Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge Upgrade?

oralia80

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Nov 9, 2011
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Hello,
I plan to purchase a Sandy Bridge E setup as soon as they are released.

My question is, will I be able to drop an Ivy Bridge chip into my motherboard when Ivy Bridge chips are released? Will Ivy Bridge be compatible with Sandy Bridge E motherboard's? There's allot of info out there and I can't seem to find the answer to this specifically.

FYI, I intend to buy the Asus Rampage IV Extreme board.

Thanks!!!
 

saran008

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Sandy Bridge -E will be the repalcement of Existing LGA1366 socket (i7-9XX) series..
LGA 2011 and x79 chipset
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_2011

but ivy bridge processors will be upgrade of normal sandy bridge one. rumours are there that high end 1155 boards like p67 or z68 boards will support ivy bridge with bios update.. (also rumours that some features may be disabled.)

ivy bridge is 22nm die shrink of sandy bridge (32nm) with some performance boost & in-built gpu boost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

Sandy bridge E & ivy bridge are two different platforms.. i'd advice to get a 2500k or 2600k with Maximus IV Extreme-Z
or Gene -z (atx or matx) with 16gigs for high end with gpu of your choice, & you can try ivy bridge if released.

else wai until ivy bridge is released..

you can see already asus released bios update for Maximus IV Extreme-Z & for Gene-Z for support of 22nm processors

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_ExtremeZ/#download
 

chitzkoy

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Do you already own a Sandy Bridge system? If yes and you will use the system mainly for gaming, I would suggest not to upgrade to Sandy Bridge E. As of now the i5-2500k and i7-2600K are more than enough. Sandy Bridge E will be more expensive it being an enthusiast line and the 4 channel RAM.

Again I based my comments assuming that you will use the system mainly for gaming.
 

oralia80

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First, thank you for the replies and the information.

This will be my first PC system (only ever had mac systems) and this system will be for 3D Studio Max rendering.

Plan to OC as far as it can go... obviously with 3D rendering the extra 2 cores is very beneficial over 2600k's 4 cores.

I am kinda stuck... I need the system asap. I was going to purchase an X58 system (i7-990x) until I saw that SB-E is coming on the 14th. I'd love to wait for Ivy but really can't. Was hoping I would be able to upgrade the processor to Ivy once they released.
 

saran008

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Never go for X58+ i7-990x( Extremley expensive & near end of life too)..

Current sandy bridge will beat 990x almost most of tests.. as you are going t use cpu intensive i suggest to get 2600k + asus extereme -z iv as i mentioned earlier & go with 1600mhz rams kit 16gb..

just a comparision with 980x & 2500k
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=288

if your budget allows you for professional cards, get quadro 2000 (don go lesser ones, crap) else get an gtx 560/570, will do fine .. just my 2 cents..

you can test with ivy bridge when it gets released..

mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131759
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131760

cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&Tpk=2600k


RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231480
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429

if you are able to find rams with leass CAS value like 8 or 7 wil be good for overclocking..

rams with more than 1600mhz are merely good with numbers & expensive
 

cbrunnem

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why would you recommend this when he wants to do rendering and sandy bridge e comes out next week? plus ivy bridge will not release any time soon because they received no compitition from amd so why release in a hurry. another point is the chances of them releasing the 6-8 core versions at the same time are slim.

so there is the possibility of upgrading later with a z68 board to a hexa or octacore cpu but thats atleast 6-8 months away.

your decision.
 

saran008

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with i5-2500k @ stock & 6850 cyclone i can use Solidworks & draftsight with good speed upto medium sized assembly of around 300 parts..

3dsmax is also around similiar rendering.. with HT in 2600k will be added advantage & he likes to OC & if he gets quadro 2000.. it'll be damn good.. i assure that..

though sandy bridge is gonig to be released soon & difference in performance may be bit better but in my opinion, defenitely not justifying the price perfromance factor..

just my opinion only..
 

oralia80

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ooops, just saw your reply.

btw, I have a budget of 3k

Will SB-E not out perform SB 2600k especially in 3D rendering? (Max, Maya, Vray ect..) This will be my primary workstation.. I'm thinking the extra cores will really be significant for what I'm doing. Am I wrong on this?
 

saran008

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If you have that much budget, wait for a week, let sb-e comes out & see the real world performance@ stock & OC.. compare with 2600k & price performance factor also..

put the extra amount in professional GPU .. go for quadro6000.. u'll not regret that..
 
Just for fun let's throw this into the mix as you are really looking for a workstation, and not some gaming rig/home computer:

Get 2 of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117252

With a pair of coolers like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887023

Then get a board like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131373

And then load up on 2 or 4 of these 12GB memory kits:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148381

That would get you 12 cores and 24 threads, and 24GB of memory for $1880, or 48GB of Ram for $2120. It will fit in a full ATX case (possibly a mid, but I wouldnt), and it will churn through projects like no other!

On a more realistic note: Yes, wait for SB-E. There is a preview review on Tom's if you go looking for it, and it will be great for work (not much better for games though). Ivy Bridge will also have an E series (Extreme series), but it will not be out for another year at least. The first processors out the door will be like our current gen SB processors featuring 2 or 4 cores. Also, not much performance increase, just a lot of neat new features.
 

on second thought, if you really have 3K to blow on this rig then seriously go duel Xeon, paired with a Quatro card with as much Ram as you can afford. Tack on a few SAS or SATA HDDs in RAID, and throw it in the largest/cheapest ATX case you can find. For the programs you intend to run it will pay itself off in projects completed. If you are a student and not getting paid for your projects you could rent time on the box to fellow students and have it paid off that way lol.
 

oralia80

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Oh man... I had no idea the dual socket thing was an option. Can I OC these?

Do you think that it would smoke the SB-E?

