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I crossed over the Sandy Bridge: Benchmark results [in progress]

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  • Jan 13th, 2011 8:27 pm
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Poll: Will you cross over the Sandy Bridge in Q1 2011?

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Poll ended at Mar 29th, 2011 1:42 pm

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Jan 27, 2008
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Ontario

I crossed over the Sandy Bridge: Benchmark results [in progress]

EDIT:

UPDATE!
My benchmark results are posted at the end of this thread.



I was heading in an AM3 Thuban direction but have instead chose to wait for Sandy Bridge to come out in Q1 2011 to build my new rig. Pricing and performance seems too good to pass up based on anandtech's pre-release review.

What are your thoughts on the 32nm architecture? Will you be abandoning your current i3/i5/i7/am2/am3 build for something newer, cooler, and faster?


MY NEW RIG
CPU: Core i5 2500K - CDN $218
Motherboard: P8P67-M PRO CDN $189
Heatsink: Stock Intel
RAM: Gskill Ripjaw 2x 4GB DDR3 modules - CDN $60
Graphic card: 470 GTX $340
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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Deal Addict
Jun 4, 2007
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Is your SO a gamer? It'd be helpful to know what she'll be using this comp for as for general use most of the parts are completely overkill.
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Ontario
The parts list is for me - and I do game occasionally.

My signature contains the parts she will be getting.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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attonbitusira wrote: The parts list is for me - and I do game occasionally.

My signature contains the parts she will be getting.

Okay well the parts you listed seem fine but I'm not sure why you want a mobo with onboard video..are you planning on getting a video card later or something?

Change PSU to something like this: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... lectronics

Unless you're planning on going SLI/CFX (the mobo you listed can't btw), a 750W PSU is a waste of money. You could also go for a 2x2gb set of ram and shave off another $50, unless you're doing something that actually needs 8gb+.
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av3n wrote: Okay well the parts you listed seem fine but I'm not sure why you want a mobo with onboard video..are you planning on getting a video card later or something?

Change PSU to something like this: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... lectronics

Unless you're planning on going SLI/CFX (the mobo you listed can't btw), a 750W PSU is a waste of money. You could also go for a 2x2gb set of ram and shave off another $50, unless you're doing something that actually needs 8gb+.

I prefer a motherboard with onboard video in case my gpu dies or im in the middle of switching - allows me to use my computer without needing a card.

I need to buy a new PSU so I figure why not a good one - although I agree I would do fine with a 650W. I may consider downgrading to a 650. The Seasonic is not enough since I'm running a GTX 470 currently. I wanted to give myself the extra headroom in case I decide to upgrade in the future - SLI 470s for example. That PSU should last me two builds minimum. I can't find a good AMD/nvidia chipset motherboard that is reasonably priced. I'm open to suggestions.

I run a lot of virtual machines so I'd like the extra memory.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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attonbitusira wrote: I prefer a motherboard with onboard video in case my gpu dies or im in the middle of switching - allows me to use my computer without needing a card.

I need to buy a new PSU so I figure why not a good one - although I agree I would do fine with a 650W. I may consider downgrading to a 650. The Seasonic is not enough since I'm running a GTX 470 currently. I wanted to give myself the extra headroom in case I decide to upgrade in the future - SLI 470s for example. That PSU should last me two builds minimum. I can't find a good AMD/nvidia chipset motherboard that is reasonably priced. I'm open to suggestions.

I run a lot of virtual machines so I'd like the extra memory.

That Seasonic is a quality PSU and will be more than enough for your build...at MAX load you'll see the GTX 470/1055T pull ~400W. But since you want to leave SLI an option the one you picked out is good.

Nvidia hasn't made any SLI AMD motherboards for quite a while though, the most recent mobo I can think of is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

You could always do the SLI hack but I wouldn't recommend it, more trouble than it's worth IMO. If you're set on a multi-gpu setup in the future may as well go AMD all the way.
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Yeah, I saw that motherboard. The only thing I didn't like about it was the lack of onboard video. Add onboard and it would be perfect!

I hate ATI drivers but equally hate Intel's socket changes. Seems like every year there is a new form factor - which doesn't leave much of an upgrade path.

