BTW all those OCZ drives with Indilinx controllers (Vertex 4, Octane, Petrol) are actually relabelled Marvell controllers

Indilinx infused OCZ SSDs feature Marvell controller silicon - The Tech Report

^ do you suggest I keep the Intel G620 CPU or invest in something else? I have a 120GB SSD SATA3, 8gb generic ram, it's fast enough for everyday work. I expect this setup can last for 3-4 years.

I am looking at Z77, because there's an extra USB3.0 port for the front and stabler SATA3 port (I am running Asmedia crap), but now it seems waste of money if I am running only G620

For gaming, just get a good video card, that is way more important. Games have been crippled by consoles for 5 years, you don't need a powerful CPU.

Here's Arkham Asylum running at a higher res than any consoles, with much higher settings, AND 8xAA, with a Radeon 6870, on all CPUs from a $1000 extreme to an old Phenom II you can't even buy anymore

http://img.hardcoreware.net/wordpres...ing-batman.png

Any video card over $150 will give you plenty of performance in games

Hey Skinnypup, aren't the Marvell controllers pretty good? I thought they were generally considered reliable, maybe not fast, but reliable.

Yup they are good. The Vertex 4 has a 5 year warranty too

So occasionally with my new build when I go to turn it on I'll press the power button and the startup sounds normal but I get no video signal, my monitor does not kick in and it sounds like the normal startup sequence but the video will never come

Usually I just hold my power button until I switch it off, wait a few minutes then try again and it usually works then

NCIX assembled my computer and tested it, I installed additional ram and my heatsink but I believe I was having this problem before I ever touched it

Any ideas?

Everytime that has happend to me, it was some sort of RAM issue. Not sure if its just a coincidence.

Sometimes i would just reinstall the ram, or swap over to another slot and it works fine again.

pretty disappointing for its temp/overclocking abilities...only seems to edge out SB for its power consumption and better availability at launch.

I know it will get refined a bit more in the months to come...but yeah for desktop performance with discrete card it doesnt seem a worthy replacement.

thinking of getting a used 2500k and pair that with the z77...will thunderbolt be relevant in the next few years?

I'll chime in.

Ivy bridge is supposed to be a refresh, to revitalize sandy bridge, it is not going to revolutionize the processor industry all over, why fix it when it aint broke? They're still the fastest processors you can buy, AMD gave up trying, thus the stale years that are passing by.

The die shrinks mainly affect power consumption and efficiency anyways, its performance is respectable. Anyone who's wanting to wait for pure performance would be waiting for the new architecture that comes out every 2 years anyways.

If you haven't upgraded for a few years then sure why not, this isn't bad; nothing to jump ship over.

@belaud: I wouldn't say AMD gave up...Bulldozer was their attempt for this market segment. It just f'ed up royally =D They're focusing more on the mobile sector.

i didn't expect a large performance margin with a die shrink...but the overclocking figures so far seems to be similar if not worse than SB.

If you are running HTPC with onboard graphics sure you'll see a nice performance bump..i'm sure IB-based laptops will also have better battery life.

Yes Ivy Bridge is a 'refresh' on Sandy Bridge. Just a move to 22nm to prepare for the true next generation. Intel has done this for years, and it is exactly why AMD is failing and they are not. AMD tries to do a die shrink along with a whole new architecture, and runs into problem after problem.

Need some noob advice on my PC.

Looking to upgrade to work on my 3D and design projects using Adobe Creative Suite CS5, 3DS Max with Vray, and will be studying Alias for additional 3D modeling.

At the moment, my current pc specs are:

i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz CPU
Windows 7 Enterprise 64Bit
12GB Ram
Asus P6T
650W Corsair PSU
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS
Samsung 500GB 7200RPM
Antec 900 Case
Dell 2410

I was looking to upgrade just the graphics card to a EVGA GTX 580 ($450+) and upgrading to an Intel 128GB SSD ($150). Is this worth keeping in the long run or should I start from scratch and bid on something like this on ebay:

i7 2700K~ OCZ 128GB SSD~x2 GTX 580 3GB Classied~Blu-Ray~32GB RAM~Liquid Cooling! | eBay

Not really into gaming but I'll be primarily using it to work on multiple 3D modeling/rendering jobs and doing design work on Adobe. I'm looking to spend around a $1500 budget. Will this be overkill or can I manage with my current system? Can I rely on a purchase like this from an Ebay seller (looks like the seller has a legit feedback)? Thanks in advance.

^

Wait for Ivy Bridge.

http://media.marketwire.com/attachme...-processed.jpg
http://cdn.overclock.net/1/14/142dec...rmance-new.png
GTX 690
$1000 retailing nextweek

no other firm details other than its fit & finish..and that its TDP is 300W cores and delivers close to double the framerate of GTX 680.

NVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 690 -- Dual Graphics Card Combines World's Fastest Gaming Performance With Sleek, Sexy Design - NVIDIA Newsroom

^:sweetjesus: I guess I'm going for the 680 afterall. Something like the 690 might finally break 50% load on my psu though.

I am no more a Photoshop, video editting, and autocad guy...enough is enough for me.

Here's my shopping list in June to replace my 4yrs old C2D setup.
i3-3220 3.3ghz
Ram 8GB
Asus P8B75-M (MVP)
ATi 7750

my new gaming HTPC will be the following
i5-3570K
Ram 8gb
Asrock Z77 Pro4-M
ATi 7850

Just do the SSD and GPU upgrade. Your system is still good in terms of CPU/RAM. You might want a bigger PSU though.

not sure if this counts since it's a laptop, but I just ordered an ASUS ROG G55 laptop..

160GB Intel SSD Primary
750GB Secondary
Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM
GTX660M
16GB Ram

can't wait!

:D

that 690 is a beaut

^ if your wallet agrees with ya!

didn't realize they would put out the 660m before 660...looks to be between the 6950m and the 570m, not bad

This would be my choice if I needed a desktop replacement/gaming laptop.