Will Intel® Core™i7 (Bloomfield/X58) owners be able to afford an upgrade?

Greebo · 23 Sep 2009 at 15:52

Good thread Wayne and exactly why I held off buying an x58 rig in the first place and I have being suggesting this for months on this forum that the 1136 has limited upgradability unless you have money to burn.

As said though, by the time the Gulftown cpus come out, people will want new mobos anyway as there is sata 3, usb 3 and pci-e 3 on the horizon (pci-e3 delayed till 2011 now though

)

So buy what you can afford now I guess. Personally unless you are an extreme overclocker and/or rich I think the 1156 platform is the one to go for after seeing a report that gulftowns will be $1500 each for trays of 1000 which probably equates to about £1300 to £1400 inc VAT retail :eek:

. Okay even if that is the extreme cpu price, it puts it at twice the price of the current EE i7 cpus. Gulftown is a bargain for server/cad business who used to spend way more than that on multi cpu boards.

The 1156 platform gets sata 3, usb 3 and were due to get pci-e 3 before the 1366 platform anyway (of course a mobo change required but at least your old cpu will still fit)

Combat Fighter · 23 Sep 2009 at 21:34

Greebo said:
The 1156 platform gets sata 3, usb 3 and were due to get pci-e 3 before the 1366 platform anyway (of course a mobo change required but at least your old cpu will still fit)

It's reading a statement like that that keeps making me confused! I'm still not 100% sure which platform for go on, I really was dead set on X58/i920. . .

What should I go for?

Stormar · 23 Sep 2009 at 21:40

go with what you want to sue it for,gaming and the odd bit off edditing then a i7 860 will be fine,if you into heavy graphics 3d stuff etc,then a i7 920 be better but for normall everyday use the 1156 platflrm will be fine,as for upgrading they both have new chips and boards added so whichever way you go you always be keepimg up with the new stuff.

fordypaul · 23 Sep 2009 at 21:42

Buy what you want now, dont buy what you may or may not need in the future, the future is not set!

chippy08 · 23 Sep 2009 at 21:45

We all better start saving then ready for i9.

D1ngd0ng · 23 Sep 2009 at 21:59

What should I go for?

Easy I7/X58 is STILL king and is likely worth it if you can afford it

Don't forget even though the lower end I7's are to be withdrawn at somepoint (every cpu has a shelf lifespan though and we were spoilt by 775 for so many years) an I7920 D0 stepping will last you for years to come (SSDs still cannot fill up SATA bandwith and PCI lanes are hardly an issue for near future)

Big.Wayne · 23 Sep 2009 at 22:29

D1ngd0ng said:
Easy I7/X58 is STILL king and is likely worth it if you can afford it

It isn't though is it

In the hands of an overclocker with a fetish for memory bandwidth and Ultra High-Def Crossfire/SLI gaming your certainly right but for most people the Lynnfield LGA1156/P55 is faster out-the-box and cheaper! :cool:

Thanks everyone for your feedback/viewpoints. it's certainly all food for thought. If the LGA1366 does end up being uBer high end chips only (£500+) then I think the Bloomfield 920 would be a much sought after chip after they go EOL

Stormar · 23 Sep 2009 at 22:42

chippy08 said:
We all better start saving then ready for i9.

this is so funny,not meanin you btw,just using your quote

what i mean is everyone has jumped on the i7 920 when it was released then came out the 1156 with some very good chips ie 860,now if they had both come out together i think a lot more would have gone with the i7 860,then we have the upgrade debate,when the new i9 comes out most will not be able to afford the jump at all,a lot will say its not worth it i,m happy with my i7 setup etcTBh its no differant to what is going on in the gpu threads a lot wanted to upgrade but when the price and performace came out a lot have decided to keep what they have,some are settleing for the 5850 and of cause you always get the ones who want bragging rights whatever the cost,when the more sensiable ppl get what they need for there useage.

fordypaul · 23 Sep 2009 at 22:46

If the new socket was the king 1366 would not be the basis for the future cutting edge stuff, moores law defines what we can expect, the 920 may be shelved but performance per £ will win, a new entry chip will do more for less money, if not intel would discontinue the 1366 socket.

Greebo · 24 Sep 2009 at 08:53

fordypaul said:
If the new socket was the king 1366 would not be the basis for the future cutting edge stuff, moores law defines what we can expect, the 920 may be shelved but performance per £ will win, a new entry chip will do more for less money, if not intel would discontinue the 1366 socket.

