Wait for Nehalem?

[Xccentricity]

I'm finally dumping my PIII machine and going in for a Quad Core monster, I'm finally upgrading after 6 years,

I will not be upgrading for definately 4 years,

I've zeroed in on this config:-

CPU - Intel Core Quad Q9300 (Budget of 10-11K for CPU)

Mobo - Asus P5Q PRO or MSI P7N SLI Platinum or MSI P45 Neo (Budget of 8-9K for mobo)

RAM - 2x2GB DD2 800MHz Kingston

GPU - (Budget of 10K)

HDD - (Budget of 4-5K)

SMPS - CoolerMaster 600W (Budget of 3-3.5K)

Cabby - (Budget of 4K)

Moniter - (Budget of 10K)

DVD Writer - (Budget of 1.5-2K)

Already have a Logitech Keyboard and Mouse and JBL speakers.

1. I will be using this GPU both for rendering and gaming(Crysis, RTS games etc.)

2. The HDD must have 32MB buffer and minimum of 500GB (Theres a huge perfomence difference b\w 16MB and 32MB rite?)

3. Cabby must be very well ventilated because I will be leaving the computer on for days at a time.

4. One more thing which is nagging me is whether this config will be obsolete when Nehalem comes out, will there be a HUGE perfomence difference b\w this system and a Nehalem system with around the same budget?

Will the perfomence difference be like a jump from Pentium 4 to Conroe(Core 2 Duo)?

If yes I'd rather not go for this config now and wait for Nehalem.

5. Mobo must have Crossfire or SLI, so recomend better anyother mobo I might get with the mentioned budget, do any current mobos in my price range have Hybrid SLI/Crossfire?

It must also preferably have heat-pipe cooling because as I said I will be leaving it on for days at a time.

[imgame2]

i would suggest...

intel C2Q Q9300-11.8k
Asus P5Q pro - 8.8k(personally i feel its better than other two options given)
RAM-as u mentioned
GPU-Palit HD4850 -9.7k

HDD-Western Digital 640 GB (better than seagate 500GB cos costs same and performance is same for both,while u get 140 GB more)-3.6k

SMPS- Corsair VX450W (better than CM600W )-3.2k
cabby-thermaltake strikeMX -4.1k(look for more inputs here,m not a cabby person)
Monitor- dell 198wpf -9.7k
DVD writer- Asus 2014L1T DVD-RW -1.3k.

personally i think u can buy an average cabby like zebronics bijli and go for a 22" monitor from it will be more than worth.

1. I will be using this GPU both for rendering and gaming(Crysis, RTS games etc.)

HD4850 will play crysis quite better than any of the gfx card in ur price range and @19" all other current games u can play with all settings high and all eye candy on!!

2. The HDD must have 32MB buffer and minimum of 500GB (Theres a huge perfomence difference b\w 16MB and 32MB rite?)

its right but western digital 640 GB gives almost the same performace as a 32MB buffer drive ...it cost 3.6k now same as a seagate 500gb but u get 140 GB more !!so its VFM

3. Cabby must be very well ventilated because I will be leaving the computer on for days at a time.

not my department but u get really good cabby these days...good and ventilated.... other people can guide u better!

4. One more thing which is nagging me is whether this config will be obsolete when Nehalem comes out, will there be a HUGE perfomence difference b\w this system and a Nehalem system with around the same budget?

Will the perfomence difference be like a jump from Pentium 4 to Conroe(Core 2 Duo)?

If yes I'd rather not go for this config now and wait for Nehalem.

Nehalem really gives huge performance boosts over current qua cores ,u might like to read this

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/int...core,5854.html

Nehalem is still faster than the fastest Penom 9950 BE by 28 percent.

but its mid september there is no news of nehlam ..while it was rumored to be launched by now! moreover it will costlier than current highest quadcore! and will have a mobo based on X58 chipset ..obviously will be much costly ...and this chipset will only support DDR3 ...already very costly right now ! ..so u can guess how much ur price will go up with all this....so i think even if its launched today it will take 9 months to a year to come in mainstream!

if u can wait that long its fine ...else if u are in hurry ..go for some VFM system(perhaps a E7200+MSI P45neo..total of about 11k) now and upgrade fully after a year or so ....that will be wise option

[forever]

Wait for nehalem?

Absolutely! If you can i.e

[Xccentricity]

Thanks for the replies,

But how much better is Nehalem compared to Q9300?

