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

[sygnus21]

Thanks...

OK, if I seem confused or indecisive as to which way to go…. I am. Though I initially put a Sandy Bridge system together, I am now rethinking that decision.

One - I don’t want to be two generations behind, which is where the Sandy Bridge is sitting now that Haswell is out.

Two - As some have pointed out, there are new chips coming out later this year, specifically Ivy-E. That said, considering I wasn’t planning on purchasing my main components till around September anyway, I would be crazy not to consider the Ivy-E chips. Thus the questions on Ivy and the MB’s.

Three - Though I'll probably overclock whichever system I get, it isn't the be-all, end-all factor in my decision. Simple put, I won't be going for those uber OC speeds.

Four - As I’ve said repeatedly, it will be few months down the road before actually start purchasing the main components – MB, CPU, RAM. This obviously gives me time to see what’s coming down the road.

Five - I have repeatedly stated that I’ve been out of the game for some time so I don’t know what’s what, and how they compare to each other; thus the sometimes contradictory statements or confusing questions.

Six - I have no shame in admitting I don’t know everything, and if need be, I’ll ask questions, as well as do research.

Some are taking my questions/indecisiveness personal when I’m simply trying to gain info from the more knowledgeable users here about the current tech out.

With that I thank those participating in this thread and putting up with my questions/indecisiveness.

Thanks,

Peace

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

OK, if I seem confused or indecisive as to which way to go…. I am. Though I initially put a Sandy Bridge system together, I am now rethinking that decision.

One - I don’t want to be two generations behind, which is where the Sandy Bridge is sitting now that Haswell is out.

Two - As some have pointed out, there are new chips coming out later this year, specifically Ivy-E. That said, considering I wasn’t planning on purchasing my main components till around September anyway, I would be crazy not to consider the Ivy-E chips. Thus the questions on Ivy and the MB’s.

Three - Though I'll probably overclock whichever system I get, it isn't the be-all, end-all factor in my decision. Simple put, I won't be going for those uber OC speeds.

Four - As I’ve said repeatedly, it will be few months down the road before actually start purchasing the main components – MB, CPU, RAM. This obviously gives me time to see what’s coming down the road.

Five - I have repeatedly stated that I’ve been out of the game for some time so I don’t know what’s what, and how they compare to each other; thus the sometimes contradictory statements or confusing questions.

Six - I have no shame in admitting I don’t know everything, and if need be, I’ll ask questions, as well as do research.

Some are taking my questions/indecisiveness personal when I’m simply trying to gain info from the more knowledgeable users here about the current tech out.

With that I thank those participating in this thread and putting up with my questions/indecisiveness.

Thanks,

Peace

Sounds like you have a sound game plan in place. If you want a high end system and you are in no hurry, then waiting for Ivy Bridge-E may be worthwhile. Even if you wind up deciding on Sandy Bridge-E (still better than Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, or Haswell in many ways), you will at least have been able to decide between the four choices. There may even be better X-79 MOBOs out by then (or Ivy Bridge-E may use a different socket than LGA 2011).

Btw, just because something is newer doesn't always mean it's better. Look at Vista and Win 8, for example. Just because Sandy Bridge-E is older doesn't mean it is any good anymore. It can run circles around the newer ones.

 

[essenbe]

Personally, I think this is an excellent thread that many others can benefit from. I have enjoyed the discussion. I consider myself to be pretty much 'up' on the latest hardware and I have learned things from this thread. Sygnus, you are doing the right thing. You can learn much more from the people who use these rigs than you will ever learn from reading specs. From experience I have learned that whatever you chose is a trade off. It is just a decision you have to make depending on what you do with your rig. If you choose sandy -E, even though is it 2 generations down now, you are getting probably the strongest CPU available right now. But, you are also giving up a few things you could get with a Z77 or Haswell rig. It just depends on are you really going to need/use those features. I have a Z77 rig and have a thunderbolt capability and an add on wi fi and blue tooth capability which you won't have with sandy E. How important is that to you? I suspect there are few people who use/need/ever intend to use Thunderbolt. I don't use Bluetooth, but may in the future. Those are just the things you have to look at.

I think most of us here think, when you say a sandy Bridge rig, you are talking about a 2600K, although technically correct, sandy bridge and sandy Bridge-E are worlds apart. they are not in the same league. I kind of know what you mean when you say Sandy Bridge, but it can confuse some.

Don't worry about asking questions. That's what this forum is for. This is an excellent thread, I think and could provide a lot of info to others considering building a rig. keep asking, but my recommendation to you with what you intend to do with the rig, is Sandy-E right now. When it comes to graphics renderind and coding, there is no other CPU commercially available that will match it, unless a very high dollar Xeon would. But, I don't know about the Xeon CPU's. But, I suspect they would not be very good at gaming. keep on asking, I know it is a big decision and you want to make the right one. I don't blame you a bit.

