Which step now?

[Metalboz]

What are people doing now that the OC potential for IB chips have show that the improvements over SB are not what was expected?

I was holding out for IB for my first build but dont see the point in going for IB now. I dont know whether to still get the Z77 board and go for a 2600K or wait for the 3770K when it is released. Cant see the reason to wait for it now though.

Another option is drop the 680 i was going for and get a lower spec GPU and use the money to go for the 3930K, just a killer that it goes from £200ish for the IB to double for the 3930K!!

Bloody hell!! Don't know what to do now!!

What is everyone else doing?

 

[SieB]

I personally don't see the lower clock speeds for IB a problem, IB clock for clock is faster than SB so even though 4.5/6ghz seems as far as you can clock a 3570k, at 4.5ghz it's as fast as a 2500k at 4.7ghz.

Yeah temps are higher, but you are still using less volts, i'd wait for the reviews before deciding but I wouldn't base everything off clock speed. Wait till you see IB performance results vs SB performance results at the same clock speed. The other benefit of IB is the faster IGP and the bigger performance boost when using Lucid MVP with your GPU and the IGP.

 

[Damien c]

I will be going for a Sandy Bridge E setup although by the time I have the cash saved up Ivy Bridge E will probably be out, or the new stepping for Ivy Bridge which gives better clocks and temps.

 

[fredtrix]

I personally don't see the lower clock speeds for IB a problem, IB clock for clock is faster than SB so even though 4.5/6ghz seems as far as you can clock a 3570k, at 4.5ghz it's as fast as a 2500k at 4.7ghz.

Yeah temps are higher, but you are still using less volts, i'd wait for the reviews before deciding but I wouldn't base everything off clock speed. Wait till you see IB performance results vs SB performance results at the same clock speed. The other benefit of IB is the faster IGP and the bigger performance boost when using Lucid MVP with your GPU and the IGP.

Well said, plus remember that the actual CPU performance it self is not the only thing you get. Also you get better bandwidth on your PCI-E lanes and some other upgraded features.

 

[MaXiMiZe]

I'm confused myself as to what to go for now. Hopefully the reviews will shed more light and make it an easy decision.

 

[DoctorZ]

im wating for toms review i guess.. will be my deciding factor

 

[Master&Puppet]

This is what I think:

Temps

With the top of the range air coolers/H100 or custom water IB will be fine running overclocked. I wouldn't be surprised if anything less than custom water cooling had trouble with the IB 3770k under stress conditions but very few people will be in that situation for everyday use so ultimately I can't see temps being an issue for most overclockers.

Performance

You will probably run IB at a lower clock than you would SB, but IB will perform better clock for clock so IB will probably win by about 5%. If you are running on custom watercooling then you will probably be unhindered and can take IB to its limits giving maybe upto 15% extra performance over SB.

Chipset Features

PCI-e 3.0. Meh, makes no difference for single gpus. If you sli/xf the latest gen then you will need PCIe3 support to avoid bottlenecking the cards. If you run more than 2 latest gen cards then x79 is the only way to go.

USB 3.0. If you use USB 3.0 then obviously this is better, if you don't then this makes no difference.

Lucid MVP. Can see some performance gain in games dependant on which ones you play and at what resolutions. Can make a big improvement in fps, none or make it worse. Can also reduce power consumption which certain uses might eventually notice on their electricity bill. Again, not a deal breaker for me.

Price Vs Performance

IB and the z77 are *slightly* better than SB z68.

It's all down to price for me, I'll willingly pay up to 15% more for a IB/z77 setup than an SB/z68. If it costs more than that then I will be snapping up SB. SB is still so very good that I have no issues with that at all.

You can of course mix the technologies, the most sensible way I think would be SB on a z77 if you wanted the z77 features but prefered the SB cpus for heat/money.

If you run 2 7xxx or 6xx then you would be better off with PCIe3 since 2.x will strangle 2 cards in certain games.

If you need more performance than an SB cpu and/or will be running more than 2 gpus then 2011 is still the only way to go.

 

[MaXiMiZe]

^^Top summary.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Just updated my post, pcie 2 x8 does not have enough bandwidth to support a latest gen card so if you sli/xf you will need z77.