I'm getting ready to do an upgrade and I can't decide between an i7 3820 or the new 3770K. I haven't seen any definative reviews saying which is better for gaming.
This was going to be my new system:
Case - Corsair CC600TWM-WHT Special Edition Graphite Series 600T Mid Tower MB - ASUS P9X79 PRO CPU - Intel Core i7-3820 CPU Cooler - Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler RAM - CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) VC - XFX Double D Black Edition Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HD - Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
I'd say Sandy Bridge-E, especially if you have a good GPU to go with it. The biggest advances in Ivy Bridge are the built-in graphics for those without a dedicated GPU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris O'Rorke (chris@cheathappens.com) Co-Founder: Cheat Happens.com
Although Ivy Bridge CPU's have approx 500million more transistors than a Sandy Bridge, it does the job in terms of faster processing... but are you willing to get approximately 7-8% speed increase for a huge price over the Sandy Bridge equivalent?
And 32GB is a bit overkill, you will never use it fully ever... It also depends on the version of windows, Home Basic is 8GB max, Home Premium is 16GB max, So you will need professional version and upwards to get the use of 32GB. (64bit version of course)
A lot of people fall for that and don't realise.
Also why not pay an extra $80 for a Geforce 680gtx, fastest single core GPU on the market and with onboard Physx and CUDA processing (i.e. not like ATI cards that make the CPU do all the calculations for software CUDA and Physx) its quite good. Or wait a bit and get a 690 when they are finally released, twin core kepler GPU awwww yeahhh.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the 690GTX will be the first GPU (I think) to have water cooling on the card, water is sealed inside heatsinks and when heated the water turns to vapor and hits the metal and condensation happens, which effectively recycles the process.
[Edited by DABhand, 4/29/2012 2:27:58 PM]
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The price difference between the two chips I'm looking at isn't staggering. The i7 3820 is $309 on Newegg and the 3770k Ivy Bridge is $349. The motherboard for the 3820 is a bit more expensive though, about $100 more.
I'm really looking to keep this PC for about 4-5 years (That's how often I can convince my wife to let me build a new one) so I'm trying to get the best gaming processor I can for the buck which seems to be in the $300 - $350 range. There just doesn't seem to be a review form a reputable source that clearly says one is better than the other
I'm probably going to step down to 8Gb of RAM, I'm hearing that 32Gb is pointless for gaming.
I'm a HUGE Nvidia fan boy, but no one seems to have a 680GTX in stock. They're all sold out which is why I was leaning to the Radeon 7950. Unfortunately the 690GTX is WAY out of my price range. My wife would kill me if I spent a grand on a Video card alone. I'd love to have one though.
Tiger Direct has 680's last I checked. www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2440380&CatId=7387
Why pay for a motherboard that will be $100 more when you can get similar board for cheaper, do you need a full ATX board? Are you planning on multiple GPU's? If not, get a mini-ATX board it will still go into the case fine.
[Edited by DABhand, 4/29/2012 3:01:50 PM]
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I think the 3770K is going to be the way to go. Performance is on par and the MB is quite a bit cheaper.
I'm running back in forth in my head how I want to do a hard drive set up. This PC will be mostly for gaming so I'm thinking a small (128Gb or so) SSD for the OS, then a fast HDD for the games with a Seagate 3Tb drive for storage. Any thoughts?
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