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IvyBridge worth waiting for? Or go for 2500K + Z68 now?

GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
What kind of performance gains can one expect from IB?

I am kinda of getting an itchy trigger finger on a 2500K+Z68 combo.

I will be upgrading from a 2009 Core2Quad Q9550.
 
Perhaps a 5% increase average across the board IPC increase. Perhaps more in certain applications, less in others. Perhaps better overclocking. Definitely lower thermals and better integrated GPU if that matter to you.

If I were you I'd wait for Ivy since your Quad is still a respectable processor and we're only a few months away.
 
I'd go for the 2500k and z68 combo. I went from an e8400 to an i3-2100 and the difference is night and day.

Also, the z68 boards will support ivy bridge, so you can always upgrade later on down the line. But, I feel that once you get the 2500k you won't feel that itch to upgrade since the 2500k is a BEAST.
 
Don't really think it's worth waiting for. If you find a good deal, spring for it. After all, you can always upgrade later.
 
GTaudiophile said:
What kind of performance gains can one expect from IB?

I am kinda of getting an itchy trigger finger on a 2500K+Z68 combo.

I will be upgrading from a 2009 Core2Quad Q9550.
Click to expand...
Personally, with how close we are, unless you are regularly encountering situations where your current rig lets you down, I would wait for Ivy Bridge.

You will get better IPC, better thermals, less energy consumption, better 24/7 overclock.

Ivy Bridge will also bring better motherboards, i.e. PCI 3, native USB 3 in the Intel chipset, possibly more Sata 6 connectors.
 
I was holding out for Ivy, but I couldn't withstand the MC deal (2600K for $229 and Asus P8Z68 Pro Gen3 for $160).

I think I'm going to try for some high voltage overclocks (I'm on water) and the impending Ivy release does take some of the pressure off. If it pops, oh well, time for a simple Ivy drop-in upgrade.

Edit: Pro Gen3
 
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Didn't you get the P8Z68 Gen 3 for 139? I thought it was $50 off a mobo
 
SLK said:
Didn't you get the P8Z68 Gen 3 for 139? I thought it was $50 off a mobo
Click to expand...

Good catch, it was the Pro version ($15 off regularly plus $50 off for the combo. deal). Pretty good board BTW so far. I fell for the RAID migration trap though - you can't move a bootable RAID array across different Intel chipset verions (e.g., from ICH10R to PCH). That cost me about a day restoring data from backups.
 
Ahh, yeah I have the non pro version. Not a bad board, took a while to adapt to it opposed to my Asrock. Since I had to return the Asrock I just forced myself to like this board and I am glad I did because it runs fantastic now.
 
rolodomo said:
I fell for the RAID migration trap though - you can't move a bootable RAID array across different Intel chipset verions (e.g., from ICH10R to PCH). That cost me about a day restoring data from backups.
Click to expand...

Really... ? That's interesting. I've heard success stories moving an Intel RAID array from say, ICH9R to ICH10R.
 
I'd wait. Unless you are encoding/compiling daily and have to have the extra performance then it would be best to wait a few months. IMO the power consumption alone would be worth the wait.

If you don't care about the budget, you could always buy the 2500k+mobo now and sell the 2500k when Ivy comes out.
 
VirtualLarry said:
Really... ? That's interesting. I've heard success stories moving an Intel RAID array from say, ICH9R to ICH10R.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, check this out: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-022435.htm

I should have marked my array non-bootable before the move and/or booted off another drive after the transfer.

I wouldn't be surprised that ICH9R to ICH10R worked however due to their similarities. I've done ICH10R to ICH10R many times, but I guess that's unremarkable.
 
rolodomo said:
Good catch, it was the Pro version ($15 off regularly plus $50 off for the combo. deal). Pretty good board BTW so far. I fell for the RAID migration trap though - you can't move a bootable RAID array across different Intel chipset verions (e.g., from ICH10R to PCH). That cost me about a day restoring data from backups.
Click to expand...

