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Worth waiting for Sandy Bridge?

potatolord

potatolord

potatolord

Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
4,079
I've got bad upgrade fever, want an I5 and other shinies (SSD etc), but have just seen the new Sandy Bridge stuff is due early next year.

What are the benefits of waiting? I'm not looking to do anything insane- just play Civ5 and other games. Is it worth the wait and (probably) extra cost, or should I just jump in now?

Non-technical answers appreciated...
 
I'm in exactly same boat mate, got a qx9650 at the mo but have an eye on a new i7-950 setup. With sandybridge on the horizon not sure if its worth waiting - although from what I've been reading it sounds like pretty much a year before the high end parts are out. Upgrade bug sucks lol.
 
Depends if its just money burning in your pocket or a needed upgrade. :) Also what is it an upgrade from? I switched to a Q9550 from a dual core before the i7's came out and don't regret it, I don't think I would get much more out of gaming on an i7, only would in my design work. First batches of sandy bridge are not gonna likely be as gd at overclocking as the later batches anyway as with all chips they get better at making them over time. So you would prob want to wait a bit more if ur into that sorta thing.

As for SSD theyre a lot cheaper then when I dived in right at the beginning and so worth it if you havent used one before the speed difference is imense. If theyre still a lil pricy have a look 2nd hand there are a few bargains to be had :)

If you want to play games maybe new graphics card? :P its what you require if you want to play the most recent games these days.

I just brought a ton of stuff for a server build anyway so no monies for upgrading my PC which is probably a gd thing with sandy bridge round the corner.
 
It's never a needed upgrade, just wanted. Ah, I'll probably go for an I5 then. Is the difference between an I5 and an I3 worth the price difference?

I'm thinking a 460 for the graphics card- that's probably as much power as I'll need.
 
i5 is pretty much the best gaming gpu out there and yes it's much better then the i3.

460 is an awesome graphics card and probably best value for money right now, specially if you overclock it.
 
Cheers all!

Now i have to get 100 posts- I need free postage and intend to buy form OCuk as they're helpful and reliable, unlike the competitors at... you know the ones- rhymes with WeeLiar.
 
well i do believe that the wait is a good things, i am waiting for sandy bridge to come on the market, i have an upgrade fever too but at the same time i got time to wait my system is not going anywere and also the games out now are more graphic intents than CPU,
 
potatolord said:
Is the difference between an I5 and an I3 worth the price difference?
Click to expand...


I3's are dual cores with hyperthreading so 2 cores running 4 threads. not as gd a true quad

I5's be careful reading the descriptions with the cheap ones as they are still dual core with hyperthreading

I5 higher end are the true quads with hyperthreading so 4 cores and 8 threads.

I7 quad core with hyperthreading

I7 high end (very expensive) 6 cores with hyperthreading.
 
I'd say wait, January isn't that far off, plus if you went i5 now you'd no doubt feel upgraditis once the SB stuff gets benched and reviewed anyway. No point torturing yourself twice!
 
potatolord said:
I've got bad upgrade fever, want an I5 and other shinies (SSD etc), but have just seen the new Sandy Bridge stuff is due early next year.

What are the benefits of waiting? I'm not looking to do anything insane- just play Civ5 and other games. Is it worth the wait and (probably) extra cost, or should I just jump in now?

Non-technical answers appreciated...
Click to expand...

May I ask what you are upgrading from?

It may be worth staying where you are as regards playing Civ5 until all the hoo har about Sandy Bridge has died down a little. Remember launch prices for this CPU and the new supporting motherboard socket is going to be way higher than a upgrade to say, i5 at the moment.

It's also looking as though the lower end CPU's are not going to be anywhere as overclockable as the last release of the i7/i5 series no matter what all the hardware junkies will have you believe. 2 - 3% is the limit on base clock adjustments if you want more you are going to be paying for it from now on in. If you have about the £900+ mark for the top end K series be my guest!

for your reference

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/07/22/intel-to-limit-sandy-bridge-overclocking/1
 
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Just go for a i5 rig, there is plenty of performance to keep you going for a while, especially after overclocking. You may want to wait until the SB stuff comes out anyway though, as prices may drop for the other lines due to the new product. And as said, a 460 will give you a boost in performance for games regardless. If youre worried about speed that much then get an i7.

Make sure all the other bits n bobs you have are suitable aswell..
 
I was in this little problem area but now im going for the i5, it just has such good reviews for gaming. really looking forward to my first upgrade since uni *drool*
 
Might as well wait. Coming out in only six or seven weeks, and depending on the performance of the new processors people may be ditching their i5 rigs, so bargains could be had.
 
I would still upgrade now if you want to, most i7 stuff holds it value pretty well so if you want you cam always sell it on and buy the new sandy kit, but its going to be a year or so before the good stuff is available so its a long wait, and once you get on the waiting train you never get off, as there is always something else coming.
 
StephenLawUK said:
I3's are dual cores with hyperthreading so 2 cores running 4 threads. not as gd a true quad

I5's be careful reading the descriptions with the cheap ones as they are still dual core with hyperthreading

I5 higher end are the true quads with hyperthreading so 4 cores and 8 threads.

I7 quad core with hyperthreading

I7 high end (very expensive) 6 cores with hyperthreading.
Click to expand...

Not exactly. Those "true quad" Core i5 cpus do not support hyperthreading.
 
Id say wait till jan, it will feel a lot better when you got a Core i5-2 or Core i7-2 system in place.

Hopefully they will overclock like no mans business and we might see some nice ocuk 4.0 or 4.5ghz+ bundles also.

Hopefully by then we get those new pciexress Ocz SSDs a nice Core i7-2 with 8gig DDR3, and a decent DX11 card and thats a nice system to last a few years as it is !
 
tenshin111 said:
Not exactly. Those "true quad" Core i5 cpus do not support hyperthreading.
Click to expand...

Ah didnt notice that. I assumed all the new chips had hyperthreading enabled as otherwise they would be not much different from the old C2D Quads except for stuff like turbo mode and better power consumption.
 
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StephenLawUK said:
I3's are dual cores with hyperthreading so 2 cores running 4 threads. not as gd a true quad

I5's be careful reading the descriptions with the cheap ones as they are still dual core with hyperthreading

I5 higher end are the true quads with hyperthreading so 4 cores and 8 threads.

I7 quad core with hyperthreading

I7 high end (very expensive) 6 cores with hyperthreading.
Click to expand...


I may be wrong, but I thought it was like this:

i3 = dual core, no hyperthreading
i5 = quad core no hyperthreading
i7= quad core with hypethreading
i7 six core = six core with hyperthreading
 
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