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When would be a good time to buy an i7?

Inazuma

Inazuma

Inazuma

Soldato
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Come March I'll be needing an upgrade from my Q6600 so that I can do a load of rendering. i7 seems like my best option (unless something significantly faster comes out by then). Are there any price drops set to happen between now and then?

Btw, for a decent OC'ing motherboard, what sort of price range should I be looking at?

Cheers
 
I spend a few hours daily researching new technologies,and haven't yet seen anyone publish expected prices for IB. That means we don't know yet if SB will come down in price straight away or if price reductions will be delayed. The latest news at CPU-World is that IB will be released in April.

It's always worth watching the This Week Only Special Offers, as they have something for everyone if you keep an eye on them :)
 
Come March, with any luck, Ivy Bridge will be in view - would expect that it'll come in at the current price point and drive down the present crop a bit :)

However the 2700K is currently on £30 off on TWO - 10% is probably as much as I'd hope for!

(Motherboard doesn't need to be £300 at all... £150 or even less can get you a perfectly stable build with decent clocks.)
 
What happened to motherboard prices? When I bought one for my Q6600, a £60 one was good enough to get me to 3.4ghz.
 
The £60 boards used to have very few PCI-E lanes.

The more lanes and sata III ports, the more expensive.

Also most Intel boards now support SLI, which costs more money because they have to pay Nvidia for it or something.
 
Inazuma said:
What happened to motherboard prices? When I bought one for my Q6600, a £60 one was good enough to get me to 3.4ghz.
Click to expand...

You dont need to spend £300 at all. A fantastic board is the Asus Maximus IV. Its SLI enabled, A good overclocker and its £160. And there are cheaper overclocking boards if you're happy to strip away other features.
 
wannabedamned said:
You dont need to spend £300 at all. A fantastic board is the Asus Maximus IV. Its SLI enabled, A good overclocker and its £160. And there are cheaper overclocking boards if you're happy to strip away other features.
Click to expand...

That price is for the gene-z (mATX) version. It's a great overclocker (my 2700K is at 4.8 GHz with air cooling), but if you want more than 2 graphics cards (or 2 gpus plus a PCIe sound card or any other add-in card) it won't be suitable.
 
I find the Asus ROG, or any similar high end boards to be worthwhile, if they are the same quality as my R3E are.

Back when I had an X58 UD5, it required 1.4v QPI, and 1.4-1.425v CPU for 200 Bclk and 4.2 Ghz on my I7 920. After I changed to my R3E, I only needed 1.275v QPI and 1.38v CPU for the same settings.

They vastly more stable on lower voltages when OCing, and also higher end SB boards have more Sata III ports and PCI-E lanes.

Although 2 PCI-E slots and 2 Sata III ports would suffice for most people, you have very limited upgrade possibilities on such a board. I have the potential on my current board to fit tri SLI plus a soundcard should I ever want to in the future, and I really expect this much expandability as a minimum for potential upgrades, and on a current SB board I would want at least 4 Intel sata III ports.
 
bhavv said:
I find the Asus ROG, or any similar high end boards to be worthwhile, if they are the same quality as my R3E are.

Back when I had an X58 UD5, it required 1.4v QPI, and 1.4-1.425v CPU for 200 Bclk and 4.2 Ghz on my I7 920. After I changed to my R3E, I only needed 1.275v QPI and 1.38v CPU for the same settings.

They vastly more stable on lower voltages when OCing, and also higher end SB boards have more Sata III ports and PCI-E lanes.

Although 2 PCI-E slots and 2 Sata III ports would suffice for most people, you have very limited upgrade possibilities on such a board. I have the potential on my current board to fit tri SLI plus a soundcard should I ever want to in the future, and I really expect this much expandability as a minimum for potential upgrades, and on a current SB board I would want at least 4 Intel sata III ports.
Click to expand...

Fair points there. Impressed with the difference on overcloking and v core drop. I have been pondering recently on changing my current Asrock ext 7 gen 3 to the Asus max ext Z for the very same reasons, but I am afraid to shell out the dosh without being sure that I will gain much - plus the Asus is not gen 3, so....... what to do?????

Mark
 
bhavv said:
That Asrock board is very well specified and should be good enough.
Click to expand...

Just a bit doubtful on the quality of the voltage control circuitry etc, but generally I think you are right - it is a good board. It is just after your comments earlier about rog boards being v good quality and good clockers etc - it made me wonder even more, but i dont suppose in the real world that saving a few milivolts on o clock is really worth the extra outlay.

Thanks for your input.

Mark
 
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