[imgame2]

Originally Posted by ~Rahul~

Thanks for the replies,

But how much better is Nehalem compared to Q9300?

not much is known about nehalem performance ...but my guess would be it will be atleast 25~30 % better performance wise than Q9300 ...based on the comparison with C2Q x6800 (four core running at 2.93GHz) ..nehalem is 11% ahead and 24% ahead of Quad FX athlon FX-74(running four cores at 3Ghz)...its 28% faster than phenom 9950(four cores running at 2.6GHz).... Q9300 runs four cores at 2.5 GHz ...so its anybody's guess right now !

but time will be crucial here ....u could very well have to wait about 9 months or so ...for this as intially processor will cost around 15k,mobo around 10k+ and about 5k for DDR3 2gb ...so looking at right about 30k in processor/mobo/RAM ...its rough estimate .but hopefully after six months u can buy everything in 25k ....

if u can wait it will be a good option ...but in computer market new technologies keep coming up ..who knows AMD spins something better ...and nehalem goes haywire ...who knows !!!!

[Xccentricity]

Just read this article on Anandtech:-
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3326

Now I feel its better to wait and watch atleast till dec-jan, and are all Nehalems(Core i7s) quad-core ones?

And when does AMD launch its next proccy platform? Whats it called?

[forever]

imgame has answered very suitably. it may take well over 8-9 months for prices to dwindle down. might as well delay your upgrade by a year

why not?

[imgame2]

Originally Posted by ~Rahul~

Now I feel its better to wait and watch atleast till dec-jan, and are all Nehalems(Core i7s) quad-core ones?

so far it looks so ...technology is moving towards many core cpu ...so i guess being as a high end product they will be mostly quad cores initially ..lateron some dual cores might come ..but thats a speculation ...

And when does AMD launch its next proccy platform? Whats it called?

no news out yet ...but as happend with GFX card areana ..when people were so obsessed with nVidia and 8800 cards and nvidia riding on that released high priced gtx200 series ..thinking they have market in their hands .....just then

ATI silently dropped the bomb of HD4000 series nobody knew about it before but it came as surprice and simply swept away nvidia market by great performaring cards at right price point...making nvidia go into loss

now we know AMD was better then intel when they came up with x64 architectures ....so can't deny that they can't compete with intel once again ...so even now when AMD looks down and out in processor department ...don't take it for granted ..things could change pretty fast in computer harware market !

AMD will have to fight back if they have to survive..what if they give great performing quad cores at much lower price point then nehalem ..??? just speculation but can happen as was the case with graphics card ...people want value for money rather than just expensive things!

[tkin]

Originally Posted by ~Rahul~

Just read this article on Anandtech:-
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3326

Now I feel its better to wait and watch atleast till dec-jan, and are all Nehalems(Core i7s) quad-core ones?

And when does AMD launch its next proccy platform? Whats it called?

Nehalem Mainstream:- Mid-2009,
Keep waiting and you will get a 10000 core processor sometimes in 2012(If the world survives that is)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012

Get The Best When You Can.

[Power_user_EX]

If u will not be updgrading for 4 yrs then don't wait for nehalem.
Go for 9300 or 6600 with p5q pro.
Palit / sapphire HD4850 is a good choice.

DDR 3 , X58 , Nehalem-i7 are new technologies - we must give them some time to mature as mainstreams.
Also the cost will be out of reach for most of us at the beginning of its launch.
For e.g DDR3 reaches speeds of 2000Mhz but with poor latencies of 8 or 9 which nullifies the high speed of DDR3. DDR3 improvements will be seen in near future but not now.

[toofan]

Waise bhi kal kisne dekha hai?

So go for current gen processors.

[tkin]

Originally Posted by Power_user_EX

If u will not be updgrading for 4 yrs then don't wait for nehalem.
Go for 9300 or 6600 with p5q pro.
Palit / sapphire HD4850 is a good choice.

DDR 3 , X58 , Nehalem-i7 are new technologies - we must give them some time to mature as mainstreams.
Also the cost will be out of reach for most of us at the beginning of its launch.
For e.g DDR3 reaches speeds of 2000Mhz but with poor latencies of 8 or 9 which nullifies the high speed of DDR3. DDR3 improvements will be seen in near future but not now.

That's a killer setup at a killer price.
Its better to get the Skulltrail at almost that price