Was about to buy 1366 but now...

[crashingmedic]

First off here's my current build...

My PC...
Q6600 (G0 SLACR) @ 3.0 Ghz (stock voltage)
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
ASROCK Penryn 1600SLI-110db
EVGA GTX260 Core 216 896MB Superclocked Edition
2 - WD Black 1TB
WD Black 750GB
WD Blue 500GB
8GB (4X2GB) PC2 6400 Corsair XMS2 (DDR2800)
Sony DRU810A DVDRW
Pioneer DVDRW
Coolmax 950 PS (CUG-950B)
Antec NineHundred Ultimate Gamer Case
2 - Acer AL2223W 22” LCDs
Dual OS Boot
W7 Ultimate 64-Bit
XP Pro 32-Bit


I was about to take the plunge and upgrade to a 1366 set up for @ $600 (my budget) but now Intel has released the 1155 socket which seems to beat out the i7 9xx series in almost everything (except the $900+ 6 cores). I'm more confused now than every.

I am an extreme multitasker and use my pc for day trading mostly running 12-15+ applications simultaneously. My q6600 has finally started to show lag in some areas and that was why I was considering upgrading.

I need to get the best set up for what I do, that is multitasking. I'm a moderate gamer at most and when I play a game that is the only thing running. I don't SLI and would most likely use any additional video cards for extra monitors. I'm not ruling out SLI in the future. I'm just stating it's not a priority right now. I do want the ability to add an additional video card or 2 to run 4-6 total monitors and would steer away from purchasing any motherboard with only 1 pcie 2.0 slot.

To compare my pc to others, I've used a friends set up with an AMD 1090T (6 physical cores) and similar other components to mine. I was extremely disappointed and felt that my current set up was just as good. I've also used another friends i5 760 with similar other components to me as well and it seemed much more peppy then the 1090T. Both systems were custom built by them and were not store bought systems with tons of bloat-ware. However, both systems did not display the "night and day" difference I got when going from my old Pentium D 3.2Ghz to the q6600 I have now. That is what I am looking for in this next upgrade.

So, my question is will the new Intel 2600k or 2500k give me the performance boost I'm looking for or am I going to have to wait for newer Intel chips with 6-8 physical cores (not Hyper Threading) to achieve this? If so, I will have to wait.

I've also been told that upgrading my OS to a SSD HD will do wonders but the steep price of the SSD drives are stopping me. That upgrade will have to come later.

Thanks for reading and any input is appreciated...EWB

 

[rolli59]

Well Sandy bridge is beating everything apart form six core I7 on LGA1366 so I will say that I7 2600K should give you the speed boost you are looking for.

 

[silky salamandr]

Yep its running laps around anything out now even their own $500 plus chips. With this new tech out, purchasing almost 3 year old tech(1366) would be a total disservice. When clocked up, they even hang with the $1000 980-X. Go to youtube and type in Sandy Bridge and watch the comparisons to other chips and I know youll be amazed at the performance. The 2500k even eats the 1090T's lunch.

I would change over but Newegg sold out of the board I wanted and is not getting them back in till Monday and Im on a I7-860 rig that still has plenty of wind left. So I said F' it, and treated myself to a new Panasonic Viera 3D Plasma. Couldnt care less about 3D but couldnt pass up the deal.

 

[Ripthruster]

Besides the performance, the 2500/2600 run cooler, use less power, are cheaper, and OC better. Not to mention are on a brand new socket which gives you the best chance at being able to make a meaningful cpu upgrade later without replacing your mobo and ram and possibly even heatsink.

 

[Ripthruster]

I was "oh so close" to buying an I7-950 on a 1366 setup or possibly even an 875 on an 1156 until forumites here advised me to wait and that was super good advice.
I'm rockin' a 2600K OC'd to 4.4 cool and stable with 1 simple click in the EFI Bios.

 

[jimmysmitty]

First off here's my current build...

My PC...
Q6600 (G0 SLACR) @ 3.0 Ghz (stock voltage)
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
ASROCK Penryn 1600SLI-110db
EVGA GTX260 Core 216 896MB Superclocked Edition
2 - WD Black 1TB
WD Black 750GB
WD Blue 500GB
8GB (4X2GB) PC2 6400 Corsair XMS2 (DDR2800)
Sony DRU810A DVDRW
Pioneer DVDRW
Coolmax 950 PS (CUG-950B)
Antec NineHundred Ultimate Gamer Case
2 - Acer AL2223W 22” LCDs
Dual OS Boot
W7 Ultimate 64-Bit
XP Pro 32-Bit


I was about to take the plunge and upgrade to a 1366 set up for @ $600 (my budget) but now Intel has released the 1155 socket which seems to beat out the i7 9xx series in almost everything (except the $900+ 6 cores). I'm more confused now than every.

I am an extreme multitasker and use my pc for day trading mostly running 12-15+ applications simultaneously. My q6600 has finally started to show lag in some areas and that was why I was considering upgrading.

I need to get the best set up for what I do, that is multitasking. I'm a moderate gamer at most and when I play a game that is the only thing running. I don't SLI and would most likely use any additional video cards for extra monitors. I'm not ruling out SLI in the future. I'm just stating it's not a priority right now. I do want the ability to add an additional video card or 2 to run 4-6 total monitors and would steer away from purchasing any motherboard with only 1 pcie 2.0 slot.

To compare my pc to others, I've used a friends set up with an AMD 1090T (6 physical cores) and similar other components to mine. I was extremely disappointed and felt that my current set up was just as good. I've also used another friends i5 760 with similar other components to me as well and it seemed much more peppy then the 1090T. Both systems were custom built by them and were not store bought systems with tons of bloat-ware. However, both systems did not display the "night and day" difference I got when going from my old Pentium D 3.2Ghz to the q6600 I have now. That is what I am looking for in this next upgrade.

