Who is waiting for Sandy Bridge i3?

[AgentX]

I've been planning a new build for a couple of months now. I was planning on building a new Core i3 based budget machine until I heard about Sandy Bridge being released, but speccing an i5 2300 would put it slightly over budget. So...do I wait for the i3 2100 which is supposed to be coming in at under £100, or squeeze the budget and go for the i5, or go ahead and buy the i3 540 like I was planning?

I could really do without waiting until 20th Feb to build this, I could also really do without having to go over budget. But I don't want to build a machine that is already obsolete!

 

[MikeHiow]

If you do not want to wait, surely not waiting a month for your new build is worth £40 to you?

 

[AgentX]

Budget is around £350 so an extra £40 is quite a lot of that. Of course by 20th Feb the budget may be higher anyway - after all the i5 2400 is only another tenner but where to draw the line?

 

[Andrew G]

Ah to sandy bridge or not to sandy bridge, I thought I had it hard trying to choose between the i7 2600K and the i5 2500k models lol. I believe you will get more mileage out of the i5 sandy bridge, worth the £10 IMHO. As for drawing the line only you or your budget can determine that.

 

[MeatLoaf]

Is your budget for the whole machine £350, or £350 for mobo/cpu and ram?

 

[AgentX]

Is your budget for the whole machine £350, or £350 for mobo/cpu and ram?

Mobo + CPU + RAM + HD + case + O/S. It's not for gaming so I'm going to see how I get on with onboard GPU. Can always add a discreet card later if necessary.

The real question I wanted to ask was whether people think the Sandy Bridge i3 will be worthwhile given that it won't be overclockable and doesn't look to have the turbo mode either. The current i3 can be pushed over 4.5GHz apparently so what advantage will the SB one give?

 

[HangTime]

No turbo and no overclock sounds like a no-no to me if you're that way inclined. Sounds to me like with that budget a current i3 may be the best option, RAM+HD+CASE+OS will eat up the best part of £200 leaving you with not much over 150 for mobo+cpu (assuming you are buying brand new).