Built now or wait for Haswell?

we cant really say.

i can say that buying now puts you in the performance bracket of over 2 years ago though.

ivybridge didnt improve on sandybridge performance wise (tiny ipc boost, but worse overclocking. sandybridge actually performs better if you are willing to push the cpu.)

personally, i would wait for haswell but im not you.

What ever you purchase today, something new and better will be released by the time the parts arrive and you assemble it. Even waiting for Haswell, you will find in 6 months or a year that something better will be out. It is a never ending story.

With that said, the 3770k will probably be a good processor for quite a while, arguably as long as the Haswell will be a good processor...

If you love cutting edge, you will find every 2 years you will be rebuilding...there will always be something better out there.

Buy a setup that runs what you want today effectively....and unless something comes out that you have to run and it is no longer effective on your computer...let ir ride!

^i disagree to some extent.

intel operate on the tick tock method. i have found it is better off to buy on the tick (or is it tock?)

sandybridge was an amazing improvement, ivybridge (for desktops) was barely an improvement, a step backwards in some ways to be honest.

haswell is going to be the new tick (or is it tock?) if history is a standard of measurement in any regard, it will be a greater improvement over ivy than ivy was over sandy.

this is a great article explaining haswell and then what would be reasonable to expect:
Intel's Haswell Architecture Analyzed: Building a New PC and a New Intel

I also know of their tick tock strategy. I believe the big improvements are the tock. But the tick is where they introduce a new architecture for example Sandy Bridge was 32nm and Ivy Bridve is 22nm. They mainly focus on the new architecture, getting it out and working. The next generation (Haswell) they work on improving that architecture where you get the big improvements, as Sandy Bridge had.

I personally am waiting for both Haswell and the AMD HD8xxx series to come out before a build myself a new computer (although it's also fund related).

Here's the thing - if you're going to buy now, buy now. If you're going to wait, wait. What you have to accept is that things change all the time and no matter what you buy there is always something better that's going to come down the pike. Things that stay the same right now are hard drives (SSDs are a different story), cases, and power supplies. Things that are constantly changing are the motherboards, CPUs, and GPUs.

^not true, i bought my sandy and wouldnt trade it for a free ivy

You can run Ivy CPUs on Sandy motherboards - all you need to do is update the BIOS. I run a 3450 on my Z68 motherboard and it works fine.

i know you can... what does that have to do with me liking sandy more than ivy?

New tech is around the corner, so I would wait if I was you!

I am thinking I am going to wait it out! I probably have another month before I am ready to buy anything, I will be 4 month away. I will be doing alot of video trans-coding, what I am reading I think the haswell will do a much better job. My main problem is I am impatient! lol

Thanks for the opinions, and long ass read (looniam). I have got to say I cant wait to give it a good OC! I remember my 1st OC rig P4 3.06 ($706)(oc 3.4+) radeon saphire 9800 ($499) 512MB rambus ram and an asus MoBo pins and switches to OC! Seems like such a long time ago.haha Again thank you everyone.

Im pretty sure I read that the biggest performance boost will be seen in portables. Energy efficiency if what they were going for I believe. The architecture will be very similar to Ivy

ivy-e is coming out soon, thats guaranteed to be a better performer.

(6-8 core ivy for the desktop.)

If Sandy Bridge isn't outdated and still runs games and whatnot, then an Ivy Bridge will be just fine, even post-Haswell.

I did wait it out!! I picked up a 4770k and a sabertooth motherboard! Now the waiting game with UPS.

Seems I will have a bunch of work. I will be pulling my 240gb ssd from my laptop and putting in a 120 from my temp computer. (that's running raid 0 no faster than single ssd) I will put the other ssd in my wifes laptop. I can take out my temp apu and motherboard out of my case and put it in another for my 9 year old son.( A8-3870K 3.0GHZ APU and MSI A55M-P33 FM1 Motherboard 8Gigs ram) A Lot backing up and OS & driver installing. My wifes I will just clone her drive its pretty fresh install. I can't wait for my install, Just need to save up for custom loop.