Build Advice New build - The lower atmosphere is the limit...

If you intend to add more than 2 drives sandybridge is not for you right now

And it's gonna be 1-2'months before this is fixed and that's assuming you can return it only a few have said you can

 

Well, you could use one of the Highpoint cards to get extra usable sata ports.

 

I'm managing to cling to the cash I have for the rig so far and am still aiming for LGA 2011.

Looking at a rough breakdown of:

£500 for GFX
£800 for CPU+Cooler+Mobo+Ram
£700 for Case+PSU+HDD's+Optical+Extra cooling

I'll just see what summer brings. After this year I need a project like this to make the insanity worth it!

Thanks for keeping the help comming in btw! Much appreciated!


Edit: I feel a right lemon, despite being asked two or three times, I've not actually said what I'll be using this monster for: Playing the latest games on full settings whilst watching TV/Movies on my second monitor and not having to stress about adjusting settings so I can do both and still have a nice stable experience. I dabble in many things though so I'd like some beastly headroom (3D work, A/V editing, graphics stuff and more)

 

Ivy Bridge it's a no brainer! I have just got all my hardware in for what will be my main rig for at least the next 2 years but will be swapping the CPU and Mobo when I.B. hits the market for sure

 

If you need convincing about sandy bridge, just look at the clock on my rig, on air at 1.35v 26deg idle, 65deg load, 100% prime95 stable. It mashes a 980x into the ground at that clock. I paid 145 quid for it, nearly 5 times less than a 980x. the only way it loses out is in encoding and heavily multithreaded apps, and even then, not by much. the 2600k's are the same for overclocking, if not better and will murder a 980x. unless you have money to burn, it has to be sandy bridge. buy a vertex3 ssd for the ultimate performance jump, or even 2 in raid (1000mb read speeds!!) there isn't a game out at the moment that'll use 12gb ram, and i doubt there will be for another few years. spend the money where it matters. A jazzy IPS monitor, 2x580's or even better, the AMD 7 series, due out in 2 weeks ish (I know you don't wanna wait!!)

Please have a camera pointed at your face when you first boot your new rig up. the difference between your current rig and your new one is gonna be mind blowing!! I moved from a q6600 with a mechanical HD and spent the first 20 minutes just booting and restarting! 11 seconds from the OS choice screen to google search.

 

The AMD 7xxx aren't out in 2 weeks. There beginning production probably for a Q4 release same as the 6 series.

 

I'm sure i read they were out in may. I may be mistaken though

 

yep, but i read it wrong. they are starting production in may!

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/04/15/radeon-hd-7000-due-june-or-july/1

 

wow wow wow, IVY bridge? Why Ivy over LGA 2011? I read HERE that it's the same 1155 socket as Sandy but slightly improved?

 

Excuse my ignorance, I thought LGA 2011 was Ivy Bridge!!! So Intel are bringing out 2 new architectures around the same time? I thought it was new -improve-new -improve Tick Tock

 

Ivy bridge is just a die shrink of sandy bridge and will be compatible with existing 1155 boards like what what happened with the E6xxx series to the e8xxx series AFAIK

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me Murraynt Well looks like I am holding out for LGA2011 and not Ivy Bridge then as I had assumed.

 

2 new architectures ? LGA1155 replaced LGA1156. LGA1366 is going to be replaced by LGA1356/2011. So it is pretty much same as with first Core i3/i5/i7's, just the timing is reversed. 1366 was first, then 1156 came out. Now it's 1155 first, and 1356/2011 later.

Both 1155 and 1356/2011 will have Sandy Bridge CPUs. 1155 are Sandy Bridge-DT, 1356/2011 will be Sandy Bridge-EX, EP and EN. Ivy bridge will probably again have desktop (DT) and server (EX, EP, EN) editions.