IS IT WORTH WAITING FOR NEHALEM

[bonecrusher]

I am planning to build a gaming rig from scratch my config would be

Q 9450
Evga 780i sli
2 Evga 9800 gtx+
dell 24 inch
logitech g15 keyboard and g5 mouse
corsair 1000 W psu
cooler master cosmos s
wd 500 gb hdd

so people help me is this config good or should i wait for nehalem core

 

[o1die]

It all depends on what you have now and how quickly nehalem and ddr3 drop in price. Newegg has patriot 1 gig sticks for $37, about twice the price of ddr2. You have to be patient and wait awhile for prices to drop. Most folks can't do that. Once an item is out, they have to have it right away.

 

[OCGuy]

Price to performance.....jump on it now. There will always be something "just around the corner", and you can drive yourself mad with it.

 

[bonecrusher]

Yes thats right. How much performance gain is expected from nehalem

 

[Hugh H]

Originally posted by: bonecrusher
Yes thats right. How much performance gain is expected from nehalem

In applications that will use all the eight logical cores, it will get a significant boost (don't remember the numbers well, but I think it was ~30% or more faster).

In single threaded applications, it is around 10% faster than an equally clocked Yorkfield. Therefore, a highly clocked quad today (say, that q9450 @ 3.6Ghz) will still be faster than a 2.66Ghz Nehalem and probably even a 2.93Ghz Nehalem during single-threaded apps and pretty much all gaming.

 

[Hugh H]

Also I forgot to say, it is never a good idea to be an early adopter of anything technological. As my signature says I'm waiting for Nehalem, but I would likely wait some time before doing this.

P.S. You are gonna love those 9800gtx's + in SLI

 

[bonecrusher]

i have even waited this long for 9800 gtx+

 

[bonecrusher]

and i forgot the ram it is
corsair 2gb*4 dhx 800 mhz
sound card creative xfi
and logitech z5500 digital speaker system

and GUYS PLS COMMENT ON THE SYSTEM

 

[mhouck]

It all looks good. The 8 gigs is a bit of overkill IMHO but it's merely a trifle. Since you were looking at the evga 780i you might want to look over the FTW Edition

 

[bonecrusher]

is q9450 ok for overclocking or shall i get e8500 and overclock it

 

[Hugh H]

Originally posted by: bonecrusher
is q9450 ok for overclocking or shall i get e8500 and overclock it

Go with q9450. It should do 3.2Ghz without much adjustments (or any at all), and you may reach 3.6Ghz if you are skilled even with 8gb of RAM. Even at 3.2Ghz + a quad, that should be plenty of speed for quite some time. UE3 games (UT3, Mass Effect), World in Conflict, and Supreme Commander they all use quads. I suspect this is going to start being the trend more and more.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Hugh H

In single threaded applications, it is around 10% faster than an equally clocked Yorkfield. Therefore, a highly clocked quad today (say, that q9450 @ 3.6Ghz) will still be faster than a 2.66Ghz Nehalem and probably even a 2.93Ghz Nehalem during single-threaded apps and pretty much all gaming.

you stating this as fact? or assumption?

Op: First off welcome to AT.

1. SLI = no go with neha.

2. Your budget doesnt include enough for neha
Had you picked out a Q9650 + 790ultra + DDR3, i would think your budget was enough for neha, but as i see it, no, not enough for neha.

3. your timeline for neha is proabably 3-4 more months. Can you hold out?

And i cant talk about performance numbers yet, but i have them ready when NDA expires.

 

[Hugh H]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Hugh H

In single threaded applications, it is around 10% faster than an equally clocked Yorkfield. Therefore, a highly clocked quad today (say, that q9450 @ 3.6Ghz) will still be faster than a 2.66Ghz Nehalem and probably even a 2.93Ghz Nehalem during single-threaded apps and pretty much all gaming.

you stating this as fact? or assumption?

Op: First off welcome to AT.

1. SLI = no go with neha.

2. Your budget doesnt include enough for neha
Had you picked out a Q9650 + 790ultra + DDR3, i would think your budget was enough for neha, but as i see it, no, not enough for neha.

3. your timeline for neha is proabably 3-4 more months. Can you hold out?

And i cant talk about performance numbers yet, but i have them ready when NDA expires.

Check out Cinebench's single threaded benchmark

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipse...howdoc.aspx?i=3326&p=7

It is not much faster than Penryn's at the same speed during single threaded apps. In muli ones it's pretty badass.

Cinebench shows us only a 2% increase in core-to-core performance from Penryn to Nehalem at the same clock speed. For applications that don't go out to main memory much and can stay confined to a single core, Nehalem behaves very much like Penryn.

Also, I thought Intel got an agreement with Nvidia to use SLI on their motherboards not too long ago? I don't know which mobo's will have the chipset though. And judging from the previous Intel-SLI experience (Skulltrail?), it is not worth it to get excited about it yet.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
There will always be something "just around the corner", and you can drive yourself mad with it.

Yup. We should do a flow chart for these types of questions...

