New CPU or wait for Ivy Bridge

[VirtualLarry]

I might get IVY. Or I might get another ASRock 990FX, and build a secondary rig like my main rig, and decommission the quad-GPU cruncher. I could replace it today, with a GTX480 card that is $210 FS at Newegg right now. It's very tempting.

 

[wpcoe]

What are the benefits of the "7 series" LGA-1155 motherboards over the current "6-series," other than on-chipset USB3.

I was surprised to see that Gigabyte supports PCIe3.0 via a BIOS update on its 6-series. I had thought only the new motherboards would support that. So, if a P67 will support the 22nm CPUs and PCIe3.0, should I snag one when I see one at a good price, or is there some reason to wait for the "IVB" motherboards?

What is the benefit of having chipset USB3 versus the current third-party USB3? I recently learned there's a big difference between on-chipset and off-shipset SATA-3. Is there also some significant difference for USB3?

 

[Dadofamunky]

This close to a die shrink, I'm going to wait just for the tech aspect of getting a 22nm cpu. I wouldn't mind one of the new z77 boards that are touting wifi/blue tooth/ sata III / USB 3, but one with all that and 2 x8 slots might be pricey.
I also like the sabertooth , just for it's looks to be honest

OMG, that thing looks like a munition.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Why is your e6600 not cutting it anymore? - when does it show?

This is a cpu forum, so all the geeks will say playing bf3 you will be handicapped by anything slower than a Intel 2400, while not commenting on your gpu

In this forum, being slowed down by your cpu in a game, gives far, far worse minimum framerate than the minimum framerate generated by a gpu. They can just feel the cpu pain

Times have passed since the e6600. Its painfull for these guys to realise the cpu only plays an utterly insignificant part of the performance for 99% of the users.

Read this as positive news, there is plenty to save here on the cpu side. If you are gaming, save some doe for a new midrange gfx. IB is uninteresting, but wait to se what NV have planned for the new 104. That can change the total budget.

And remember to save for a ssd. If you want office speed, all you need in your current setup is a ssd. Period. And it let you into the maps faster - it means winning...thats worth paying for

So much fail here. Sorry, but I call BS.

(I agree about one thing - the SSD.)

Seriously. Running an E6600 with any modern video card is a hopeless mismatch. Don't misinform the guy. No modern game is going run to like anything but crap on a system that's that unbalanced. You're exaggerating. E6600s are obsolete for anything except basic Web browsing.

If he's going to upgrade, he needs to do it right. There are far too many current technologies that his E6600 and its antique motherboard will never touch. I do not think it even supports SATA2. It is also likely to be incompatible with current video card tech. If I were him, and needed to spend carefully, I'd get a lower-end Asus Z68 motherboard, a 2500K, 8 GB of DDR3-1600, a decent hard disk (this will probably be a big hit) and a 128GB SSD. Then, take a deep breath and figure out what's left for a video card. When he turns it on and installs Windows and boots it up, he is not gonna believe it and he will think he's died and gone to heaven.

And yeah, a fresh install of Windows 7 is a must.

But c'mon.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Why in the world do you say that about the design? That is actually an excellent design for cooling the board and components. The shroud around the board will allow air to be forced to move across the PCB.

The introduced so-called "armor" brings nothing but higher operating temps. Problem created. Then they add a fan to keep the temps in-check. Problem solved*.

* - If the fan is able to stay below ambient noise, i.e. silent; which is very unlikely.

And then, they will probably charge a price premium for the looks. That's how a bad/cheap design, can sell well :whiste:

I'd rather have a board thicker w/ DVI output. Cost effectiveness matters, right Asus?

 

[Hidden Hippo]

I don't understand how it wouldn't work with current video card tech - yes, it would be a great bottleneck, but it's still running PCIe2.0 (and SATA2).

Anyway, the crux of the matter is that it will be upgraded in the very near future. Has there been an official release date for the IB CPUs yet or are they still a little in the ether?

As for SSDs, I was considering getting one and installing the OS on there then using the rest as cache space - is this how you would advise it or would I be better off trying to go all SS.

At the moment, I'm looking at the lowest end Z68 (P8Z68V-LX), i5 2500k and 8 GB Corsair/Crucial/G. Skill rem (whichever is cheapest when I order).

