Sady bridge-K or Ivy bridge-K

[ElvenArcher]

I read current Ivy Bridge i5-k's generate a lot more heat and use a worse type of soldering than Sandy Bridge i5-k's. However, Ivy Bridge supports PCI-e 3.0, Sandy does not.

Websites say that PCI-e 3.0 currently does not offer even 10% advantage over 2.0, so can I safely expect that if I get a Sandy Bridge, I won't have to worry about not having PICE-e 3.0 support for the next 3-4 years, considering how I'm not huge on playing all the most recent games on the highest possible settings?

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

There is no reason for the average user to go with sandybridge in a new build at this time. Clock for clock, ivybridge is faster.

The main reason someone would want to go with sandybridge over ivybridge is for extreme overclocking. That being said, ivy still hits some decent clocks without running into the voltage/heat wall.

The argument that sandybridge is cheaper is barely there. The difference in price is almost negligible.

[Simplexity]

If you're planning on heavy overclocking (close to 5gHz), then that's where the Sandy Bridge i5 has its advantage. Clock for clock though, anything from a light to moderate overclock (probably up to 4.5gHz), the 3570k should have no heat problem and will perform about 5-10% better.

[demonskies]

It depends what kind of overclocking do you plan on doing. If you plan on only doing 4.2-4.6ish you should be perfectly fine with a 3570k. If you are trying to go stable cooler with higher clocks 4.6ish~4.7ish+ than sandy might be a better choice. But in all honesty you wont see a whole lot of difference in most usage except for bragging rights. And most people that complain about high temps of ivy or sandy being lower temps still are only running 4.2-4.4ghz. At this point I'd say go with the new generation and just get a decent 4.2-4.4 and call it a day.

[Lemmiwink]

You have to hit 4.9 on the sandy i7 to outperform the 4.6 ivy i7. 4.6 seems to be the limit on i7 with normal coolers and most people have stable 4.9 overclocks on their sandy i7's.