Well, I just bought an Intel i7 2600 CPU with a Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 motherboard with 16GB of RAM. It is the first Intel chip that I have bought since 1987. I must say that I am impressed with the performance. I do a lot of VMware and this new chip and board handle the VM's with ease. I have been an AMD fan in the past, but it seems that AMD hasn't kept up this time with performance vs price point.

 

Ahhh....good to see you have come over to the "blue" side. You may remember I mentioned I work for Intel over lunch in Denver.

Wait till you try out the Intel Quick Sync Video and the new 3D viewing features. Till recently a 1:1 (real time) conversion time for coding and decoding video formats was good stuff. Some higher end graphic cards can do 3:1 which is blazing. With the right software, it is as high as 18:1 with Quick Sync. Ever done any downloads to a personal device? You are in for a treat.

Have fun!

 

Nice. I just built a HTPC with a i5 650 on an Intel DP55WG MB with 8 G of RAM. This SOB is fast enough for me, and it will serve as a surfer/media server and gamer!

I still like ASUS MB's though-very well built and great documentation. Just poor after-purchase support.

 

I used to know a little about computers and even built my own about 6 years ago, didn't program it though. However now I'm just left in the dust. That's what my computer trained Army son-in-law is for, I just haven't told him yet. He will be .

 

Evan, I've been impressed with Gigabyte motherboards recently. The last couple I've bought were really nice - well built, stable, and fast.

As for Intel CPUs... I'm still an AMD guy. I just can't see paying the premium price for a 3 or 4% difference in performance. However, I will say that the Intel chipsets are kicking AMD's butt lately. I don't know what happened to Via (they used to be the bomb, now they're kinda duds), but you pretty much need to buy AMD chipsets. Of course, nVidia chipsets used to be great too - until AMD bought ATi and they stopped playing nice with nVidia.

I wouldn't hold my breath on the promises of Intel's Quick Sync Video. There's only two programs that support it at this point, and if I recall correctly, they're both high-end packages (too pricey for my cheap blood). But there's hope for down the road. As long as Intel doesn't charge a fee to support the QSV, I'm sure everyone will be scrambling to add it in.

Back to Intel though: I have recently learned the hard way that Intel network cards are the bomb. I used to disparage their high priced cards. Back in the 10/100Mb days, the extra price made little difference. Now in the gigabit ethernet era, cheap and lousy NICs are all over - especially in RealTek chips embedded in motherboards. Slap in an Intel NIC and watch your throughput jump up about 20 to 30%. Amazing!

 

Tom,

Thanks for the nice words about our stuff, and yes our NICs are awesome!

Chipsets are going to be a thing of the past, nVidea is already out selling off their old stuff. Both Intel and AMD are putting more into the processors. Our new Sandy Bridge stuff has the graphics as part of the CPU. The only thing left outside the processor is the I/O links.

In addition to QSV (we are not charging royalties, if fact we are paying others to support it) we now have Intel Insider and WiDi that will allow you to view protected content (first run internet movies) on your computer and even wirelessly stream Blue Ray and internet to your big screen TV.

More, much more to come.....

 

Yes, I do love the Intel NICs, especially the GigE ones. I have had a couple of Intel PRO/1000 PT Desktop adapters for three years now, as you have pointed out, because the RealTek chips are horrible.

 

That's not cool! You won't see my cry over the integration of chipsets. They're a needless complication in my opinion.

But:
Graphics embedded into the CPU sounds like a bad idea from the consumer perspective. It's a lot more expensive to upgrade a CPU that it is to put in a new video card. Gamers won't like that much. I suppose if you don't have to buy the video card at all, then you save some. But in the gaming side of things, consumers upgrade graphics semi-annually. I'm a cheap s.o.b, and even I get a new graphics card every other year. But I can maintain the same motherboard/CPU combo for several years. If it's all on one die, that could put a crimp in the gaming industry that seems to drive a lot of the consumer PC upgrades/sales.

I'm sure there's some advantages, such as increased speed between CPU and GPU because of a completely integrated bus. But I'm still leery of any integrated graphics.

 

A year ago I purchased the Intel i7 2.66Ghz with 1MB L2 Cache, 9GB DDR3 ram and NVIDA GForce GTX260 graphics card w/ 1.8GB dedicated RAM

Very happy with it and the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 23" Full HD monitor. Just over one year and not one crash yet..

Purchased it cuz I couldn't fit all my Jazz CD's into iTunes on my old (very old) desktop...


I even did a custom "flush" wall mount to save space...

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The NOC!!
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I do you like your "docking station"!

 

Good news Tom, for dedicated gamers and workstation users, we won't be getting rid of the PCIe X16 slot for graphics cards even though there will be graphics on the CPU. Going forward you won't have to disable the onboard graphics if you add a card. Shortly (a few months) you will be able to switch between the on board and the add in.

For hard core gamers, you will be able to run high end games on the add in then switch to the on board for video and encoding. You might even be able to use multiple monitors, not saying, just maybe.

The gen 2 Core i graphics are very good for gaming (about equal to a $75-$150 add in) and superior on video playback and encoding. Allows you to start there and add in later if you choose.

Even more surpsises to come.....stay tuned!

 

Very cool. Thanks for the inside info! That makes perfect sense about the embedded graphics. I totally jumped to the wrong conclusion on that one, thinking that Intel was going to suck nVidia in just like AMD did to ATi. (I'll never miss ATi, but I sure would miss nVidia.)

I don't read Tom's Hardware Guide and AnandTech as much as I used to, but I am getting back into it. I used to hover on the bleeding edge, but nowadays I'm comfortably back from the edge in the sub-$1,000 PC marketspace. That leaves more money to spend on the SRT-6.




Sweet setup, Brian! Now THAT is what I call a case-mod. LOL! You know you're serious about computing when you modify your house to fit your computer.