I may have to reconsider.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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Apr 6, 2008
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attonbitusira wrote: My significant other needs a new computer so I'm going to build her one using parts from my current machine and give myself an upgrade.

I LOL'd at this, totally something I would do as well.

However, I think there are a few things you would need to consider. First off, the Phenom II X6 will offer you no better gaming performance than your current Phenom II X4 940 Proof Second, Crossfire 4870 seems at least equal to the GTX470 (single GPU) Proof. Third, Sandy Bridge is coming out in days. If you're willing to pay $521 pre-tax and shipping (basicaly $600 all in) for CPU, mobo, RAM, and PSU, you're definitely in the market for an i5-2500K based on these leaked prices. Assuming the motherboard will not cost more than $150, that leaves you ~$200 for RAM and PSU.

I'd say either wait for Sandy Bridge if you want a true upgrade, or just get your SO a cheap Athlon II X2 build, or a laptop. I understand you're itching for an upgrade yourself, but an X6 and GTX470 isn't really much of an upgrade =S
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Thanks for the Sandy Bridge tip.

Did quite a bit of reading on it and must say I'm impressed with the power draw / performance ratio. If the prices hold true to the estimations and the boards are available then that is a route worthwhile considering.

I'll wait until the CES to hear more.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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poll added
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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Feb 12, 2008
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Not immediately. I want to see how the pricing will be with AMD new line up coming roughly Q2 in 2011 (bulldozer if I am not mistaken).

Hold off on the upgrading till next year and see what both companies are offering.
Nothing to see here...keep looking.
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Zero1 wrote: Not immediately. I want to see how the pricing will be with AMD new line up coming roughly Q2 in 2011 (bulldozer if I am not mistaken).

Hold off on the upgrading till next year and see what both companies are offering.

I was just going to say this exactly. I've also been saying it for the last 5-6 months that if peaple can hold off untill BOTH intel & amd's offerings come out at the begining of Q2 next year, THEN make your purchases/choices then. But of course not many lisen to me cause I'm a Pro AMD system platform & videocard supporter whom isn't "blinded by bs" that would make me part of the intel/nvidia "flock" :lol:

As I like to say as a "pro consumer" type .... competition & closer preformance in overall system builds between amd & intel ultimately benefit us the "consumer" in the end with higher preforming parts for lower costs.

As for Sandy bridge, again this is intels own " slap to the face " to anyone whom has boughten a i5 platform in the last 3-4 months & this will soon be the same for X-58 lpga 1366 folks when the sandy bridge lpga 2011 based platform comes out in the middle of the year. All that i've read sugests up to 25% more preformance vs the same in class previous i5 version.

Medalgo's sugestion of your going to get a SandyBridge cpu, motherboard, ram & ps for $5xx is just a LIL off. Pricing sugests MINIUM $169 max $260 for the board, $250-320 for the cpu (most WILL go for a $3xx K series cause of the higher oc'ing in them), $140-190 MINIMAL 8 gig kit of ram (unless they put out the 8 gig modual kits by official launch date) & $100+ for a quality 700+ watt powersupply. So maybe $7xx would be a more realistic cost for the 3-4 parts to run a "sandy bridge" platform.
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i was going the amd x6 route too but decided to wait for sandy bridge. i don't care about overclocking so i'm fine with i5-2400/2500 (no k).

so far i'm combining it with the following:

Image

cost: (NOT INCLUDING MOTHERBOARD AND CPU YET)
Samsung SH-S223C 22X DVD Writer SATA Black OEM
$14.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
$79.99

OCZ Vertex 2 Extended Sandforce 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
$79.99 ($20 MIR)

G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL Ripjaws 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1333 CL9-9-9-24 240PIN DIMM Memory
$84.99

NCIX Silent Bundle Deal Fractal Design Define R3 Case & Seasonic M12II 520W Modular Power Supply
129.99 ($20 MIR)

Zotac GeForce GTX 460 AMP! Fermi 810MHZ 1024MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E DX11 Video Card
159.99 ($40 MIR)

