Since a new ultimate platform has arrived has anyone decided to take the plunge on behalf of the rest of us?Kind regards,

Since a new ultimate platform has arrived has anyone decided to take the plunge on behalf of the rest of us?Kind regards,

Why? I'm sure that there are some people with deep pockets who will try it just because they can.

Why? I'm sure that there are some people with deep pockets who will try it just because they can.

It's like the proverbial mountain. Why climb it? ...because it's there!

No more NickN support for the high-end / enthusiast platform apparentlyhttp://www.simforums.com/forums/2011-intel-are-heredarn_topic40630.html

No more NickN support for the high-end / enthusiast platform apparentlyhttp://www.simforums...topic40630.html

Not surprising, is it? The outstanding success of the 2500K, 2600K and 2700K have apparently dampered enthusiasm for the SB-E platform in a lot of circles. On top of that, I suppose the prospect of Ivy Bridge being just around the corner acts as a sort of glue for many people to stay put until then. I know I am already poisoned with the Ivy itch!Kind regards,

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i7-3960x-processor--msi-x79agd65-review/http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1773/1/

You can bet I will be selling my 2600k if the Ivy Bridge CPUs clock even a little higher

Not surprising, is it? The outstanding success of the 2500K, 2600K and 2700K have apparently dampered enthusiasm for the SB-E platform in a lot of circles. On top of that, I suppose the prospect of Ivy Bridge being just around the corner acts as a sort of glue for many people to stay put until then. I know I am already poisoned with the Ivy itch!Kind regards,

You can bet I will be selling my 2600k if the Ivy Bridge CPUs clock even a little higher

Hehe, me too guys. Just a few more months for Ivy Bridge!

From a purely gaming stand point, 2011 isn't worth it over 1155.Power consumption's a let down as well, in comparison to the 1155 CPU's.

Exactly. The strengths of this platform are the extra cores, max memory and PCIe lanes.Games are fine with 4 cores and 8GB of RAM. FSX tooUnless you need 6 cores, Tri/Quad-SLI or lots of ram (>32GB) 1155 is the way to go.We'll have to see how these things overclock and what it needs for cooling with that power consumption

Base overclocks on the SB-E processors are already past 5.2GHz on a stock Intel cooler. The SB-E processors are in a different league than the Ivy Bridge series. It's an enthusiast platform meant to replace the LGA1366 series of i7's, whereas the Ivy Bridge will continue the lineage of the original SB's and be more of a "mainstream" platform. I'll be upgrading to SB-E myself.Alot of people look at clock speed potential as the deciding factor in whether or not to upgrade. The fact is, for an enthusiast user such as myself, quad channel RAM, support for SLi in true x16 per channel, (Try that on your 1155 system!) PCI-E 3.0 support, etc all make it a worthwhile upgrade.

Base overclocks on the SB-E processors are already past 5.2GHz on a stock Intel cooler. The SB-E processors are in a different league than the Ivy Bridge series. It's an enthusiast platform meant to replace the LGA1366 series of i7's, whereas the Ivy Bridge will continue the lineage of the original SB's and be more of a "mainstream" platform. I'll be upgrading to SB-E myself.Alot of people look at clock speed potential as the deciding factor in whether or not to upgrade. The fact is, for an enthusiast user such as myself, quad channel RAM, support for SLi in true x16 per channel, (Try that on your 1155 system!) PCI-E 3.0 support, etc all make it a worthwhile upgrade.

5.2GHz on the stock cooler? LOL, I want to see that. Matter of fact, the only OC review I've seen of a 3960X it overclocked to 4.5GHz on 1.4V. Not so impressiveSB-E is PCIe 2.0, no PCIe 3.0.16x16x doesn't work any better than 8x8xTriple / Quad channel memory makes no difference in most user level applications, like FSX"Enthusiast" is just a word, performance is another story and in FSX, SB-E is not going to perform any better than SB

5.2GHz on the stock cooler? LOL, I want to see that. Matter of fact, the only OC review I've seen of a 3960X it overclocked to 4.5GHz on 1.4V. Not so impressiveSB-E is PCIe 2.0, no PCIe 3.0.16x16x doesn't work any better than 8x8xTriple / Quad channel memory makes no difference in most user level applications, like FSX"Enthusiast" is just a word, performance is another story and in FSX, SB-E is not going to perform any better than SB

Overclock link was posted above in the Guru3D article. SB-E will have PCI-E 3.0 support at release, so far the board manufacturers have been limited to marketing their boards as "PCI-E 3.0 Ready" for this reason.I am an enthusiast, and a gamer. I use my box for a LOT more than just FSX. Performance will be leaps and bounds above SB in a lot of applications, maybe not as much FSX, but certainly everything else that's not written on code that's over a decade old...

Base overclocks on the SB-E processors are already past 5.2GHz on a stock Intel cooler...I'll be upgrading to SB-E myself.

Hi Nick,That's great! I am looking forward to your reports on FSX performance. I hope you will be doing the FSXMark11 benchmark tests on a virgin FSX install as per the standard settings so that our data base can accurately reflect the new platform. If it works as good as you expect then I am sure it will be a termendous jump from the E8500 you now have. Although SLI does not give any advantage for FSX, I am sure you must be thinking of upgrading your video card(s) too. Any thoughts on what you may go with? When are you planning to pull the trigger?Kind regards,

Overclock link was posted above in the Guru3D article. SB-E will have PCI-E 3.0 support at release, so far the board manufacturers have been limited to marketing their boards as "PCI-E 3.0 Ready" for this reason.I am an enthusiast, and a gamer. I use my box for a LOT more than just FSX. Performance will be leaps and bounds above SB in a lot of applications, maybe not as much FSX, but certainly everything else that's not written on code that's over a decade old...

No. SB-E is PCIe 2.0. The PCIe controller is in the CPU, and it's 2.0. Boards may be PCIe 3.0 ready, but you'll need an Ivy Bridge CPU to have PCIe 3.0, and to wait a few years before it makes a difference performance wise anyway. You know that there are plenty LGA1155 "mainstream" boards with PCIe 3.0 support already, do you?Performance will be better only where more than 4 cores are in use. If you need 6 cores then LGA2011 is for you, but then again, IB may bring 6 cores to the mainstream platform soon, or maybe not...

Hi Nick,That's great! I am looking forward to your reports on FSX performance. I hope you will be doing the FSXMark11 benchmark tests on a virgin FSX install as per the standard settings so that our data base can accurately reflect the new platform. If it works as good as you expect then I am sure it will be a termendous jump from the E8500 you now have. Although SLI does not give any advantage for FSX, I am sure you must be thinking of upgrading your video card(s) too. Any thoughts on what you may go with? When are you planning to pull the trigger?Kind regards,

I will be upgrading everything. I'll stick with the 3930K processor, EVGA X79 SLI mainboard, at least 8GB of ram, and probably go with dual GTX560's.I'm waiting to pull the trigger until I see what offerings Koolance and Bitspower put forth in terms of waterblocks. I will be happy to run all the benchmarks and post findings.

By the way, the guru3D OC is 5GHz on 1.51V. How is that any better than SB?and it was not on the stock cooler, it was using a H100, hitting 80ºC:"we used the Corsair H100 LCS cooler at performance settings""you'll need a rather reasonable cooler as temperatures are on the borderline of acceptable. Then again, six-cores all at 5 GHz with a high-voltage, we didn't expect any less"