i7 920 - upgrade now?

[Genoma]

My current use is photoshop/video conversion, VMs and games. I'm getting the itch to upgrade my main 3.8 i7 920 rig. Main reasons to move on are:

Move up to SATA III - existing mobo only supports SATA II
Move up to native USB3 - only USB 2.0 on current mobo.
Faster video connversion.
Less heat & noise from fans
Current case is falling appart...

Considering an i7 4790 with suitable mobo + Fractal Design Define R4 case.

But I'm stuck in the age old debate on whether now is the right time to upgrade, assuming USB 3.1 mobos aren't on the horizon but new Intel chips being announced...

Thoughts? What would you do?

 

[Genoma]

Thanks!

GPU is fine (GTX 770) and several SSDs hosting OS, games, photos and VMs, hence wanting to get some benefit from SATA III.

Broadwell and new motherboards are the timing consideration....

 

[Genoma]

Sata 2 vs Sata 3 for most real world tasks is pretty negligible

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ssd-upgrade-sata-3gbps,review-32673-16.html

It would be a decent upgrade to a 4790k although nothing major; I did a similar upgrade from i7 950 > 4790k, and I would say its not really worth it. Most games didn't get much of a boost although I primarily upgraded due to stability issues with my old setup though which is a different matter entirely.

My vote is hold out a while longer, if you do feel you have to upgrade look towards x99 platform instead.

Agree, gaming is not the driver.

Aware of the SATA benefits for smaller IOPS, probably not the biggest driver for day to day stuff, but for VM operations and photoshop / lightroom - might benefit a little with larger file interactions.

System is more or less stable, but my USB3 card + hub interim "upgrade" is less so... sometimes a PITA to resolve (several exteral HDDs and devices hanging off a USB 3 PCI card + USB 3 hub.... different chipsets, just messy..)

The current native NIC is also a PITA, WOL features (which I use a lot) have a mind of it's own regardless of driver, sometimes work sometimes don't. A cheap PCI NIC would probably be an option to consider...

 

[Genoma]

depending on your board it might be compatible with a 2nd hand 6 core xeon chip.
The 6 cores might suit you for editing and a xeon 5650 should clock to 4GHz easy.
I have replaced my i7 920 with a xeon 5670 and have it running at 4.4GHz.
a xeon 5650 would be about £50-£60 on the bay. might be worth investigating to keep you going until a bigger upgrade.

there is a thread in the cpu section on it.xeon 5650 thread

Interesting... handn't considered this one.. I'll have a look!

*edit* mobo is Gigabyte x58-ud5 - OCUK thread suggests this is a possible interim option! Time to tinker I think!

 

[Genoma]

You could always get a cheap PCIE Sata 3 controller card to tide you over until you decide to upgrade. You can also OC that 920 and get a bit more out of it, providing you have a decent cooler.

Good thought but don't think I'll go down that path, would add to the list of issues / hack mess that the current build is That one I'll prepared to hold off to the next build on!

 

[Genoma]

Yes mine is the earlier revision, non 58"A" version, no USB3, no Sata III

I'm thinking as an interim step - new case, new USB 3 card (new chipset more ports than the one I have) and a Xeon thrown in, maybe a quieter cooler.

 

[Genoma]

No not bothering with a SATA card, just a new USB one and maybe a new NIC one as I can't get WOL to play properly / consistently with the mobo NIC. I'll keep the rest for a later possible X99 upgrade.

 

[Genoma]

Ok pulled the trigger on a X5650 6 core off ebay, Fractal Design R5 black case and new USB 3 card ordered Reborn PC here we go!

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Genoma]

Xeon chip arrived and I finished the build this weekend. Easy OC to 4GHz and running much cooler than the i920. After hoovering all the dust from all the components, new USB3 card and re-housing it all in a (fantastic!) Fractal Designs Define R5 case, it's silent and feels like a new PC. Great upgrade, very pleased and don't feel the need for anything else now. Thanks all for your input.

 

[Genoma]

Genoma, I am in a similar situation.
Currently running the i7 930 at 4ghz, but have a rampage iii extreme so have some sata 3 and usb on board - albeit on rubbish controllers.

I was just going to go all out and get an x-99 system with a pair of 970's and re do my water cooling while i was at it.

I could just stick in one of these though, and then upgrade my gpus.

What sort of speed up are you noticing? I will be using the additional in video editing and autocad - although i don't think that scales, at all

I think you need to be honest in what you need, I'm the first one to admit I'll upgrade for just for fun/something to tinker with, keep up with tech, etc.

The truth is that I didn't really need a new system, it was a nice to have for several reasons and my conclusion is that my money is better invested elsewhere (I will benefit much more from a large NAS for example).

However, what I managed to achieve for a *much* smaller investment is:

• Nice new case with much better cable management and quieter cooling. Everything is clean, dust free and tidy now.
• USB3 (new card) and USB3 headers on top of the case (my old Antec didn't have them). I use this a lot with external USB HDDs so great addition.
• Additional two cores / 4 threads! For the £60 investment in the Xeon (prob. £40 after I sell the i920) that's a dramatic 50% increase in compute power. For me, notably this affects Handbrake video encoding for which should scale pretty much in line with the core/thread increase. Large Photoshop merge work will benefit too, arguably I don't do this every day though. Not sure how much this impacts Lightroom which I also use a lot.
• A lower TDP on the Xeon, cooler (and more importantly quieter as a result).

If your focus is gaming, let's be honest, your current system is more than capable to dealing with CPU gaming demands.

So:

Rebuilding my system into a new case, new fans, new USB3 card, was really what I needed. The extra cores were a nice to have and a no brainer given the £60 investment in the chip. I now have zero reasons to upgrade this system in the forseeable future. There is probably very few people (including me) that *really* need 6x 4GHz cores of CPU power!

Having said that if you just want to upgrade, hey that's valid too!