Intel sandy bridge E thoughts

Gregfoster17 · 21 Dec 2011 at 13:44

So what does everyone think about the new sandy bridge E processors?

I think there quite over priced for the preformance your going to get in anything other than a work PC with specialist requirments.

Saundie · 21 Dec 2011 at 13:46

I like mine a great deal. Not exactly value for money, but the high end never is.

Zuban · 21 Dec 2011 at 14:03

really like my 3930k, its really helped me, less time waiting for test renders is less interruptions to my workflow, it cost me about £200-£250 quid more than the 2700k build i was looking at. Well worth it for my uses.

MR.B · 21 Dec 2011 at 14:20

Gregfoster17 said:
I think there quite over priced for the preformance your going to get in anything other than a work PC with specialist requirments.

Well that is exactly what they're for and what i use mine for. And these are high-end and that always has a premium. i7 2xxx / Socket 1155 is not high-end, it's mainstream, and will suit everyone else (like all the gamers on here). Same thing when Ivy Bridge is out, that will also be mainstream and still only quad core. But Ivy Bridge-E will again be the high-end version later next year.

The Slayer_UK · 21 Dec 2011 at 14:25

Well i cant wait to get my 3930K it will be mostly used for gaming i know i could get a normal sandy bridge but i tend to save up and buy the best i can at the time and make it last 5 years and that way im getting my moneys worth out of it

Gregfoster17 · 21 Dec 2011 at 14:32

wow I wasn't expecting so many people to respond like that!

So if i might ask, how much was your sandy bridge E build and what was the i7 build you were looking at Zuban?

mmj_uk · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:16

I'm hoping to get a 3930K sooner or later, you can't really argue with the performance it's just that it's expensive and there's not that much use in having more than 4 cores yet, it's more novelty and knowing that you have plenty of CPU power waiting to be unleashed in most cases.

inSilica · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:20

I was very close to pulling the trigger on an entire build... (3930K) but then popped over to another forum where they were discussing C2 stepping and Jan 20.

So given that the 7970 is due to release in Jan and since I cannot wait for IB-E (if there is one) will definitely have a system up by 30th Jan (there bound to be bargains here at OCUK) I'm sure....

Gregfoster17 · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:24

But surely, if the build isn't for any specialised proffessional apps, then all that extra CPU 'power' will go untapped and therefore wasted until consumer apps reach a level where they can use that amount of 'power'. Needless to say that's not going to happen anytime soon.

The Slayer_UK · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:25

but then popped over to another forum where they were discussing C2 stepping and Jan 20.

What were they saying will a C2 stepping make a massive diffrence?

Zuban · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:25

Gregfoster17 said:
wow I wasn't expecting so many people to respond like that!

So if i might ask, how much was your sandy bridge E build and what was the i7 build you were looking at Zuban?

was looking at an 2700k + z68, i hadnt decided on the motherboard but was looking at spending anywhere between £150 and £200ish, went for a 3930k and msi gd65 (8D). When i bought mine there wasnt a lot of choice in boards actually in stock, plus it had a free cooler where my previous one wouldnt fit socket 2011.

my previous machine had 4 x 2 gig xms3 1600 sticks, was going to get 2 x 4gig sticks if i went for the 2700k so i could get a better overclock but as the x79 is quad channel the xms3 i had was perfect for the job, doesnt need to be fancy memory as its quad channel, so saved myself a few quid short term not having to get new memory, although i will eventually need more, right now none of the meshes i'm working on use more than 5 to 6 gig.

Rest of the pc is an antec 620w psu, and ati 6950 with unlocked shaders (maybe pickup another one at some point if i dont go for a 7xxx series). Overall i'm delighted, when doing 3d work the time saved for every test render isnt just time saved but less interruption to the work flow, i just find it easier to work with. I'd absolutly love to have a 3960x and rampage extreme with 32gig and mutiple graphics cards! but you dont need all that to get the benefit of a sandybridge-e cpu, depends what your doing though, as most of my stuff is cpu heavy and not much else then its well worth the extra for me, if it was just for gaming it would be hard to justify spending the money on the 3930k vs the 2700k and another 6950 for example..

inSilica · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:33

The Slayer_UK said:
What were they saying will a C2 stepping make a massive diffrence?

chill! nowhere. I'm just fussy. I use allot of vmware and vbox(once vbox has vtd-d) - therefore useful since I have a number of servers running out of virtual hosts!

