Any reason to wait 6+ months for upgrade?

[hans007]

just buy a $10 usb 3.0 card on ebay. done. sata 3 is pointless unless you want the highest crystal mark scores on some contrived benchmark for sandforce SSDs.

you'll never notice the difference. just save your money and wait for haswell in a year at most.

 

[Wall Street]

If you need to spend money for tax reasons, what type of monitor/sound setup do you have? I find that upgrading those can immensely improve both the HTPC and gaming experience.

 

[BrightCandle]

If you want to spend money on computer kit spend it where it will either make a big difference. Focus either on getting a lot of extra performance, like replacing that 6000 series GPU for an NVidia 670. Alternatively spend it where it will make a longer term difference such as getting a nice high quality monitor (or 3), speaker system or keyboard/,mouse and change the experience of games a bit.

Your base rig is just fine, you don't need anymore CPU yet. You can focus on getting the other stuff to top quality so that when the time comes for the CPU you wont be replacing literally everything else.

 

[Fjodor2001]

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.

That? I'm not sure what everyone is expecting from Haswell. From what has been told so far, the main focus for Haswell will be Ultrabooks. We're looking at better IGP performance, and much better "connected standby" time.

But as I understand it the OP is looking for a desktop PC. And then I'm not so sure Haswell will add much compared to Ivy Bridge. Perhaps ~15-20% better CPU performance. Is that worth waiting one year for? Then I'd rather wait 2-3 years for Broadwell or Skylake instead, when we'll likely be getting 8 core CPUs.

 

[Axon]

That? I'm not sure what everyone is expecting from Haswell. From what has been told so far, the main focus for Haswell will be Ultrabooks. We're looking at better IGP performance, and much better "connected standby" time.

But as I understand it the OP is looking for a desktop PC. And then I'm not so sure Haswell will add much compared to Ivy Bridge. Perhaps ~15-20% better CPU performance. Is that worth waiting one year for? Then I'd rather wait 2-3 years for Broadwell or Skylake instead, when we'll likely be getting 8 core CPUs.

In his IB review, Tiny Tom Logan explicitly stated that he was told he could not even imply the superiority of a tock compared to a tick. Read into that how you will, but that suggests to me that Haswell is going to blow SB/IB out of the water.

 

[Fjodor2001]

In his IB review, Tiny Tom Logan explicitly stated that he was told he could not even imply the superiority of a tock compared to a tick. Read into that how you will, but that suggests to me that Haswell is going to blow SB/IB out of the water.

But in what regard? Better IGP - yes. Better connected standby - yes. But better CPU performance - not so much. Or what do you expect? "Blow out of the water" to me would mean 50-100% better CPU performance. Do you really think Haswell will be anywhere near that?

 

[dagamer34]

With desktops, there's very little reason to wait for several generations (or even upgrade for that matter) unless it's for new technologies like USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, etc... Intel is heavily focused on investing in making better mobile chips with better IGP performance, lower power usage, and features like "connected standby". Almost none of these matter in a desktop where you're likely to have a dedicated GPU and can suck down all the power you'd like.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I didn't do a fresh install. Things are smoother now. Not everything, but where it was needed. You need sharp motion sensing to feel it though. To the fussy 1% of people like it, it is worth it.

 

[OCNewbie]

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

Same here. I only upgrade if things start feeling sluggish.

 

[OCNewbie]

Things are smoother now. Not everything, but where it was needed. You need sharp motion sensing to feel it though. To the fussy 1% of people like it, it is worth it.

Placebo. If you noticed it in a "blind" test, then I'd probably believe it.

 

[Axon]

But in what regard? Better IGP - yes. Better connected standby - yes. But better CPU performance - not so much. Or what do you expect? "Blow out of the water" to me would mean 50-100% better CPU performance. Do you really think Haswell will be anywhere near that?

If, in 2010, I had told you SB would be able to hit 5.0 on air, would you have been equally skeptical?

I probably would have been.

 

[mikek753]

If you want to spend money on computer kit spend it where it will either make a big difference. Focus either on getting a lot of extra performance, like replacing that 6000 series GPU for an NVidia 670. Alternatively spend it where it will make a longer term difference such as getting a nice high quality monitor (or 3), speaker system or keyboard/,mouse and change the experience of games a bit.

Your base rig is just fine, you don't need anymore CPU yet. You can focus on getting the other stuff to top quality so that when the time comes for the CPU you wont be replacing literally everything else.

yes, I'll get better GPU - not sure which one yet - need help with that choice as well.
I use direct LED LCD 52" TV (xbr 909) - I might upgrade
As for audio - I use Pioneer VSX via HDMI of ATI GPU - not sure what else can be done here it's digital to digital audio receiver with Ok DSP that connects to 5.1 speakers

this setup in my open / family room space

Does it make sense to get PCIx1 SATA3 card when PCIx1 limits to 5 Gb only?

this is why I think about newer CPU with MB...

tnx

 

[mikek753]

With desktops, there's very little reason to wait for several generations (or even upgrade for that matter) unless it's for new technologies like USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, etc... Intel is heavily focused on investing in making better mobile chips with better IGP performance, lower power usage, and features like "connected standby". Almost none of these matter in a desktop where you're likely to have a dedicated GPU and can suck down all the power you'd like.

this is exactly what I try to figure out
thanks

 

[greenhawk]

With desktops, there's very little reason to wait for several generations (or even upgrade for that matter) unless it's for new technologies like USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, etc... Intel is heavily focused on investing in making better mobile chips with better IGP performance, lower power usage, and features like "connected standby". Almost none of these matter in a desktop where you're likely to have a dedicated GPU and can suck down all the power you'd like.

+1

All I see is intel heading in a direction that is not in line with desktop performance. Future improvements will be in power usage (TDP ect) and onboard GPU. The processing improvement will be rather small in comparison.

as to upgrading, only do it if you need it.

PCI-E 3.0 too new and no noticable video cards using it (and even less other devices)

USB 3.0 getting to being usable but that has taken over 2 and a half years from inital release. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0). If you have managed to do without it for that length of time, another 6 months is not that big of a deal.

I personally have only upgraded from my q6600 as I was bitten by the upgrade bug about 8 months ago, but waited for SB-E (let down ways), waited for the cheap SB-E, waited for Ivy, waited for the motherboards to be tested by other users (not interested in a SB release issue again). All that with the GFC issues going on resulted in finding another reason to delay upgrading.

 

[Dizzymon]

I still run a e6600 c2d. All this new hype about SSD and usb 3.0 is a joke. I'll wait for usb 3.0 devices more main stream and actually works for all the different OS out there without hiccups. My build is almost 5 years old considering I've switched out just about everything except the CPU, HD, DVD drive, case. I only upgrade when the prices of parts becomes reasonable to upgrade. For most users they don't need a quad core to surf the web. hahahaha. I've seen people make this mistake so many times. The extra few hundred bucks spent could have gone into getting better parts instead.

 

[alyarb]

If, in 2010, I had told you SB would be able to hit 5.0 on air, would you have been equally skeptical?

I probably would have been.

I remember anand hit 4.7 GHz with his Presler sample and said it's going to be 5+ years before we see more mainstream architectures overclock like this.

In less than 2 years he had a QX9650 at 4.6 GHz.