Sandy Bridge Buyer’s Guide
by Zach Throckmorton on June 17, 2011 3:20 PM ESTClosing Remarks
As discussed in the introduction, right now is an especially wise time to buy into a Sandy Bridge system given that the platform is mature, offers lots of options for all sorts of users, and is unlikely to get knocked off the top of the performance hill for many months. Sandy Bridge-E will come out around Q4, but the primary target will be workstations and users running highly threaded workloads; for dual-core and quad-core setups (including Hyper-Threading), socket LGA-1155 should last well into next year. As a final recap, here’s where we see the markets heading in the near future.
At the low-end, we have Intel’s Core i3 parts. From the early numbers, including pricing, it’s unlikely that AMD’s Llano CPUs will best the Core i3s in terms of sheer computational prowess; however, it also seems clear that Llano’s graphics will be substantially better than Intel’s integrated offerings. In other words, if you are not going to be using a discrete GPU, it would be wise to wait a few weeks and see how desktop Llano shapes up. Considering that the vast majority of desktop users do not need a discrete graphics card now, most of your family, friends, and customers could use Llano as a do-everything, entry-level gaming setup; if they don’t care about games at all, Core i3 likely wins out.
Moving up to the next tier, those who want more capable CPUs and discrete GPUs can jump to or near the top of the performance pile now and stay there for at least a couple month. Come September, AMD’s Bulldozer will finally show up, hopefully providing an answer to Intel’s higher-end Core i5 and Core i7 processors. We’re still a few months away from Bulldozer, however, so if you’re itching to buy or upgrade now is as good a time as any we’re likely to see.
At the very top of the performance heap, we still don’t know what to expect from Bulldozer, and Intel will have a potential counter with Sandy Bridge-E. Depending on the workload, either or both platforms will likely surpass the current crop of i7-2600K systems. While we’re not quite sure where Bulldozer pricing will fall, it’s a safe bet (judging by where LGA-1366 launched) that LGA-2011 platforms will carry a significant price premium over today’s LGA-1155 offerings. If you’re still hanging on to an early Bloomfield X58 setup, though, you should be able to wait for the SNB-E launch before deciding whether to jump onto the mainstream bandwagon or stick with Intel’s high-end enthusiast platform.
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L. - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Again ... such a failure.Seriously.. you're spending 1k on a box and you take an SSD, and a cheap GFX when for 70 more you can get a 6950 ...
And don't get me started on the 2k box ... you manage NOT to have SLI/CFX on a 2k box ... are you paid by boutiques to justify their ridiculous pricing or something ?
cjs150 - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
There is now always something new coming over the horizon, whether in Motherboards, CPUs, GPUS, SSDs etc.The issue is whether you need to buy (I do as my 8 year old computer died last week) and what do you need the computer for.
My monitor does not do 1920x1080, so GPUs does not need to be top of the range, but I do like gaming. I do want to do a lot of video encoding (OK, I meant rip my Blu-ray collection onto that nice NAS I bought last week!)
So: 2600K seems a good choice.
More ram is always a good idea, but absolute top speed is probably overkill.
SSD is a must. Once you have used it as the boot drive and for key programs (but, for me, not for windows swap file) you will never go back. Might as well be sata 6.
1 TB Hard disk is good - more storage than ever likely to need (thanks to a 6TB Raid in the NAS) but I like silence so might go for a 500 Gb 2.5" HD and stick it into a Scythe HD silencing box.
GPU is a tricky choice. NVidia 560 (with option to go to SLI) should be enough for me
Big disagreement is choice of case. The new Fractal Design cases look very good and are a lot cheaper.
I only have one question:
Why do we need ATX boards these days? Sound is handled fine by the motherboard. What cards do people run that they need more than 4 slots? Sure there are speed kings (and queens) running triple or quad SLI but other than those I really fail to see why anyone needs more than a micro-atx board
L. - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Most configs would fit on a mini-ITX if there were no thermal issues with those.a 2600K for your needs is completely overkill.. check out the forums if you want advice.
Also, micro ATX w/ sli can be sometimes too small, if you want slots apart + some other stuff in pcie ..
glassd - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
As much as I like the GTX 580, with a bit of searching you can get a pair of 6950's for about the same price as 1 GTX 580. Thanks to the really good scaling of the 6950 in crossfire you get way more gaming performance out of the the 6950's compared to the GTX 580. Unless you have a specific need for CUDA, I would recommend a pair for 6950's over a single GTX 580 for the high end build.otpi - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Just ordered parts last week and reading this made me happy ^^I basically bought the "what can you get for 2000$", 'tho I got a GTX 560ti, and have a 800D with an AX750 psu.
Bigroy - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - link
AMD keeps supplying their loyal customers with budget buys. Take for example a 740 Heka Triple Core black edition. For eighty seven dollars, you get an unlocked Quad Core that can run at 3.6 Gightz. A Full ATX 100 dollar ASUS Board will unlock the 4th core. That is my machine and very happy with it. Add some Quick Corsair memory and CPU fan, and ASUS 5770 for $120 and you get a poor man's computer that will play all games. Problem with the new expensive intel chips is that they have not been tested, and I mean four to five years of gaming and video processing. I don't believe in the budget i3 computer, because you can just as well buy it at Walmart. And that is not what gamers build. Antec Power Supplies, Corsair Memory, Water cooled CPU's and Lian Li Cases. That is a budget build for gaming. You are talking Walmart with your build. Won't last a year. So try building the i3 again, but this time with good parts and see how much it comes out to.monkeyboy311 - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
I want to build a budget system for my Dad. He does the basics, surf the web, email, HD videos, Popcap style games (casual games). Is it worth waiting for AMD Llano or should I go with this system?handyjarhead - Friday, June 24, 2011 - link
Would I need to buy a CPU cooler for this computer or would it be fine without one?martixy - Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - link
Articles like these are the reason I love anandtech!Anato - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Keep hanging, no point to move LGA-1155 as its close to parallel move. So wait SNB-E and if you need then go, but X58 is still very capable system. I wouldn't by SNB-E for gaming but for work it might be upgrade if data-runs need it.