Anyone feel that they DONT need to upgrade?

[Apocalypse23]

I feel I am set for another year. I have 2 rigs as you can see in my sig.

In system 1 I sold my 9800 gx2 and replaced it with a 4350 asus, this is my business/server build.

system 2 is for games, purchased a asus 5870 and selling my 8800 gts 512, I'm very satisfied.

My processor will stay strong for a year at least (since its ocd to 3.9ghz). Runs very cool: 32-33C idle and 44C load. Games run great and I'll wait for games like Crysis2 to come out before a worthy upgrade. Core i 7 920 is the cream of the crop but very expensive, I expect AMD to release something competitive by the end of 2010, it will also be cheaper.

Watch out intel!

 

[cbn]

Core i 7 920 is the cream of the crop but very expensive, I expect AMD to release something competitive by the end of 2010, it will also be cheaper.

Watch out intel!

Well Thuban (aka Phenom II x6) will be out next month along with the RD890 chipset.

Other than that I don't think we will see anything from AMD till 2011.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Well Thuban (aka Phenom II x6) will be out next month along with the RD890 chipset.

Other than that I don't think we will see anything from AMD till 2011.

Forgive me I have been out of sync with the AMD cpu world lately, but that is interesting news! If they can basically release something equivalent of a core i7 920 and price it to $200 then I am sold. The Phenom x4 965 is mid range but if they do release their new chip perhaps they will price it around the phenom 965, that would be a killer deal.

I have a feeling AMD will do it right this time.

 

[cbn]

Forgive me I have been out of sync with the AMD cpu world lately, but that is interesting news! If they can basically release something equivalent of a core i7 920 and price it to $200 then I am sold. The Phenom x4 965 is mid range but if they do release their new chip perhaps they will price it around the phenom 965, that would be a killer deal.

I have a feeling AMD will do it right this time.

Phenom II X6 is supposed to have some type of Turbo mode to compensate for the lower clocks.

These turbo modes really make sense when we consider the variable binning that appears on each CPU core. Good example is the Anandtech article on Phenom II x2 555 (ie, the chip unlocked to a Phenom II x4 but it appears two of the cores were weaker and thus held back the quad core overclock)

 

[aigomorla]

I have a feeling AMD will do it right this time.

as much as i wish this was true....

But i dont think so...

By the time AMD has matured enough for turbo, and other features.. *they really dont need it, because the BE, is not that much expensive then a regular*...

Sandy bridge for intel will be out.

Sandy bridge will make things a lot brighter for intel, which means darkness wall fall on AMD.

AMD should hurry on there fusion, since clarksdale flunked...
This would be a good chance for AMD to grab some shares on a real working fusion.

 

[MrK6]

I'm starting to get a lot more power-concious, in my old age. I used to think that maximum overclock was all that mattered (Q6600 @ 3.6 baby!), but now I realize that paying an exorbitant electric bill, purely for bragging rights, is pointless.

Ironically, this is one of the reasons I did upgrade. I had a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz, GTX295 @ 648/1242/1116, and a modded Antec 900 (even had it water cooled for a bit). Now I have the system in my sig. My Q6600-based rig idled at 190W and loaded at 515W; my new rig idles at 80W and loads at <250W. Focusing on the CPU upgrade, am I going to recoup via power savings the $150 I spent upgrading to the i5 750, P55M-UD4, and 2x2GB G.Skill RAM? Nope, probably not. But right now I have a nice, small desktop rig that is more powerful than my previous and absolutely silent. Something to ponder.

 

[cbn]

By the time AMD has matured enough for turbo, and other features.. *they really dont need it, because the BE, is not that much expensive then a regular*...

yeah, but this still doesn't address "variable binning" found in these multi-core CPUs. In fact, the more cores present the more I would think there would be a "strongest core".

Like I said a good example of what I am talking about is the Anandtech Phenom 555 x2 article.

This is why I really like the idea of Turbo modes (even for BE edition chips). Besides, I have heard good things about Cool-n-quiet being better than Speed step. Maybe AMD can carry this technology further with their Turbo modes?

 

[cbn]

AMD should hurry on there fusion, since clarksdale flunked...
This would be a good chance for AMD to grab some shares on a real working fusion.

Well that is true considering Sandy Bridge will beat them to true fusion with an IGP that is 2x as strong as the clarkdale one.

However, just the other day I read some news that the RD890 chipset will have some sort of new asymetric Crossfire. Possibly it may work with even stronger cards than they previous hybrid crossfire? Hopefully this ends up being true (AMD needs all the help they can get)

 

[Apocalypse23]

as much as i wish this was true....

But i dont think so...

By the time AMD has matured enough for turbo, and other features.. *they really dont need it, because the BE, is not that much expensive then a regular*...

Sandy bridge for intel will be out.

Sandy bridge will make things a lot brighter for intel, which means darkness wall fall on AMD.

AMD should hurry on there fusion, since clarksdale flunked...
This would be a good chance for AMD to grab some shares on a real working fusion.

I think you may be right, but that will take a year atleast?