Not true. They don't need a cheap entry level chip as even a 6 core expensive EE cpu is cheap for the market they are aiming for.

You are assuming they care about you as a home user and your wrong.

JonJ678 · 25 Sep 2009 at 11:49

Stormar said:
now if they had both come out together i think a lot more would have gone with the i7 860

I'd have gone for x58 regardless, and the people who are really fixated on games would do the same. Office computers run beautifully on an e5200 so have no reason to move beyond 775. Servers want the multisocket boards with whatever we call the xeon x58 processors.

I think the P55 set fits the needs of 'casual' gamers, and people who are pressure sold it not realising that a 775 would be fine. I'm still unsure as to the intended market for these.

Greebo said:
You are assuming that they care about you as a home user and you're wrong.

So, so true.

'Wes · 25 Sep 2009 at 11:55

Start saving people.

Stormar · 25 Sep 2009 at 12:12

how can it be for causaul gamers,lol it beats the i7 920 in a lot of games there is hardley a game that can use 4 cores nevermind 6 and form what i have read,the i7 920 is not going to be around for long,so much for a futrueproof chip,if its discontinued you would have to pay a higher price for the next chip if it went wrong...i have said the i7 920 is a good setup if you into other things,but for gaming i can,t see what differance it makes having a 17 860,but i,m not really going into the whole debate on it,if your happy with what you have then thats all that matters.

Typhoon · 25 Sep 2009 at 12:48

At the moment the cost of a low to mid range 860 sytem is near enough the same cost as a 920. They both seem to over clock to the same speed, though the 860 is faster in standard form. Atm, there is an upgrade path for the Sk1366 chips in the form of i9 at whatever price they eventuall sell for. All the so far announced cpu's for the Sk1156 are downgrades from the 860.
Sandy briidge or what the next arcitecture is called is due to be with us in say 18months? That will most likely need a new chipset so it will be all change anyway if you want to upgrade to that.

So personally given the similar costs, I'd go for a 920 (retail chip for a 3yr warrenty if you feel cheap 920's will be thin on the ground and yours goes bust), given the additional Pci lanes for SLi/Crossfire and potential 6 core upgrade. If your after a i5 750 then there are significant savings over the 920.

achapman · 25 Jan 2010 at 13:55

Sorry to restart this thread. Was looking into getting a few new parts mobo, cpu and mem. At the moment looking at the Bloomfield i7 920, Asus P6TD Deluxe or the rampage II and corsair dominator GT, (At present amd venice , 2GB OCZ, asus a8n-sli deluxe) Any views on that parts I am looking to get?

rpg · 25 Jan 2010 at 20:30

achapman said:
Sorry to restart this thread. Was looking into getting a few new parts mobo, cpu and mem. At the moment looking at the Bloomfield i7 920, Asus P6TD Deluxe or the rampage II and corsair dominator GT, (At present amd venice , 2GB OCZ, asus a8n-sli deluxe) Any views on that parts I am looking to get?

I'm in the same position but am wondering if the Bloomfield chips are still the right way to go. I know they were 3-6 months ago, just wondering if things have changed.

So, what should we do? Stick with 1366 or go 1156?

JonJ678 · 25 Jan 2010 at 20:40

According to the roadmap [post=15809355]here[/post] there will be a non-extreme edition six core chip called the i7-970 replacing the quad core i7-960 which is currently retailing for £450.

So with a little optimism, we should be seeing a six core x58 chip for <£500.

rpg · 25 Jan 2010 at 21:00

JonJ678 said:
According to the roadmap [post=15809355]here[/post] there will be a non-extreme edition six core chip called the i7-970 replacing the quad core i7-960 which is currently retailing for £450.

So with a little optimism, we should be seeing a six core x58 chip for <£500.

Thanks for the info Jon, I'll post my thoughts over on that thread shortly.

bulldog147 · 26 Jan 2010 at 03:27

Intel should think of this way, send your old cpu processor chip back to Intel for recycle processor chips and will swap over your brand new cpu procesor as an upgrade in 25% discount.

Hotwired · 26 Jan 2010 at 03:45

Old chips are worthless, there's nothing to recycle.

Their cost is all from the manufacturing process rather than the material itself.