FREE NCIX.COM $20 Gift Card *Pre Activated*
(629.94 + $1.20 ERF + TAX) - $80 MIR =
$633.19 total (not including gift card that i will use towards 1155 'board and sandy bridge CPU)

i had an initial budget of 800-1000 and so the left over will be used towards sandy bridge cpu (probably i5-2400 or 2500 depending on price + gigabyte h67 or p67 depending on price)

so max $1000 budget - $633.19 cost for initial parts - 20 gift certificate = $346.81 left for 1155 motherboard and i5-2400/2500. looks like i might have to go over that budget by $50-100 depending on launch prices but meh i don't mind.

once again i am not into overclocking nor will i be utilizing SLI/Crossfire so the 520W PSU will be fine for me.
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terrybear wrote: I was just going to say this exactly. I've also been saying it for the last 5-6 months that if peaple can hold off untill BOTH intel & amd's offerings come out at the begining of Q2 next year, THEN make your purchases/choices then. But of course not many lisen to me cause I'm a Pro AMD system platform & videocard supporter whom isn't "blinded by bs" that would make me part of the intel/nvidia "flock" :lol:

As I like to say as a "pro consumer" type .... competition & closer preformance in overall system builds between amd & intel ultimately benefit us the "consumer" in the end with higher preforming parts for lower costs.

As for Sandy bridge, again this is intels own " slap to the face " to anyone whom has boughten a i5 platform in the last 3-4 months & this will soon be the same for X-58 lpga 1366 folks when the sandy bridge lpga 2011 based platform comes out in the middle of the year. All that i've read sugests up to 25% more preformance vs the same in class previous i5 version.

Medalgo's sugestion of your going to get a SandyBridge cpu, motherboard, ram & ps for $5xx is just a LIL off. Pricing sugests MINIUM $169 max $260 for the board, $250-320 for the cpu (most WILL go for a $3xx K series cause of the higher oc'ing in them), $140-190 MINIMAL 8 gig kit of ram (unless they put out the 8 gig modual kits by official launch date) & $100+ for a quality 700+ watt powersupply. So maybe $7xx would be a more realistic cost for the 3-4 parts to run a "sandy bridge" platform.

I wanted to buy an AMD Thuban X6 with an nvidia chipset and but they are few and far between. I've run AMD since my old Duron 600 back in the day (and about 10 AMD systems since then) and have been pleased but as we all know - intel offers higher performing units at higher prices. I want a Ferrari now and you're telling me to wait for the next Taurus to come out... Having spent time on both sides of the graphic card fence and being disappointed with the drivers, performance, and lack of options, I'm ready to try an Intel/nVidia solution.

I agree those pricing suggestions by previous poster were a bit off. Speculation is a bit silly now because we have no basis for comparison, but I'd be prepared to pay upwards of $700 for a new Sandy Bridge motherboard with IGP, CPU (locked multiplier), modular PSU ~700W and 8GB of RAM. The frequency of the RAM is something I have to look in to a bit more. I'm not sure what the real-world impact is by using frequencies higher than 1333, besides my pockets feeling lighter.

"Slap in the face" ... well you're right. No upgrade path, lower priced, higher performing parts. Is that really surprising though? Intel is here to make money.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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You may need to switch out the Gskill 1333 for something else... Stock is low across the country.
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
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attonbitusira wrote: I wanted to buy an AMD Thuban X6 with an nvidia chipset and but they are few and far between. I've run AMD since my old Duron 600 back in the day (and about 10 AMD systems since then) and have been pleased but as we all know - intel offers higher performing units at higher prices. I want a Ferrari now and you're telling me to wait for the next Taurus to come out... Having spent time on both sides of the graphic card fence and being disappointed with the drivers, performance, and lack of options, I'm ready to try an Intel/nVidia solution.

I agree those pricing suggestions by previous poster were a bit off. Speculation is a bit silly now because we have no basis for comparison, but I'd be prepared to pay upwards of $700 for a new Sandy Bridge motherboard with IGP, CPU (locked multiplier), modular PSU ~700W and 8GB of RAM. The frequency of the RAM is something I have to look in to a bit more. I'm not sure what the real-world impact is by using frequencies higher than 1333, besides my pockets feeling lighter.

"Slap in the face" ... well you're right. No upgrade path, lower priced, higher performing parts. Is that really surprising though? Intel is here to make money.

Cheers! Here's my i7 2600K running Cinebench:

4.2 GHz @ 1.2v (a hair above stock). I idle at 32-35 degrees with my Corsair H50 and load around 53-56 stressing all 4c/8t.
At 3.9GHz, I got 7.56.

