I7-980X now or wait for Sandybridge

[DamoVOTF]

I have been looking at new computers for the last 6 months, my old Q6600 and 4870X2 is on its last legs. Its currently water cooled which I love for its quietness.

I am looking for a pretty spectacular machine, with watercooling etc, but I am stuck on CPUs. Should I wait for the Performance parts for Sandy Bridge, Q3 2011 I believe? Or will the i7-980x be the best gaming CPU you can buy for the next few years.

I been struggling over this one for a while, I want to spend up to £4000 on the PC so want to get the best combination possible.

Any thoughts?

For reference I am thinking of:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Liquid_i7_Black_Pearl/
with 2x 580.

or

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1023

 

[GoldenI]

Think about it this way - the price of the i7-980X will be cheaper once Sandy Bridge comes out. A lot of people are waiting until Sandy Bridge comes out to get a new processor, because the price decreases. Just wait.

 

[stingstang]

It won't be cheaper. If you look at all the 1000 dollar CPUs, they maintain their premium price well after they should. The difference of 600 dollars is in that last 200mhz of speed while it's stock.
What you'll be plenty happy with is a Q9560, and a 6970 graphics card. The CPU will overclock without a fuss up to 3.9 Ghz, trumping any stock i7(minus the 6-cores) without you having to change your motherboard. If you want to see what Sandybridge brings after the initial release(which won't be a performance breakthrough) then go with that for now.

 

[sonicmarx]

If u only going to use the 980x for games i would rather go for a i7 thats a third of the price like a 950 as the 980x doesn't give any benefits for games. Focus on getting quality and snappy performance like the biggest single core graphics card nvidea/amd. Very fast ram like ddr3 2000mhz 8-8-8 24-do ur research first. Maybe 2 ssd drives with the sandforce controller- one for operating system and the 2nd for game installs only. A good psu like 850w antec or corsair. A good soundcard- dont like onboard sound.If u want to raid get a hardware raid contoller.




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i7 980x @ 3.6ghz with v8 coolermaster | 3x2gb corsair dominator 1600Mhz 8-8-8 24 | Asus Rampage Extreme 2 | Antec 850w signature | Asus hd 5870 | Corsair f120 sandforce | 3x western digital black 2tb | Zalman gt900 | samsung t260 | logitech g19 & g9

 

[teh_tourist]

I was in the same boat a few weeks ago, for gaming you don't really need the $1000 i7's. I ended up deciding to go with a SB i7-2600K and 2 GTX580's. And there have already been videos of people OC'ing SB to 5Ghz, so you could probably do some nice OC'ing on air. plus the 2600K is only going to cost about $320