I just finished my 2600K and have only played with it a bit. Long term, I'm saving up for the GTX 580 1.5 Gig, but, I thought this would serve well without a discrete card until I free up some spending cash.
You can read about the stats and relative power of the chip:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
I like that it is only using 95 Watts as opposed to the 6 core I7s use of 130 watts. I still put an after market coolermaster with dual fans. I understand I can over clock this thing, air cooled, to as much as 5 Ghz. I likely will not, but I might pump it up some. For now, it is 4 core/8 threads running standard at 3.4 Ghz, boosts to 3.8.
It boots up very fast, so, I've no complaint there. I understand, when NOT using a discrete card and utilizig the HD3000 built in GPU of this CPU, you can do encoding faster than all but the fastest desktop chips.
But, I'm a gamer. Using Fraps, I find I need to set Battlefield 2 on low settings to get it to about 30 FPS.
So, I may have gone about this all wrong. There are other really good Intel chips, such as the Core I7 960 selling in some quarters for less than $200. Add another $100 for what a HD5770 or even a GTX460 on sale with rebate costs, and you have what I spent on just this chip alone. Such a setup would likely run Battlefield 2 at 30 FPS on high settings.
But, I like the possibility that this chip may be very fast for some uses, and adding the 580 in the future, I'll be able to play some of what I'm thinking are going to be the better looking, more demanding games coming out (Battlefield 3 looks incredible. Cut scenes from the Mass Effect 3 trailer look like a movie. I don't know if they've just figured out how to get more out of less hardware, but I think I'll be ready.
In the meantime, this chip with built in GPU is functioning fine as a media tower providing web browsing, etc. hooked up to a 55" LED TV. I think the expense can only be justified if I do get into this video encoding (Z68 board, I hope, can toggle between Discrete card and GPU) and games really do get that much more impressive looking and hardware demanding.
You can read about the stats and relative power of the chip:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
I like that it is only using 95 Watts as opposed to the 6 core I7s use of 130 watts. I still put an after market coolermaster with dual fans. I understand I can over clock this thing, air cooled, to as much as 5 Ghz. I likely will not, but I might pump it up some. For now, it is 4 core/8 threads running standard at 3.4 Ghz, boosts to 3.8.
It boots up very fast, so, I've no complaint there. I understand, when NOT using a discrete card and utilizig the HD3000 built in GPU of this CPU, you can do encoding faster than all but the fastest desktop chips.
But, I'm a gamer. Using Fraps, I find I need to set Battlefield 2 on low settings to get it to about 30 FPS.
So, I may have gone about this all wrong. There are other really good Intel chips, such as the Core I7 960 selling in some quarters for less than $200. Add another $100 for what a HD5770 or even a GTX460 on sale with rebate costs, and you have what I spent on just this chip alone. Such a setup would likely run Battlefield 2 at 30 FPS on high settings.
But, I like the possibility that this chip may be very fast for some uses, and adding the 580 in the future, I'll be able to play some of what I'm thinking are going to be the better looking, more demanding games coming out (Battlefield 3 looks incredible. Cut scenes from the Mass Effect 3 trailer look like a movie. I don't know if they've just figured out how to get more out of less hardware, but I think I'll be ready.
In the meantime, this chip with built in GPU is functioning fine as a media tower providing web browsing, etc. hooked up to a 55" LED TV. I think the expense can only be justified if I do get into this video encoding (Z68 board, I hope, can toggle between Discrete card and GPU) and games really do get that much more impressive looking and hardware demanding.