Sandy Bridge
by Eugene Lee
We finally have performance numbers for the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors. The revamped architecture alone excites my geeky senses. But even if you don’t share in my… idiosyncrasies, getting a lot more performance for a lower price point compared to the previous generation should get everybody looking to upgrade their computer excited.
The Core i5-2500K appears to be the CPU to get. It is 10-50% faster than the current Core i5-750/760 on existing applications through a 25% increase in clock speed. It also costs $216, which is pretty cheap. The K version allows over clocking at a $11 premium. But considering that you can easily get 4.4GHz with a stock cooler, I think the premium is easily worth the cost. The Core i7-2600K seems a bit expensive but may be worth it if you run VMs, etc.
I do not do a lot of video transcoding that I am aware of so I’m not that excited about Quick Sync. But apparently it’s very fast and works well.
I plan to pair a Core i5-2500K with a P67 motherboard. I already down a Geforce 460X and want to over clock the CPU so P67 is a natural choice for me.
UEFI is pretty exciting. PC users finally get to configure their hardware in a nice GUI, assuming that the motherboard manufacturers do not screw up their skinning. I need to research whether it is easily possible to dual boot Mac OSX. Also, UEFI+GPT partitions will allow using harddrives with over 3TB capacities. I currently use 1.5TB data drives that are filling up pretty quickly so this is a welcome change.
Finally 6Gbps SATA is also very exciting. I am still waiting on the next generation SSDs to replace my X25-M G2 but it’s good to know that the motherboard will be prepared for it. Lack of USB 3.0 support is a bummer but I think motherboard manufacturers will use thirdparty chips to support it.
Once products supporting the new processor and chipset are announced I will do some research and post my candidate build.
My E8400 based machine has served me very well for three years. But it is finally time to upgrade to a more modern setup.
Interestingly, the 2500K doesn’t have VT-d or TXT while the 2500 does…
Glad you pointed that out because I did not know. I’ll have to see if I can live without VT-d or TXT.
Interestingly enough, I have never overclocked my E8400. I run it with a nice heatsink (no fan) so running the 2500 might not be a terrible option.