Thinking about next CPU purchase.

[Rifter]

So with haswell now less than a year away i've decided to start thinking about my next upgrade. I've got the itch and was let down by this gen of GPU's so am thinking about CPU's.

What im running now is a i7 930@4.2Ghz, its not slow, its not slowing me down, but i want something new soon, had this for almost 3 years its time to upgrade.

So from what I understand from reading rumors online is haswell is Q1 next year and Ivy-E is to be released later this year, is this correct?

So what this comes down to is wait the extra few months for haswell or pull the pin on Ivy-E.

Things that will be required for next upgrade:

PCIe 3
6 Native Sata 6/gbps ports(2 will not cut it, intel screwed up this gen as far as im concened, hell even AMD is beating them in this regard)
USB 3 Native
6 core CPU

From what i understand both Ivy-e and haswell should offer all that except perhaps the lower end haswell chipsets might not have 6 6gps ports, also ive herd haswell will be getting only 4 core on the desktop, but also seen reports early on saying it will be 6 core on the desktop, so which is it? If i have to wait for haswell-E to get 6 core from haswell i'll just get Ivy-E late this year and say screw haswell.

Thoughts?

 

[2is]

I personally doubt there will be IB-E at all. Besides, if it's not slow and not slowing you down, why is it time for an upgrade?

 

[Rifter]

I personally doubt there will be IB-E at all. Besides, if it's not slow and not slowing you down, why is it time for an upgrade?

There are a few things i am missing, My next GPU will be PCIe3 for sure, would like a mobo that supports this. I would also like some sata 6gbps ports(the marvell controller on my current board is a joke). And i would like native USB3, i have a external USB3 hard drive dock i use for backups and have had some issues with the NEC controller on my board.

Basically its time to upgrade to something with a modern feature set.

 

[Yuriman]

There are a few things i am missing, My next GPU will be PCIe3 for sure, would like a mobo that supports this. I would also like some sata 6gbps ports(the marvell controller on my current board is a joke). And i would like native USB3, i have a external USB3 hard drive dock i use for backups and have had some issues with the NEC controller on my board.

Basically its time to upgrade to something with a modern feature set.

PCIe3 isn't going to offer anything realistically, 2.0 isn't saturated. I could see a case for sata ports but none of it is stuff that couldn't be solved with add-in cards.

Sometimes we just want something new, no shame in that. =)

 

[Rifter]

PCIe3 isn't going to offer anything realistically, 2.0 isn't saturated. I could see a case for sata ports but none of it is stuff that couldn't be solved with add-in cards.

Sometimes we just want something new, no shame in that. =)

Im running out of room for add in cards, i already have 2 460's(dual slot) a PCIe Asus Xonar STX sound card, and a PCIe Intel NIC.

Also is Ivy-E really cancelled? i have read press releases from intel about it exsisting, nothing about it being cancelled. However i have read a few reports that have been posted over the last month that rumor a dealay till q2-q3 next year but that cant possibly be correct so im disregarding them. They wouldnt release it after haswell that makes no sense at all, im assuming they will be very close in performance so no reason to compete against your mainstream CPU with your extream CPU's from last gen costing much much more. That would be the dumbest thing ever, they have to release it by the end of this year.

 

[2is]

I dunno... Looking at your situation I see no compelling reason NOT to wait for Haswell. Especially if you're already waiting until the end of the year for IB-E

 

[Rifter]

I dunno... Looking at your situation I see no compelling reason NOT to wait for Haswell. Especially if you're already waiting until the end of the year for IB-E

This is what im thinking, but will desktop haswell be 6 core? I've already decided im not upgrading unless its a 6 core, i keep my systems for 3-5 years as it is im not making a 3-5 year investment in a CPU at this time that isnt 6 core, especially since it seems over the last few years CPU power has not been increasing very fast, i could have my next CPU for 7 or 8 years depending on how things in the CPU world turn out. If AMD doesnt get there crap together and compete we are screwed, cause if they dont intel has no reason to push there tech.

 

[Rifter]

I just spent the last 90 min reading about ivy-e, most people seem to think its not going to happen now. I really wish intel would just man the hell up and make a announcement about it already, if you screwed it up so bad you cant release it in time to make it profitable just admit as much. Also seems like mainstream 6 core haswell is also not going to happen, and i really dont want to wait for haswell-e which is probably 1.5-2 years out.