You've really got me thinking now...

Btw, does that board support those chips? Looked like it only supported 4 core 5500 series.
 

gmcizzle

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No question, dual Xeons would crush a single SB-E and anything else for 3D renderings, etc. There will be a dual CPU setup for SB-E server CPUs as well, but those are not out for quite some time after the desktop models.

You can definitely OC the Xeons, 4.0ghz should be no problem, maybe even 4.5ghz.
 
OK, the previous idea would not work (proc will not work in mobo); But this might:

Mobo: Tyan, duel proc mobo, $255
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151193

Proc: 2x e5645 $560ea
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117256

Ram: 2X 12GB DDR3 1333 kits, $115ea
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139268

GPU: evga GTX590 $750 (computationally the same as a Quadro card, just less ram, and not as much error correction)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130693

Power Supply: PCP&C 750W (double check that it will work with the server board, I believe it will)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703027

Case: Your pick of an ATX full tower under $150

DVD drive: Any cheap $30 drive

HDDs: 4 HDDs in RAID 5 or 10 (10 has less overhead, but 5 seems to be the running favorite). As you know HDDs are kinda crazy expensive at the moment, so if you wait then your remaining $350 will go further. I was about to get 4 Samsung F4 drives (2TB) before the flooding hit. They were going to be $80 each, and are now going for $220 each (down from $240 last week, so I guess that is a good sign).

That gives you 12 cores, 24 threads, 24GB of ram, 2 GTX 580s in a 590 (important as the mobo will not SLi), 4 HDDs of a to be determined size, plenty of power, and redundancy on everything except for power and GPU. And all for $2950
At least it was fun to look at the parts :)
 

oralia80

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Man, you guys are really changing the game for me... Thank you sooo much. I didn't think I could touch a dual socket system for less than 5k... but I now realize my error was not thinking about previous gen Xeon's.

What would you use to cool those in order to OC them to that 4.5ghz? Originally I was going to buy the Corsair H100 liquid cooler...

What do I need to know to make sure that everything I buy is compatible?

Also what would be the next step up performance wise? I ask because I can probably do fine with a GTX 560Ti (for now), 12gb ram and a single SSD (I have a brand new 2gb spindle data drive). Plus I have a Drobo as primary backup. That said, if I could beef up the procs what's the next step up? Just looking for the fastest rendering rig I can afford.

Thanks a ton!
 

cbrunnem

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for 750 bucks a workstation gpu would make that 590 look like a child. dont think for a second it wouldnt.


OP buy a workstation gpu. they are designed for the work you want to do. you dont buy a sports car to pull a trailor so you shouldnt buy a gaming gpu(590) to do workstation tasks.
 

Andrew84

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Nov 12, 2011
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Hey Hey,

It appears that you're facing the same sort of dilemma that I am right now.
First I'd have to say forget the dual proc mobo's. The gain in speed is far from linear. Single socket boards are also more sophisticated allowing much better OC'ing ability and Nvidia itself recommends at least dual Quadro 5000's to stress a dual processor setup obviously pushing you way past $3k. GPU's, as any gamer can attest, are the system bottlenecks these days. Obviously there's more dependence on the cpu with DDC but not nearly enough to warrant spending an extra dollar on a dual proc setup. Second a gaming gpu for rendering/DCC purposes is out of the question. Workstation gpu's are at least 3x faster at rendering than their similarily priced gaming counterparts. The "fidelity/quality" of the output is also improved too. PS. there is an urban legend floating around about converting gaming video cards over to their corresponding workstation sisters via firmware/driver changes. I don't have any personal experience with this but I bet some other forum members do.

LGA 1366 is a total dead end road. The less expensive LGA 1155 setup is currently dominating the computing world. 2600k's are faster gaming chips than hexacore 980X's (not completely pertinent, I know) and the LGA 1155 cpu line-up extends from $65 to $330 allowing you to buy something that will let you to hobble along until the sleek sexy 22nm tri-gate transistor technology arrives in March. However, there's PCI-e lane bandwidth to consider. The LGA 1055/z68 boards only offer PCI-e 3.0 at 1 x 16 or 2 x 8 lanes of bandwidth (I think) (and n200 bridges cause latency issues). However, this seems to be plenty of bandwidth for both current gaming and workstation cards. It is just something you may want to consider when trying to futureproof a heavy-duty DCC rig. This brings us to the LGA 2011/x79. PCI-e bandwidth is huge (40 lanes I think) allowing you to add additional cards as you need them. Unfortunately it looks like Ivy Bridge won't be arriving for x79 until Q3 2012, and since the quad-core i7 3820 has been delayed until next year, next weeks proc line-up only includes the 32nm six core chips, the $999 3960X and $583 3930K; hard to pull out in 8 months and throw away. Well, there's always ebay.

All that said my personal recommendation would be a quad slotted X79 board, gigabyte's GA-X79-UD7 perhaps, paired with the 3930K (In the future you can see if it's bottlenecking you at all; if it does: wait and swap for Ivy Bridge) Get two 8GB ram sticks. You can add two more in the future if you see fit. Get a cheap gaming gpu for now, especially if you can think of new home for it in a couple month's. You can also get a cheap workstation card and put it in a second work machine later. 28nm Fire-pro and Quadro GPUs are on their way soon. Wait until they arrive and then buy as much GPU horsepower as your remaining money can buy. I'm thinking of building a second, lighter rig. That'll give me one for rendering and one for live-work. It should save me time compared to having one big beast. I'll keep my renderer smoking fast and put my pre-gen parts into the live-work machine. And liquid cool your cpu. The benefit to noise and OC'ing headroom are well worth it. Oh, and get at least a 1200w PSU. You want your TDP at full-bore to be no more than 80% of your PSU for maximum effiency. Good luck