Yes to SB. No to Bloomfield (but chipsets are FUNKY)

[Dadofamunky]

I was wrong. Bloomie is not happening for me. Seeing this quote from Anand changed my mind:

So where does that leave Nehalem and Gulftown owners? For the most part, the X58 platform is a dead end. While there are some niche benefits (more PCIe lanes, more memory bandwidth, 6-core support), the majority of users would be better served by Sandy Bridge on LGA-1155.

I'd bought a new i7-950 and an EVGA GT-131 mobo from Micro Center to run it on. Kept the receipts and unopened packaging, fortunately.

Bye-bye, Bloomie. Returned the 950 and the GT-131 and picked up an Asus P8P67 mobo, the same one Anand uses in his review.

MC is having their Intel Sandy Bridge launch party on Sunday which I won't be able to make, but I can attempt to reserve a CPU online. Haven't decided whether to go for the 2500K or the 2600K. After the review, I'm not sure it matters all that much. It's hard to argue with "...the 2500K is very conservatively clocked and just begging to be overclocked." And is "an absolute steal."

Here's the thing: I'd like to be able to utilize Quick Sync, but P67 mobos can't provide it. You have to wait till Z68 comes out next quarter, which is P67 with added on-die GPU support. My guess is that you'll wind up with an enthusiast mobo that has a DVI/HDMI port on the backplate riser. The boards will cost a bit more.

Frustrating, since I wouldn't mind using Intel's new GPU right now to reduce cash flow. It seems to be plenty good enough for my immediate needs. But I wasn't willing to give away CPU overclocking just to have access to the on-die GPU.

I'd like to be able to encode even faster but it's not a total deal-breaker. I don't think I'll be in the mood to do yet another board swap so quickly afterwards and I've already delayed my build thanks to Anand ruining my life. In the interest of instant gratification, I might have to suck it up with P67. Sucks that I won't be able to use Quick Sync. Intel's marketroids still are capable of blowing it. Really - having a chip set that locks the integrated GPU away from a key market? Then again, the enthusiast community is pretty tiny.

How many of you are serious enough about the benefits of QuickSync that you'd wait another 3-4 months for the Z68 chipset boards? My guess is, anyone with an i7 build probably won't bother at all until then. What do you think?

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Yeah, dick move on Intel's part. Though some speculation in that other thread that you may be able to overclock the CPU on the H67 the same as the P67 if you wanted to wait for confirmation.

Otherwise you could just overclock the 2500K and use it for encoding. It's still fast and produces slightly better IQ compared to quicksync (in Anand's tests anyway).

 

[sticks435]

I would wait just a bit. Lucid is supposed to be providing a software solution to using a discrete GPU and Intel's GPU on H67. That should be a sooner answer than Z67. In my opinion, Z67 won't solve anything, as it's just doing the same thing as Lucid's solution, just supported by Intel. It will support Intel's GPU and overclocking, but not a discrete GPU and Intel's GPU. If you don't see Lucid's solution pan out before your return policy expires, return everything and wait, the CPU prices aren't going to change. They sold the Q9550 for $180 for like 8 months when it came out.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

wait, lol

 

[nyker96]

I have to say I'm impressed with Asus P8P67, that board's got a great layout, and they low profiled most heatsinks so you can fit in any big cooler w/o problem. Just well thought out board. Hope your SB setup works out for you. Don't worry too much about not able to use Quick Sync, Sandy is still the fastest if you use something like x264 to encode.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Nyker, I agree. When I noticed the heat sink design in Anand's photos and noted that the Asus board had those, I was sold. Best word-of mouth you could ask for. And yeah, for entry-level prices we can get first-class H.264 conversion.

Btry: I CAN'T wait! (Well, maybe a week or so.)

Plus, my wife just landed a job today, so now she can support my hardware habit

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I have finally gotten around to running my i7 920 for a main rig. I should of done this a loooong time ago. So, I am enjoying a "new" rig while prices will settle down..