ONE MORE THING: With what you want to do with your computer, it may be easier for you to narrow your choices down to 2 until Ivy E comes out. I would suggest you narrow your choices to the 2011 rig you started this thread wanting and Ivy bridge. Haswell is not an improvement over Ivy, in my opinion. With your graphics work, and I believe you do a lot of it, you started out with the correct set up.

 

[Layback Bear]

Keep the questions and answers coming.
Information is a great thing to have before buying.

 

[essenbe]

Keep the questions and answers coming.
Information is a great thing to have before buying.

It's kind of fun too.

 

[Layback Bear]

Sure is.

 

[essenbe]

Not much real info here but it brings some interesting issues up.

Intel's Ivy Bridge-E set for Q3 2013, Shows Leaked Slide

 

[Layback Bear]

I called my local Intel Dealer. He has a Haswell in the business running 24/7 and one at home.
I asked him to run Real Temp on both and let me know what kind of temps he gets.
Hopefully he doesn't forget.

 

[essenbe]

I called my local Intel Dealer. He has a Haswell in the business running 24/7 and one at home.
I asked him to run Real Temp on both and let me know what kind of temps he gets.
Hopefully he doesn't forget.

ask him to run real temp and prime95. I'd really like to know the stress temps as well as how it handles a normal stressful activity such as gaming or some video encoding or something fairly stressful that we would normally do.

 

[Layback Bear]

I will ask but this guy most likely will not run prime 95.
He is one of those kinds of that doesn't do serious testing and he surly won't install any cooler that didn't come with the cpu.
I shall give him another call.

Update; he is out for the rest of the day. Essenbe if you could PM me tomorrow to make sure I call again.

 

[sygnus21]

ONE MORE THING: With what you want to do with your computer, it may be easier for you to narrow your choices down to 2 until Ivy E comes out. I would suggest you narrow your choices to the 2011 rig you started this thread wanting and Ivy bridge. Haswell is not an improvement over Ivy, in my opinion. With your graphics work, and I believe you do a lot of it, you started out with the correct set up.

Yeah from the replies I got here, as well as my research, I'm thinking Sandy-E or Ivy-E. Definitely not considering the Sandy 2600K.

And yes, at the moment, Haswell is out as I get the impression the real emphasis with these chips is on laptops and battery/efficiency performance rather than brute speed...

On the flipside jumping on a Haswell wouldn't be too bad considering I'm upgrading from a first gen i7 (950) processor anyway.

Then you have the motherboards. For me, this is where the decision will be made. If I remove the OC factor, and consider that Sandy, Ivy, and Haswell offer about the same performance, than it comes down to what tech the motherboards are offering.

From that perspective the Z boards (77/87) look to be the better choice since they are newer than the X79's. and as essenbe pointed out, the Z77 boards offer native USB 3.0 support through the chipset, as well as SATA III.

For my needs, I'm looking at a high performance system that can handle 16/32gig of high speed RAM (1800+Mhz), SATA ports that provide high performance speed for my SSDs/HDs - typical configuration will be two SSD drives and one 2TB HD

Though I will be overclocking, it won't be extensive. Though I'm a huge, a single high end GPU is all I need; maybe I'll do crossfire, but definitely not tri or quad.

PC will be used for gaming, photo editing/processing with Photoshop, and some music editing/mixing.

With that... decisions, decisions

BTW I just looked at these two boards...

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 Intel Z77 Motherboard Review - GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 - The New Flagship - Legit Reviews

AnandTech | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Review: Functionality meets Competitive Pricing

 

[essenbe]

It would also depend on how much and what kind of video editing you do. The sandy-E will do it in probably half the time of any of the other CPUs mentioned. As far as motherboard features, Haswell boards have some great features, such as 6 native sata III ports where the Z77 only have 2 native and depending on which model you buy 2-4 add on sata III ports, which don't get the performance of the native ports, and the ones with Marvell add ons have issues with SSDs. Of course with Haswell you are going to have to contend with some heat issues, even more than Ivy Bridge which has heat issues. I don't know how Haswell handles gaming or such as that, but Ivy handles it well. I only have heat issues with Ivy when running stress tests, but Haswell is supposed to be hotter than Ivy. But the features on the Haswell boards are really good. you're right, decisions, decisions

 

[Layback Bear]

Long video but very informative.

 

[Boozad]

Of course with Haswell you are going to have to contend with some heat issues, even more than Ivy Bridge which has heat issues. I don't know how Haswell handles gaming or such as that, but Ivy handles it well. I only have heat issues with Ivy when running stress tests, but Haswell is supposed to be hotter than Ivy. But the features on the Haswell boards are really good. you're right, decisions, decisions

In the three months I've had my rig I've hammered it regularly with some pretty intense gaming sessions and I can honestly say I've never experienced any heat issues. I can't compare to Ivy as I moved from an AMD rig, but Haswell has yet to throw up any problems for me while gaming.

I'm running a 4670k (stock clocks) with a triple copper heatpipe cooler on a Sabertooth Z87.