Final Words
Most users that email questions about building a computer system are planning to build a midrange computer system. With a price range of $700 to $1700, this covers a huge number of potential choices. AMD's Phenom II has certainly leveled the competitive playing field in the midrange in recent months. With Phenom II AMD can now effectively compete throughout the midrange, at least to just under the price point of the Intel i7-920 at about $285. Core i7 still wins over any AMD CPU, but all the Core i7 parts have really been high-end up to now.
Looking at the current AMD and Intel CPU prices it easy to say with confidence that you can pick a price where both AMD and Intel compete and find roughly comparable performance from either manufacturer. Even the old "overclocking exception" no longer applies, as the 45nm AMD Phenom II parts are just as overclockable as the best Intel processors. That is very good news for potential AMD buyers.
So far so good, but then comes the $64,000 dollar question: with Intel LGA-1156 due to be announced next month should you buy one of the recommended midrange systems or wait for i5? Unfortunately, we don't have a clear answer for this question, and the answers we do have will not be satisfying to all readers.
If past experience is anything to go by, an announcement of i5 next month may mean it is still months before the new socket 1156 chips and boards are readily available in the market. In addition, early versions of new socket boards like the upcoming socket 1156 often take a while to mature; there are often issues with early boards with a new socket and chipset that take some time - and a few BIOS updates - to resolve. Prices for early adopters are also normally higher than where prices settle once the market pipelines are filled. Early adopters pay more, and since midrange buyers are not normally early adopters they should be less inclined to wait.
Finally, we don't yet have hard performance numbers to truly judge whether i5 is a large performance step forward or merely a technology refresh with a minor impact on performance. We have seen both from Intel in the past and we are still not far enough from the Pentium 4 to blindly trust that new Intel technology will push the performance envelope. We will have answers to the performance question in a few weeks, but that may or may not be a clear-cut answer. All of which leads to our conclusion.
If you are in the market for a new midrange system now you should buy it now. This is particularly true if you are planning to buy an AMD midrange system. Values are at an all-time high and i5 will not likely change the value equation much since Intel already controls the top performance spots. Intel does not have a history of "giving away" performance; they adjust prices when competitive pressures force them to.
History has proven that technology is always evolving and performance is always improving. Those who wait for the latest and greatest usually gain nothing and merely lose the waiting time for the newer technology. Whatever you buy today is almost always improved upon soon after you buy it. If value is good, as it is now, you have no real reason to wait and little to gain. If you have to have the latest then nothing we can write here will likely dissuade you from waiting for LGA-1156, but all indications are that socket 1366 will continue to be the performance king for a while yet.
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Black Jacque - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
>For instance there are hardly any quality power supplies in the 450->550W range that offer 2 6-pin PCIe connectors (a requirement to run >HD 4870/90 and GTX 260/275 cards).Like the Seasonic S12II-430 Bronze (1xPCIe-6, 1xPCIe-6+2)?
In addition, most GPUs come with a Power Cable to adapt the standard Molex to PCIe-6. The recommended MSI HD 4890 comes with two Power Cables.
> it makes good long term sense to throw in another $25 and get a >more powerful PS for your future upgrade needs.
The Xbit Labs article clearly states the trend in PC parts power consumption is downward, not upward. Besides, I'd rather not spend US$25 that I didn't have to. I could use that money to upgrade to a Q9400 or an E8500, something I could use rightaway.
Nfarce - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
"Like the Seasonic S12II-430 Bronze (1xPCIe-6, 1xPCIe-6+2)? "Not real familiar with that brand. Try finding one in the range I mentioned built by Antec, Corsair, OCZ, Thermaltake, or PC Power & Cooling. And 430W? I have that in a five year old P4 system. I don't think so. I'll spend the extra few clams on something future proof, and apparently others agree. If you have to worry about spending another $25 on an $850+ PC build, then maybe you need to reconsider your spending priorities.
Black Jacque - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
>Not real familiar with that brand. Try finding one in the range I >mentioned built by Antec, Corsair, OCZ, Thermaltake, or PC Power & >Cooling.Seasonic can be found providing OEM service on various model lines for: Antec, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, and of course under their own Seasonic brand. Actually, the PSUs that Seasonic either designs or builds for Antec, Corsair or the old PCP&P are not as high quality as the PSUs they build under their own brand label.
