Sandy Question... compared to normal i5!

alexx · 6 Jan 2011 at 14:34

Sorry if this has been asked already- I asked a month and a bit ago is it worth waiting... the answer seemed yes

but I just checked the prices of the new sandy boards + its likely the chip will be a little more expenses than a standard i5 quad

+ its overclocking on the k is still somewhat limited?

so... is it worth just going for a standard i5 quad with a £90 board or is it still worth going sandy for the performance difference?

kristmace · 6 Jan 2011 at 15:28

Check this comparison out:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2

The new sandy's are that little bit faster and it looks like the boards are a bit more than the old P55 ones. As far as I know the cpu prices are going to be very similar to the current i5s. You just need to weigh up for yourself whether that performance difference and the additional motherboard features are worth the extra cash.

cmndr_andi · 6 Jan 2011 at 15:47

Here is a comparison in various different tasks.

Also bear in mind that the sandy bridge i5 overclocks (when using a K series chip) even better than the nahalem i5 (expect to hit at least 4.5GHz, with many going higher).

Finally, the P67 motherboards are not really much more expensive than the P55 ones. For example this full-ATX Asrock board is only £90.

Liampope · 6 Jan 2011 at 15:59

There's not much in it in mobos. Your £90 P55 mobo doesn't have SATA6 - you need to spend £100 for that, in which case it's pretty comparable to the lower end P67 boards. Not sure I'd fancy a big OC on the very cheapest P67 boards, but would step in around the £110 level with the Asus or Gigabyte. If you want proper SLI/x-fire, you have to go to ~£150 with either P55 or P67. So really not much in it.

The i5 2500k is looking to be £30-£40 more than the 760, I think, but for that 4.9GHz potential, being faster anyway clock for clock, and cooler/less power hungry, I'd say it's worth it.

95thrifles · 6 Jan 2011 at 15:59

Yeah the chips area bit more, circa £190 for a 2500K vs £140 for an i5 760 but the boards arent priced too dissimilar, and as above theres quite a few available for around a ton