Sandy Bridge is Back

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madmattd
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Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/ne ... px?nid=991

Those of you who were waiting like me for Sandy Bridge Motherboards to be re-released, most manufacturers have started shipping to retailers as of last week. This includes MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and so on. But what this really means is I can go back to finding a new laptop (tabling the new desktop GPU for a little while now). One with great battery life (4+ hours surfing the net, IGP is fine for me on battery) and yet very good power (new i7 ftw! -> probably with an Optimus card unless I can find someone selling the GTX 460-480's with some sort of graphics switching option. And yes, this is now possible for those of you that didn't know!

Looks like Dell, Sager, and co. are expecting to ship orders in 2-3 weeks to customers.

Please let me know if you know of systems with switchable graphics with better GPUs than these so-so 540m/550m ones. I'm ok with a hardware-only switch. Just not finding them...I'd like to be able to do reasonable gaming on the road (Source Games, SC2, and whatever else I might pick up), but I also need the battery for the 5-hour flights to Denver that I've been taking and likely will be taking more of.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by buddyf »

I wish I could get one. Its so fast!!!
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by Mullet »

AWESOME!!
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

I'm probably ordering this weekend. I would like it in by the middle of next month, I have a couple trips coming at the end of April and beginning of May.

It is unreal how superior the new chips are to the old ones. The slowest mobile quad i7 is superior to all but the extreme mobile quad i7 from last year's gen. And uses less power, and has IGP to save battery life. What more could you want than a laptop with a quad core that can get 5+ hours on battery if you aren't pegging the CPU! I guess the answer would be for them to enable graphics switching on the 460/470/480/485 cards. The GPUs support it, no one is enabling it though *frowns*. Still, the 540m looks like it is pretty solid, I'll be able to play TF2 and such without having to lug my desktop along.

Dell has a great 17" system right now, if only they had a real HD screen:
17.3" 1600x900 LED
555m 3GB (LOL at 3GB on a laptop card, pretty pointless)
i7-2630QM (2.0GHz can turbo-boost up to 2.9 on all 4 cores, 2.6 on one core)
4GB DDR3-1333 RAM
Blu-ray Reader+CD/DVD-RW combo drive
640GB 7200RPM drive (there are 2 bays though, I don't care about that)
Advanced-N 6230 + Bluetooth 3.0
Win 7 Home Premium
92WHr Battery - they claim up to 5:22 on battery
7.79lb
150W power supply -> GOOD GRIEF!
~$1235 US

Sager's is nice too (through XoticPC.com):
17.3" 1920x1080 LED
540m 1GB
8GB DDR3-1333 RAM
CD/DVD-RW
320GB 7200RPM drive
Advanced-N 6230 + Bluetooth 3.0
Win 7 Pro (can save $150 by getting it w/o OS, can get it for ~$130 online so meh)
62WHr battery - 3-5 hours battery life
6.83lb
90W power supply -> wtf Dell?
free basic shoulder-slung bag (meh)
~$1150 US

Dell one has better GPU (it has 50% more cores, albeit slightly slower clock), better optical drive (don't care if it has Blu-Ray or not though so whatever), better battery, and a better price on an upgrade to a i7-2720QM (2.2GHz turbo-boost to 3.0 on all cores, 3.3 on one) which I might grab since that is a nice boost.

Sager has a full HD screen which I think I might like (going to go the Microcenter tomorrow to check out the visual difference, the 1600x900 is actually pretty close to the same pixel density as my desktop's 22" screens so idk), and a good price on the 8GB RAM (+$70 over 4GB, included in above pricing). Sager is also over a pound lighter when one considers the power supply (nuclear reactor in the Dell case).

So I'm between these two mostly. If when I compare screen resolutions on floor models this weekend the 1600x900 doesn't bug me, that's probably the way I'm going. If Sager had a larger capacity battery option I would likely go with them for the better screen and RAM and lack of needing to order separate restore discs (FAIL DELL, they used to give these FREE with every computer) so I can format all the crapware off (Sager one also won't be preloaded with much, nothing if I ordered sans-OS). It'd also be nice if they had something besides the 540m, say the 550m or 555m, but there's not a huge performance hit in reality, so whatever. The weight isn't a huge deal to me since I am no longer lugging a laptop to classes (and that was a 7-pound system before the power block), but hey, lighter is attractive.

I think it is hilarious that you can get a really nice full-HD screen in 15", but few people have full-HD in 17" aside from 3D displays (which means no switchable graphics). It seems to me that full-HD on a 15" screen is pretty darn small while it is probably reasonable on a 17". Whatever.