Nfarce - Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - link
Thanks for the info Black Jacque. I did not know that, and I now verified that fact. Of all the PS research I did prior to my build, no reviews mentioned that fact. However, I will still stand by spending a little more on a future proof power supply so as one less thing to have to upgrade. My Corsair 750W will take me into next year's planned Lynnfield build and the new DX11 cards with SLI (hopefully).haplo602 - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
the article is one from the "how much power do we need" round that almost every major hardware review site did.however it was more or less questioning the need of 700+ W PSUs for the normal systems (i.e. average home PC).
you have to account also for the usage pattern. this site is aimed at the hardware enthusiasts. they tend to buy informed or tend to change components often. in the first case, they will ignore the PSU recommendation, in the 2nd case, it comes in handy in the future.
also have a look at power consumption on overclocked components (f.e. CPUs increase quite dramaticaly with added voltage). IIRC the xbitlabs article did not take into account overclocking (I might be wrong, did not read into details there).
brybir - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
You keep referring to that article and after raeding it I do find it interesting. But all it says is that usage is trending downword. That trend is based on events that have already happened and then assuming what future events will occur with power draw based off similar past events.First, just because the trend is in one direction does not mean that it is going to continue that way in the future. That is to say that the past predicts the future which is simply not true.
Second, it makes sense to me to spend $25 on a larger power supply than I need "right now" so that I do not have to worry about replacing the power supply later on. You can say that the general power draw will decrease over time but in each individual case that is not going to be necessarily true. I just went from a system with a 65W CPU and a ATI 4670 to a 125W CPU and a 4870 OC using the same power supply. Had I bought the power supply that exactly fit my previous system I would now have to buy a new power supply. So in my case buying a larger power supply has been a great idea and will save me from spending another $70 this time around. Who knows, since its a 550W supply maybe it will last me another three years.
Black Jacque - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
>First, just because the trend is in one direction does not mean that >it is going to continue that way in the future. That is to say that >the past predicts the future which is simply not true.You are joking, right?
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.asp...">http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.asp...
If you understand how the past can predict the future, its no surprise that AMD improved their process and shaved 30W off this part's (AMD Phenom™ II X4 945) power consumption after a bit more than 5-months of production. (BTW, this part costs US$1 more than its 125W sibling at ZZF.)
Looking into my crystal ball, I predict ~3 GHz 65W quad CPUs by either AMD or Intel within a year.
haplo602 - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
each system has at least a 2x PCIex16 board, so the higher watt PSU is an "insurance" for future upgrades.anyway the builds are unbalanced in my view. they get away with far too cheap displays.
my current planed build is 1:1 in components vs lcd cost. My total component cost is about 600 euro, the display will cost me around 500 euro :-)
but I am more looking at photo editing than gaming.
Black Jacque - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
>so the higher watt PSU is an "insurance" for future upgrades."The recent, excellent Xbit Labs article "PC Power Consumption: How Many Watts Do We Need?" clearly illustrates that 750W PSUs are a waste of money in the mid-range when not going with SLI or Crossfire. This article shows the trend in PC parts is downward in power consumption."
I can't even accept the idea of adding a second GPU later when they get less expensive. The general trend is the next generation of GPU outperforms the previous generation in Crossfire or SLI at a lower price.
erple2 - Monday, July 27, 2009 - link
I suppose that's true. However, it's also true that the next generation of GPU also tends to consume more power than the previous generation. Normally, not 2x the power, but 20-50% more power isn't unheard of.Though, you're right. Buying a power supply strictly because it makes the PSU itself a little bit more future proof doesn't necessarily make that much sense. How often does the midrange buyer upgrade their systems? Every 2 years? 3 years? What's the reasonable lifetime of a PSU? 3 years? 5 years? Is it enough to last through a full upgrade cycle? If the answer is "yes", then it's certainly possible that buying a slightly higher end power supply can be worth it. You pay the extra 25 dollars now, but save 75 dollars for the next upgrade.
Unless the next generation of chips use less power than the current gen, which I don't think is going to be the case (the only exception that I can think of in the x86 world was the move from Pentium 4 to Core2Duo), then buying a slightly larger power supply than necessary isn't necessarily a bad idea. Now, going with 750 Watts with a non-SLI, non-XFire setup does seem a bit silly.
If you overclock, I don't know how that impacts the power consumption of the system, either. Maybe a study on that would be interesting?