Build Advice 1366, or wait (or something else entirely)

Once again, I find myself considering a new machine, purely because I can't game on my current one. I don't really need it, but I'm considering treating myself anyway. So......

As the oldest bit of my current PC is 5yrs old (A8N-SLi Deluxe cheesecake), I want to try to repeat that if possible. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but my needs are modest. In order to aim for that, I'm thinking 1366 makes sense. It's mentally quick now - even at stock. I can get SATA6 and USB3 without impacting available PCI-E bandwidth, 6gig of RAM instead of 4 and there's the *possibility* of a 6 core 32nm upgrade when they go EOL, or maybe after that.

On the other hand, there's the looming possibility of Sandy Bridge. But whilst it appears to be very quick and a revolution in architecture, it's unknown. How fast will it be? Will they release mid-range, high-end, or cheap stuff first? Could you be waiting til Q2 for the setup you want? For most of you that won't be a problem, but I'd like to get gaming really. Most importantly - how much will it cost?!

Finally, arguably, I could game on a cheapo AMD system, or get an 1156 i5-760 and it would meet my needs. I'm just thinking spending a little more now allows me the futureness of SATA6 and USB3 and a lot more headroom. Either socket is dead soon anyway.

I'm gonna go off and price up some kit. Thoughts....??

 

I'd say the Sabertooth is the best board about now... Just for the 5 year warrenty if anything...

 

Wait for Sandy Bridge - if only because the benchmarks I've seen (including some from Anandtech, a site I trust very much) imply it will be a lot faster for the money. Here's one



from: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

Importantly, the i5-2500 (faster than the 2400 shown) is supposed to fit in around the $200 mark, making the numbers pretty impressive for what they are.

 

Thats not compared to the i7's though...

 

Personally I would go with the 1366 for gaming now. It does give you USB3, 6GB sata and up to 3 full 16X pice slots which leaves you room for multiple graphics cards. If you wait till the next best thing comes out you'll always be waiting and never upgrade. The 1366 is not quite at it's EOL yet and you can get a 6 core for an upgrade when they become affordable.

 

Sounds good mate i don't think you can go wrong with a 1366 set-up, you'll get a few years out of it

 

Thats for the 1156 I7's

 

That's a good point, I accidentally didn't add one with a 980x thrown in.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking.

6gig XMS3 £89.44
i7 930 £214.05
Asus Sabertooth £159.31

Total £462.80

4gig XMS3 £65.94
i5 760 £139.94
GA-P55A-UD3 £101.70

Total £307.58

These are from Scan. So it's about 50% more expensive, which is no small margin. But the thing is, I think it's fairly obvious that buying 1156 now is silly. 1155 is virtually guaranteed to be faster, cooler AND have SATA6 and USB3 properly sorted for similar money.

1366, especially with THAT motherboard, should still be worth it. The only other thing I can think is to go mega cheap AMD or i3, just to get me going, and then I can afford to wait like everyone else.

The rest of the components in the build would be the same regardless.

 

See those numbers show it as essentially on a par with a 930/950, no?

If Sandybridge could be bought for around the £300 mark as with current 1156 and perform equally to a 930/950 setup, that would seem worth waiting for.... Hmm....

 

How can we be sure of the cost at this stage? It's taken the i5's time to drop to their current price... I still think the 1366 chips will compete against them, Intel wouldn't shoot themselves that much in the foot...

 

No - the thing is that the i5 2400 is a low end processor that has no HT by default (whilst the i7 980x and the 880 do).

The 2500 and 2600 do, with higher clocks as well. As you can see, without HT an i5 2400 is roughly identical to an i7 880 (which is itself clock for clock identical in speed to an i7 950), but as soon as you add HT, it performs better, closer to the i7 980x.

 

Be strong, stick to your original plan.

It's pretty dangerous to buy atm with so many new products on the brink of arriving.

Sure, a i7 950 will last a fair few years and chew through pretty much anything but if you system is stable and working ok an extra month or two for the new stuff isn't the end of the world...

 

Plus don't forget from what we have been told so far Sandybridge will have very restricted overclocking potential.
So out of the box it will be faster then the current i5, i7 but not too sure after we have sprinkled some OC magic?
Any benchmarks on a I5 760 @4ghz or a i7 950 @ 4.2ghz to compare against?

 

Only the non 'K' varieties. By all accounts the 'K' versions should be nice overclockers (see here)

To the OP, I've been contemplating the same question, and I think i'll wait, what with the next batch of cards from ATI on the way too, I know I'll only be kicking myself if I dont. Worst case scenario: they aren't all they are cracked up to be, and you can get a 1366 processor for less.

 

Mate i'd say get it you know the prices and have a good grip on the current state, next year vat goes up... and it korea kicks off prices will rocket

 

This, GHZ speed the older I5-760/750 may perform better than the new I5's sandybridge given the OC restrictions .....however there are other benchmarks that may show the new i5's will be stronger like multimedia apps...but untill reviews are done we wont know where the new processors perform stronger in which areas if at all, ..sandybridge is due first week/two of Jan i think...so for the sake of a months wait....just wait honest...and if things dont perform so well for sandybridge some of the 1366 boards/processors may have dropped in price anyhow at the expected release..

 

sandybridge is an unconfirmed entity as yet, and tbh all signs point to an i5 replacement rather than i7. plus you could be waiting for ever for prices to settle.

one piece of advice i would give is to check Scan's today only deals as they regularly feature a CPU/mobo/ram bundle

bingo: http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

930, sabertooth, 6gb 1600, £422.99 - £40 cheaper than buying the seperately

 

if you wait, you might as well wait for LGA2011. otherwise go for the i7, it should last long enough.

however, if you don't plan to use multi-GPU, i really don't see any point in getting LGA1366 compared to 1156, especially with the 1.5x price hike.

 

personally i went with i7 because i do a lot of 3D rendering for my course, otherwise you're right wuyan i would have gone for i5.

although since the OP is looking for longevity, i7 still makes sense in the long term