Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless
Posted on 4th Jan 2011 at 14:12 by James Gorbold with 49 comments
While the review we published yesterday of Intel's new Sandy Bridge range of CPUs was extremely glowing, the fact remains that launching it at 5am (UK time) on 3 January was pointless.
This is because, more than 33 hours after the so-called 'launch' of Sandy Bridge, you can't still buy one of these new CPUs or an LGA1155 motherboard to put one in.
In short, Sandy Bridge is a paper launch and Intel has joined the ignoble list of companies that 'launches' products you can't buy. There are several reasons why the launch on Monday is such a joke.
First of all, just days before launch, Intel pulled forwards the launch date by a couple of days, throwing the industry into disarray. For example, we had to suddenly get the review prepared earlier than expected; not a whole lot of fun when you're on national holiday and the team is spread around the globe.
You can get your own paper Sandy Bridge CPU by printing out this image
However, while most major review sites managed to scrabble some coverage together, retailers and manufacturers have still yet to catch up. As a result, no major UK or US retailer is listing any Sandy Bridge products as available to ship, let alone pre-order.
It's not just the press and retailers that are confused either - I've yet to receive a single press release from a manufacturer about their Sandy Bridge motherboards, memory or CPU coolers either. Perhaps we'll see some news later on today, when Sandy Bridge was originally meant to launch.
So, even if Sandy Bridge does (on paper) make the whole existing range of LGA1156 CPUs and most LGA1366 processors obselete, in reality it doesn't.
The sad fact is that Intel didn't need to rush out the release of Sandy Bridge in such a slap-dash manner. Its competitor has nothing remotely threatening planned until quite a lot later this year, so it's a baffling decision.
That is, unless you believe its a cynical ploy to drum up demand so that when you finally can buy Sandy Bridge, Intel can mysteriously up the price. In the meantime, don't expect a January Hardware Buyer's Guide anytime soon...
This is because, more than 33 hours after the so-called 'launch' of Sandy Bridge, you can't still buy one of these new CPUs or an LGA1155 motherboard to put one in.
In short, Sandy Bridge is a paper launch and Intel has joined the ignoble list of companies that 'launches' products you can't buy. There are several reasons why the launch on Monday is such a joke.
First of all, just days before launch, Intel pulled forwards the launch date by a couple of days, throwing the industry into disarray. For example, we had to suddenly get the review prepared earlier than expected; not a whole lot of fun when you're on national holiday and the team is spread around the globe.
You can get your own paper Sandy Bridge CPU by printing out this image
However, while most major review sites managed to scrabble some coverage together, retailers and manufacturers have still yet to catch up. As a result, no major UK or US retailer is listing any Sandy Bridge products as available to ship, let alone pre-order.
It's not just the press and retailers that are confused either - I've yet to receive a single press release from a manufacturer about their Sandy Bridge motherboards, memory or CPU coolers either. Perhaps we'll see some news later on today, when Sandy Bridge was originally meant to launch.
So, even if Sandy Bridge does (on paper) make the whole existing range of LGA1156 CPUs and most LGA1366 processors obselete, in reality it doesn't.
The sad fact is that Intel didn't need to rush out the release of Sandy Bridge in such a slap-dash manner. Its competitor has nothing remotely threatening planned until quite a lot later this year, so it's a baffling decision.
That is, unless you believe its a cynical ploy to drum up demand so that when you finally can buy Sandy Bridge, Intel can mysteriously up the price. In the meantime, don't expect a January Hardware Buyer's Guide anytime soon...
49 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyI think the sensible thing for everyone to do, as much as they might not wish to is just chill out and wait a couple of weeks until everyone's had chance to catch up and get out/read all of the reviews.
...in the mean time I'll print myself a Sandy Bridge CPU, now I need to find a motherboard
This made the hardware available and testable somewhere in the world.
I know atleast of 4 german retailers that have allready sold CPUs silently starting two weeks ago, but don't list the parts on their webpage. You can call them on the phone and get them to sell you the parts however. Mainboards being freely available for allmost 3 weeks and listed in allmost all big german eStores.
When you ask them about the CPUs, they all give the same answer initially, that they aren't supposed to sell the parts before Jan 9th. After sharing some love they do sell them tho.
UK and US retailers won't sell you anything before Jan 9th tho, as they fear the mighty intel-lawyers and the consequences, something the germans only laugh about with the general anti-american-british attitude they formed during the last 10 years (thanks to Bush and Blair).
Pfft come on, lets not go there again.
Don't see any pricing of SB processors though.
Or are Intel trying to really kill AMD off by overshadowing anything AMD release at any point of the market?