Doing some CAD, some gaming, some simulations, some web design work, so I'm really excited about the performance potential of these new chips while still having battery life above my old Inspiron 1150 (~4 hours light surfing) while on the road. Beats lugging the desktop home for Christmas just to LAN some TF2 with friends.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by hulkvsspawn »

You wrote a lot so I feel obligated to post something.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by ATG Aaron »

hulkvsspawn wrote:You wrote a lot so I feel obligated to post something.
same
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by Mullet »

hulkvsspawn wrote:You wrote a lot so I feel obligated to post something.
+2
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

It's more for reference for anyone else looking what is available. I didn't mean to write so much...sorry!
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by Mullet »

HAHAH
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

Sandvich: not really

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

Short version (I promise!):

Sandy Bridge is Intel's code name for their second generation core-i series processors (i3, i5, i7). There are all-new processors and a different socket (LGA 1155 -> ONE PIN different from the 1156 from last year...). All processors in this line have integrated graphics instead of just some of them like the first generation. The graphics are actually decent now, unlike previous Intel graphics, somewhere on the order of entry-level dedicated cards.

Desktop CPU performance is slightly better, but the real gains are in the mobile chips. Far more aggressive turbo-boosting coupled with the 32nm tech means they run cooler yet are significantly more powerful. And since even the i7's have IGP now, you can run switchable graphics technologies with the quad-cores, getting great battery life when on IGP, and good performance when on the dedicated card.

There are some other differences, mainly dealing with the naming convention, I'll ignore that for now. Suffice to say only the i7 series will have hyperthreading now.

There was a new chipset that came out with this, the -6 series, which was found to have a fatal flaw in the SATA 2 controller roughly 1 month after release. This meant that just as shipments were ramping up, they were cut off. Basically, the SATA 2 ports would degrade over time, causing decreased performance to the point where they would cease to work. SATA 3 ports were unaffected, CPUs were fine. But the recall stopped everything for a month (all of Feb.), and just last week fixed stuff started shipping again in small quantities.

I've been waiting for about 3 months now to order a Sandy Bridge laptop as the chips are far superior to any mobile chip on the market right now (perhaps AMD's Fusion will top it, but that's a while out yet). I was about to order when the new laptops were coming out in early Feb, but yea. I need a new laptop, mine is useful only as a non-mobile web surfer right now.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by Mullet »

LOL @ short version, Matt is pure gold.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

Fine. Shortest Version: I WANT ONE!

LOL at Mullet double-post (fixed it for ya).
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by Stephen »

fusion takes a poop on sandy bridges chest

it may not out perform in cpu power but gpu its spot on.

not sure if its in retail for laptops yet but other day i seen them on micro atx for home theaters and there priced very nice.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by madmattd »

Stephen wrote:fusion takes a poop on sandy bridges chest

it may not out perform in cpu power but gpu its spot on.

not sure if its in retail for laptops yet but other day i seen them on micro atx for home theaters and there priced very nice.
LOL Stephen. But yes, I am sure Fusion's graphics are better, Intel's graphics have sucked for so long that it is good to see them getting there, still a long way to go for sure. But Intel graphics are fine for web surfing/word processing, dedicated card for rest. And as you said, CPU power Intel has won, at least for now. I've yet to see many (maybe none) Fusion laptops, AMD seems to be less popular among system manufacturers. Despite usually being cheaper.

Is Fusion integrated graphics so much better that they outperform (or even come close to) the Optimus-level cards? If so, then that is good news for AMD.
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Re: Sandy Bridge is Back

Post by IM A COMPUTAH »

I bought an i5 2500k from MicroCenter for $180 + 3.5% sales tax. Beats NewEgg's $225 + 7% tax.
Newegg link to processor in question: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072
Also bought this MSI P67 motherboard from MicroCenter for $160 + 3.5% sales tax compared to NewEgg's $180.00 + 7% sales tax + $7.87 shipping.
Newegg link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

Also got a HIS 6850 Graphics Card with this.

I don't have time to fully assemble it yet and let you know how it works but hopefully next week after my 4 midterms and research paper I can get it up and running. All I can say is if you have a MicroCenter around you check them out, they beat NewEgg all the way around. I bought an entire system there with the exception of power supply and memory. Only got those components from NewEgg because they were running a sale on an absolutely awesome dependable 650W PSU and I like GSkill RAM which MicroCenter does not carry (also 10% off).


For those of you considering to upgrade in the near future wondering whether to choose the i5 2500k or i7 9xx choose the i5 2500k. It outperforms all first gen i7's.
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