When to buy a new PC - any advantage to waiting?

This may be of use in determining value for money for the CPU. Performance comparison here.

You never really gain much from waiting as the turnover rate with the technology is constant. The only time I have ever waited was years ago when a few earthquakes in Taiwan caused RAM prices through the roof.

A quality motherboard can help offer some degree of future proofing.

Motherboards are the thing that confuse me, just because there are so many very similar ones. So many different brands and variations around the same basic chipset. I usually choose my chipset, choose a good brand, then choose the cheapest version that has the features I want.

There will always be a better computer, at a better price, available tomorrow. Trouble is, you can't process images with 'tomorrow's computer', only today's.

So go buy the one you like TODAY.

tim wrote in post #13125832
Motherboards are the thing that confuse me, just because there are so many very similar ones.

Tom's Hardware is a good place for reviews. Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI are generally safe bets which have the least issues with other hardware. They are all also quite good with BIOS updates and forward compatibility.

Steve of Cornubia wrote in post #13125862
There will always be a better computer, at a better price, available tomorrow. Trouble is, you can't process images with 'tomorrow's computer', only today's.

So go buy the one you like TODAY.

I don't need it today. I need it in February. I was just curious if it made a difference if I bought it in November or January.

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #13125916
Tom's Hardware is a good place for reviews. Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI are generally safe bets which have the least issues with other hardware. They are all also quite good with BIOS updates and forward compatibility.

Yeah i've been reading Toms for years, they're helpful.

I buy a new one when I need one, that's usually when the current one breaks and is no longer useable.

Don't bother with an i7, get the i5 2500K and overclock the living crap out of it. The Auto overclock functions on a lot of motherboards are pushing this thing to 4.2ghz on air.

If you know how to overclock hitting 4.5Ghz on air should be easy (people are hitting 5+). My hardware arrives tomorrow, total cost $500 for a mobo, 2500K, 16gb ram and another 2tb hd,

I would rather have the extra four hyperthreaded cores on the i7, it's still very overclockable. I don't really bother with overclocking, unless maybe there's an auto function on the motherboard, then maybe i'll do a mild overclock. I'd rather have a quiet computer than a fast one.

tim wrote in post #13128860
I would rather have the extra four hyperthreaded cores on the i7, it's still very overclockable. I don't really bother with overclocking, unless maybe there's an auto function on the motherboard, then maybe i'll do a mild overclock. I'd rather have a quiet computer than a fast one.

From my testing, the hyperthreading does nothing. I haven't used it since the P4 generation, but my computer was always faster with HT disabled. This is in graphics intensive stuff like 3ds Max, I don't remember if video was faster or slower.

Anandtech had a story about Ivy Bridge, the follow up to Sandy Bridge CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.c​om …idge-architecture-exposed

HT is bollox Tim

the 2600 is only seconds ahead of a 2500 in real world, but more money

I'll definitely look at benchmarks before I buy, or better yet ask a few people here with different processors to run exports. I know that with my current machine four cores are kept at near 100% when i'm busy, so I figure more cores are better. Maybe not now, but in three years maybe newer software will use them all better.

i7 for $480 or i5 for $330 isn't a big deal to me anyway.

you understand how HT works right? they're virtual cores not real ones.. when a core is being used say 60% the other 40% is used as another (virtual) core..

Bobster wrote in post #13129911
you understand how HT works right? they're virtual cores not real ones.. when a core is being used say 60% the other 40% is used as another (virtual) core..

Yes, I understand hyperthreading. Each core has various resources, like instruction decoders, floating point units, integer units, etc. Hyperthreading shares these resources, making use of idle resources or resources when the processor is stalled.

Wikipedia puts it well

Hyperthreading is a great idea in theory. The only question is does it give a measurable performance advantage for a given workload. Given I will often be batching images from RAW to jpeg in bridge, running image processor in photoshop, using exifer, surfing the web, and playing music, I suspect hyperthreading will help at least a little.

And for $150 or whatever, who cares. I'm not a poor student, i'm a professional who makes a good income, my time is more valuable than a few bucks.

Ummmm... wow.

Tim, I know you are aware of this, but for anyone wandering in here perhaps a good source of info might be the Adobe forums. Of course the hardware discussions tend to be Premiere Pro-centric, as that is the program that really stresses hardware, but it is easy enough to find or to extrapolate the info applicable to PS/LR etc.

Hyperthreading makes a difference if the software and system can take advantage of it. To paraphrase, Photoshop uses hundreds of threaded and hyperthreaded functions, wherever it's faster (can be up to 2x faster on some functions). Some use only real cores, some also use virtual. Look at PPBM5: in video (and anyone may want to do video, even if they don't now) the 2600 smokes the 2500. I am not aware of an equivalent tool for PS but in one respect, who cares? It's only about time, and the 2500 does a fine job.

As far as motherboards go, I think your approach is very reasonable, Tim. A few things to look at (and that you probably already do look at) are the BIOS (functions and interface), SATA ports and types, warranty, layout (eg, clearance for aftermarket cooler) and number of DIMM slots and PCI lanes. If you go Sandy-E, the USB 3 and SSD caching may be important. Mobos have come a fair way- I used to grit my teeth over the darned things but now most/all of the intermediate to higher end boards are very good.