots of buyers.

 

[crzykid71]

1100T I'd stick with that performs better than the fx-8120 too. I heard to take full advantage of the 6 cores is to disable turbo in the bios as it goes 3 cores on/3 off, back in forth so on.. it's meant to keep it "cool in turbo mode"

 

[Dangman]

Well, this is not going well for me. Loads of supply issues, so I'm going to hold off for a little bit, and see if any of the stuff I want gets back in stock. Being "black November", I guess it makes sense. Lots of sales and lots of buyers.

Yeah. That and Nvidia is probably ramping up for their new GPU launch in a few months as well.

 

[statikregimen]

1100T I'd stick with that performs better than the fx-8120 too. I heard to take full advantage of the 6 cores is to disable turbo in the bios as it goes 3 cores on/3 off, back in forth so on.. it's meant to keep it "cool in turbo mode"

Ehh... I'm tired of having a 2nd rate computer....Don't get me wrong: I love the 1100t and I'll be keeping that for sure, but for my main "daily driver", it's time to see how the Intel & Nvidia guys are living. I've had too many driver problems with my AMD GPUs and you can only OC the 1100t so far. Then you realize the 2600k at stock is still faster...Then you overclock it, and

With that, the GPUs came back in stock today!! So, decided to stick with the hardware in my OP (except the PSU - out of stock and don't need it right away). Just don't see where I'll be disappointed with this setup. Just under $1400 shipped

Thanks so much again, to everybody for your input!! It gave me a lot of peace of mind about going ahead with this build. I feel it will be money well spent!

Also, big thanks to Danny Bui for the RAM voltage tip... I'm running them at 1.5v right now, perfectly stable @ 1866mhz, 9-10-9-24 cr1 timings, so these modules should work fine! Unfortunately, I cannot test at their rated 2.0ghz (as this motherboard will not go past 1866mhz without FSB bump and this CPU is not having any part of that). I think they'll be fine, though.

p.s. I'm sure I'll be back here again, looking for help, as I haven't built (let alone OC) an Intel rig since the Pentium 3...LOL!