 

[bryanW1995]

I don't understand the people that tell others to run out and buy a 2500k right now even if the need isn't imminent. A better product in every way is coming out in a month or so. Would these same people buy a 2k12 car model at full price if the 2k13 model was coming out in 1-2 months?

Yes.

Just sold a 2010 new the other day for nearly full msrp. However, an INFORMED consumer would buy the new model for sure instead.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

I don't think I would ever buy CPUs/graphics cards second hand - I've no idea of the history of the object with regards installation or overclocking.

That bing said, the only date I've seen for IB is the 29th April as a launch. Does anyone know what socket Haswell is going to be use? I'm guessing late part of 2013 would be a possible release date so am tempted to upgrade to SB now (a tried and tested technology where boards etc. have had plenty of time to be tweaked and have errors rectified) rather than jumping straight onto a new platform with the Z77 chipset, especially given that I'd likely need a new mobo for Haswell if I were to make the step up to that.

 

[Mars999]

i don't think i would ever buy cpus/graphics cards second hand - i've no idea of the history of the object with regards installation or overclocking.

That bing said, the only date i've seen for ib is the 29th april as a launch. Does anyone know what socket haswell is going to be use? I'm guessing late part of 2013 would be a possible release date so am tempted to upgrade to sb now (a tried and tested technology where boards etc. Have had plenty of time to be tweaked and have errors rectified) rather than jumping straight onto a new platform with the z77 chipset, especially given that i'd likely need a new mobo for haswell if i were to make the step up to that.

1150 pin

 

[Cyberia123]

Wait, I thought Intel just recently delayed IB until June....

 

[dma0991]

Wait, I thought Intel just recently delayed IB until June....

The ones that most would buy will come out by 29th April, hopefully. Kinda disappointed to see Intel constantly pushing back the launch dates.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

So taking into account Intel's usual tick-tock model, this particular step is the small tock, and Haswell will be the big tick in 18 months (or however long) which will see the huge performance boosts?

My only reasoning being that I'm not really sure how much benefit PCI-e 3.0 and USB3.0 will really give me in real world applications. The only USB devices I use are wireless network adaptors and printers, and I'm not aware of PCI-e 2 being a bottleneck on current graphics cards, nor will be for a couple of years. Is this a reasonable statement to be making, or will I see graphics cards in 6 months time which exclusively required PCI-e 3 to run?

Edit: Are Z77 boards out on the 29th or will they be released earlier than the CPUs?

I've also just been looking at the Asus P8Z68V LX (my intended mobo) again - it already has 2 USB3.0 ports and SATAIII. Will I see any real world performance difference between them and an Intel controller, or will a difference only be seen in benchmarks? Alternatively, would I be better off with the MSI Z68A-G43? PCI-e 3.0, capable of Crossfire, USB3.0 and SATAIII....

 

[Mars999]

PCIe 3.0 is good for GPGPU, games as of not so much, and maybe power savings features? Not sure on that one.

USB3.0 is nice for External HD's, nice boost. Probaby cameras when they come out... And flash drives move along a lot faster.

Z77 I heard on April 9th....

I would get the Asus, I have 3 of them and no problems so far. And yes Sata3 is huge as long as it's on Intel's controller and not 3rd part crap.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

How can you tell if the SATA is Intel controlled or 3P?

I've been looking at a few, perhaps a little more pricey as reading around graphics benchmarks, cards at the moment seem to struggle to get what I would consider playable framerates at 1920x1200 in some games at max settings in single setups, something which was never really a problem before. I'm now considering boards like the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H and AsRock Extreme3 Gen3, as both have support for a x8/x8 PCIe usage etc.

 

[smakme7757]

Most definately wait for IvyBride. From the preview written here at Anandtech it looks like the new builders dream platform/chip.

 

[Mars999]

I love Gigabyte MB's have used them for many many builds, I just did an Asus this round mainly due to UEFI BIOS on Gigabyte at the time wasn't ready yet.

All P67 Z68 MB's have an Intel SATA 3 controller and the ports are labeled so check your manual when get one.

I would get this if you want PCIe3 now...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128538

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128498

or this Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792

 

[wpcoe]

Even if the P67/Z68 motherboard supports PCIe3, the Sandy Bridge CPU's don't support PCIe3, do they? I thought you'd need to put an Ivy Bridge PCIe3-capable processor on such a motherboard to benefit from PCIe3. (And, the i3 Ivy Bridges apparently won't support PCIe3 either?)

