Hello, as you can see the specs on the left side they are a bit behind However if anything the console market has given me is the fact that I've never felt the need to upgrade past my Q6600, I always managed by upgrading other stuff such as Memory, the GPU and the SSD. My problem is, my Mobo is giving me some troubles recognizing the disks, and the fact that it was never meant to run a SSD was noticeable. I have no TRIM support and the SSD is SATAIII, and the motherboard is SATAII. I had my CPU overclocked to 3.0 Ghz and my memories at higher speeds, except both have started giving me problems and Windows started begging me for stock speeds. So all over the board, I have a system that isn't maximized for performance anymore and feels like it's degrading over time. As expected, it has been an amazing run. What I'm thinking of is to upgrade to the new Ivy Bridge processors, the power savings look hot (cool) but my fear is: - The price will be high compared to the current Sandy Bridge CPUs with low performance gains - Haswell is such a huge tock that I should have waited for them instead We are all in an economic recession, so I didn't want to break even with my MOBO+CPU upgrade later in the year (June? July?), I would pay around 400-500 tops, preferably lower than that. So what should I do? Buy a solid SB/Mobo combo, wait for Ivy or drill my way to the skies and wait for Haswell?
If your issues are getting to you I'd go pick up a P67 or Z68 motherboard and install a 2500k or 2600k, and call it a day. You can slap in an Ivy Bridge chip when you feel the need as they're the same socket [may need a bios upgrade beforehand, just make sure you install the new bios before the new chip].
Doubt anyone could possibly no that. Though the onboard GPU is supposed to be improved significantly and thats compared to the Ivy GPU which is already a good step up from SB's HD3000 graphics.
Not sure. Haswell does bring in AVX2, so for programs that support this (depending on how thoroughly) should be very noticeably faster. Haswell is on a new socket and won't be out till probably mid next year. Seeing that you may have to upgrade shortly I would suggest try waiting out as long as possible for Ivy Bridge i5-2500K replacement (i5-3570K). Although Ivy Bridge CPU's can run in current motherboards, I'd definitely wait for the Z77 based boards to be released.
Haswell is going to have a new motherboard socket? Oh just great... I thought that since it would be a tock it would run on the same platform from the Ivy Bridge. (Or did I shuffle the concepts around) Also remember that the IGP performance for a desktop (And for me) doesn't mean much, it should be noticeable better for laptops users, so I'm not really looking for IGP improvements in Ivy Bridge. Then again, it seems Haswell is going to take a motherload of time to get out so I think I'll wait for Ivy Bridge and settle on that. Point number two: Which processor should I look for? Higher tier i5 or lower tier i7? I'm not sure if I'm that interested on overclocking and pushing the CPU and mobo harder if the performance gains aren't that high, but it seems Ivy has some great overclockable gains. I'm more of a stability fan nowadays compared to the past and I'm a bit of the loop. Not sure which one will give me the more bang for the buck. Another small question: Are the Intel motherboards any good? They seem the only ones with sober design and without focus on extravagant features. I only recently discovered they did indeed sell their reference designs
Brand new Architectures often require new sockets its nothing out of the norm. As your coming from an old platform just get yourself Ivy Bridge when its released, you really won't be disappointed by it!
Sorry thats not a real 8 core, its just a 4core SMT cpu with dedicated integer units thats FPU starved. In no way does it compare to Ivy bridge or sandy bridge.
8 integer cores 4 float cores Since it takes a few int instructions per each float anyways, it's not like it matters. Loading/storing requires int calculations to determine read and write addresses. If you load two variables (each at their own address), do something to them, and store the result (in a third address), then that single floating point operation had a number of int operations surrounding it. Basically, you could really use more integer cores (ALU's). A 1:1 ratio of int:float isn't necessary. AMD gambled on a design where every 2 threads pipeline their float operations in a staggered manner, where while one float op is calculating addresses in an integer core, another is running in the FPU doung the actual floating point operation, and vice versa. Efficiently using real-estate in the chip. The idea is good. Nothing intrinsically wrong with 8 int cores and 4 float cores. AMD's design didn't pan out like they had hoped. But that does NOT mean that "a design like this can't work well". A different design with the same general approach could work great. --------------------------------------------------------- OP << If you want to buy now : Mobo : Asrock extreme 3 gen 3 (~$120) + CPU : 2500K ($220) -------------------------- Total : $340 for CPU + MOBO Put leftover funds into ram/cooling/etc. Ram is stupid cheap right now. 16 gigs (4 4gig dimms 1600) for $90 (cas 9) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231315 16 gigs (2 8gig dimms 1600) for $134 (cas10) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231489 In either case, you're still between $430 and $474 Then throw on a big air cooler or little water cooler and you're set. H60 : $70 (little water) NH-D14 : $85 (big air) H80 : $92 (little water) The cheapest combo is at $500 flat. - Asrock mobo - 2500k - 4 x 4gig dimms - H60 cooler -scheherazade
I was thinking of skipping on the RAM and buying an acceptable cooler. Maybe the H60. But this with the Ivy Bridge + Mobo. I had this project of mine to replace my Antec 900 which is a dust magnet and buy a CM 690 II Advanced (Great price/quality ratio) EDIT: Oh damnit forgot I'm still in DDR2. I will need DDR3 memory...
I have decided that I will wait for the IB equivalent of the 2500k + Motherboard so I can do another 5 year futureproof like I did with my Q6600. This will I will have PCI Express 3.0 and better USB 3.0 support. Thank you for all the suggestions