Im starting to think my options for a 6 core are either buy a 970 now and call it a day, or make the small jump to SB-E, and honestly i think buying a 970 is a better option than purchasing a whole new mobo/ram/CPU just to go to SB, performance not worth the price of 2011 mobo and CPU. Or wait out haswell and just go for a 4 core.

 

[Denithor]

Problem is we are in a chicken/egg cycle right now. Software is slowly increasing support for multicore computing but not that fast. And Intel has decided that since the support is only slowly growing, why rush out >4 core CPUs for the mainstream market? The obvious result of which is the software people see 4 core CPUs as mainstream and think - why bother designing for more than what's mainstream?

 

[Rifter]

Problem is we are in a chicken/egg cycle right now. Software is slowly increasing support for multicore computing but not that fast. And Intel has decided that since the support is only slowly growing, why rush out >4 core CPUs for the mainstream market? The obvious result of which is the software people see 4 core CPUs as mainstream and think - why bother designing for more than what's mainstream?

This is my dilema, but since CPU speed has started to slow so much lately with intel favoring perf/watt over pure performance due to the lack of competetion from AMD, we are in a bad spot. I might not upgrade my CPU again for 5+ years if i end up going with a brand new ivy-e or haswell chip and if thats going to be the case i think its pretty safe to say 3-4 years from now ill really be wishing i bought a 6 core if i only have a 4 core.

Edit: of course i could just wait out brodwell(supposed to be 6 core mainstream, but they said the same for haswell when announced too so who really knows) but i really dont think ill make it that long lol.

 

[pelov]

The only reason for you to upgrade, as I see it, is for USB 3.0? Is it really that important to you? Are you having serious issues with the chipset?

Frankly, I don't see a reason to upgrade at all from my perspective. Your CPU is more than ample and it's a waiting game with regards to software. What's the point of splurging on an expensive 6-core CPU if you know the software won't ever utilize your 6 cores and 12 threads? E-peen?

I'd just wait it out. Unless you really need a new chipset for certain features, you're best bet is to wait until we see what happens in the following ~2 years. I highly doubt you'll be needing more horsepower in the following 2 years or so considering the recent trend towards scaling down rather than scaling up.

 

[tynopik]

had this for almost 3 years its time to upgrade.

nope

 

[Rifter]

nope

it will be 3 years by the time i upgrade(purchased this system in early 2010), hell it will be like 5 years if i wait out broadwell lol.

 

[Rifter]

The only reason for you to upgrade, as I see it, is for USB 3.0? Is it really that important to you? Are you having serious issues with the chipset?

Frankly, I don't see a reason to upgrade at all from my perspective. Your CPU is more than ample and it's a waiting game with regards to software. What's the point of splurging on an expensive 6-core CPU if you know the software won't ever utilize your 6 cores and 12 threads? E-peen?

I'd just wait it out. Unless you really need a new chipset for certain features, you're best bet is to wait until we see what happens in the following ~2 years. I highly doubt you'll be needing more horsepower in the following 2 years or so considering the recent trend towards scaling down rather than scaling up.

USB 3 is fairly important, i use it to backup 6TB of data weekly onto 4 drives, sometimes it works ok, sometimes it freaks out when i disconnect the hard drive from the dock and requires a reboot before it will detect the next drive. Not the end of the world but annoying. Sata 3 would be nice too as i intend to upgrade my SSD soon and give my current one to the gf.

 

[pelov]

I have a SATAIII drive running on SATA II and a SATA III drive running on SATAIII. I can tell you from personal experience that there isn't much of a difference at all

 

[JAG87]

Unless you have a specific need for lower power consumption there's really no need to upgrade from a 4.2Ghz nehalem. Wait until Haswell.

 

[Rifter]

I have a SATAIII drive running on SATA II and a SATA III drive running on SATAIII. I can tell you from personal experience that there isn't much of a difference at all

I think this will depend on the controller, i know my 2 1TB drives raided on the intel sata 2 controller are a good 20-30% faster than when i attempted to raid them on my boards craptastic sata 3 marvell controller.

Either way my next SSD purchase will probably be 2 smaller(64GB or 120GB) drives in raid 0 so i think sata 3 would be a good idea, not that you will see peak throughput often but if the drives can do it i would like a storage controller that could handle it.

 

[pelov]

I think this will depend on the controller, i know my 2 1TB drives raided on the intel sata 2 controller are a good 20-30% faster than when i attempted to raid them on my boards craptastic sata 3 marvell controller.