Wow, I'm glad you mentioned that. Will probably save me some heartache in the future...

GTaudiophile said:
What kind of performance gains can one expect from IB?

I am kinda of getting an itchy trigger finger on a 2500K+Z68 combo.

I will be upgrading from a 2009 Core2Quad Q9550.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I couldn't hold off and upgraded to a 2500k a couple of months ago. Going from an i7 920 @ 3.95 to this 2500k @ 4.54, I was extremely impressed at the performance gain. I was originally just going to keep my main rig on the 920, but after seeing the 2500k in action I couldn't hold off. I'm only getting about 32% more performance right now (15% faster clock/clock, 14% faster clocks), but when I was going through my overclocking regimen it was still going strong at 4.7+. I just decided to go from that extremely loud fan setting on the 920 with all antec 900 case fans on high, to a quiet rig with all antec 900 fans set on low, instead. And I went completely budget on this rig, I got a $94 mitx mobo, a $25 cpu cooler, and paid $40 or so for the ram.

I've had a few discussions with poeple since my upgrade, and from what I can tell you're probably looking at IVB being ~ 5-7% faster clock/clock, and it will probably OC by an extra 5-10%. So figure 1.06 x 1.075 = 14% faster approximately overall. Not bad at all for a tick, but that probably wouldn't be enough to get me to keep running a Q9550 for the next 3 months.
 
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My Q9550 has been good to me so I'm going to be waiting for IB to do a complete new build and send my current pc to 2nd pc duty (and give away my current e4300 TV watching rig). I have had my 9550 at 4.25 ghz for over 3 years 24/7 without any issues, at 1.392v. I am probably going to get it framed and put it on my wall once its too old to be useful just cus it's by far the best binned piece of hardware I'll likely ever get.

If you've waited 3 years whats 3 months imo... And I just bought a 2560x1600 resolution monitor too, which makes upgrading harder to resist.

Also since I'm doing full new build I wouldn't want to buy before kepler anyway.
 
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GTaudiophile said:
What kind of performance gains can one expect from IB?

I am kinda of getting an itchy trigger finger on a 2500K+Z68 combo.

I will be upgrading from a 2009 Core2Quad Q9550.[/QUOTE

6 months ago the answer was easy. Yes. Now? I'd probably wait since you want Ivy Bridge.
Click to expand...
 
Will Z77 be the new Z68?

I wonder what the price premium will be...

I can tell you right now that i7 will not be my goal with IB. A quad i5 will still be my goal.
 
I'm in a similar position with the itchy trigger finger.
Q9550 + ep45 built end of 2008, currently with gtx570
Weekly I will build something out with on Newegg (though I'd get the proc from microcenter)

2600K + 8gig ram + Asrock z68 + all the other bits
Each time I build it out I have to ask myself why?
Right now that old q9950 + gtx570 still chugs along and takes everything I throw at it.
there are two additional reasons why I'm hesitating.
1. I'd like to see PCIe 3 become something more than a marketing tag line. I'd rather a chipset/motherboard designed from the get go to support the spec. In other words, I dont want something that claims to work with "future cpu's" I want something that has been tested in the development process to work with production pcie3 enabled cpus.
2. Not liking storage prices
 
I think you can't really go wrong with either. Everything but HDDs are priced great right now to pull the trigger on a new build. You can always get an IB and sell your SB later in the year as well.
 
WAIT it out. You have a Quad already.. Your not going to see performance difference except a slight difference in gaming. I bet you have never taken that CPU to 100 percent, only time when it does is rendering video. Other then that, your not going to see a difference.. the CPU you have is solid. Wait until 8 core CPUs come, cuz your quad especially OCed is a beast trust me.

So wait it out, and lets see how 2012 goes. Also a upgrade that you would notnice speed difference is a SSD .. Why dont you spend that money on a good Crucial Inte or OCZ SSD... then you will see a big difference...
 
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