What's the current "Sweet Spot" with i7 processors?

My i7 2600k seems to be doing quite nicely. Might be starting to cross over into "not so cutting edge" territory but I bought it to keep up with whatever I can throw at it over the next five years. I have no concerns.

arachnaut


I am also quite happy with Sandy Bridge and i7-2600K, at least for a few more years.

I just read this today about the future of Intel sockets:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

Well that's something to lower your spirits.

Bub

Bristol_Jonesey

arachnaut

I am also quite happy with Sandy Bridge and i7-2600K, at least for a few more years.

I just read this today about the future of Intel sockets:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

Well that's something to lower your spirits.

It sure is!

I'm kind of speechless, I can't believe it.

Where does this leave AMD and all the motherboard manufacturer's?

I have to admit, the best system (DAW) I ever had was a pure Intel based one ... but ... it is never a good idea to force people in to something like this.

The problem with this is, even if the end users that are totally against this and end up boycotting Intel, they are so deep in the sack with corporations that buy in bulk, that guys like us won't even be a blip in their radar. They could care less about us.

Oh well ... it was a good run.

I wonder how this will effect guys like Jim, and other DAW manufacturer's?

Intel is just being Intel, trying grab all it can as usual. I don't think AMD is down for the count. though. In terms of DAW performance, the most important performance feature is I/O. How well the processor can handle context-switching is what gives stability. (Obviously, the quality of kernel drivers matters here too.) Basically, your high-end spare-no-expense Intel system won't give all that much more appreciable performance than a mid-market AMD in an audio application. 




In gaming, where the sheer amount of video data to be transferred can overwhelm a system may show some differences, depending on the game, the features it uses, and so on. However, anything over 30fps is a waste of bandwidth.

Did you read any of the other reports on the site?

The one entitled "Intels Small Business Advantage" will make your hairs stand on end, whether you have any or not!

I hope ASUS and Gigabyte waltz in and start making their own CPUs. They have the most to lose and the most to gain from this bullpuckey. Not sure if that's possible what with patent nonsense.

I just built a DAW a couple months ago and the i3770k seemed pretty sweet then. Went with an ASUS P8 Z77 mobo.

I don't think the MB manufacturers will be out. They will probably have to hardwire the CPUs like Intel will do with their boards.

It's a few years off anyway.

If its on the internet it has to be true right? Who is Semiaccurate anyway? Could the name have a clue?

I was AMD for prob 10+ years but when I saw a recent lineup of procs based on abiility, it was INTEL at the top third...

so I updated my Phenom II X4 DDR2 system to an i5-3570 ($200)... ivy bridge.. put the Z77 mobo with it.  still running W732 bit.

just installed it yesterday... X2 seemed to run much smoother than before... i had a complex project, lots of vsts and vvocal, midi, vstis... 

I chose exactly the same as 'rsinger'.
I did have to update the drivers on everything to make it stable, but it is so quick.
Asus P8Z77 mobo, i7 3770k, ssd os drive.
16gig ram ddr3 ram.
win 7 64bit
X2 Producer.
All i need now is some more talent!

Hi tlw,
Are you using water cooling or just a decent air cooler?
Am about to upgrade to a i7 3770k myself.

1. Let´s wait for Haswell and after that...? This platform is really nearby to "what we called at the moment" mobile (laptop) processor...and Intel sets here on a fixed CPU on the mainboard...also right now with SB.
  2. That does not mean that there will be absolutely no LGA version of this cpu-line-up after Haswell, later when the first versions are running in laptops. 
3. No one said that the LGA-System is dead after Haswell.

...anyway...

Right today. I´m perfectly happy with my config...absolutely no problems, crackles and other bad issues.
I don´t need to tune my 2600K higher than now, even if I could..;)

I won´t and could´nt say anything to AMD, ´cause my last AMD machine was an DualCore AMD 64 4800 X2...than came CoreDuo2...
...and I never turn back to them...
Two years ago i was thinking about the 6cores from AMD...but SB was on it´s way with better performance...

jrmunday


Hi tlw,
Are you using water cooling or just a decent air cooler?
Am about to upgrade to a i7 3770k myself.

Air cooled. I don't like the idea of mixing plumbing with electronics, or the complexity and maintenance. From what I've seen (and heard) many water cooling pumps and radiator fans are pretty noisy in any case.
 