[IMG]http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9679 ... ebench.png[/IMG]

Here's a list of AMD processors...how many can clock that high?
[IMG]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/att ... 1293217878[/IMG]

And @ terrybear... slap in the face? 1366 users don't care. I doubt i7 950 users @ 4GHz care about X6's when they perform the same if not better in benchmarks. I'd rather advancements and new sockets rather than crawling at a snails' pace holding onto old sockets. You make it seem as if AMD's move from 939 -> 940 wasn't a slap in the face of all the users who purchased 939 for AMD X2's at the time.
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LegiT wrote: Cheers! Here's my i7 2600K running Cinebench:

4.2 GHz @ 1.2v (a hair above stock). I idle at 32-35 degrees with my Corsair H50 and load around 53-56 stressing all 4c/8t.
At 3.9GHz, I got 7.56.

[IMG]http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9679 ... ebench.png[/IMG]

Here's a list of AMD processors...how many can clock that high?
[IMG]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/att ... 1293217878[/IMG]

And @ terrybear... slap in the face? 1366 users don't care. I doubt i7 950 users @ 4GHz care about X6's when they perform the same if not better in benchmarks. I'd rather advancements and new sockets rather than crawling at a snails' pace holding onto old sockets. You make it seem as if AMD's move from 939 -> 940 wasn't a slap in the face of all the users who purchased 939 for AMD X2's at the time.

Please re-read my post, cause I'm pretty shure my statement your quoting was quite clearly directed to the soon to be move in 2H 11' from 1366 to the sandy bridge 2011 socket being the same. IDK, call me crazy cause I value my money spent & if I in the last 2-3 months bought a core i5 platform knowing for a wait of that much more longer & a few $'s more I'd have a faster preforming platform that was also NOT goin to change anytime soon & would be supported for the next 2 years vs what current NON sandy bridges are now gonna be, I'd be pissed.

BTW very nice o.c on the 2600K, as I was saying as well MOST users are going to be wanting to buy those chips vs the non k versions. I'm still impressed with this setup & where it sits right now, but rather shocked that I actualy beat a X-58 platformed system with the same radeon model accept a asus card & also same 4 ghz clock, thought I will say not by much. You can see what I'm refering to in the 3dmark11 topic in this section. I know I can't wait for more sandy bridge reviews to come out to see if its around 25% more preformance as being reported vs the previous i5 comparable model.
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terrybear wrote: Please re-read my post, cause I'm pretty shure my statement your quoting was quite clearly directed to the soon to be move in 2H 11' from 1366 to the sandy bridge 2011 socket being the same. IDK, call me crazy cause I value my money spent & if I in the last 2-3 months bought a core i5 platform knowing for a wait of that much more longer & a few $'s more I'd have a faster preforming platform that was also NOT goin to change anytime soon & would be supported for the next 2 years vs what current NON sandy bridges are now gonna be, I'd be pissed.

BTW very nice o.c on the 2600K, as I was saying as well MOST users are going to be wanting to buy those chips vs the non k versions. I'm still impressed with this setup & where it sits right now, but rather shocked that I actualy beat a X-58 platformed system with the same radeon model accept a asus card & also same 4 ghz clock, thought I will say not by much. You can see what I'm refering to in the 3dmark11 topic in this section. I know I can't wait for more sandy bridge reviews to come out to see if its around 25% more preformance as being reported vs the previous i5 comparable model.

What are you running right now terrybear?
"blackbox 2.2 aluminus"[INDENT]
Core i5 2500K / Asus P8P67 / 16 GB DDR3
GTX 580 / Samsung 27"
Intel 320 120GB / Win7Pro64
[/INDENT]
Newbie
Dec 28, 2010
1 posts
Ottawa
It's not 25% better clock for clock but closer to 10-15%. Read the inpai scores again and check out more stuff at xtremesystems.

Sandy Bridge is just a very small incremental increase in performance for a cost of a new mobo/cpu.

Also 16 GB of DDR3 can be had for 200$, 50$ per stick of 4GB. You don't need to buy a kit.

Pretty lame new generation. Just get an SSD.

BUH BYE

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