Sandy Bridge

Ok guys, with SB is due to release early next year, I would like to gather some opinions from everyone of you as to which i5 I should get to replace my very old single core system I didn't actually have to give a lot of thought if SB wasn't coming so soon and I had my mind all set on i5 760 CPU but because for some reason I had to postpone in getting a new system. So my problem is this, I have a quite a bit of interest in learning to OC and wish to play around with my new system when I get one, but with SB unless I go for the K version which features fully unlocked multipliers. I'm just thinking whether I should opt for i5 2500K or without the K since I have not much of knowledge in regards to OC. Just for the record, my primary usage for this new system is mainly to play Flight Simulator (this would be the most demanding game for me to play), and some normal daily tasks. I'm not too keen on watching blu-ray or hi def quality movie on this computer though. If listing the specs would help, then here is the one I have determined. Shopping list :- CPU : No idea lol Mobo : Either Asus P8P67-Pro or Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3P Cooler : Xigmatek Dark Knight RAM : 4GB (still undecided which one to go) HDD : Samsung 1TB F3 GC : EVGA GTX 570 Casing : Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced OS : Windows 7 HP 64bit I already have a Corsair TX 650 PSU to begin with, so all the shopping list is expected to be around 1.1k to 1.2k USD I guess that is pretty much it, hope some of you could shed some light to me in making the right decision for the CPU

Hi Conspire, I moved your topic here because a few of our tech classroom staff and other valuable contributors could not "see" your topic in its previous posting. Hopefully you will gain some useful recommendations from knowledgeable folks here. Best Regards

Not really up to speed with the new CPU's, so will leave that for others more informed on them, at first look my concern was space and cooling not being a full tower, and not having seen this case I had no visual [perception of size, but looking at the various spec and knowing the 2 main sticking points that usually come up, they list the following:-

Maximum Compatibility VGA Card length :304.0mm
CPU cooler height:177.0mm

so it would appear you're choices would fit and work well within that case, and it has plenty of scope for cooling, including provision for water cooling if you went that route later on (more so if OC'ing), so generally speaking it appears to be a nice choice.

I favour Asus over Gigabyte, they just seem to work better for me, it also has the advantage of having bluetooth built in, never seen that before in a board, and with 2 x USB3 and 4 x SATA 6GBps you're good to go with future upgrades as they become affordable, one point to note though, you may lose access to 1 PCIe slot under the card, can't say for sure, but the card you have chosen will take 2 spaces up, and it may mean that there wont be enough space to get to the other slot under it, so have that in mind to be safe, and if you hadn't seen it, they have an overclocked version of the same card.

Now the ram, you have some great deals on newegg currently, the following look good, and from memory people have rated both these makes highly:-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820220435 (sweet price with mail in offer)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820220466 (even better 8gig deal)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820144410
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820144447 (not sure if the extra cost\spec would be noticeable in performance terms)

The hard drive is certainly well rated, but bare in mind the board has 4 x SATA 6GBps which may not truly realise the extra performance until other hardware catches up, but for real performance consider an SSD, that case has provision built in for fixing them, and they would use those ports nicely AFAIK, then use WD drives for storage, I have found they are better than any other drive, but others may have different experience, you're choice is a good one, I'm just suggesting something you may not of considered yet.

Hope this gets you started, I can only dream of such an upgrade at this time lol.

here's a review :- http://en.hardspell.com/doc/enshowcont.asp…amp;pageid=7714

usually we oc by upping the fsb on cpu's with locked multi's but as this review says seems virtually impossible to do this with the new cpu's, so the 2500k seems best bet to me.. shrugs.

Hi Conspire,

I moved your topic here because a few of our tech classroom staff and other valuable contributors could not "see" your topic in its previous posting.
Hopefully you will gain some useful recommendations from knowledgeable folks here.

