My desktop recently suffered a tragic end. I salvaged my 750W corsair & 560ti, but I'll be needing to replace the rest of the box completely.

Will someone advise me on what to look out for? I haven't been keeping up.

I know bulldozer is coming soon, so I'm figuring I'll wait and then decide between that and an i7 2600k. Is there anything else interesting around the corner I should be considering? I really don't mind waiting a couple months if there's something killer over the horizon -- I just don't want to be box-less come 2012.

Cheers

New memory process/architecture is rumored to be on sale this Summer. I seem to remember Samsung is making it (or a company starting with an "S"). Rumored better in every way vs. current DDR3. If rumor is correct, it will be out in time for a Bulldozer system. I'm bypassing some really good DDR3 1866 memory sales waiting to see how it turns out (Bulldozer likes 1866 -- but works with most any DDR3 speed).

Intel will compete with Bulldozer by releasing 6 core versions of Sandy Bridge i5 and i7 this Fall -- might not be enough to surpass 8 core Bulldozer. Intel's 4 and 6 core Ivy Bridge CPUs (an evolution of Sandy Bridge) are due in March 2012. Should provide a clock speed bump -- but clock speeds will increase only slowly from now on. More cores are the thing from now on. Not too far down the road, Intel is looking at 24 cores -- and Windows 7 can use 240+ cores according to Intel.

AMD 10 core "piledriver architecture" (an evolution of Bulldozer) is also due for home use in March time frame according to rumors. Of course, 10 cores will become 12 and more with future releases. Both Intel and AMD will compete on cores.

Games and most other software have to catch up with heavy multi-threading (some graphics and video software is already heavily threaded).

Seems our most "beloved" flight simulations use only 1 core well and sometimes 2 or 3 with less effectiveness. So, a 4 core CPU is enough. Most other games seem to be XBox ports and only need 3 cores. So, SimHQ folks needn't be too concerned about core count if all they do is flight sims and other popular games.

What kind of "tragedy" happened to your computer?

The way this thread is worded, I was thinking "missile armed drones". I'd certainly watch out for those!



The Jedi Master

Allen, you got any link to articles about the new ram, im interested in reading up on it.

Thanks a lot for the run down Allen, I appreciate it. I'm reading Ivy Bridge will make use of PCI-E 3.0, but use the same sockets. Upgradability = good. However, it seems Intel is integrating some features into chips (killswitch, DRM) that may give some pause, not to mention the chipset debacle -- which I assume they've resolved. Hopefully, the leaked Bulldozer benchmarks reflect the chip's actual performance. I think circumstances may also help to make AMD's offerings more competitive.



Ugh, the kind of accidents you get with too many people + alcohol . It's my own fault for leaving it in such a bad spot.

The point now, is that I'm wanting to build one that will handle ARMA 3 and audio/video encoding well. Of course, I'm hoping AMD and Intel will have a price war when Bulldozer arrives -- which will be the right time to pounce

Here's a link.

I may have remembered the release date wrong as it seems to be a late Q4 (or later) while I was thinking early Q4.

The main improvement is a new, smaller manufacturing process. That speeds things up at lower voltage. However, I think we need faster timings (e.g. CAS). It remains to be seen if the timings become faster with the smaller 32nm process. If they don't, then this memory has no real advantage for normal users -- unless its cheaper per GB (and it may be given the smaller process).

Samsung 32nm DDR3