Upgrade now or wait?

Every couple of years I come on hexus and ask for hardware advice. Funny when I think I used to be "in the know", but nowadays, technology is moving on faster than I can keep up! LOL

Anyway, current PC has been running very well, and is based around an MSI P35 Platinum with a Q6600 slightly overclocked running at 3GHz. I have 6GB RAM and an 8800GT graphics card.

I recently upgraded my main system drive to a 60GB SSD disk which has been the best upgrade I've ever done. :) Along with a 500GB drive for data. All running W7 64bit.

However, I'm getting slightly itchy to upgrade. That plus the fact I want to have a play with OS X and have been reading up on forums on how to go about it. If it's off-topic here, no worries. But I'm thinking of getting something similar to an entry-level mac pro spec. So i900 series with X58 mobo, some new DDR3 RAM, etc.

Question is, is it worth getting something like that now or should I wait a few months for the newer i5 (I think) CPUs to hit the market?

Budget isn't too much an issue, can spend what's necessary, but only if it's really worthwhile so I can't see myself getting an i980 extreme... :)

Main use is for graphics (I dabble a bit with Lightroom / PS) and so RAM is very much a requirement. The odd game too, but not too fussed on that and happy to keep my 8800GT or upgrade to something moderate (AMD 5770 is mentioned in compatibility with OS X builds).

Thoughts?

Thanks a lot :)

you wouldnt see much return going from a Q6600 to an i5/i7 for general usage, perhaps on the rendering front with more mem u could see benefits but I would wait to see what the next gen chipsets and cpu's are like from intel, if nothing else it may drop the prices fr an X58 and i7 upgrade :)

OK fair enough :)

If you feel urge to upgrade least wait for sandybridge to launch.
I went from Q6600 @ 3.2GHz to i7 950 @ 4.4GHz, games like bc2 it doubled my fps, because it was no longer bottlenecked an ran at 100% gpu usage instead of 40-45% with Q6600.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by k3vst3r

If you feel urge to upgrade least wait for sandybridge to launch.
I went from Q6600 @ 3.2GHz to i7 950 @ 4.4GHz, games like bc2 it doubled my fps, because it was no longer bottlenecked an ran at 100% gpu usage instead of 40-45% with Q6600.

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+1 ide allso say wait for sandy or next amd chip for prices to come down some

so how much do you guys think an i7 will drop after sb launch?? I know it will only be an estimate but im looking to build now and was going to get an AMD CPU Phenom II 965 Black Quad Core Processor but if i can get an i7 for around the same price in afew weeks i might wait. sorry for sort of hi-jacking the thread too!

skt775 held its price quite well; I can't se ethem dropping alot but I could well be wrong. I would look to see what the next generation would offer first and plum for that.

its only a couple of weeks away (sandy bridge)
so i would wait, imo the prices will drop

cool will do then. any dates available for release?

1366 I7's won't be dropping much as p67 sandybridge is not a replacement for x58. X58 isn't being superceded until late 2011/early 2012. P55 will however see price drops I reckon.

Rumours suggest that x58 will still (just) rule the roost for the coming year until it is replaced.

Release should be Jan 2011 according to most sites, keep an eye on CES 2011 coverage.

guessing that new moboards will be coming out around the same time to accommodate sb chips??

edit: silly me u already have a ssd

Anandtech have done a great preview of sandy bridge. basically, if you're after a mid-range chip for desktop or anything mobile, WAIT.

Premium end desktop will not be superseded until at least august 2011, but prices will be high for the newer chips. Plus with Sandy Bridge, only certain chips will be overclockable - Intel are locking the cheaper chips right down and selling K variant fully unlocked chips at a premium.

The anandtech article suggests that the mainstream unlocked Sandy Bridge chips will perform just as well as X58 i7 chips in most circumstances, with only the extreme editions keeping their head above water. These new SB chips will however just about outperform an i7 950 and at lower TDP in all but intensive parrallel threaded apps. They will however cost more than an i7 950 so I've taken the plunge and bought the i7-950 now while it's at £207. :) If in 8 months the new SB premium chips are worth it I'll buy one of those too in 2012 when the prices have dropped a bit.

2 article links below:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/t...-wins-in-a-row

anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3922/i...ecture-exposed

anandtech.com/show/3922/intels-sandy-bridge-architecture-exposed

Also, in looking up these links I've noticed they've just released info on retail products today. I'm off for a read.

another thing I think I read somewhere is that the mainstream Sandy Bridge chips, not being aimed at the premium end, may not offer as many PCI-e lanes for graphics as the x58 boards - though I need to look into this more to be certain.