Describe in greater detail what do you need the raw processing power for.

Software that you utilize?

There is no right answer to this as the Core i7 3770K has its merits because for that extra you put in you get 'free' additional performance. However, if you want to save that difference and still get the performance you need, the Core i7 3770 is a good choice. If you really want it for real work, don't mess around with an overclocked rig. I say this because no matter how much stability tests you run with overclocked settings, there will be occasions that the program might crash or BSOD. It will almost never happen with a stock CPU and nothing is more frustrating than having the work done 50% and it suddenly crashes, causing you to lose all your time and work.

Not quite, I'm sure the crappy TIM has a part in causing all the problems besides the higher power density. This problem only matters to overclockers and standard users with non K or have no intention of overclocking will never encounter this problem, even with a stock heatsink. If the TIM is to blame entirely, it still won't affect mobile users where there are no heatspreader and no TIM to deal with. Even if the temp issue is resolved with not using TIM, IB is still very demanding for voltage and once you've reached around 4.5GHz @ 1.3V, the voltage required per clockspeed increase spikes up a lot.

Who knows, Intel might just use solder with Haswell and all of a sudden the temp problem with 22nm Trigate never existed.

Maybe because the problem besides temp is the fact that it does not have a similar clockspeed scaling like SB does. Voltage requirement will drop if you're shrinking and its tolerance towards higher voltage will drop as well. This could be the case with IB and Intel engineers could have guessed that the difference of having TIM or solder is negligible if you don't exceed the specified factory voltages. IB works best when its voltages scales down, not up and this is a good feature to have when you're making mobile chips, it saves power.

Maybe when we reach <10nm, Intel might just forget overclocking altogether since it might be too sensitive towards the stress that overclockers want to put it through for more performance. This may be true since enthusiasts are only a very small percentage of Intel's revenue and Intel doesn't make processors for your entertainment/hobby for overclocking, they make it as a product that will sell and in turn make profit for them. Nothing new, in fact it is true for any company.

I am unaware of the configurable TDP feature that Intel implements on their mobile chips but if it existed, it is only configurable downwards, upwards is no different compared to overclocking and harder for quality assurance. This is the case with underclocking where it doesn't give much of problem compared to overclocking, till you reach a threshold that is necessary to sustain the CPU at its lowest speed. The thing about TDP is that it connects with additional headroom that they allocate for more 'something'. That something can be more cores OR higher clockspeed. The case with mainstream Intel CPUs, the cores will remain at 4, so the only possibility is to increase the clockspeed. So having configurable TDPs is no different from overclocking and it creates an issue because then Intel would need to ensure that it will work at a higher TDP, more validation = more time = more money wasted for them.

A $100 CPU with 125W TDP is what used to be considered overclocking. Taking a lower performing chip and overclocking it to gain more performance. It isn't the case anymore with SB/IB where you take the top of the range which has more than enough performance and give it an overclock just to satisfy your hobby. Intel doesn't want this as they want you to spend the extra for that additional overclocking features. If they did have a dual core that is overclockable, it will cannibalize a lot of sales from their top of the range CPUs. The same goes for SB/IB, it is limited as such that it doesn't cannibalize the sales of SB-E/IB-E.

Processors for LGA2011. IB-E may or may not exist but we'll just assume that there will be one in the future.

Upwards within a +- 10-15W range is possible and it is probably just to give more flexibility for power saving or maximum performance. It could be no different from just getting a desktop IB and put it in since 77W TDP isn't that far from 65W. Upwards by double is highly unlikely.

This post has been edited by dma0991: May 13 2012, 12:04 AM

It doesn't need that many. In fact it is less efficient to have too many and number of VRMs in use will still be in the increasing order instead of using all VRMs at the same time with lower load. To some, it is nothing more than a marketing tool similar to more cores = more performance.

