Build Advice What should I buy instead of Sandy Bridge?

Hello everyone.

I have been planning a Sandy Bridge build for months, and now that they have been recalled I'm really at a loss in terms of what to do?


What would you do if you needed to build a new computer this month? The main reason that I need to build it this month is because my previous system crashed and though I salvaged all the data into this slow-as-hell Pentium 4 rig - the performance on this machine is not adequate for some of the work I do and the system often halts with full suite of design programs open. Also, I've just ordered a Fractal Design R3 Black Pearl and a Fractal Design Newton 800W PSU and it would be a damned shame to even think about putting a P4 into that case.


When I realized I could no longer purchase sandy bridge, my first thought was to build an intermediary system that could last another year or two until BullDozer and Sandy/IvyBridge have fought it out for a while. My second thought was do I really need that much more power? Before crashing, my old system contained the following:

• Athlon XP 2100+ Mobile
• Epox 8rda3+ Mobo with onboard sil3112/Raid
• 2xSeagate 80GB 7200RPM (original SATA) in Raid 0
• Radeon 8500LE

The programs that I use heavily are Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Flash. The main things I would like my new computer to do better than my old broken computer are:

1. Play newer games at reasonable/good settings on a 1920x1080 resolution monitor - mainly I am thinking BF Bad Company 2 and Crysis look like my kind of games.
2. Handle two side-by-side 1920x1080 resolution monitors for graphic design work (I do not like the idea of gaming on two monitors ) while occasionally using one of the monitors for video and/or possibly displaying a movie on my nearby HDMI-compatible HDTV.
3. Quick Data access. I'm a big fan of Raid and was thinking about utilizing Raid1+0 for my future data storage and I was thinking a total of 1/2 - 1 TB of space over 4 Drives. That way I can add another four drives to the Fractal Design case if needed without tearing apart my array.
4. HD - my older computer can't even handle a 480P youTube video and seriously struggles with 720P MKV file formats and outright laughs at me when I ask it to play a BluRay quality movie.


So... (sorry for the lengthy post) . .. I was wondering what you would do? I know that even if I were to purchase a core2duo I would probably be amazed by the performance relative to my current setup. So where is the sweet-spot in terms of price/performance right now? I'm looking to spend about $1000 MAX (US Dollars) and do not need a case or a PSU or case fans. I would not be opposed to spending less than $1000 either, I'm just not sure where to make compromises and things were much simpler back when I was first building computers.

 

I would still go for a Sandybridge build.

 

In your place I'd look on ebay for bits that will do the job right now with the intention of selling those bits on, or as M7ck says, buy a sandybridge build anyway. so long as you only utilise the first two sata ports there is no danger, and for fast raid it might be worth looking at an addon cache controller card to do raid 0+1 anyway.

 

Some retailers (incl Scan) are still selling Sandy Bridge motherboards - even with the defect it has to be worth it.

 

+1
Something like a 560GTx would be perfect.
Scratch the idea of raid. A decent SSD for boot and a large HDD is where it's at now.
You might need to stretch that budget a tiny bit more though

 

Do you know of anybody in the USA who is still selling Sandybridge mobo's? I can pick up a 2500K for $179.99 (*EDIT*) locally but they have no compatible motherboards.

 

If you wanted to avoid Intel altogether, some based around the AMD 1100T would suit your needs.

The other choice would be the i7 950 or for a lower budget either the 806 or the 760, but the 950 or the 860 would be a better choice because of the hyper threading.

I suppose the other question would be what is your budget?

 

I'm in a similar position, although I've got a laptop which is okay. Sitting on your hands isn't easy.

 

And it's a 3 month sit. Thats going to mean some pretty numb hands..lol

 

I am willing to spend a max of $1000 (US Dollars). With that money I need to purchase the following: Motherboard, CPU, and CPU Cooler + Graphics Setup + a BluRay combo Drive + HDD Storage/Possibly a SSD for boot. (Said this before, but I already purchased an R3 Black Pearl and Fractal Design Newton 800W PSU + 5 case fans)

I like AMD but from what I've read they don't seem to perform well compared to the i7/sandy Bridge. My girlfriend has an X3 processor in her laptop and it is pretty quick but I have never tried loading the adobe suite on it. I would definitely consider the 1090T if I knew the CPU Socket would be compatible with a lot of future AMD products because I'm sure they have something good up their sleeves.

I'll throw another question out there: What's better - spend $300 on a GTX 560 ti or $300 on 2x GTX 460 MSI o/c'ed in SLI? or of course, option C: name your pick off of www.newegg.com or www.tigerdirect.com in that price range...

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am going to go crazy even if I just have to use this computer for another few weeks. Especially once the R3 and PSU get here... then the pressure to build something will be much more real.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/intel/news

It only affect the SATA 2 ports on the mobo and in less than 5% of boards. The 2*SATA 3 ports are fine. You may want all for SATA 2 ports for your raid array but I'm sure you can survive with a single drive until april/may when you can swap the board for an updated one.

 

I've been calling retailers all morning trying to find somebody with a P67 board and nobody here in the US seems to be willing to sell them.

 

A good AMD AM3 build would cover you for now

 

Give it a couple of weeks, once the US custom pc builders read what is happening over here with retailers and mobo producers in europe happy to offer like for like swaps if people still buy the boards today, they will demand the same from the US retailers and mobo producers.

So you should see the same sort of offers that are happening now, buy now and return/swap later..

 

Ouch, that must suck - over here we're getting guaranteed motherboard swaps. You could wait till March/April when the fixed B3 motherboards start selling, or you could wait and see what AMD brings with Bulldozer.

 

If you can't get a swap guarantee in the USA then your left with a choice between waiting for that guarantee to be offered which it will or buying a 760/950 system.
Personally I'd be against buying a system which you'll replace in less than 2 months.

 

I agree, they will probably start selling them in a couple weeks with reassurances for a replacement like they are in Europe now. I found one motherboard that would suit a Sandy Bridge system, and I found one store that sells the 2500K.

Can you guys tell me what you think of this motherboard ( I have heard good and bad things, but I assume ASUS will work hard to fix all the problems people have been having... right? )

Also, $179 is a screaming deal on a i5-2500K isn't it? I guess I'll make absolute positive I can get the processor before I go and order the mobo. That would suck this whole situation sucks - I have one motherboard to choose from. yikes

 

People haven't been having lots of problems. This is something intel found in quality testing.
In under 5% of case SATA ports 2-5 will degrade in performance over time(2-3 years), the two SATA 6gb/s ports are unaffected. I don't think any consumer has actually noticed a problem.

 

No I just mean some people have had problems detecting certain hard drives and optical drives and other quirky things that sometimes happen with the first revision of any BIOS. What do you think about that particular board?