 

[Hidden Hippo]

Even if the P67/Z68 motherboard supports PCIe3, the Sandy Bridge CPU's don't support PCIe3, do they? I thought you'd need to put an Ivy Bridge PCIe3-capable processor on such a motherboard to benefit from PCIe3. (And, the i3 Ivy Bridges apparently won't support PCIe3 either?)

I'm pretty sure that's the case, yes. However, presumably having the additional bandwidth won't do any harm?

My only concern about buying brand new technology (for instance, IB and a Z77) is being the test case for them and fault finding the flaws in the production run, especially with the issues that Intel have reported with the manufacturing process (albeit on the mobile line). The other thing putting me off IB is that I'll be paying a premium for a Z77 board now when it will be obsolete when Haswell is released, when I could pay less and get a Z68 board and a SB processor which will still perform admirably.

Edit: I've been taking a look at Gigabyte's Z77 offerings and they're saying that DDR-1600 is only supported on 22nm chips, SB doesn't support it - is that true?

 

[Mars999]

I am running my DDR3 at 1600Mhz, but no the official is 1333Mhz, I am not overclocking but set the RAM to 1600Mhz in the BIOS... this is with my Asus P8P67 Deluxe

Yeah you need a IVB CPU to get PCIe3 but you can drop that CPU in a Z68 MB and have PCIe3

 

[Hidden Hippo]

So does SB run better with 1333MHz if you're not overclocking making 1600MHz the requirement if you are (I'll likely do a little overclock at some point, but nothing major), or is there little performance difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHz?

As you can tell, I'm leaning slightly away from adopting IB - I don't think losing the extra bandwidth of PCIe3 will hinder me at all, at least not in the time between upgrading to SB and next Summer after Haswell is released, and to be honest, the performance increases on the IB benchmarks were a little underwhelming - I was expecting something a little more significant, especially with the hype.

 

[Mars999]

I hear you on that, I am waiting for Haswell also.

I am not OC, and have no issues running the RAM at 1600Mhz, everything is at stock, I just set the RAM to run at 1600Mhz vs. 1333Mhz. I am assuming the BIOS took care of all the settings to run standard FSB ect...

I have 16GB running on this rig, and no issues.

If you are waiting for Haswell then I say get a P67 or Z68 pick up a 2600K or whatever and use that until Haswell. IMO IB isn't as fast as I wanted it to be, and I can upgrade my CPU on this MB, but decided against it until Haswell is out and get a new rig, with all the new goodies and Haswell will have 6 SATA 3 ports IIRC and I need more Sata 3 ports.

 

[fixbsod]

Are you talking about a BIOS update that enables full PCIe3.0 support or just compatability w/PCIe3.0 cards but still a 2.0 slot? Because it is my understanding that PCIe is like USB and is always downwardsly compat -- ie the 7970 is a PCIe3.0 card but noone is having trouble using it as it will work in a 2.0 slot. I'm curious to know because I have a Gigabyte GAZ68XP-UD3 board and don't see this available !! I DO see that Gigabyte has REVISED versions of their mobos that do have PCIe3.0, but don't see any boards that were originally 2.0 that go to 3.0 with a BIOS update.

??

I was surprised to see that Gigabyte supports PCIe3.0 via a BIOS update on its 6-series. I had thought only the new motherboards would support that. So, if a P67 will support the 22nm CPUs and PCIe3.0, should I snag one when I see one at a good price, or is there some reason to wait for the "IVB" motherboards?

 

[Mars999]

You only get true PCIe3 on some Z68 MB's, that would perform like a Z77 MB, otherwise yeah you are backwards compatible e.g. USB example you gave.

The BIOS update is only going to allow you to run a IB CPU in your P67 or Z68 MB, and that is if the MB manufacture allows it... I have such a MB that will allow me to run a IB CPU but I will not have PCIe3.0 support. Not a huge deal as now, but will be down the road and I will move to Haswell for that anyway.

 

[jcniest5]

...Yeah you need a IVB CPU to get PCIe3 but you can drop that CPU in a Z68 MB and have PCIe3

Not if your board isn't a Gen3. Not all Z68 boards are Gen3.

 

[fixbsod]

Yeah, I'm not really worried about getting full PCIe3.0 because 2.0s bandwidth is more than enough for right now. By the time 3.0 will be needed then enough of my system will likely be obsolete that it will be new system time! Tho I don't anticipate this for at least 4+ years.