What's your budget?
high - - low
. - - .
. - - you can't afford it
.
.
when are you buying?
within month - - 3+ months
. - - .
. - - .
. - - Get Nehalem
.
.
Get Yorkfield

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Hugh H
Cinebench shows us only a 2% increase in core-to-core performance from Penryn to Nehalem at the same clock speed. For applications that don't go out to main memory much and can stay confined to a single core, Nehalem behaves very much like Penryn.

Also, I thought Intel got an agreement with Nvidia to use SLI on their motherboards not too long ago? I don't know which mobo's will have the chipset though. And judging from the previous Intel-SLI experience (Skulltrail?), it is not worth it to get excited about it yet.

well considering that the X58 is still under NDA :T

So cant really say nothing about that.

Well seems like JCornell lost his NDA. So i guess i can post this:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...=3168831&postcount=816

That post in particular.

The whole thread can be found here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...d.php?t=190762&page=33

 

[PlasmaBomb]

That is a long thread aigo

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Hugh H
Cinebench shows us only a 2% increase in core-to-core performance from Penryn to Nehalem at the same clock speed. For applications that don't go out to main memory much and can stay confined to a single core, Nehalem behaves very much like Penryn.

Also, I thought Intel got an agreement with Nvidia to use SLI on their motherboards not too long ago? I don't know which mobo's will have the chipset though. And judging from the previous Intel-SLI experience (Skulltrail?), it is not worth it to get excited about it yet.

well considering that the X58 is still under NDA :T

So cant really say nothing about that.

Well seems like JCornell lost his NDA. So i guess i can post this:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...=3168831&postcount=816

That post in particular.

The whole thread can be found here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...d.php?t=190762&page=33

I think it's been mentioned before that the NDA is in regards to 3.2GHz Nehalems, not the 2.93GHz one's JC keeps slowly posting on.

In fact JC is so slow to post anything new benchmarking wise, and is so selective about which benchmarks he posts, I'm 99.9% willing to bet he is an authorized leak allowed to post drip-drip-drip style info on the message boards.

Viral marketing manifests in many many forms, leaked benchmarks that, gosh darn it all, just never seem to get squashed by the NDA source seems rather, um, orchestrated.

 

[aigomorla]

i know i said, his nda expired.

I cant say crap about mine, well, you know why. :T

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
i know i said, his nda expired.

I cant say crap about mine, well, you know why. :T

Be strong

Any chance you ran a certain benchmark that you may or may not have been PM'ed about?

I'd love to add some Penryn data to this graph: http://i272.photobucket.com/al...rk_Clock_Scaling-1.gif

And maybe even some other data would be nice too

 

[harpoon84]

aigomorla,

I know you are bound by NDA, but anyway, can you tell us if Nehalem is actually any faster in single threaded performance? I don't need a % figure or anything, just a yes or no answer.

Of course if you are not even allowed to divulge that, I totally understand.

 

[Majic 7]

Got through about 6 pages of the Xtremesystems thread then I started to tear up. Some of the AMD fans are in total denial. Really sad but I guess we will have to put pressure on Intel to stop testing their chips in cute little bunnies eyes. AMD is going to have to break into Area 51 to catch up. They may come up with something but it's going to be later than sooner, way later. Now that I have made my prediction they hopefully will prove me wrong.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: Majic 7
Got through about 6 pages of the Xtremesystems thread then I started to tear up. Some of the AMD fans are in total denial. Really sad but I guess we will have to put pressure on Intel to stop testing their chips in cute little bunnies eyes. AMD is going to have to break into Area 51 to catch up. They may come up with something but it's going to be later than sooner, way later. Now that I have made my prediction they hopefully will prove me wrong.

LOL XS is actually OK, you have 1 or 2 diehard fanboys that like crapping the threads, but most of the people are cool and just hardware enthusiasts in general and couldn't give a damn whether AMD or Intel came up with the goods.

If you want to see denial that runs the length of The Nile, head over to AMDZone and check out those forums. Apparently, the geniuses there deduced that because a 2.66GHz Nehalem only costs $284, it must be underwhelming and not much faster than current Phenoms:
http://www.amdzone.com/phpbb3/...opic.php?f=52&t=135324

Who can argue with such inrefutable logic?

 

[Majic 7]

Actually i spend quite a bit of time there and find it to be one of the better sites for information. Just can't stand it when people are posting complete ignorant crap. Whatever works the best use it if you can afford it.

 

[HopJokey]

Originally posted by: Majic 7
Actually i spend quite a bit of time there and find it to be one of the better sites for information. Just can't stand it when people are posting complete ignorant crap. Whatever works the best use it if you can afford it.

Which site you taking about, XS or AMDZone?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: harpoon84
aigomorla,

I know you are bound by NDA, but anyway, can you tell us if Nehalem is actually any faster in single threaded performance? I don't need a % figure or anything, just a yes or no answer.

Of course if you are not even allowed to divulge that, I totally understand.

no because that would violate 2 nda's and not just 1.