Planning a new rig, when to buy

Hi all,
I just have few quick question to all the hardcore IT guys, since my 6 yr old OEM PC is slowly refusing to cooperate at extreme (considering his internals) levels, I'm slowly planning on buying a new rig, with gaming and 3D modelling/game modding in mind.
My questions are: would you recommend waiting for the Ivy bridge in april, or should the 2600k/2700k be enough for an amateur modeler for the next 3-4 years?
I'm thinking about 700-800 pounds limit here for whole rig except GPU, which I'll buy later (will have to settle with 8600GT ;/).
So far I came up with InWin Dragon Rider as the case, AsRock Extreme 3 Gen 3 mobo, 8GB Gskills or Corsair Vengeance, i7 2600k or 2700k, OCZ Agility 3 120gb or Crucial M4 128gb, and either XFX 850W core edition or Corsair TX 850 Enthusiast.
Which would you recommend?

 

You could spend a buttload on the highest end CPU's, but if what you do with your computer doesn't really utilize the CPU's capabilities, you have wasted money. if you are modelling and gaming, you would be best off carefully researching the capabilities of the CPU's you are interested in . That said, I believe the 2600k will be good for quite some time to come. Hardware development seems to outpace software's ability to utilize the potential of the hardware . ANY time you think of upgrading, there is always something new coming on the horizon. This is why your research becomes important . Take your time, research, and make an educated decision .

 

well... stuff like mental ray uses 100% of the cpu regardless of specs so I wonder whether its worth the time and price, and btw, since 26/700k's dont support pcie gen 3 will it bottleneck keplers? aiming at the equivelant of 560 ti (660, 760 whatever it is) with sli in faar future

 

I'm not familiar with mental ray, but you say it uses 100% of your current cpu ? What is your current cpu ?
Also, concerning the build items you listed, I don't know what your data storage needs are, but a 128gig SSD is fine for your OS and commonly used apps, but you may need some additional storage space . I like the Samsung Spinpoint 7200 rpm Hd's . http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

 

mental ray basically uses all you have to calculate final render outputs faster, so the faster CPU the better
as for storage, i know, the SSD is just the beginning, although I have to say, I have over 100gb of free space on my ~260GB disk, so it'll be OK for the start, and I might add something later.
1TB would only make me go 'aaah I'll leave it I have space' and fill the space with trash Thx for the tip though, I might adjust the build to fit some little HDD at the start as well.
Still, what do you think about PCIE 2.0 vs 3.0, would 28nm GPUs get bottlenecked becasue of lack of 3.0 support?

 

Here, I pulled this from Tom's hardware :
Actually PCI-E 3.0 is still a proposal as there is no complaint hardware. Yes, Intel has incorporated PCI-E 3.0 capability into its Sandybridge E platform, but it has refrained from calling it PCI-E 3;.0 until the responding hardware (read video cards) arrive. There is speculation that the delay in the release of the next generation of video cards is the result of trying to be PCI-E 3.0 compliant.

PCI-E 3.0 like USB 3.0 lacks the hardware to take advantage of the bandwidth. SATA 3.0's bandwidth is used only by SSDs currently. All are future standards, but lack the hardware to fully utilize their advantages.



Im seeing fairly often that current GPU's aren't even fully utilizing PCIe 2.0 throughput, so I wouldn't worry about it .

 

Well 2600k is an awesome CPU but it is THE LAST cpu Intel are making for the 1155 socket so you won't have any upgrade potential,there's never a good time to buy a cpu there is always something around the corner and you'll be waiting forever.

IMO I would go with either one of the two later sockets 1366 or 2011 budget allowing,in a few years you will then have the option to upgrade.

I guess its a matter of preference but I think money spent on cases is completely wasted money,they offer very little extra cooling potential over ones a third of the price.

I have the corsair tX950 and its awesome and I recommend.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...dge-e-six-core-32ghz-12mb-smart-cache-130w-oe

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asro...011-ddr3-sata-ii-3gb-s-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ther...th-top-mounted-hdd-docking-station-and-usb-30

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/12gb...pc3-16000-(2000)-non-ecc-10-10-10-27-xmp-150v

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w...80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fa

This is what I'd build,you have the latest socket and the latest sandy bridge CPU.

Gone over budget by £100 and I haven't included storage,I would use ANY hard drive until you have the money for an SSD then upgrade,you could easily remain within budget utilizing socket 1366 but you obviously then don't have a Sandy bridge CPU.

 

3930k sure are expensive though :-(

 

Yup:-D Just offering up alternatives,I'd much rather spend the extra £900 on the latest tech than spend £800 on an already redundant socket.

But that's just me I guess...

 

well, considering I probably won't be able to spend money on the Extreme series (tbh, any PC purchase is extreme when getting 20 pounds a week....), I think I'll wait till Ivys, since theyre meant to be compatible with 1155s, so I could get more power for similar price
http://www.overclock.net/t/989691/sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-socket-2011-confusion
http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/21621-ivy-bridge-22nm-sticks-with-socket-1155
What do you think?

 

I think I should read the news more:-D I had no idea Ivy was being put on the 1155 socket,I had it on good authority sandy bridge was the last cpu being made for 1155,oh well life in the old girl yet...

But what I previously said still stands,if you do wait for the Ivy 1155 the whole time your waiting you won't have a computer to use and by then there will be something new around the corner that you should wait for.

You will be waiting forever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

So what will you get performance wise with the new CPU as appose to the regular sandybridge? Not much at all Less power consumption,improved integrated video and slightly more performance but with a downside as you won't be able to overclock it via fsb unless you have a K chip.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ne..._specifications_and_q2_2012_release_date_leak



http://www.techradar.com/news/compu...sors/intel-ivy-bridge-vs-sandy-bridge-1026232

 

I knew that one ! but it's so damn hard to make a decision when you barely have the cash, and you know you won't be even close to being able to make such decision again in ~3 years time
I guess I'll settle with a 2700K, and up it to 4-4.5GHz with some custom cooler on it's face.

 

I couldn't find an edit option,
what coolers do you recommend within ~£40 price range for 1155?
EDIT:
why I can't edit my own post from like 2 minutes before ?

 

Post 12 and 13 are 21 minutes apart. Your ability to edit a post disappears after 10 or 20 minutes (I forget which it is).

 

That's a tough one to answer these days as there are so many that perform incredibly closely and are priced about the same,they all perform slightly differently in different roundups and conditions so there is never a clear winner or best CPU cooler,if someone says this is THE best cooler for Intel I'd be very dubious.

The best thing to do is to look at a few coolers in your price range and availability then do a little research to see how they perform in various reviews and tests until one has the specification you want Size/Noise/cooling capacity/features/appearance.

One place I always check is hardware heaven they have an easy to understand chart comparing various coolers cooling capacity at the bottom and a chart at the top that has cooling capacity/noise.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Prolimatech-Lynx-CPU-Cooler-Review/1478/6

You'll notice even at hardware heaven there isn't one clear winner,there are dozens of coolers even at your price range that achieve the golden award.

One cooler I was very interested in recently before I upgraded to watercooling was the Thermaltake Frio-

http://thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1319&ID=1956

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermaltake-Frio-CPU-Cooler-Review/1068/1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003JZO1...de=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B003JZO176

The EDIT limit in 10mins