Any reason to wait 6+ months for upgrade?

[mikek753]

Hi experts,

I'd like to upgrade my desktop system.
I have i7 860 - so far enough power, but
no SATA-3 6GB
no USB3
no Thonderbolt
no xPCI3

Will the next year bring any better tech that should stop me upgrade this year to get lets say Ivy Bridge?
I read about the next Intel CPU, but I don't see how I can benefit from it as I don't need on same die GPU anyway, as I plan to get newer ATI or NV mid - high end discrete GPU anyway.

How I've used my desktop:
1. HTPC - B-Ray, 2 OTA receivers (pvr), Inet streaming to watch Hulu and etc, watch MKV
2. moderate gaming

No, it isn't dedicated gaming rig, but I'd like to see Crysis to run smooth ;-)

Thanks for help.

 

[BD231]

Nope ur good, USB3 is nice in all but unless you're doing huge file transfers its not a good reason to upgrade. Thunderbolt is new so give it some time to mature, Haswell is for you.

 

[ShintaiDK]

SATA6 is basicly useless at the time. And only useful for sequal benchtesting with SSDs.

PCIe 3.0 doesnt make anything faster due to no bottleneck. Maybe in some years.

Thunderbolt, not much to get there yet.

USB3, unless you work with external HDs all day and got no eSATA. I dont see the issue.

Wait for Haswell next year.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I would upgrade to ivy. I went from 860 to 2600k and it was a huge difference. Going to 3770k made my booting faster and uefi bios smoother. Everett benchmarks are hugely better now. Haven't tried any games but I guess it should be smoother despite what benchmarks say, as has been my experience it's next gen CPUs

 

[gevorg]

No, it isn't dedicated gaming rig, but I'd like to see Crysis to run smooth ;-)

Your CPU is nowhere near out-of-date. It is still considered pretty fast. What GPU do you have? GPU upgrade might be all you need. Also, do you have SSD for your OS drive? That might give you a boost in your performance/smoothness too.

 

[mikek753]

thanks for your replies

yes, I have SSD and it's SATA3, while I have just SATA2 - so I can't use SSD to it's whole speed wise.
I have ATI 6870

so far my target upgrade date is Black Friday 2012 (Frys and MC).

 

[borisvodofsky]

I would upgrade to ivy. I went from 860 to 2600k and it was a huge difference. Going to 3770k made my booting faster and uefi bios smoother. Everett benchmarks are hugely better now. Haven't tried any games but I guess it should be smoother despite what benchmarks say, as has been my experience it's next gen CPUs

what are you smoking, boot faster? uefi bios smoothing? D:

 

[postmortemIA]

I am still on C2Q and have no problems. spend your money elsewhere.

 

[IGemini]

SATA6 is basicly useless at the time. And only useful for sequal benchtesting with SSDs.

PCIe 3.0 doesnt make anything faster due to no bottleneck. Maybe in some years.

Thunderbolt, not much to get there yet.

USB3, unless you work with external HDs all day and got no eSATA. I dont see the issue.

Wait for Haswell next year.

This. Most important part bolded for emphasis. The "tock" upgrades are worth waiting for, Haswell is one of those.

 

[Ventanni]

I had a Core 2 Duo E6750 before my 3770k. I'm glad I didn't upgrade to anything in between, as even the Core 2 Duo was able to play all my games with reasonable speed. If you have an 860, I'd wait for Haswell and save your cash.

 

[mikek753]

so far I know that Intel increases GPU power in Haswell vs Ivy
anything else new will be in Haswell vs Ivy that would be useful for desktop?

sure - Haswell would be much better tablets and none gaming laptops

tnx

 

[2is]

I would upgrade to ivy. I went from 860 to 2600k and it was a huge difference. Going to 3770k made my booting faster and uefi bios smoother. Everett benchmarks are hugely better now. Haven't tried any games but I guess it should be smoother despite what benchmarks say, as has been my experience it's next gen CPUs

I'm not even sure where to start with this post... I think I may have found my sig quote. Not nearly as epic as Don's but close.

 

[Kenmitch]

thanks for your replies

yes, I have SSD and it's SATA3, while I have just SATA2 - so I can't use SSD to it's whole speed wise.
I have ATI 6870

so far my target upgrade date is Black Friday 2012 (Frys and MC).