Shouldn't it be - "As a result, no major UK or US retailer is listing any Sandy Bridge products as available to pre-order, let alone ship."?
Sorry to be picky.
In all honesty SB was pointless for gamers, that is, SB just improved part of a PC that for many people doesn't actually need much more improvement compared to other areas. Yes quicksync is useful and yes we should see price drops but unless the product actually appears the market stands still. The area I want improvement in is graphics for low end, If quicksync and applications that use the GPU take off, low end graphics will have to catch up ie not be tied to SB but filter right down to atom. Zacate is what I'm really waiting for
I hope that i'll have a reason to switch back to AMD after 5 long years.
but thanks to great websites such as Bit-tech, i was able to look at reviews and not press the buy button to spend unnecessary money. early review and then a few days of thinking time stops impulse buys. :)
:(
Who stocks them?
Not confirmed but predicted by a (usually) reliable source. I posted this in another thread here...
PC Pro have posted some predicted UK launch prices, £174 (inc VAT) for the 2500K looks good if true.
Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/processors/363982/intel-sandy-bridge
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_316/it_photo_158161_52.png
It does make you wonder where PC Pro got their prices from though - or did i miss that in the article?
I'm used to bit-tech's reviews having links to the relevant web-stores when they quote a review price. PC Pro might say £174, but if it appears at £199, would that affect the review scores? (for value at least).
Anyway, looks like a good product (especially the 2500K).
Core i7 2600K - 309€
Core i5 2500K - 219€
Core i5 2500 - 209€
Core i5 2400 - 189€
Core i5 2300 - 184€
Core i3 2120 - 139€
Core i3 2100 - 119€
All CPUs are in stock and officially ready for shipping January 9th according to the nice person on the phone.
The only thing not available at this point (not in stock atleast) are miniITX-boards other then the intel DH67CF.
Assuming those DE prices include 19% VAT, the 2500K translates to £187 @ 1 EUR = 0.854536 GBP/1 GBP = 1.17023 EUR.
Nevertheless it's still less expensive for me to order from german shops instead of buying hardware directly in finnish shops.
The Cult of the Latest Thing includes idiocies like personalised numberplates, and I'm not particularly interested in it.
Of course by then there'll be something else new round the corner, but at least I know I'll be on a fairly stable CPU/Mobo combination for a year or two.
Thanks for the article on sandy bridge anyways. You guys do good work.
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the end result being increased interest in the chips and therefore higher sales?
Can't see any threat from AMD against SandyBridge and neither can anyone else.
I have no idea how you managed to round £174 up to £200 with just a 2.5% VAT increase.
£145 * 1.2 = £174
The pic and link was taken from a PC Pro article published yesterday (03/01/11) and shows VAT @ 20% included in the figures in brackets.
My reference to VAT @ 19% is a reference to the VAT payable in Germany.
But yes, a processor without GPU is what would suit most gamers best.
And everyone that upgraded in the last year or so won't be compelled to shift.
Unless, as in this case, the replacemend "Medium Part" actually beats the former "Performance Part".
The i5-2500K is 30% off the i7-950 while at/above it's performance...don't ask me, I don't understand it either. :D
Where a chip launch would be lost in all the paper thin tv's and other shiny things. Which makes sense...just a pity they didn't think about it earlier!
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/?x=12&p_brand=25&p=cF9zdHlsZT0mcF9wcm9kdWN0c1BlclBhZ2U9Jg==
172.20 quid for the 2500k, I know what im buying on payday :)
Looks like the PC Pro price "predictions" were right on the money...(pun intended).
The underlying comment there is "It's not a big enough jump in performance to justify buying". In other words, whatever the new product is, it's only an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, step.
Or in other words, It's better, but not $300 worth of better.
"The next generation Core i CPUs" doesn't quite cut it. Or maybe, Core i2xxxx i3/i5/i7
Not that I care all that much about processors any more anyway. I'm still going perfectly strong with my old overclocked C2D. While 99.9999% of PC games these days are gimped down to console levels, I have no need to upgrade anyway. Battlefield Bad Company 2, Mafia 2, Fallout New Vegas, and currently playing "Two Worlds 2" - I crank the hell out of all of them and still get good frame rates, even on this old cpu. So I have no need to upgrade. It's the only upside to the horrible situation gaming is in these days.
Today's launch confirmed 2nd Generation Core availability as from January 9th â meaning you will be able to buy products with these processors, many of which were announced by our partners today as well, from that day. As such we would argue that this is not a paper launch. We're really proud of our new processors and the work we and our partners have done to ensure they are available at launch, and look forward to your feedback on the products in the coming months.
Alistair Kemp, Intel UK PR Manager