Best Regards

Thanks Doug

Not really up to speed with the new CPU's, so will leave that for others more informed on them, at first look my concern was space and cooling not being a full tower, and not having seen this case I had no visual [perception of size, but looking at the various spec and knowing the 2 main sticking points that usually come up, they list the following:-

Maximum Compatibility VGA Card length :304.0mm
CPU cooler height:177.0mm

so it would appear you're choices would fit and work well within that case, and it has plenty of scope for cooling, including provision for water cooling if you went that route later on (more so if OC'ing), so generally speaking it appears to be a nice choice.

I favour Asus over Gigabyte, they just seem to work better for me, it also has the advantage of having bluetooth built in, never seen that before in a board, and with 2 x USB3 and 4 x SATA 6GBps you're good to go with future upgrades as they become affordable, one point to note though, you may lose access to 1 PCIe slot under the card, can't say for sure, but the card you have chosen will take 2 spaces up, and it may mean that there wont be enough space to get to the other slot under it, so have that in mind to be safe, and if you hadn't seen it, they have an overclocked version of the same card.

Now the ram, you have some great deals on newegg currently, the following look good, and from memory people have rated both these makes highly:-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820220435 (sweet price with mail in offer)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820220466 (even better 8gig deal)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820144410
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16820144447 (not sure if the extra cost\spec would be noticeable in performance terms)

The hard drive is certainly well rated, but bare in mind the board has 4 x SATA 6GBps which may not truly realise the extra performance until other hardware catches up, but for real performance consider an SSD, that case has provision built in for fixing them, and they would use those ports nicely AFAIK, then use WD drives for storage, I have found they are better than any other drive, but others may have different experience, you're choice is a good one, I'm just suggesting something you may not of considered yet.

Hope this gets you started, I can only dream of such an upgrade at this time lol.

Thanks for your suggestion. I think the RAM is quite pricey to me as I have a limited budget, and I'm thinking perhaps a Corsair or probably Mushkin. That should be fine also right? lol

As for the hard drive, actually I plan to wait for the price level for 40GB or so to drop because honestly I think SSD are still overpriced at this point. I'm really eyeing on getting a SSD for my system anytime next year though.

here's a review :- http://en.hardspell.com/doc/enshowcont.asp…amp;pageid=7714

usually we oc by upping the fsb on cpu's with locked multi's but as this review says seems virtually impossible to do this with the new cpu's, so the 2500k seems best bet to me.. shrugs.

That's what I thought, but don't you think it would be a bit wasted for me to go for the K version given that I have very little knowledge on OC? I certainly don't plan to have a WC system because I know for sure that I'm not very keen into pushing to the extreme. But as the review says, those locked versions have very limited flexibility in OC, so I guess that wouldn't be good for me.

The first ram I listed is cheaper than both of those, but for some reason I can't find some decent spec on that board now, found some earlier, although not great it said a fair bit, but now I can't find anything really specific, it's just earlier I could of sworn the spec for the ram was what I listed, but now I can't be sure, so knowing what the board can take makes a difference to what you get, but out of the 2 you list the Mushkin is very under rated IIRC, pretty sure quite a few people say it's very good, along the lines of the brands I selected above, but if you can confirm the board spec it would help, but you need to cross reference the ram to ensure it will work. But I agree about the SSD's, definitely wait for prices to get realistic, but with what you're looking at you are good to go when you do get them, I believe that case has provision for 2 such drives within it without extra parts (they come with it), the PSU should be fine, but it will be working hard, but it's a good make so should be fine, even more so if it has 2 x 6 pin leads for the graphics card, if you need to take a molex lead you will need to make sure it has enough to power it, this usually means making sure the card has the lead to itself, but it's certainly looking good.

That's what I thought, but don't you think it would be a bit wasted for me to go for the K version given that I have very little knowledge on OC? I certainly don't plan to have a WC system because I know for sure that I'm not very keen into pushing to the extreme. But as the review says, those locked versions have very limited flexibility in OC, so I guess that wouldn't be good for me.

it's hard to say which is best to get at moment because a lot depends on final price, and how high it will be able to overclock on a good air cooler, etc.

so i'd wait till they are released before making a final judgment, you'll also see a lot more reviews out to help base your decision on then too.

Ok, thanks a lot for your input guys.