I looked up the potential specs of Sandybridge on wiki:

Codename Market Cores (Threads) Socket Clock speed Turbo speed TDP Memory L2 cache (per core) L3 cache (per core) L3 cache (total) Integrated GPU? Release
Sandy Bridge B2 2P server, high-end desktop 8 (16) LGA 136x ? ? ? 3x DDR3-1600 256 KB 2.5 MB 20 MB No Q2 2011
6 (12) 15 MB
Sandy Bridge H2 Performance/Mainstream desktop 4 (8) LGA 1156 3.0 GHz 3.8 GHz 45/95 W 2x DDR3-1333 256 KB 1.5 MB 6 MB Yes Q1 2011
Mainstream/Value desktop 2 (4) ? ? 20/65 W 3 MB


The numbers and the Cache size alone makes me wonder....pure ownage is what it seems like, then there's also talk about the 22nm IVYBridge coming in 2012..... AMD can only compete price wise I'm guessing...

The majority of everyday average Joes won't care about the performance as much as they do about pricing...I just hope AMD spits out some high end and affordable stuff.

 

[Jhill27]

I'm heavily leaning towards upgrading my X2 5200+/ASUS Crosshair/2gb DDR2 667 but I cant decide on what to go with.

 

[toyota]

I'm heavily leaning towards upgrading my X2 5200+/ASUS Crosshair/2gb DDR2 667 but I cant decide on what to go with.

what gpu? that is a pretty weak setup if you are trying to play modern games.

 

[Gillbot]

Well, my current systems are i7 and i3 respectively so ......

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i saw the 9550 at microcenter for 170 yesterday and almost bought one. then i realized i had no use for it whatsoever. plus memory prices are way to high now.

 

[aigomorla]

MUST RESIST... no.. the dark side won..

You can call me Darth Aigo soon..

 

[WT]

No upgrades out of me this year, and I usta upgrade at least once a year. Having scaled down from 11 PCs to 6 over the past year, I decided to put the $2,500 I was spending every year into other hobbies.
Also, the electric bill was $225+ every month, and after doing DC for 6+ years it was time to give these 24/7 boxes a rest.

Besides, a Q6700@3.5 with a GTX280 isn't slow for anything I play.

 

[judasmachine]

I just feel like maxing out my system. Something like a Q9550, a 2nd 2x2GB DDR2 800, and maybe a second HD4850. Then I'll wait till tax time next year to reassess. Hell the way it is, is still awesome to me.

 

[Markfw]

MUST RESIST... no.. the dark side won..

You can call me Darth Aigo soon..

What motherboard is that again ? is that 7 pcie slots ?

 

[Daedalus685]

I want to upgrade.. and if something DX11 that I want to play comes out I will consider in the summer time..

I'm more likely to buy a new laptop that change anything in my desktop. q9550 at 3.6, and 4890CF is plenty for the time being..

 

[Silenus]

I'm holding out myself till at least the end of this year. The only thing I did recently was swap out my 8800 GTS for a 5770. It was an inexpensive upgrade and meant to just hold me over till I upgrade everything else and go with a new high end vid card then. The rig still can hold it's own!

 

[aigomorla]

What motherboard is that again ? is that 7 pcie slots ?

its a unreleased ultra super high end board for overclockers.

And yes it has 7 pci-e, and 2 nf200 chips.

 

[Rubycon]

its a unreleased ultra super high end board for overclockers.

And yes it has 7 pci-e, and 2 nf200 chips.

I'm willing to be bet it will be severely iops limited too. What good is all those gigaflops if your storage system chokes on keeping them busy?

Get a real server solution instead. Sure it won't support overclocking however with a more matched i/o actual WORK being done will be higher. (and you can sleep at night not having to worry about an errant output due to an overclock that's not truly stable).

 

[aigomorla]

I'm willing to be bet it will be severely iops limited too. What good is all those gigaflops if your storage system chokes on keeping them busy?

Get a real server solution instead. Sure it won't support overclocking however with a more matched i/o actual WORK being done will be higher. (and you can sleep at night not having to worry about an errant output due to an overclock that's not truly stable).

I have a real server..

its done and im bored with it... ()

 

[Rubycon]

I have a real server..

its done and im bored with it... ()

Yes but I am talking about a workstation!

You had a decent host but returned it!

Get one with 2-4GB cache and hitch it to no less than four SSDs and let it fly! I guarantee you will never look back again! The new revisions of the 1680ix have fixed the LONG init times. They come up as fast as mobo fakeR&#7463;ID™.

 

[kalrith]

My Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz plus 4GB of RAM gives me the feeling that I don't need to upgrade those components. My aging 2900 Pro gives me a completely different feeling

 

[DarkColonel]

I'm gonna stick to my current rig for a long time.

I went from a P4 2Ghz > A64 3500+ > A64x2 3800+ > C2D E6600 > i7 860

I said ... "wow thats a nice and noticeable improvement" every time ... until I went from my E6600 to my 860 which made me say "hmm ... ok well I guess I'll have to encode a video file or something to notice something different".

I mean I'm not displeased with my 860 ... I'm actually so pleased that I know I'll be good with it for the next 3+ years. I had the E6600 since 2006 and ran it for 3 years, would have been good for another year or so.

Oh well ... I won't upgrade for a loooooooooooooong time.