Building Workstation. Buy i7-2600K 4 core now, or i7-3930K 6 core soon?

[Scott Miller]

OK, looking to upgrade the editing workstation from a Core-2 Quad @3.4GHz in prep for Epic and more serious post requirements

Should I wait the couple of weeks till the i7-3930 6 core gets released mid-November for about $550 or just build a system with the current 4 core i7-2600K for $300?

It seems for about $200 a theoretical boost of 50% is some apps would make sense.

Not sure on MB yet. considering an ASUS "Pro" board or one of the Hackintosh solution discussed here on RU. I might do a dual boot for Hac/Win7. But primary will be Win7.

I already have storage, a 120Gb Corsair Force SSD for boot. A Corsair (IIRC) 850W PS and a great case. So I am looking to upgrade the guts and run Adobe CS5.5 PP which I already have as well. I also already have a Quaddro 4800 (I know, 400 is better, but Adobe supplied this one :)

So cost seems to be less than $700 for the required bits for the 4 core w/24Gb ram. And another $200 to go with the 6 core.

Thx for the assist.

[Subhadip Sen]

Unless you have a project coming up in the next week or two, wait for i7 3930K. It's not just $200 more, however. The street price at launch will probably be $600 and X79 motherboards could be $50 more expensive than Z68 counterparts. Since now we have 4 or 8 memory slots, it is best to go for 32 GB RAM. Still, once you consider the cost of your entire system and software, it is well worth the 30%-40% boost in multi-threaded software like CS5.5. Hackintosh will probably have teething issues with the new platform in the first few weeks.

[Scott Miller]

Thank you :)

No project that requires a rush. Besides, for many of us, next week is a write-off, productivity wise anyway!! I am planning on heading to LA sometime Tuesday, attending the Createsphere/Adobe event Wednesday and AM Thursday. the the afternoon and evening are pretty much well spoken for by Jim & Team!!

[Scott Miller]

So.... The new i7 will not work/run on the existing MBs? Different mount or just the new platform will extract more performance? And more DIMM slots as well!!

[Adam Palmer]

If I were you I'd wait; thats what I'm doing. I'd also have a look at the new Samsung 830 SSD's. For price/performance/reliability they seem like a good choice.

[Subhadip Sen]

They will require new X79 motherboards with a new socket (LGA2011). The entry level (relatively, would still be $150+) motherboards have 4 slots, but the higher end ones have 8. Be sure to have at least 4 sticks to populate all 4 channels.

[Nick Noev]

the new 3930K /X CPU is part of Intel's 2nd gen. i7 processors named "sandy bridge-e." the socket / interface to the motherboard is "2011" so it will not be compatible with the previous gen. sandy bridge 1155 socket.

in my opinion you can wait but if you have to build a system now i would go with the following mobo and CPU - ASUS P6T7 WS supercomputer (fully supported on mac os and well documented in luigi's resolve thread here on this forum) and the intel i7-980 six core CPU.

another thought.. if you do a little reading here [http://www.tonymacx86.com/index.php] and get familiar with how things work, you wont really need a dual boot system to run win7.

good luck with your build

Nick.

[Scott Miller]

Thank you!!

Sounds like waiting a few weeks till the "cheaper" i7 gets here and the new MBs is the way to go. Lots to do in the interim anyway with the Stage II shipping any day now (well, more like me going down to pick it up) plus the party @ RSH!!

Thank you as always for the great resource!

[Dan Kanes]

Another good socket 1366 board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Tpk=x58a-ud3r

[Alexander Ibrahim]

As a general rule I try to wait until the last possible minute for computer/electronics purchases.

"They" wil always release something that will outdate your computer or whatever.

The counter example would be soemthing that actually does everything you want ... so you don't need something new even if something better does come out.

As an example I've waited until Epic to invest in a "serious" camera system, because Epic is the first camera system that does everything I want a camera system to do. (I loved Red One ... but it had seriously annoying flaws)