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.