2012 Build

D'Artagnan

Hi,

I am looking to get a new PC in Jan/Feb and am a bit lost with all the options that are available. At the moment I have a Dell laptop (core 2 duo t7200, 2GB RAM, geForce 7900 GS) which is running Win 7 happily but will be 5 years old in January. I'd like to upgrade to a modern desktop and keep the laptop for Ubuntu as its still a very capable machine.

Thing is I am unsure what to go for given the choice of processors out there. The i7 2600 looks like a nice and not too expensive processor but I see that its about to be replaced by the i7 2700 and the Sandy Bridge E series is also about to launch. Then in 2012 Ivy Bridge will launch.

Since I wont be purchasing until Jan/Feb 2012 I wonder if its worth waiting for Ivy Bridge but then again I cant understand why Intel would release the Sandy Bridge E series now if Ivy Bridge is coming and is better than it. So.....is Ivy Bridge not expected to be better than the Sandy Bridge E series? Is Intel developing it to cater for a different market?

It seems to be hard to get much information on Ivy Bridge at the moment.

Just so you know I amn't really a gamer anymore (no time) but would like to be able to game from time to time. Mostly the desktop will be used for internet/email, spreadsheets, occasional ripping of movies or music, and I would like to get involved in Worldgrid or BOINC again (used to do this several years ago when I had a desktop). So my intention would be to go for a high end graphics card (geforce 560 ti or radeon 6950) and pair it with a decent CPU. I know both nVidia and AMD will launch new chips in 2012 but it seems it will be later in 2012 before they do so. I don't think I would wait as the current batch of chips seem more than capable.

So what do people think? Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge E, or Ivy Bridge? Intel isn't making it easy. And just as a point of information I work on a Xeon x5650 at work so I've grown attached to a 6 core machine :P

ShadowHearth

come back in 2012 m8.

technology changes, prices go up and down by days.

the biuld that will be done now, wount be same that you will do in 2012.

D'Artagnan

Fair enough but its approaching mid October so not long to go until 2012! I suppose by January we'll know about Sandy Bridge E but I wonder if we will know anything more about Ivy Bridge.

And, not to sound arrogant, I am not too concerned about price. Whatever I buy I will hold for 3-5 years so if price fluctuates by a 100 or 200 its not such a huge deal when its spread over several years.

ShadowHearth

D'Artagnan wrote: »

Fair enough but its approaching mid October so not long to go until 2012! I suppose by January we'll know about Sandy Bridge E but I wonder if we will know anything more about Ivy Bridge.

And, not to sound arrogant, I am not too concerned about price. Whatever I buy I will hold for 3-5 years so if price fluctuates by a 100 or 200 its not such a huge deal when its spread over several years.

i would not do any prediction since we sow how bulldozer landed on its face. 4 months is a long long time.

D'Artagnan

So its 2012 and rather than start a new thread I have decided to resurrect this one.

1. What is your budget? €1500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Internet, video, games (strategy but possibly some FPS), distributed computing projects (BOINC), some video/photo editing

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Just ordered a Dell U2412m so 1920*1200

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? January 2012 (towards end of the month)

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Dublin 4 but I would like to try myself ]

Extra considerations:
This machine will be based in the living room so something that is not too noisy
I would expect to get 3-5 years out of this build
I value drive space over SSD speed so SSD is not essential unless a really good argument can be made for it
I would be interested in waiting to see the prices of the new Radeon cards so GPU will be the last thing I buy

And finally I would be happy to buy from an Irish based retailer rather than the German retailer that everyone recommends. However I will check the prices in both Ireland and Germany and if there is a huge difference I'll buy from Germany

daz801

This build leaves you with €430 for a gpu, the new 7xxx series will be coming out in and around the next month which will be in the €500-€600 range but will also push the price of current cards down a bit, if you want to buy right now a 6970 would fit in your budget with a good to spare (you could throw in another HDD). The case and cpu cooler are some of the quietest options out there. The SSD will greatly increase your boot up speed if the os is installed on it.


Item|Price
Total build cost: €1,069.88 + €30 shipping
Noctua NH-D14, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1155/1156|€67.99
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO, Sockel 1155, ATX, DDR3|€168.29
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile blau PC3-12800U CL9|€40.10
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s|€119.90
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€178.49
Corsair GS Series, 800 Watt|€91.66
Intel Core i7-2600K Box, LGA1155|€277.08
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE XL Titanium Grey|€126.37

D'Artagnan

Thank You, looks good. Question about the Noctua cooler though - it looks huge! Will that make it difficult to add other components to the motherboard? For example more RAM? Looks like the cooler would overhang some of the other slots.

daz801

As long as you get a standard size ram stick and not any of those ones with ridiculous heat sinks you'll be fine the ram i linked will be fine. It won't be a bother to anything else, the case i linked will fit it fine.

D'Artagnan

daz801 wrote: »

As long as you get a standard size ram stick and not any of those ones with ridiculous heat sinks you'll be fine the ram i linked will be fine. It won't be a bother to anything else, the case i linked will fit it fine.

I've seen those RAM sticks. Any reason why I would want to consider one of those? I am presuming a performance increase but is it meaningful?

I think I might go for more RAM though - probably 12 GB. Reason is that I occasionally run programs like R which I have seen eat up several GB of RAM in the past. I've only been able to do this at work where I have enough RAM but I'd like to be able to mess around on it at home too. The question I have is that most 8 GB configurations have two sticks so if I want to go to 12 GB do I need to go to 3 or 4 sticks? I don't fully understand what the optimal number of sticks is but I have heard more than 2 can sometimes cause issues.

daz801

the ones with huge heatsinks make little difference.....they're there for looks

D'Artagnan

daz801 wrote: »

the ones with huge heatsinks make little difference.....they're there for looks

Thanks! Build is looking good. Now just a matter of waiting for the new Radeon cards to launch to see prices and see if there is any decrease in prices of existing cards

Serephucus

You could get three sticks, but that would be messy. You could to 2x4GB+2x2GB, but you might as well go all out and do 4x4GB in that case.

D'Artagnan

Thanks for the responses. Seeing the issues with the Crucial M4 at the moment. Is that a show-stopper? Or are these things easily fixed by a firmware update?