I see reason to wait if you can get some smoking deals. If deal is good enough you night loose little to nothing if for some reason Haswell turns out to be a must have for you.

 

[moonbogg]

Keep in mind Haswell might not be out for nearly a year from now. And also keep in mind what happened to early adopters of Sandy Bridge...their motherboards were defective and a huge recall was issued. Its best to wait a few months before jumping on new technology to make sure there aren't any problems. So, realistically, Haswell won't be a good option for at least a year from now it seems.
I suggest going for the Ivy Bridge now. At least if it were me i'd do it.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I have a slower processor, the X4 955 and I still don't see anything that is going to make me upgrade.

 

[moonbogg]

I have a slower processor, the X4 955 and I still don't see anything that is going to make me upgrade.

What would it take to make you upgrade? Would someone have to pay YOU to make you upgrade?

 

[Soulkeeper]

It's the upgrade urge from too much anand forum time ...

Throwing $100's at the pc every year isn't something most "normal" people do
upgrade if you want, but chances are it's not needed.

 

[Wall Street]

You can spend $450 for Z77 and an i7-3770k, or get better gaming performance with a GTX 670 and one of these. Nothing wrong with the original Core i7s that make it not worth waiting for Haswell.

Of course you are being a bit irrational though. The SATA 6 gbps really won't make much of a difference, and be honest - you don't own any thunderbolt/USB 3.0 doodads, do you?

 

[tweakboy]

Haswell is i7 gen 3 right ?

When is the i8 in 2015 ,,,,, worth to wait for that then upgrade now, if you already have quad core and 8gb ram,, thx gl

 

[Wall Street]

Haswell is i7 gen 3 right ?

Haswell is i7 generation 4

First was Nehalem.
Second was Sandy Bridge.
Third is Ivy Bridge.
Fourth will be Haswell.
Fifth will be Broadwell.

Haswell should have a faster GPU and is adding new transactional memory management which should reduce thread stalls when they are waiting for data that is in use by another thread. Broadwell will be the 14nm shrink of Haswell.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I would wait. Maybe upgrade your video card if you need more gaming performance. I don't see a reason to upgrade from what you have.

 

[piasabird]

It might be nice to see what happens with Win8 if we ever get a final build. It will probably be a bit of a let-down in the long run. I cant see big business embracing Win8 before it is field tested. Most server applications are barely tested with Win7. Business does not use operating systems not certified for their server software. However, it might be good for games or for home theater applications.

I have bought a couple of computers (parts). I am still using a core 2 duo E7200. It runs fine. Dont play games much. Just watch online video mostly. My other computer (2500K) My wife uses as a streaming comptuer. Cant see a definite reason to buy anything new yet. I just built the second computer so I could browse the Internet and watch online content at the same time. I cant see any great fantastic improvement between the two. Sometime new systems only really give about 5% improvement.

 

[Don Karnage]

No point in waiting if you have the money. Ivy isn't exactly bank breaking.

 

[mikek753]

thank you everyone for education
my 2nd part of story -
0. I have to spend money this (tax) year
1. yes I7 860 provides enough juice - even handbrake can't tax it
2. yes I have some limitations from my video card - it's mid range so it's expected
3. I use SATA3 SSD, but NO can't use it at full speed

I'd appreciate your help with selecting motherboard and video card as well if you know something I should keep in mind for X-Mas season that isn't there yet ;-)

 

[TekDemon]

I would upgrade to ivy. I went from 860 to 2600k and it was a huge difference. Going to 3770k made my booting faster and uefi bios smoother. Everett benchmarks are hugely better now. Haven't tried any games but I guess it should be smoother despite what benchmarks say, as has been my experience it's next gen CPUs

Your boot speed has virtually nothing to do with your CPU so I have no idea why you think you boot faster with a 3770K. If anything it's probably the clean install of windows. Even on an SSD it'll be ever so slightly faster at booting.

OP, I'd probably just make sure your CPU's OC'ed to it's max potential then hold out for another generation since there might be a platform shift. Ivy is nice in that people who bought sandy can just pop in an Ivy CPU but I don't think it makes as much sense if you're on the last gen stuff since you're going to end up re-investing in a brand new platform again soon.