When Sandy Bridge arrives, are older i7s likely to sell out quickly?

[DanOln]

Hello,

So, Sandy Bridge comes out in January and I read that older i7 stock is being retired. I'm mulling over building a system around an i7 950 (which I asked about here -

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ood-setup.html

- and got a huge amount of useful feedback, thanks again!)

So my question: from past experience and what anyone knows about stock levels, any idea how long the older i7 stock will last? Will there be several months worth? I think a pre-Sandy Bridge system will do me well, and should be cheaper, but I don't want to miss the boat...

Cheers all,

Dan

[kalniel]

Sandy Bridge isn't a replacement for i7, so i7 will continue to be sold until its replacement (code name Sandy Bridge E, on socket '2011') comes out.

[DanOln]

Solves that one, thanks.

[scaryjim]

What he said

AFAIK the first wave of Sandy Bridge will be quad core, may or may not have HT, and will have a dual channel memory controller - as such they'll replace the i5 700 and i7 800 series processors. They may have good enough performance to beat out the i7 900s though, depending on how heavily Intel have been able to tweak the memory controller and cores to increase performance. It might be worth waiting to see what Sandy Bridge brings to the table, as - as kalniel says - they won't be a direct replacement of the i7 900s so you should have the choice once they're launched of sticking with the i7 950 plan, or basing your build around the newer Sandy Bridge parts if they turn out to be particularly good value.

[Pob255]

Wasn't it just over a year ago that socket 1156 came out?

Some days it seems like the pase of technology is getting too fast, esp as most of the software and required processing seems to be well behind.

intel bringing out a new socket seems like they are making changes to boost consumption of their products (chipset as well as cpus)

[kalniel]

Wasn't it just over a year ago that socket 1156 came out?

Some days it seems like the pase of technology is getting too fast, esp as most of the software and required processing seems to be well behind.

intel bringing out a new socket seems like they are making changes to boost consumption of their products (chipset as well as cpus)

Nothing new for Intel, even when they kept 775 for so long they changed the electrical requirements so new motherboards were needed.

But for most of their customers it makes sense. Those of us who buy components and then only upgrade parts of the computer are in a very small minority.

[DanOln]

"But for most of their customers it makes sense. Those of us who buy components and then only upgrade parts of the computer are in a very small minority."

That said, one of the reasons I'm leaning towards i7 950 rather than phenom II x6 is because, from what I read, AMD motherboards are now a very old design. It sounds like the i7 motherboard chipsets are quite a bit more advanced. Any AMD afficionados, please do correct me if that's nonsense! I should probably try and find the article I read that in, huh...? Err, no, can't find it currently...

[Terbinator]

Sandy Bridge isn't a replacement for i7, so i7 will continue to be sold until its replacement (code name Sandy Bridge E, on socket '2011') comes out.

i7 SB's are being released though, X58 platform won't be replaced until late 2011.

Considering the performance of the preview chip Anandtech got i personally would wait until January from a CPU performance standpoint.

From a platform standpoint that becomes a bit tricky as I haven't been able to find a block diagram or decent run down of what the P67/PCH will offer up in terms of expansion.

[scaryjim]

... one of the reasons I'm leaning towards i7 950 ... AMD motherboards are now a very old design. ... Any AMD afficionados, please do correct me if that's nonsense! ...

I wouldn't go as far as nonsense, but it doesn't make a whole load of sense. Without knowing in what way this article thought "AMD motherboards are now a very old design", it's hard to give specific examples of why they're not, but in component and design terms they're basically the same as current Intel ones. After all, a motherboard is there to hold expansion cards and provide IO, and there's only so many ways you can do that.

In fact, until 2 years ago AMDs motherboards were a more modern design than Intel's, as they didn't rely on an external memory controller and FSB to access the memory. Intel are really only just catching up to where AMD have been for ages, in terms of motherboard / chipset design...

[DanOln]

Next daft question: are the later 2011 sandy bridge e chips likely to be on same socket as the first ones?

[badass]

That said, one of the reasons I'm leaning towards i7 950 rather than phenom II x6 is because, from what I read, AMD motherboards are now a very old design. It sounds like the i7 motherboard chipsets are quite a bit more advanced. Any AMD afficionados, please do correct me if that's nonsense! I should probably try and find the article I read that in, huh...? Err, no, can't find it currently...

IIRC they are planning on replacing AM3 with AM3+ for Bulldozer based CPU's. I don't think you'll be able to plug a Bulldozer CPU in an AM3 motherboard but I think you'll be able to plug an AM3 CPU in an AM3+ motherboard. If that's true, you can't really future proof an AMD system for bulldozer.
It goes without saying that you can't for the Intel system, though.

[scaryjim]

Next daft question: are the later 2011 sandy bridge e chips likely to be on same socket as the first ones?

No. The first round of Sandy Bridge are on socket 1155, which is very small but important variation of 1156 that means that it is completely incompatible with it in both directions (you can't use 1156 CPUs in 1155 boards, you can't use 1155 CPUs in 1156 boards).

Sandy Bridge E will use socket 2011, which is replacing socket 1366 for enthusiast systems. Again, they won't be compatible with each other (for one thing, SBE uses quad-channel memory, not triple-channel), or with the mainstream 1155 socket (socket 2011 will be physically bigger for one thing, as it has more pins!).

[Pob255]

I wouldn't go as far as nonsense, but it doesn't make a whole load of sense. Without knowing in what way this article thought "AMD motherboards are now a very old design", it's hard to give specific examples of why they're not, but in component and design terms they're basically the same as current Intel ones. After all, a motherboard is there to hold expansion cards and provide IO, and there's only so many ways you can do that.

In fact, until 2 years ago AMDs motherboards were a more modern design than Intel's, as they didn't rely on an external memory controller and FSB to access the memory. Intel are really only just catching up to where AMD have been for ages, in terms of motherboard / chipset design...

As Jim has said, although thinking about it I'd be happy to see the 1156 chips (apart from the i5 7xx) be replaced
As the 1156 i3+i5 based around the H55 are actually backwards looking As they do still have a separate north bridge chip, it just happens to be next to the cpu chip hidden under the heat spreader.

Which means when you think about it Intel's current socket lineup is a total mess anyway.

[kalniel]

Next daft question: are the later 2011 sandy bridge e chips likely to be on same socket as the first ones?

I already answered that in my first reply to you :/

[DanOln]

Kalniel: you did, and what's more I probably could have just googled. Sorry and thanks for replying.