Your GTX460 will still consume a bit of power at idle to keep it running unlike AMD's ZeroCore, depending on the power gating feature that was implemented for that particular generation. The only benefit you'll gain is that your GTX460 will ramp up less, it will not have a usage spike which reduces power consumption but too little to even bother, most of the workload you've placed during the test is not GPU intensive in any way. You'll have to remove the GTX460 physically to actually see some actual difference in power usage.

It did work as stated as your discrete GPU will not have any spikes in usage because most of the work is done by the IGP. IF difference is small then it is within the margin of error. You can't expect miracles because the GTX460 needs power to idle as well.

If you have the money, it would be a lot better to build a separate downloading rig as stated by Boldnut. You'll save more power that way and your maintenance interval for your main rig is reduced because you no longer need to keep it up 24/7. Your main rig would definitely have a lot of fans which leads to more dust. A separate E-350 rig can run almost passively.

Lucid Virtu is not something that completely turns off the discrete GPU, it doesn't work like that. Lets just say that the discrete GPU needs about 10W to idle. Even if you switched to the IGP, the discrete GPU will still need about 10W to idle. That is why you don't see the difference till you remove the discrete GPU physically, since there is no discrete GPU to power it at idle, you get less power consumption. That is Fermi's power gating method or almost any GPU till this point will never have 0W power consumption at idle because it doesn't turn off like a light bulb.

You'll only see the power savings when you apply some GPU intensive load to the IGP. Most browsers these days got GPU acceleration and when you compare a IGP vs discrete GPU at certain load necessary to do that GPU intensive task, the IGP will sip less power. You don't measure the power savings of the IGP by comparing IGP versus discrete GPU at idle because both will be the same as mentioned in my first paragraph. You have to test it with some load.

Not out yet, maybe a few more months. By then the laptops would also have quite a variety of models as well, don't seem to see many laptops with IB yet.

ASRock Z77 Extreme4. Not the cheapest board with that features but definitely one of the cheapest Z77 motherboards around. Any cheaper you'll have to get the older H67 chipset motherboard but a little bit limited if you have any intentions of overclocking.

Intel reiterates shipment date for new processors

Core i3 Ivy Bridge coming on the 24th June. Good news for those who wants a new budget laptop or a budget gaming build.

The difference between IB and SB should be less obvious than it is with flagship models, I don't highly recommend getting Pentium IB unless on a very low budget or lower power consumption, assuming there are models with lower TDP. What should be interesting is for laptops, quite empty without the i3 offerings and if not mistaken, Ivy Bridge i3 mobile should come with HD4000 which is a definite boost over Sandy Bridge offerings.

If you're upgrading from a C2D to a C2Q, it is so much better to spend that money on a SSD, it just got a whole lot cheaper recently. Still gives a better perceivable responsiveness boost than an upgrade to IB. Unless of course your LGA775 board does not even have a SATA port.

Why are you playing games on an old machine? I thought you have a Core i5 2500K machine lying around? I would rather retire older machines for simpler tasks or act as a secondary PC.

Let them use the wood PC, you get the privilege of using the new PC since you bought it.

Pentium is not bad, SB or IB, given that it is cheap to buy. Add in a SSD and you probably can't tell the difference even if you use an IB i3.

Check whether you've mounted the heatsink properly, with all the pushpins went through the hole. Then check whether you have proper airflow in your casing, cluttered wires like a rats nest.

It is nice of Asus to make boards with wireless capabilities but I wouldn't want it when I can get it cheaper with a motherboard without wireless + wireless card/USB dongle. Once you have the feature attached semi permanently to the motherboard with a proprietary connection, harder to get replacement, antenna options also limited.

I've used a TP-Link dongle for quite a while, 1-2 years and it is still strong but I can't say the same for their PCI card, didn't work well for me. It gets warm but even if it gets hot, it doesn't matter much because it is only RM30, works superbly and cheap. If you have the regular PCI card with a standard SMA connector, you'll have a lot of options to what antenna you want to boost your signal, Hi Gain, directional, etc. I believe that some of Asus' wireless cards have a proprietary connector that isn't the standard SMA and getting a replacement or something better is difficult.