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

I just went through the same dilema, I ended up ordering a dell XPS 15 with 1080p screen 8gb ram, i7, blue ray drive, 750gb hard drive for $1100. I was debating a Macbook Pro but my cap was $1100...

over @ http://www.anandtech.c​om/print/2837

That's from September 2009 Bob, it doesn't even have Sandy Bridge processors.

My workload isn't always typical, I often do many things at once - Bridge, Photoshop, Exifer, etc. More cores are better.

http://techgage.com …2500k_i7-2600k_reviewed/7

Yes, that's an older chart...of the vintage that sold me on the i7-860 as the value/performance sweetspot

Here's Tom'sHardware chart for CS5 with SandyBridge....

http://www.tomshardwar​e.com …-Photoshop-CS-5,2426.html

ooops... a bit late to the dance I guess....

Bobster wrote in post #13136372
http://techgage.com …2500k_i7-2600k_reviewed/7
i also do many things at once.. watch a movie/listen to music - run CaptureOne - have PS running with 12GB RAM allocated to it - run Chrome with anywhere from 5-12 tabs open etc

LR is known to use up to four cores effectively, adding more cores doesn't tend to help much. I've read you set up multiple exports at the same time and it goes a lot faster. That's probably why the i5 and i7 go about the same speed.

The only way to know if the i7 would really be better for me is to have someone try a Bridge export and a photoshop image processing job at the same time, once with hyperthreading on, once with it off.

But like I said, $150 is nothing to me, so i'll just buy the i7 anyway.

kitacanon wrote in post #13136421
Yes, that's an older chart...of the vintage that sold me on the i7-860 as the value/performance sweetspot

Here's Tom'sHardware chart for CS5 with SandyBridge....

http://www.tomshardwar​e.com …-Photoshop-CS-5,2426.html

ooops... a bit late to the dance I guess....

Thanks for trying! Photoshop benchmarks are pretty irrelevant, a lot of it's single threaded, and I use multiple apps at once.

Anything will be faster than my old Q6600!

Apparently Intel is prepping an i7-2700K for release soon.

Any idea what's new with that? Just a small speed increase, to let them keep charging top dollar?

No idea yet.

Bobster wrote in post #13136372
http://techgage.com …2500k_i7-2600k_reviewed/7

i also do many things at once.. watch a movie/listen to music - run CaptureOne - have PS running with 12GB RAM allocated to it - run Chrome with anywhere from 5-12 tabs open etc

Why are you posting benchmarks using obsolete software? Irrelevant much?

Citizen_Insane wrote in post #13128896
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.

So you haven't tested an implementation of HT in... five years? And your results, using software which was poorly optimized for multithreaded CPUs (if it supported them at all), are obviously still valid for the newer architectures and software. Got it.

Marcus X wrote in post #13137653
Why are you posting benchmarks using obsolete software? Irrelevant much?

can't see any changes with the software as far as speeds between the CPUs would effect anything now

Hyper Threading isn't anything new - it wasn't any good when the P4 had it, so how it would be any better now is any ones guess

Marcus X wrote in post #13137661
So you haven't tested an implementation of HT in... five years? And your results, using software which was poorly optimized for multithreaded CPUs (if it supported them at all), are obviously still valid for the newer architectures and software. Got it.

i was on a Dual CPU system back in 1999 - PS rocked on multi CPU then too Windows NT kernal took advantage of multithreading just fine

I just had a go at putting together a system, even at my chosen store there are so many options, so I need recommendations. Please only recommend things at that store, i'm not in the US and we don't have everything available everywhere.

I'm starting from scratch here, my old case is pretty old and I want something quieter.

I'll go with the i7 2600K.

Do I need an aftermarket cooler, or is stock fine? Mounting CPUs, heatsinks, and fans is my least favourite part of assembling a PC.

Motherboard: I had a faulty Gigabyte motherboard once so haven't used them since, I like Asus, but anything that's good quality, good value, and that makes overclocking easy would be good. I may or may not overclock, if I do it'll only be a very mild overclock. Reliability is more important than speed.

Next is which RAM. I read up on it, the RAM speed makes little difference. I don't need 2333MHz RAM, 1600MHz is fine, even 1333MHz is really not much slower in real world benchmarks. 1600MHz seems to be the sweet spot. I don't need the biggest, fastest RAM with big heatsinks, basic is fine. I looked at the RAM compatibility list for a couple of motherboards, it's really hard to correlate between the PDF files and the online store, but either the RAM I liked isn't on the list, or RAM on the list isn't in the store. There are very few 16GB RAM configurations too - I figure RAM's cheap, might as well load up on it now so I have matching RAM. I want something that's definitely going to work.

Next, video card. I don't game, ever. I chose a random 450 card with 1GB RAM. If I could find a card with more RAM i'd get it, one of my culling tools uses as much video ram as you'll give it.

The case is important. I want something discrete, probably black, but really quiet and with spaces for large fans. USB 3.0 and eSata are important. I have three hard drives plus two SSDs, one optical drive. If it doesn't come with a decent power supply i'll buy a good brand modular power supply.

Optical drive: probably doesn't matter.

Fans: i'll probably choose at random, based on noise levels.

What have I forgotten?

Tim, I do know your a very quite tech savvy so im just gonna give you my 2 cents..

For a long time ive been huge on getting the best of the best and overclocking till i fry the CPU. The computer technology today really doesn't require that anymore. You know the new i7's are a very nice CPU and runs much cooler than previous CPUs. If you are gonna overclock the machine than maybe look into a cooler but, i dont think its necessary. However, memory is something that is quite important and is the key for a well performing system. Id stick with corsair as ive always been a fan of their products. You dont need the dominator series however, i would look into the vengeance dual channel series.. However looking at your store you mentioned all the good sticks of ram is sold out.. Look at the timings the memory lists. the lower the numbers the faster the RAM.
Motherboards - well.. get what features you want and can afford. however, id stick with the Z68 chipsets... theres nothing wrong with ASUS because they are near the king of highly configurable, stable, and overclockable boards. your store doesn't carry EVGA boards and i think thats the board id look into though. I think they put a lot of work into the design of their motherboards.

Case.. Im a sucker for a well designed case. and the only case that i recommend and buy is Lian-Li. They are an expensive case but, damn you get a very well engineered lightweight case. And being 100% aluminum its very light and allows your system to run much cooler. That case doesn't come with a power supply so you need to purchase that separately. Im currently running my system in the Lian Li PC-9FB and i cant find anything wrong with that case..