Either way my next SSD purchase will probably be 2 smaller(64GB or 120GB) drives in raid 0 so i think sata 3 would be a good idea, not that you will see peak throughput often but if the drives can do it i would like a storage controller that could handle it.

Is there a specific purpose for RAID 0 SSDs?

I see people doing this all the time but there really is no specific benefit from it unless you're doing large sequential transfers, say for video editing or photoshop or what have you, but even then you truly benefit from this if you're using the SSDs as your storage drivers, and in that case, why? For general purpose use, there is a minimal difference between a SATA II SSD and two Plextor m3 Pros in SATA III RAID 0.

Going from a platter HDD to an SSD, even in SATA II, is a massive upgrade. Going from a SATA II SSD to RAID 0 SATA III's isn't noticeable.

 

[Rifter]

Is there a specific purpose for RAID 0 SSDs?

I see people doing this all the time but there really is no specific benefit from it unless you're doing large sequential transfers, say for video editing or photoshop or what have you, but even then you truly benefit from this if you're using the SSDs as your storage drivers, and in that case, why? For general purpose use, there is a minimal difference between a SATA II SSD and two Plextor m3 Pros in SATA III RAID 0.

Going from a platter HDD to an SSD, even in SATA II, is a massive upgrade. Going from a SATA II SSD to RAID 0 SATA III's isn't noticeable.

The purpose is so i hopefully notice a differnce over my intel G2 drive and from what i have seen in pricing 2 smaller drives will be cheaper than one larger drive, and i obviously want them to be together with the same drive letter so raid it is. I also intend to move some games onto them so ill take all the speed i can get.

 

[Sweepr]

Same thing here. I'm on a 920 D0 @ 4.1GHz, its not slow at all but I'd really like to upgrade by the end of the year. SB-E would be nice, but I'd have to pay an extra $350-400 over Core i7 980 for ~15% more performance (new MB + memory). Yes, its a new platform, but if Intel doesnt launch IB-E its as dead as LGA1366. I don't know if its worth spending +$500 on a 2010 CPU when there's i7 3770K around, offering a nice bump in IPC + much higher clocks either. I'll probably wait for Haswell and grab another quad-core again.

 

[Rifter]

Same thing here. I'm on a 920 D0 @ 4.1GHz, its not slow at all but I'd really like to upgrade by the end of the year. SB-E would be nice, but I'd have to pay an extra $350-400 over Core i7 980 for ~15% more performance (new MB + memory). Yes, its a new platform, but if Intel doesnt launch IB-E its as dead as LGA1366. I don't know if its worth spending +$500 on a 2010 CPU when there's i7 3770K around, offering a nice bump in IPC + much higher clocks either. I'll probably wait for Haswell and grab another quad-core again.

This is likely what i will do unless ivy-e comes out this year.

 

[2is]

This is what im thinking, but will desktop haswell be 6 core? I've already decided im not upgrading unless its a 6 core, i keep my systems for 3-5 years as it is im not making a 3-5 year investment in a CPU at this time that isnt 6 core, especially since it seems over the last few years CPU power has not been increasing very fast, i could have my next CPU for 7 or 8 years depending on how things in the CPU world turn out. If AMD doesnt get there crap together and compete we are screwed, cause if they dont intel has no reason to push there tech.

If a Haswell quad performs better than a IB six core what's the point? This isn't AMD we are talking about here where they release weaker processors and increase core count to compensate.

As far as the SATA deal. The other poster is correct. 20% faster in a benchmark doesn't mean 20% faster computer.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm jumping on a 970 until Haswell

 

[cmdrdredd]

This is what im thinking, but will desktop haswell be 6 core? I've already decided im not upgrading unless its a 6 core, i keep my systems for 3-5 years as it is im not making a 3-5 year investment in a CPU at this time that isnt 6 core, especially since it seems over the last few years CPU power has not been increasing very fast, i could have my next CPU for 7 or 8 years depending on how things in the CPU world turn out. If AMD doesnt get there crap together and compete we are screwed, cause if they dont intel has no reason to push there tech.

6 core will be socket 2011 not socket 1150 AFAIK.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you want six SATA6G ports, USB3.0, IDE, floppy, and a six-core CPU, then I have a nice ASRock 990FX Extreme4 mobo with a Phenom II X6 1045T @ 3.51 that I would like to sell you.