So what's the word on upgrading to Haswell???

[kbrady1979]

The i7-3930K is a true 6-core 12-thread CPU.......IF you need that much horsepower, I'd go with that and build me a good Socket 2011 rig.

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah that's the CPU I'm going after. I just need to at least look at Haswell before making the final choice, even though I have till Aug/Sept.

BTW you might check out the first post of this thread where I listed the proposed system. It is a Socket 2011 rig

 

[kbrady1979]

Well, you were going back and forth on socket 2011 and Haswell, but they are definitely two different types of platforms. Haswell, or any mainstream platform is more than enough for 90% of people and Socket 2011 is for the group of people who need the extra features such as people who do video/photo editing or run scientific programs.

 

[essenbe]

I read the review and several, but not all of the discussion. I agree with him on most things from everything I have heard. pretty much the reason I haven't upgraded, there's very little advantage in doing so. This is the first time in quite a while I haven't gone with the new CPU (Sandy-E excluded). But, I agree that if I were going to build a new rig today, it would be the 3930K. I've said for a while that Haswell was really Intel going after AMD in the laptop market because they think they are way ahead in the desktop market. The only real question I have about that is, if that's true the heat issue does not make sense. From what I've read, the heat issue is accross the board with Haswell. Not good for laptops. I know the CPU's are different, but the arcitecture is the same. Personally, I see no advantage to upgrading from my Ivy to Haswell. I think he was wrong about Ivy not overclocking as high as Sandy, but the heat issue is true. But, the truth is that Haswell has not impressed me at all. Personally I would go with sandy E or wait to see what Ivy E is like. there was a significant increase in performance between Sandy and Ivy, contrary to popular opinions. Benchmarks I have say 13.8% which may not sound like much, but do the math. Ivy at 4.5 is the same as Sandy at 5.1, which is significant to me. sandy E was a significant increase over sandy also. It is a very strong CPU. If Haswell E makes a similar increase over The Haswell desktop, it may be fun to wait for. But, I wouldn't go with what has been released so far. The review you linked to sounds much like I have heard from everyone, and I agree with his response to you. Just my .02 cents.

 

[sygnus21]

Thanks Steve,

It's been a while since I've been in the market and looked at CPU's or any other "performance" hardware.

Anyway I asked your opinion because I've seen you here a lot so I know you, and others, are pretty up to date on this stuff. The last time I looked at CPU's, even GPU's, was near the end of the first gen i7-900 CPU's

As for overclocking, I know I won't be doing that as heavily as I used to so overclocking is not much of an important issue at this time. I just want to get a high performance system for gaming, photo editing/processing, and somewhere down the line, some music mixing.

Anyway thanks for looking, your opinion is well valued

@ kbrady1979, if you look through this thread I started, I said I wanted a X79 system, but wanted to know if I should consider Haswell. Seems X79 may be the way to go.

BTW the Z-87 boards are quite appealing though.

 

[essenbe]

Thanks Sygnus. The only real sad part about Haswell is there are some very good improvements in the chipsets. The boards offer some good options.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Over on Overclock.net, a lot of them are already delidding the Haswells, shaving as much as 18°C from the CPU temps.

Again, I'm glad I decided to go with the P9X79 WS board instead of waiting for Haswell. While the ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Dual was tempting, I would have had trouble keeping the temps down and wouldn't have really gained anything overall. The extra PCIe slot I would have gained would have been offset by the loss of a couple of SATA ports; Wi-Fi (which I may not need someday if I go ethernet to a router) and Bluetooth (which I don't see needing anytime soon, if ever) can come from adapters so no gain there either. It's going to be a long time before I would ever need Thunderbolt, again if ever. Having the onboard video in addition to a GPU card would have been nice, though.

 

[kbrady1979]

I just wanted you to realize there was a fundamental difference between those two platforms. The Haswell platform is "mainstream" and works well for normal tasks, and the Sandy Bridge-Extreme is Intel's extreme line for more demanding tasks. If you need the horsepower, there is no substitute for the X79 platform. I really would wait and see what Ivy Bridge-Extreme has to offer before I made a decision though. After all, Sandy Bridge-Extreme will still be available if IB-E doesn't suit you.

 

[sygnus21]

You make some good points; Which is why I posted the question in the first place

 

[kbrady1979]

I was on the fence with my build as to whether or not to go with an X79 platform. I decided I didn't need the extra features and computing power the X79 platform has to offer, so I went with the Z77 platform. It would have been fun to build a balls out X79 rig though

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just wanted you to realize there was a fundamental difference between those two platforms. The Haswell platform is "mainstream" and works well for normal tasks, and the Sandy Bridge-Extreme is Intel's extreme line for more demanding tasks. If you need the horsepower, there is no substitute for the X79 platform. I really would wait and see what Ivy Bridge-Extreme has to offer before I made a decision though. After all, Sandy Bridge-Extreme will still be available if IB-E doesn't suit you.

I strongly suspect that the Ivy Bridge-E will also use TIM instead of soldering the die to the heat spreader and will have the same heating problems the Ivy Bridges and the Haswells are having. While having the added HP will be nice at times (heck, it's nice just to be able to run all my security scans simultaneously without the CPU breaking sweat), my biggest need was for the 40 PCI-e lanes the X79 boards have instead of the 24 the z77s had, especially since I need so many SATA III ports. I'm using 25 lanes now (GPU - 16, HBA card - 8, and card reader/USB 3.0 ports - 1) and I'm planning on using up two or three more eventually.

