What intel CPU / motherboard do I need to replace this ageing model?

Mel_P · 24 Jul 2020 at 14:59

I put my current PC together eons ago:

Intel (R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.02 GHz
With 12 GB of memory. Win 10 Version 2004 64 bit Version 2004 on 500GB SSD.
Gigabyte motherboard. GA-EX58-UD5 (rev. 1.0)

It still seems to do it for me - word / excel / Lightroom / some Photoshop.

Q1 - What intel CPU / motherboard would I need if I were to think about up-grading?

Q2 - Would Win10 on the SSD on this PC boot on a new motherboard

Thanks for any help, Mel

Armageus · 24 Jul 2020 at 15:20

Q1 - Why limit yourself to an Intel CPU/motherboard? You'd likely be better with an AMD Ryzen 3600 or similar (You'd also need new RAM, but you would with any intel upgrade as well, as everything is now DDR4 rather than your current DDR3)

Q2 - It should, however as with everything there's no guarantee - may just need a Repair install which should keep all your files and settings safe.

Personally if you're still happy with it on the whole, it's worth picking up a 6 core Xeon chip to drop into that board.
Something like a X5650 2.66Ghz or X5660 2.8Ghz can be hand from ebay for £10, and will give you 2 extra cores/4 extra threads

Plenty of information in this thread:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/1366-x58-xeon-5650.18618052

LtMatt · 24 Jul 2020 at 15:32

You would definitely need a clean OS install if you switch to Ryzen 3rd Gen from an old Intel platform or you’d be looking at lower than expected performance and potentially stability issues.

Quartz · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:16

Mel_P said:
It still seems to do it for me - word / excel / Lightroom / some Photoshop.

Then you don't need to replace it. Now, if you want to game, then you'll need to upgrade.

Mel_P · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:51

Quartz said:
Then you don't need to replace it. Now, if you want to game, then you'll need to upgrade.

I'm just amazed it's still up to the job after 10 years or so.

Mel_P · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:54

Armageus said:
Personally if you're still happy with it on the whole, it's worth picking up a 6 core Xeon chip to drop into that board.
Something like a X5650 2.66Ghz or X5660 2.8Ghz can be hand from ebay for £10, and will give you 2 extra cores/4 extra threads

Plenty of information in this thread:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/1366-x58-xeon-5650.18618052

Would the BIOS be ok with the Xeon. I have never updated it from purchase?

Avalon · 24 Jul 2020 at 22:13

Mel_P said:
Would the BIOS be ok with the Xeon. I have never updated it from purchase?

You would need to look at what BIOS revision you have and when the microcode for your chosen CPU was added.

ED209 · 26 Jul 2020 at 20:20

Unless you are seeing performance issues in what you are using the system for I would not upgrade.

I went from an Is7 950 with 12gb of ram to an I7 9700k and 16gb of ram. I only did this because I had issues with random blue screens and reboots I could not resolve so I guessed the mobo was on its way out otherwise I would still be using the system.

I could play the division 1 and 2 at 1080p, (using a AMD R9 390 8gb) modern warfare (recent one) etc without any issues.

to be honest tho it was nice to get the new features like NVMe slots, proper usb 3 ports and full fat data ports etc.

Mel_P · 26 Jul 2020 at 22:40

The only issue I have is that updating windows version updates often goes through an intermediate reboot and a registry update. This does not happen with my more recent processor/ motherboard combination PCs used by various family members. I worry each time!

Yep. Will probably leave alone for now. I also run the standalone lightroom / Photoshop versions and I am not sure if these will reinstall now if I have to reinstall windows and applications from scratch. I expect Adobe has removed that option?

Mel

Joxeon · 26 Jul 2020 at 23:06

Armageus said:
Personally if you're still happy with it on the whole, it's worth picking up a 6 core Xeon chip to drop into that board.
Something like a X5650 2.66Ghz or X5660 2.8Ghz can be hand from ebay for £10, and will give you 2 extra cores/4 extra threads

This is good advice and for the small price of a tenner you would gain a 50% performance boost especially if you overclocked to 4ghz which all these chips do quite easily, they also are more efficient and run cooler than the i7s as they are ex data centre chips.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 27 Jul 2020 at 11:09

Try the cheap CPU upgrade as suggested and if you do decide to upgrade,and don't game,a desktop Renoir APU would be a good idea IMHO. These are available in retail but not DIY sales but should appear in a few months time IMHO.

