Is the end nigh for 1366 socket ? - a new 1356 is coming

[kiwitt]

I read on the web that a new socket is looming - 1356.

I now have a dilemma ... I currently have a core i7-920, which is perfectly fine for what I need, but I usually hang on to my PC for a lot longer, e.g. 6 years (i.e. 4 more years).

I can get a Intel i7-980X, but at over NZ$1,600 it is quite steep and the i7-970 is not much cheaper at NZ$1,300. When the last (LGA 775) Extreme Edition chips were still on the market they were still selling at the high price and the i7-920 looked like the sweeter deal.

So with no new 1366 chips on the horizon, I am left with a choice. Do I get a i7-980X knowing it will be the best chip I can get for my existing motherboard and RAM ? or simply leave my i7-920 in like I did with my AMD Athlon XP 1800 (for 6 years !) and concentrate on other incremental upgrades as and when I need them. (Graphics, RAM, SSD, etc.)

For $1,600 I could buy a HD 6970 2 GB Card, an SSD and an extra 6 GB of RAM (I have 3 more spare slots), which would give me more bang for my buck. However, the thing is my PC is still perfectly adequate for my needs with it's existing specs. (Core i7-920, 6 GB of RAM, HD 4870-512, 10,000 rpm HDD, Win 7x64)

 

[civ_king]

Actually I'd wait until Ivy Bridge at least just because your system is powerful enough for anything normal

 

[tokala]

Indeed, upgrading from a i7-920 makes not much sense at the moment. I would wait at least until the AMD Bulldozer hits the market, those might once again be competitive with intel high-end models which could lead to significant pricedrops.

A SSD is a really good upgrade, my recommendation would be one of the intel mainstream drives. Have had one for more than a year and am very satisfied with the investment.

If you want a new video card, and prefer the ATI/AMD flavour, I would wait for the 1GB 6950 model. 2 GB VRAM is not necessary, neither is more than 6 GB system RAM unless you need it for a specific purpose.

 

[civ_king]

Indeed, upgrading from a i7-920 makes not much sense at the moment. I would wait at least until the AMD Bulldozer hits the market, those might once again be competitive with intel high-end models which could lead to significant pricedrops.

A SSD is a really good upgrade, my recommendation would be one of the intel mainstream drives. Have had one for more than a year and am very satisfied with the investment.

If you want a new video card, and prefer the ATI/AMD flavour, I would wait for the 1GB 6950 model. 2 GB VRAM is not necessary, neither is more than 6 GB system RAM unless you need it for a specific purpose.

Yeah, if Bulldozer is decent it could depress prices, of the 1155 and 1356 sockets, though I doubt it will hurt the 2011 socket line-up.

SSD are a major boost , AMD is a better deal in terms of power and heat than Nvidia

 

[kiwitt]

Actually I'd wait until Ivy Bridge at least just because your system is powerful enough for anything normal

But that would require a new motherboard, cpu and possible RAM as well.

From what I understand of computers the CPU spend a great deal of time in "idle" with 0-1% usage and only comes into play when some heavy calculations need to kick in. I was thinking when Civ 5 came out it would push my CPU, but in the end that game left me cold.

However, I still feel disappointed and a bit miffed that the socket 1366 is now being abandoned, whereas I thought buying a high-end CPU it would still have had some upgrade life.

What is making me really consider the CPU upgrade is the fact that it is a 6-core, and 6 into 3 (RAM channels), goes better than 4 into 3; i.e. more streamlined, from a logic point of view.

I'll keep giving this some more contemplation (I probably have a few months to make a decision). The more Video RAM (512 -> 2 GB) is more compelling as I operate dual screen (occasionally) and I also get some graphic errors in my Mod. e.g. overlapping units.

 

[Zelig]

You probably have a while before you have to decide, LGA775 processors are still widely available up to the Q9650. Only faster unavailable processors are the extreme editions, which tend to be spectacularly poor value in any case.

Intel is still due to release the i7-990X, same specs as the 980X, but clocked at 3.47 GHz, as well as a whole slew of Xeon Gulftown processors.

 

[tokala]

However, I still feel disappointed and a bit miffed that the socket 1366 is now being abandoned, whereas I thought buying a high-end CPU it would still have had some upgrade life.

What is making me really consider the CPU upgrade is the fact that it is a 6-core, and 6 into 3 (RAM channels), goes better than 4 into 3; i.e. more streamlined, from a logic point of view.

It is quite normal that the CPU sockets change every 2-3 years. S775 was the exception, but that one underwent several voltage regulation "revisions".

And number of cores and number of memory modules/channels have no interdependence. With the large and fast modern caches memory specifications have almost no influence on real world application performance anymore. The only exception would be runnning single channel, everything else is within a few percent of each other

 

[ecuwins]

The only applications that need 12 virtual cores(the 980x with HT enabled) are servers, video-encoding, and other high-end work. Games are just now starting to use 4 cores, so 12 cores is out of the picture for at least a few more years. As far as Civ5 bogging down any i7? That's laughable at best.

IMO, save your money and buy a completely new system in 2-3 years.

 

[kiwitt]

I sometimes run Virtual Machines when I am testing some software. Rather than bloating my own OS.