Features - QOTW: Will you be upgrading to Intel Haswell?

[Ulti]

The jump to Haswell looks the same as the jump from Sandybridge to Ivybridge IMO. Up to 50% faster IGP and 10% more CPU power at clock for clock speeds so it doesn't interest me too much.

I am interested in the Iris Pro 5200 IGP, but seeing as they'll be in highend laptops, I doubt I'll be considering in buying one in the first place due to the price of highend laptops.

[davidcrofter]

Nope - my current 2500k @4.5ghz just doesn't seem old to me and does everything I need just fine. I don't think these new generations are adding too much to the mix and they clock worse and run hotter ... my last upgrade was a decent SSD and tbh I can see this rig lasting a good few years before I class it as being "done".

[TeeBlack]

Nope not yet from what ive seen so far.

[Whizzkid]

Going from 920 to Haswell. Only problem at the moment is there are hardly any Micro-ITX boards. Kinda hoping Asus release their version this week and we start to see some decent reviews to help with the choice.

[crossy]

Instant upgrade or wait and see? Here's your chance to have your say.

I'll definitely be upgrading from my PhenomII-1090T, and as AMD don't seem to have anything class leading (if you ignore the IGP) then it'll be Intel ... which'll be a wrench since I've been an AMD guy for a long time.

Definitely won't be an "instant upgrade" though - I'll wait until the end of the year, by which time the prices might have stabilised and it'll be a 4770 or 4770K if I can afford it.

[big_hairy_rob]

Running a quad core Q9650 and this is starting to show it's age, however I think I will upgrade my ancient ATI HD 4850 this year with the 8*** range (pending reviews and price), but I would prefer waiting for the broadwell before upgrading the rest, especially as the die size shrink is likely to mean yet another socket set.....

[w1ntergr33n]

Still no need to upgrade an OC'd 2500K - I wonder when that day will come now.

[shaithis]

Nope, not unless a SB/IB CPU dies on me.

[pfb201]

Nope just sticking with my Ivy Bridge 3570K which is still unchallenged apart in the games I play. Regarding DDR4 compatibility apparently this will not be a socket change but may be a firmware flash. Apparently the keying structure is the same as DDR3 so I can't imagine that there will be incompatibilities. It's due soon as well so limiting support on new Haswell chips doesn't make sense. Especially if it comes out halfway through a lifecycle.

[TooTay]

I'm on the Z68 chipset with an i7 2600k @4.5ghz, the price of 4770k is only about £50-60 more than I think I'd be able to sell it for, the motherboards are not that expensive either really and again I'd be able to sell my old one for within £30-50 of the value of a Z87 one.

I really like the line up of motherboards for this launch and I have had my eyes on the Gryphon motherboard from Asus, I am planning to do a downsized build and seeing as Caselabs are going to be launching the SM5 at the end of the month (a Micro ATX chassis) I've got even more of an excuse to do it

[Whizzkid]

I am debating now if to buy a second hand i5 3570k or go for haswell. Ahhh what to do!!

[Willzzz]

With the 3570k at £170+ I was definitely going to go Haswell, but £154 for the 3570k at Amazon is a much more tempting saving.

Would kinda prefer to be on Z87 though.

[himaro]

yes i will be upgrading to haswell
I am still running a Q6600 so an upgrade is waaaay overdue
however, if you're on ivybridge (or even sandybridge) then the upgrade is not really needed.

[Percy1983]

Certainly no upgrade from my 3570k.

I will ask is pci-e 2.0 causing bottlenecks yet as it may be worth it from a 2*00k if thats the case.

Older processors it will be worthwhile, I noticed the jump from the q9550 to the 3570k as an example.

[shaithis]

Certainly no upgrade from my 3570k.

I will ask is pci-e 2.0 causing bottlenecks yet as it may be worth it from a 2*00k if thats the case.

Older processors it will be worthwhile, I noticed the jump from the q9550 to the 3570k as an example.

There are some extreme cases where PCI-E 3.0 could cause you a noticeable framerate drop but they are extremely rare. Even with a GTX 690 the difference is barely measurable between 16x PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0. The main issues come when you start filling multiple PCI-E slots and the motherboard starts dropping the width of the slots to spread the lanes out.
I am fairly sure the difference would be quite measurable if you had a GTX 690 in an 8x PCI-E 2.0 slot.

[John P. Myers]

Nope. The performance gains over SB and IB are very minimal. Honestly though, i still would have upgraded to Haswell and been happy with my little 3% gain, until i saw the temperature data. Most sites are not reporting it. Notice that? LegitReviews.com did though. So did X-bit. See for yourself. No way in hell will i purchase a desktop Haswell CPU.