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We rarely advocate playing the waiting game when it come to upgrading hardware. The simple reason is that there's always something newer, better, bigger, faster, and just plain more awesome right around the corner, regardless of when you buy. All that said, should you wait for Sandy Bridge-E? That depends on if you have $294 to plunk down on a processor.
According to Fudzilla, Sandy Bridge-E is set to debut in the fourth quarter. There will be three processors to choose from, starting with the Core i7 3820. This $294 chip is a quad-core processor with eight processing threads. It runs at 3.6GHz, supports Turbo overclocking, and sports 10MB of cache.
Next up on the Sandy Bridge-E totem pole is the Core i7 3930K, an unlocked processor that boasts six cores, twelve processing threads, a 3.2GHz stock clockspeed, and 12MB of cache. This one will run $583.
If you have a grand you're willing to spend on a processor, the Core i7 3960X will serve as Intel's flagship Sandy Bridge-E processor. This one is also a six-core part with twelve processing threads, and races along 3.3GHz clockspeed. That's slower than the Core i7 990X chip it's replacing, which is clocked at 3.46GHz, but expect it to be a better performing part nonetheless.
Image Credit: Ebay (abeeftec_computer)
Comments are closed on this article
bautrey
September 28, 2011 at 2:15am
Something I learned with playing the waiting game with AMD is that, the closer you seem to get the release date, the further it gets from you. And now I've been waiting 6+ months already...
Gutter96
September 28, 2011 at 4:45am
I hear you on that! I grew tired of the Bulldozer waiting game as well.
Gutter96
September 27, 2011 at 4:58pm
So are these 1155 chips or LGA 2011? I want a new Intel rig, but dont want to have to buy a new board because it gimps the Ivy Bridge CPU...
win7fanboi
September 27, 2011 at 9:47am
I wouldn't make any cpu purchases right now... waiting for the new chipset is worth it.
