Sandy Bridge Workstation?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking to build a new Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 system this summer that will be used mostly for workstation programs (AutoCAD, 3DS Max, Rhino, etc) along with some occasional gaming.  Here's a preliminary list of items I'm considering:

Core i7-2600 3.4 GHz

[waiting on EVGA to release their LGA 1155 mainboards]

4x4 GB G.Skill ECO DDR3 1600

Intel X25-M SSD 120 GB SATA II

Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0

EVGA GTX 570 1280 MB 320-bit GDDR5

Seasonic X650 Gold (modular 650 watt PSU)

Zalman 120mm fan CPU Cooler

Cooler Master HAF X 942

Windows 7 64-bit

I have some concerns with this build though.  The Sandy Bridge architecture only supports dual channel memory from what I remember, so all of the mainboards I've seen only have 4 DIMM slots (as opposed to the 6 slots with X58's triple channel support).  This limits my build to 16 GB of RAMM.  Later this year in quarter 4, the newest microprocessor architecture (Ivy Bridge?) will support quad channel memory.  Does this mean that the upcoming architecture will be able to support more DIMM slots?  I don't know which way to go with this one.  I'd like to get this build up and running over the summer before my classes start, but I don't want to limit myself with the Sandy Bridge architecture.  On the other hand, I would have to wait until the end of the semester (assuming there are no delays) to start my build.  I'm interested in knowing others' opinions on this as well as the items I've listed above.  Thanks

[Anonymous]

From my reading, My MSI P67A-GD65 & the ASUS P8P67 line have 4 ram slots, but will accept 32 gig (4x8) DDR3 chips.  Balancing price/performance, I populated mine with 3x4 Corsair DDR3 1600 chips.

Sounds like you have a nice box laid out.  What graphics card are you looking at?

Reid

[Anonymous]

Yes, most of the mainboards have a maximum of 32 GB of RAMM, but I have not been able to find any 8 GB RAMM sticks on Newegg.  Will these eventually be manufactured in the future?  If so, I think the 16 GBs would work fine for now.

I'm thinking of purchasing the EVGA GTX 570 graphics card.

[Anonymous]

Did a quick google search, and it looks like Kingston, Edge, & Axiom are offering 8gig sticks.  Didn't see anything for Corsair (looked like 4gig sticks were their max).

The Kingston & Edge were coming in around $750.  The Axiom were DDR2 sticks at about $1500.

Newegg is a great place to get stuff, but they don't always carry high end products.

Reid