Armageus · 27 Jul 2020 at 11:29

Mel_P said:
Would the BIOS be ok with the Xeon. I have never updated it from purchase?

You'd need to check what version you are currently on (either by looking when it boots, or downloading CPUZ)

You likely would need version F12
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10/support#support-cpu

Mel_P · 28 Jul 2020 at 18:56

Armageus said:
You'd need to check what version you are currently on (either by looking when it boots, or downloading CPUZ)

You likely would need version F12
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10/support#support-cpu

I have Award F7, 2009! I think I might leave well alone for now.

koooowweeee · 2 Aug 2020 at 09:55

Mel_P said:
I have Award F7, 2009! I think I might leave well alone for now.

It's pretty easy to do. Just watch a few YouTube videos of your unsure. Great upgrade for less than £10 if you look about. Or you could get a faster one for £20

KungFuSpaghetti · 2 Aug 2020 at 11:31

LtMatt said:
You would definitely need a clean OS install if you switch to Ryzen 3rd Gen from an old Intel platform or you’d be looking at lower than expected performance and potentially stability issues.

I never did an fresh o/s install when I went from my old xeon x5650 to ryzen 2700x. Plugged it all in, booted up and it was fine.

Not saying this is the best thing to do, but it does work, or at least it did for me.

LtMatt · 2 Aug 2020 at 12:25

KungFuSpaghetti said:
I never did an fresh o/s install when I went from my old xeon x5650 to ryzen 2700x. Plugged it all in, booted up and it was fine.

Not saying this is the best thing to do, but it does work, or at least it did for me.

I did mention 3rd gen specifically.

That said, I'm sure it might work, but it is far from optimal for performance or stability.

koooowweeee · 2 Aug 2020 at 18:22

I've done 3 Mobo swaps and it's been fine.

Back in the day, 15+ years it was a big no no.

I have had slower load times and other issues that a clean install has fixed tho

jimmy321 · 2 Aug 2020 at 20:16

Having seen this thread I pulled out an old 920 do computer with 6gb of ram. It's on a ASUS P6t Se I've installed Windows 10 to make sure it's still working. I updated the BIOS to the latest version.

Also it would not boot from pcie with SSD adapter so I put in an old SATA SSD as the boot drive. The pcie drive is giving approx 2500 read / write.

I've ordered an X5660 for £12.50 and some lapping compound.

I'm going to try and overclock it to 4ghz and try and get the ram to 2000.

If it works I should have a pc about 20% more powerful than an overclocked i7 4770k for the information I can find online.

Will reply if it works or not, it will have saved me a few hundred for a fast office PC.

Joxeon · 2 Aug 2020 at 20:26

jimmy321 said:
Having seen this thread I pulled out an old 920 do computer with 6gb of ram. It's on a ASUS P6t Se I've installed Windows 10 to make sure it's still working. I updated the BIOS to the latest version.

Also it would not boot from pcie with SSD adapter so I put in an old SATA SSD as the boot drive. The pcie drive is giving approx 2500 read / write.

I've ordered an X5660 for £12.50 and some lapping compound.

I'm going to try and overclock it to 4ghz and try and get the ram to 2000.

If it works I should have a pc about 20% more powerful than an overclocked i7 4770k for the information I can find online.

Will reply if it works or not, it will have saved me a few hundred for a fast office PC.

All of those CPUs should easily do 4ghz+ even the basic 5650s, you might struggle to get 2000 on the ram though.

jimmy321 · 9 Aug 2020 at 21:52

So my X5660 CPU arrived and I set about overclocking it with 21x200 making 4200 but the temp was hitting 80° under stress testing so i lowered the BLK to 190 and set the voltage at 1.33 which gave under 80° on all cores under intel burn test at highest settings.

There are only 3 fan headers that can control fan speed on my P6T SE so with better cooling i'm sure it could have gotten a higher clock.

I set the ram timings to the same as the XMP profile 9-9-9-26 T1 it's supposed to be 1600 but because of the muliplyer it's around 1503.

I added it to the works network and ran a large report from the accounts package and it completed about 40% faster than the PC on my desk I think it's an i5 4460 so it's going on my desk at work.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm now in the process of turning my old i7 4770K in to an office PC as well rather than it gathering dust, I found an offical BIOS for this that allows booting from PCIe but it's not listed on Gigabyte's site.