Building first rig - SB or i7 ?

[tankardofale]

First post! Hello, and thanks for reading.

Ok, so I'm sure this has been asked a billion times - but I'm building my own computer for the first time and I'm trying to decide whether to go with an i7-950 or wait for Sandy Bridge.

From what I can tell, most posters on this and other forums agree that it's a good idea to wait - especially now since we're only a couple months away - provided your current computer will tide you over ... and mine will.

However, I can't help but wonder about pricing. When Sandy Bridge releases, do we know anything about what kind of price tag we're looking at? I have a high budget for my rig, but I'm not looking to spend more than 400 on my processor alone.

Likewise, are we going to have to wait for the third party mobos, etc to drive prices down? If I recall, there are different socket sizes for SB... if not, I guess this is a dumb question.

I'm willing to wait a couple months for release, but not a year for prices to drop to affordable levels.

In the end, SB OR i7 will definitely offer all the power I need and probably more. I'm just trying to future-proof as much as I can.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

The socket coming out in January is S1155 which is the mainstream board (so prices shouldn't be too high), later S2011 is coming out which is the enthusiast board (similar to S1366 now).

As far as I know the speculation about processor prices is that it should be similar to the i7 7**/8** ($200-300), for the higher models (2500, 2600) perhaps a bit more for unlocked (K) processors.

Looks like Epsilon beat me :thumbsup:

 

[IntelUser2000]

If you are waiting for Sandy Bridge under $400, I'd get the Socket 1155 not the 1356/2011 or whatever it'll be on. The overall platform cost alone will be higher on the mid-2011 Sandy Bridge parts.

 

[Hogan773]

I am in your position too and am waiting till Jan. WORST CASE, SB either isn't as much of a leap as advertised, and/or they get greedy and price it too high, and in that case we can always choose to go back to the i7 950 which might also be cheaper.

A bad outcome for me will be if I decide to rush into this now, and then after I've built my PC I find out 4 weeks later that the SB chips are basically the same price but offer me 20-25% better performance, and my "new" PC is already dated. I realize that this is always the case in tech, but if the waiting period is short enough (2 months) and the rumor is that the performance/value jump is large enough (which it seems to be) it seems silly to jump into something today rather than at least seeing for real what SB has to offer.....

 

[dangerman1337]

There seems to be some good motherboards if the Asus (The asus ones will have EFI from the looks) and gigabyte by the previews and presumably be released at launch.

It also depends on your usage but i say that SB lga1155 will be a better buy for most people. Even if you're willing to wait for LGA2011 socket SB, it looks like that will be even more expensive than LGA1366 Core i7s (though not sure just conjecture).

 

[tankardofale]

Thanks all for the advice. I think I'll probably end up waiting as much as it pains my nature.

My only worry Hogan is that I miss out on some great Black Friday deal by waiting - but I suppose it's still worth it ... and of course I can go ahead and capitalize on deals on other components now.

Anyhow, thanks again all.

 

[Hogan773]

Thanks all for the advice. I think I'll probably end up waiting as much as it pains my nature.

My only worry Hogan is that I miss out on some great Black Friday deal by waiting - but I suppose it's still worth it ... and of course I can go ahead and capitalize on deals on other components now.

Anyhow, thanks again all.

Jeez, I think I've actually SAID those words to myself already.....we're in the same boat

I also was worried that I'd be missing that great BF special. I still decided that money is only part of the equation for me, and if given the choice come January to get an "old" i5 760 or i7 870/950 system, versus a "new" i5 2500k or i7 2600k system, even if the new system costs a little more, I'll be happier getting new. Therefore I DOUBT that there will be such an incredible BF sale on an i5 or i7 chip such that I will be saving SO MUCH versus the actual pricing in January that it will be a regret. I mean, if the chips are in the $180-250 range, they're not gonna BF them at $50 right? So maybe you save $25 or $40......that's not enough to forego waiting to see what SB has to offer.

But I too will be watching BF for other components like case, PSU, etc. The only problem I can see with doing that is that I might move past the return window in case something is defective, so I prob wouldn't buy memory. A case is fine, I THINK a PSU is fine? (is there a way to test that it works correctly without a mobo and other components?) If there's a great deal on a 1TB HDD I can always get that and hook it to my current PC to make sure it works. Perhaps a DVD writer too (although prices are so low there, a BF deal can't save more than a few bucks anyway!)

I too get impulsive (I was very impulsive when I started searching on this "project" a few weeks back) but now I've come to peace with the fact that I'm waiting......sometimes things are worth waiting for.

Good luck!

 

[LoneNinja]

SB is I7, if you didn't already know Intel is sticking with the I3/I5/I7 naming convention.

I would wait, January isn't that far away unless you NEED a new computer now.

 

[ilkhan]

Definitely wait. SB prices won't be any higher than existing i5 / i7 chips, they will just take over the pricepoints that are currently occupied by existing chips.

Found this over at [H] forums regarding SB pricing: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1558657

[IG]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5231/roadmapq4.jpg[/IMG]

So if you wait 2 months you can get an i2600K for same price as an i7 950 today.

<3 . Somebody actually looks at my posts.

 

[lupi]

came to this section to finally start looking around about details to finally go to an i7 platform, and this thread is very good.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Thanks all for the advice. I think I'll probably end up waiting as much as it pains my nature.

My only worry Hogan is that I miss out on some great Black Friday deal by waiting - but I suppose it's still worth it ... and of course I can go ahead and capitalize on deals on other components now.

Anyhow, thanks again all.

why dont you just buy BOTH???? there are always great no-brainer holiday combo deals.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

came to this section to finally start looking around about details to finally go to an i7 platform, and this thread is very good.

We aim to please.

 

[betasub]

We aim to please.

... said the leader of the firing squad.

 

[SaoFeng]

damn...i was all set on upgrading but now i want to wait....

 

[Nintendesert]

This was a question I was wrestling with too for an upcoming build for my brother. I think we're going to wait until SB since it really is just around the corner. Upgrade some of the reusable parts like the GPU shortly and use that for the new system and hold over till then.