I designed this PC from the ground up with power and lack of noise in mind. I'm fussy about components and stress-test and temperature monitor everything once built so I don't get nasty surprises later. Stress testing is something anyone building a PC with non-standard cooling should do - mistakes can be expensive.

To go into the gory details:

The bits not in my sig are:
Seagate 460W fanless PSU (in lower rear of case).
cpu cooler is a Noctua NHC14, using a single Noctua 140mm fan between cooler and cpu, which also cools the m/b around the cpu.
Graphics card is a Sapphire fanless HD7750.

Case is a Fractal Design Define R4, using the two fans supplied with it as case fans at front and rear (I rubber mounted them rather than use the supplied screws). The Fractal Design isn't cheap, but it's well designed and built, very solid, damped, vibration free and very nice to work with.

All fans run at 5 volts, fixed speed, for DAW usage.

Idle cpu temps across the cores are between 16 and 30 degrees C  - like most multi-core cpus no two cores ever agree about the temperature, especially at idle :-/.

Using Prime95 64bit to push all cores to 100% @ 3903.89 MHz for 5 minutes takes the maximum cpu core temp to 76C where it seems to pretty much stabilise, ending the test drops the temps back towards idle in a second or two. Cpu throttling should cut in at 105 degrees but I've never managed to get it anywhere near that.

Under real world conditions (i.e. not stress testing), pushing a 3770K to 100% across all cores and holding it there would take some doing.

With fans at 5 volts the PC is just audible in a pretty quiet small room, measuring about 30-32dBA at around 1 metre, checked with an expensive UK-government issued, correctly calibrated decibel meter my (civil-servant) wife uses for work. Basically not really distinguishable from background noise. Increasing the fans to 7 volts adds a fair bit of of cooling but doesn't add much noise.


Overall, it's a quiet enough PC that it barely registers on mics so long as they aren't close and pointing directly at it. Otherwise, it's lost in the background.

3D apps/games need more cooling (mostly for the gpu), so I just ramp up the fans to 12volts. And it's still quieter than an off the shelf PC. It's also very quiet electrically and Telecaster pickup friendly, though that's always a bit of a matter of luck.

Quite an improvement in every way over the 100+watt processors and power hungry graphics cards of the last few years. It even uses less electricity :-)

slartabartfast

I hope ASUS and Gigabyte waltz in and start making their own CPUs

They might better go into manufacturing jumbo jets. The MB manufacturers are assemblers. They could not even begin to design a CPU with the people they have the money to buy. And if they could find a design, they can not come up with the multiple billions of dollars that it takes to build a fab plant.

Intel is a more formidable monopoly than Microsoft. If they say their chips come soldered in, then the enthusiast assembled PC is dead. A lot of little portable bright and shiny toys is the world of the future. Time for Cakewalk to start re-writing Sonar to run on a smart phone.

The MB manufacturers have a lot more talent than you might think. Despite China's relatively inexpensive labor pool, it takes quite a lot of effort to design a motherboard, do it in a reliably design, and have it also make economic sense. You wouldn't want to confuse the hordes of laborers working in electronic assembly plants with the engineers that design those products. As it stands, the huge Chinese market is where a lot of future upside is going to be - and the home team there seems to be winning it. (Which was true here once upon a time...)

Microsoft's problems ares related to the fact that it is a aggressive, big fish and it just plain outgrew its aquarium. It has no growth potential - it fills its own universe completely - but like all business, that's just not good enough. Greed needs an infinitely expanding universe.

Apple's not making its bucks on the Mac, it's making it's money on trinkets. Sure, smartphones and tablets are useful, but the phone you bought two years ago is now sitting in a desk drawer collecting dust along with the one you bought the yeqar before that... (I've lost count of the number...) Apple is nothing revolutionary (never has been), despite its attempt to paint itself that color. It's all marketing, poser-ing, and toll collection via the i(take a 30% cut)Store.

Apple's conundrum is what to do next? Just like Microsoft - it see the ecosphere it's in being filled up, and it's premium pricing model drying up. (Never works after market maturity). So it's trolling for the next 'big-thing', and trying to grab all the marbles it can now by suing everyone in sight. It's scared, you can believe that.  The most important thing to note is that market maturity doesn't necessarily mean something is going away. It has to be replaced by something better, first. Computer technology may seem like a whirlwind, but actually it's been going on for near 70 years.

..my 39.5 cents...

arachnaut


I am also quite happy with Sandy Bridge and i7-2600K, at least for a few more years.

I just read this today about the future of Intel sockets:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

agree with you , I use it