 

[kbrady1979]

With the higher TDP of SB-E processors, I am not sure if they will use the IB method or not. Hard tellin'


What I do like about the Z87 platform is the extra native Intel SATA III ports on the boards. On X79, the extra PCI lanes are VERY nice if you use PCI cards that actually need the bandwidth.

 

[sygnus21]

I was on the fence with my build as to whether or not to go with an X79 platform. I decided I didn't need the extra features and computing power the X79 platform has to offer, so I went with the Z77 platform. It would have been fun to build a balls out X79 rig though

Well I'm currently researching another X79 motherboard as I'm not so sure about the Asus Maximus lV board. I'm reading they've had too many problems, and their customer service it horrid. Unfortunately I can attest to the horridness of their customer service as I had an issue with the power supply for my Asus laptop. After dealing with their customer service I fired off a letter and indicated I would never buy another Asus product. Now reading a few user reviews at both newegg and Amazon reinforces my feelings about Asus customer service :shock:

I currently have a Gigabyte motherboard and looked at one for X79 but I kind of liked what Asus had to offer. However it was always in the back of my mind to stay away from Asus due to my dealings with them on my laptop. Looks like I need to give Gigabyte another look, or even EVGA.

 

[kbrady1979]

Well, I have heard about the Asus CS issues, and I have heard it has gotten marginally better, but that is still no excuse. If you get an Asus motherboard, depending on what the issue is, the retailer will be responsible for some problems. You also have to remember that Asus outsells other brands by quite a bit, so there will be more failures "in the field" than other brands. Let us know what you decide on!

The only gripe I have about some X79 motherboards is the cooling solution over the X79 Chipset(formerly Southbridge chipset). It is a small heatsink with a small fan that gets way too hot and CAN be very noisy. My ears are a tad more sensitive to that frequency of noise though, so it may not be a concern to most.

 

[sygnus21]

Well, I have heard about the Asus CS issues, and I have heard it has gotten marginally better, but that is still no excuse. If you get an Asus motherboard, depending on what the issue is, the retailer will be responsible for some problems. You also have to remember that Asus outsells other brands by quite a bit, so there will be more failures "in the field" than other brands. Let us know what you decide on!

1- I'm keenly aware of that argument.
2 - Of course you have a certain amount of time to return it to the seller, but once that time is over, now you have to deal with the company's customer service. And in this case Asus is horrid.
3 - Yes, all companies can have bad days, it's how they deal with them, and their customers that set them apart.

Example: I ordered a part for my car from Amazon last week. Today I discovered to my surprise that it was the wrong part. To make a long story short, Amazon was more then willing to refund my money once I sent the part back, but I wanted to swap parts instead. Well because these weren't they same parts, they couldn't do that; the policy was just to refund. After explaining that that process took too long, and I needed the part quickly, the customer service rep did something I didn't even ask for... they gave a full credit for the part I needed.... essentially giving me the correct part for free.... AND... a guaranteed refund when I send the incorrect part back. In a nutshell I got the item I needed for free! Why?... because Amazon deemed this a mess up on their behalf, the product description wasn't clear as to left or right. Thus they simply compensated me for my inconvenience.

That's taking care of your customers and meeting their needs. Mind you though that I've been shopping with Amazon since 2001, and this was pointed out by the customer service rep. Again, that's how you take care of, and keep your customers.

You get rid of them buy giving them the run around and lying to them - This is what I got from Asus about a month ago. BTW.... I bought my Asus Laptop from Amazon back in March.

 

[kbrady1979]

I understand, and it IS definitely an issue I've heard before. I've been lucky and never had to deal with it so far. What motherboards are you looking at?

 

[sygnus21]

I understand, and it IS definitely an issue I've heard before. I've been lucky and never had to deal with it so far. What motherboards are you looking at?

Well despite my "beef" with Asus, I do like what their boards have to offer; however, I'll be looking at either Gigabyte's G1.Assassin 2, or something from EVGA.

As I said, I have a Gigabyte board now so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with them, In fact I've had no issues with my X-58A. I just don't like the color scheme of the G1...

 

[kbrady1979]

I like this board from Gigabyte: Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah, that one looks a lot better than the G1. To be honest, I don't really like any of the current Gigabyte X79 boards. I know looks aren't everything, but that G1 is ugly.

I don't know, by default, I may be forced into Asus. I'm just really concerned about their quality control and of course customer service.

I'll have to take a closer look at EVGA to see what they have to offer.

 

[essenbe]

In the FWIW department, I've had dealings with Asus customer service and you're right, it stinks. But, I found if you stay away from email support and call them on the phone (at your expense) you actually get fairly good support. I had to call them twice about my Maximus V and they provided everything I asked for. I have since learned, I didn't have any problem worth an RMA. They put out a bad bios that had some bugs in it that led you to believe the board was bad. They've fixed the bios now, and it runs like a champ. Of course, I've heard from others that Gigabyte is no better. To be honest, when it comes to Customer service, I don't know anyone who provides good CS, except probably EVGA. I feel the same way about MSI as Sygnus feels about ASUS. If I'm looking for a product, I completely skip MSI. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist.