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Upgrading CPU,need advice plz

ukSleek

ukSleek

ukSleek

Associate
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
198
Location
England,BUCKS
Hi,
I would like to upgrade my pc ready for Arma 3 so rather buy a new one I thought i'd upgrade my CPU (cash is tight),only I've read on the web that 1156 cpu's have been discontinued which is fair enough.

I've managed to find an i7 on fleabay but I want to make sure it's compatible with my mobo (check sig) I know it sound obvious but would like you expert's to confirm it'll fit? it's an

Intel Core I7 880 ES 3.06GHz HT LGA1156 8MB Quad Core 95W TDP B1 Stepping Processor

Regards.
 
That should work yes. If you can overclock it to 4GHz, it will be a great processor. My 860 is at 3.8GHz and I definitely do not need to upgrade it just yet! It will be a good upgrade from that i3. I don't know how well that motherboard or chipset overclocks though?
 
ukSleek said:
Thanks for the replies,I'm not sure how to OC tbh,my current setup was an OC bundle from ocuk
Click to expand...

There is many guides on the internet:) I'm personally not sure how well the 1156 CPUs overclock as when I had one I left it at stock - but I assume it should be similar to the newer ones.
 
The cpu that you have found is a ES (engineering sample) and may not have all the features of a retail cpu. It may also be warmer running than a retail cpu. ES cpu's are not supposed to be sold on. They were issued to motherboard manufacturers to iron bugs out of boards before launch and review sites for pre-launch reviews.

The only 880's i can see on the bay are stupidly priced, the cheapest being £175 and most are over £200. Do not go spending that sort of money when you can buy up to date cpu's for less. It would be worth buying a new mobo and cpu if you were considering that price. Hunting around will get you a 3570k and a half decent Z77 mobo for £250.

How about a i5 760? They have been going on the bay for as little as £46 and overclock nicely.
 
The i7-8xx series is still a very potent CPU, its actually better than the (older) 9xx series if you only use one GPU, and clocked up they can match the stock performance of current i7's.

I recently upgraded a friends old C2D machine on the cheap, got a B grade LGA1156 board from here for £25, 2x4GB DDR3-1600 from here for £20, and picked up an i7-860 from a well known auction site for £80, the thing flies.
 
pastymuncher said:
The only 880's i can see on the bay are stupidly priced, the cheapest being £175 and most are over £200. Do not go spending that sort of money when you can buy up to date cpu's for less. It would be worth buying a new mobo and cpu if you were considering that price. Hunting around will get you a 3570k and a half decent Z77 mobo for £250.
Click to expand...

What kind of mobo would you recommend? been 'out of the loop' for the last year or so ;)

EDIT: How about this? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-391-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261
 
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Honestly going from an i5 540 clocked to 4.2 i cannot see how staying on the same socket is going to release any extra performance maybe a % here or there but your not talking about much. Personally id save your money hold out a couple of months then splurge a few hundred on haswell and the new socket. I cannot personally recommend an upgrade to anyone this close to haswell unless they are are looking at going up to 2011 sockets
 
Dude, the i3 540 is 2C4T, the i7 8xx are 4C4T and OC just as well, for the price involved its an excellent upgrade, yes it is close to Haswell and Haswell we be a nice move from LGA1156, however he can move to the 8xx series for less than a decent Haswell motherboard will cost, the 8xx is just as good for gaming as the 9xx (actually better unless you need X58 for Sli/CF setups) and many people are planning on staying wiht their 9xx setups.

Between myself and my G/F I have a few systems and I personally think my 4GHz i7 860 backup rig is no slower than her 4GHz 3570K (it will prob come up slower in tests but the is no perceivable difference) in stuff that can't use HT, and in stuff that can the i7 wins. Hell its not often I notice a benefit of my 4.5GHz i7 3820 over the 860.

If he was to move to Haswell he would have to buy a board and CPU instead of just upgrading his CPU, which means an extra £180 (assuming the 4570K uses the 3570K's pricing), and a lot of people who moved i7 920 - i5 3570K have said it was more of a side grade. Paying an extra £180 to lose hyper threading and gain a 20-25% performance advantage just doesn't sound like great economics to me.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/108?vs=143

with the exception of very well threaded apps like winrar theres not much difference and very few games including arma 3 are that well threaded, you be talking around 10% difference for most (i admit not all crysis 3 is one of few games i can think of that can use more than 4 threads) games

From the other side, paying only an extra 180 quid to get 25% performance sounds like a good deal when you consider the sub 10% performance difference on most yearly gpu and cpu releases
 
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