So, my question is will the new Intel 2600k or 2500k give me the performance boost I'm looking for or am I going to have to wait for newer Intel chips with 6-8 physical cores (not Hyper Threading) to achieve this? If so, I will have to wait.

I've also been told that upgrading my OS to a SSD HD will do wonders but the steep price of the SSD drives are stopping me. That upgrade will have to come later.

Thanks for reading and any input is appreciated...EWB

In honesty, the Q6600 is still great chip even if it is running on 4 years old. It was a great chip especially the G0 stepping that allowed for a Q6600 to match the QX6850 in speed for a much lower price. I still love mine.

That said, going from a Q6600 to a Core i7 on LGA1366 would be a huge boost. It was about 20%+ faster in almost everything than Yorksfield (45nm C2Q) and that was about 15% faster than the Q6600. Currently in threaded applications on a clock per clock and core per core level, Sandy Bridge (Core i7 2500/2600) is about 15-20% faster than Nehalem (Core i7 9xx). So going from a Q6600 to a Core i7 2600K would be the better option especially considering that price wise, it wont be as high and looks to overclock much better than even the Core i5 32nm parts.

My suggestion is to go with the Core i7 2600K. There will probably be 6 core variants but even if you waited for them or LGA2011 which will have 8 core CPUs, it wont really give more in terms of performance for the most part. Most games cannot rreally utilize more than 4 cores and unfortunately, scaling is not 1:1. The few games that do utilize all 4 cores tend to get about a 50% boost over a dual core if it utilizes the cores properly. But in most cases they don't.

If I had a choice right now and had the money, I would deffinatley go for a Core i7 2600K especially considering that they will probably release 6 core variants later on that will start off high in price and then slowly move down like quad cores. Get the 2600K, 4-8GB of RAM and a nice mobo like the Asus P8P67 or a good Gigabyte one.

 

[MRFS]

Before buying a new system, I would explore upgrading storage e.g.
WB5003ABYX is consistently showing 150MB/second with ATTO:

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/wd/WD5003ABYX.ATTO.2.jpg

And, after moving all of our browser caches into a ramdisk,
our daily Internet access is now a breeze:

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/superspeed/RamDiskPlus.Review.htm

At 3.0 GHz, the Q6600 is a lot of power.

You may be attributing the lag you are seeing to the CPU
when it may very well be aging HDDs.

I would run Windows Task Manager on a second monitor,
and keep an eye on the "Performance" tab, to see if you
really are max'ing your CPU.

Also, this review discusses higher overclocks for your motherboard:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2446/3


MRFS

 

[jimmysmitty]

^I can agree with that. HDDs tend to be the largest bottleneck in modern day PCs. Even SSDs don't quite have the power to keep up with even a Core 2 Duo.

 

[jpmucha]

My Q6600 is still meeting my needs. I'm not extreme multitasking though. I'm getting close to an upgrade... but I think I can afford to hold off to Ivy Bridge... maybe LGA 2011.
Is this a work PC? If so, I would say get the best system you can now and not worry about what is coming out...

 

[crashingmedic]

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I think I'm going to hold off for a little while longer and see if prices drop a bit before making a purchase. Right now the best price on a 2600k is at microcenter and it's just over $300 after taxes.

Also, if Intel keeps going the way they have been then any further upgrade from a 2600k on an 1155 mb will most likely be in the form of a new socked and I'll again need a new mb as well. Intel is the fastest and I prefer them over amd, but this gives me great pause in upgrading until it's been out for a while. I will try to hold off until the ivy bridge release but we'll see.

 

[crashingmedic]

Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the 1155 recall? Newegg stopped selling both the 1155 motherboards & cpus. I'm glad I waited on this. Any info is appreciated.

 

[jpmucha]

Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the 1155 recall? Newegg stopped selling both the 1155 motherboards & cpus. I'm glad I waited on this. Any info is appreciated.

The summary is that there was an issue found with the 3Gb/s SATA (SATA II) ports in the P67 and H67 chipsets. The 'connection' between the drive and the port can degrade over time. Intel recalled the chipsets and will be paying manufacturers to recall motherboards that already made it to customers. Some retailers took the processors (which have no problems with them) off the (virtual) shelves... since there's no motherboard option.

The 6GB/s SATA (SATA III) ports are fine, so if you have 2 or less SATA devices, you can get by with no issues until Intel gets the 'fixed' x67 chipsets to the manufacturers. They already have a solution. By the end of the month, OEMs should have chips (laptop makers... Dell... HP...etc). Somewhere in March or April, the fixed chips should make it to 'fixed' motherboards.

In my case, I needed a system when Sandy Bridge came out, so I'm happier I at least bought into the new platform. When the fix comes out, I'll have to swap in the new motherboard. Micro Center already contacted me saying they'd notify me when a replacement is available.

 

[buwish]

Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the 1155 recall? Newegg stopped selling both the 1155 motherboards & cpus. I'm glad I waited on this. Any info is appreciated.

Have a look here for more:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/298394-28-sandy-bridge-chipset-design-flaw-shipments-stopped-recalls-begin

 

[crashingmedic]

Thanks for the info. I'll be watching to see how the fix turns out.

 

[jpmucha]

Thanks for the info. I'll be watching to see how the fix turns out.

They're pretty confident the fix will solve the issue. They're already manufacturing new chipsets... its just a matter of time before the chipsets reach mobo manufacturers... and eventually the public.

March to April is the predicted time frame for the new mobos to reach us component builders...
They're worth the wait... but if you can't wait... you need to look for something else.