There was some small speculation and hope that C2 will clock better since there will be a new microcode etc... but I wouldn't hold my breath

The Slayer_UK · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:39

inSilica said:
chill! nowhere. I'm just fussy. I use allot of vmware and vbox(once vbox has vtd-d) - therefore useful since I have a number of servers running out of virtual hosts!

There was some small speculation and hope that C2 will clock better since there will be a new microcode etc... but I wouldn't hold my breath

Oh rite ok its not somthing i have to be concered about then lol i know there was talk of a C2 stepping or somthing but wasnt sure what it would do i dont know what diffrent steppings do really just didnt want to order one say next week and then find out there will be a change which will make the chip perform considerably better lol

inSilica · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:41

The Slayer_UK said:
Oh rite ok its not somthing i have to be concered about then lol i know there was talk of a C2 stepping or somthing but wasnt sure what it would do i dont know what diffrent steppings do really just didnt want to order one say next week and then find out there will be a change which will make the chip perform considerably better lol

mainly: it fixes errata in C1 stepping which forces VT-d to be disabled. C2 (already available to large distributors / partners) will fix this and therefore VT-d will be enabled. This is all I know and the only fix I am aware of.

However it will require a bios update on the X79 boards because the microcode will change. Therefore in mobo specs currently you find supported processor as C1.

The Slayer_UK · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:44

ok i wont be using VT-d as i will be using it for a gaming rig mostly so dont have to worry about that

Saundie · 21 Dec 2011 at 15:53

Strangely Intel were listing the current Sandy Bridge-E processors as supporting VT-d up until at least last week, now they seem to have rectified that. I don't need access to my graphics card (or any other hardware, for that matter) in the virtual machines that I run, which is why I was not concerned by the lack of VT-d in the first revision.

The main reason I went Sandy Bridge-E was for the increased memory capacity. I've recently stepped up my pursuit of certifications; having 12 threads and 32GB RAM makes running virtual labs a lot less depressing than the Core 2 Quad I had previously. I'd have preferred to have gone for an i7-2600k system, kept the Core 2 Quad and ran them both at the same time, but I've only got space for one computer.

Edit: According to the wikipedia article on IOMMU, "I/O virtualization is not performed by the CPU, but instead by the chipset.". I've done a bit of browsing on the internets for more information, and it seems that the issue is with the X79 chipset and could be resolved by the upcoming BIOS updates to add C2 stepping support.

inSilica · 21 Dec 2011 at 16:25

Saundie said:
Strangely Intel were listing the current Sandy Bridge-E processors as supporting VT-d up until at least last week, now they seem to have rectified that. I don't need access to my graphics card (or any other hardware, for that matter) in the virtual machines that I run, which is why I was not concerned by the lack of VT-d in the first revision.

The main reason I went Sandy Bridge-E was for the increased memory capacity. I've recently stepped up my pursuit of certifications; having 12 threads and 32GB RAM makes running virtual labs a lot less depressing than the Core 2 Quad I had previously. I'd have preferred to have gone for an i7-2600k system, kept the Core 2 Quad and ran them both at the same time, but I've only got space for one computer.

TBH going by Intel spec I will tell you that the max ram supported is 32GB ram on SB-E. However I know people running 64GB on SB-E -- i.e. 3960X (http://ark.intel.com/products/63696...Processor-Extreme-Edition-(15M-Cache-3_30-GHz)). So Intel spec for me is meh .... I regard a review from ordinary people / enthusiasts to be more accurate

Saundie · 21 Dec 2011 at 16:31

That's odd inSillica, because I'm almost 100% certain that the spec sheet for the i7-3960x didn't say 32GB RAM was the limit when I checked it last week. There was a thread somewhere on here where somebody asked a specific question about VT-d, and a link to the list of all Intel CPUs that support it was given - http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?VTD=true. That list definitely had the i7-3960x and i7-3930k on it, and it also listed VT-d as being enabled on the i7-3960x spec sheet.

I wonder what Intel are hoping to achieve by screwing around with this information...

IvanDobskey · 21 Dec 2011 at 16:57

If you have the use for a SB-E then it is worth the extra money. For games, you may as well get a 2500K, clock it to the same frequency and get exactly the same performance for a fraction of the cost.

madtoady · 21 Dec 2011 at 17:31

IvanDobskey said:
If you have the use for a SB-E then it is worth the extra money. For games, you may as well get a 2500K, clock it to the same frequency and get exactly the same performance for a fraction of the cost.

I can't agree more with this statement, if you can use SB-E to its full potential then it's 100% worth the money, if you don't then its purely for bragging rights (not that there is anything wrong with that)