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i7 920 Upgrade Path

AiiR

AiiR

AiiR

Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2009
Posts
3,373
So it's my birthday soon, and after much deliberation, I've decided to celebrate it early. So I'm investing in a new system for Battlefront in November.

I currently have an i7 920 overclocked to 3.8GHz running on an msi x58m. The chip doesn't seem to like doing more than 3.8, as it was highly unstable. Whether that's my settings and inexperience, the cooling, or just a duff chip - I'm not entirely sure. It's under a Corsair H60 so that should be fine for more than what I'm currently getting, but I've not been able to achieve it.

With Skylake right around the corner, I'm looking towards that as my next port of call. However, it's a case of what my budget allows, as I also want to drop a sizable amount of a capable graphics card.

The way I see it, I have 3 options:

1) Keep my current setup, spending more on a better card (GTX 970)
2) Keep the motherboard, upgrade to a Xeon 6 core and clock it up
3) Upgrade to Skylake, with a mid level card (GTX 960ish)

Thoughts? I also have an i7 950 laying around spare. Is it likely that this will be able to clock higher than the 920?
 
Whats the current GPU you got ?

I currently run a i7 930 stock , but I have recently got a Z97 mobo and 4790K , but I did recently also picked up a 290X on the cheap.

Just awaiting for my case to transplant it all in, but at the moment im running my i7 930

Also whats your spending budget ?
 
option 1 will give you the fastest system (though I'd take an R9 390 over a 970 at the moment)

option 2 is a nice CPU upgrade but less useful right now (maybe consider once already done the GPU upgrade?)

option 3 will give a faster system than option 2 as the GPU is the slowest part, but slower than 1 and the most expensive
 
tribz said:
Xeon and splash the cash on a top end card would be by choice with perhaps a new PSU if the GPU needed it.
Click to expand...

This.

The X5650 I have is a cracking chip.

Runs software and games with ease @ 4400Mhz and runs cool.
 
AiiR said:
So it's my birthday soon, and after much deliberation, I've decided to celebrate it early. So I'm investing in a new system for Battlefront in November.

I currently have an i7 920 overclocked to 3.8GHz running on an msi x58m. The chip doesn't seem to like doing more than 3.8, as it was highly unstable. Whether that's my settings and inexperience, the cooling, or just a duff chip - I'm not entirely sure. It's under a Corsair H60 so that should be fine for more than what I'm currently getting, but I've not been able to achieve it.

With Skylake right around the corner, I'm looking towards that as my next port of call. However, it's a case of what my budget allows, as I also want to drop a sizable amount of a capable graphics card.

The way I see it, I have 3 options:

1) Keep my current setup, spending more on a better card (GTX 970)
2) Keep the motherboard, upgrade to a Xeon 6 core and clock it up
3) Upgrade to Skylake, with a mid level card (GTX 960ish)

Thoughts? I also have an i7 950 laying around spare. Is it likely that this will be able to clock higher than the 920?
Click to expand...

If Skylake performs as we expect (10-15% faster than a 4790k) then I'd recommend option 3. Official reviews should be out on August 5th.

Also note that it could be your x58 motherboard that's holding back your overclock. You may be only able to get a xeon to 3.8Ghz also, there is NO guarantee of 4.4Ghz etc.

Remember that your x58 motherboard and any Xeon you'd buy are completely out of warranty. If either fails you've thrown money away.

Also remember the X58 platform is very old and dated (almost 7 years old) - it lacks many of the new technologies, such as Sata3, USB3, PCI-E V3, M.2/U.2, UEFI fan control, to name a few.
 
Dave2150 said:
Remember that your x58 motherboard and any Xeon you'd buy are completely out of warranty. If either fails you've thrown money away.
Click to expand...

I think this is whats sticking with me most, dropping a Xeon in it then splashing my budget on a new gpu only to have the mobo fail after a couple of months due to age.

is PCie3 going to be something I'd miss? I'm not too fussed about the additional new features as I'll just be gaming. However if its something thats required for a present day high end card, then it'd be something to consider.
 
AiiR said:
is PCie3 going to be something I'd miss? I'm not too fussed about the additional new features as I'll just be gaming. However if its something thats required for a present day high end card, then it'd be something to consider.
Click to expand...


No, current single cards cant even saturate the bus on pci 2.0 x16 let alone 3.0 x16
 
AiiR said:
I think this is whats sticking with me most, dropping a Xeon in it then splashing my budget on a new gpu only to have the mobo fail after a couple of months due to age.

is PCie3 going to be something I'd miss? I'm not too fussed about the additional new features as I'll just be gaming. However if its something thats required for a present day high end card, then it'd be something to consider.
Click to expand...

Every new GPU generation would widen the gap between PCI-E V2 x16 and V3 16.

Right now, it's a very small difference, that's more pronounced in some games than others.

It's very likely that the GPU power available in a year or two would see a larger benefit from PCI-E v3.
 
AiiR said:
I think this is whats sticking with me most, dropping a Xeon in it then splashing my budget on a new gpu only to have the mobo fail after a couple of months due to age.

is PCie3 going to be something I'd miss? I'm not too fussed about the additional new features as I'll just be gaming. However if its something thats required for a present day high end card, then it'd be something to consider.
Click to expand...

I dont think you'd miss PCIe3. Theres a lot of people in the X5650 thread using high end cards for gaming.
 
How much voltage are you using for current overclock ? I have ran an i5 750 for years at 1.45 volts (official figure is 1.4 volts) and had no degredation it's probably safe to go as high as 1.48 volts as long as temps are okay.i think the 45nm chips like 1.35 volts MCH and 1.4 vcore + to hit the higher clocks.I would investigate and see if you're overclocking correctly for the chip could be you're not giving the board enough voltage.You have to go skylake if buying new just get a mid range z170 board 2x 4gb ddr4 and a skylake cpu.
 
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Same problem as me but I can't overclock above 3ghz as my pc won't post unless I completely remove the power. It's either my ram or dodgy mobo, it's been like this for year. I personally think it's both.
 
Option 2 with Xeon 6 core (shouldn't cost much more than £50-60) and graphics card upgrade - should see you good for some time to come and give you the needed performance to run the latest games & software.

skylake you'll need to replace motherboard, CPU and graphics card which will significantly increase required budget
 
Why not buy a 4770 cpu/RAM and mobo combo, then sell your existing mobo/cpu/ram as a bundle, to recoup csome cash. Then get a second hand 380 or the like?
 
I would splash the cash on the new graphics card and see if you're happy with the performance. I have a i7 920 clocked at 4Ghz and it happily runs such things as GTA5 at 1920x1200 with almost maxed settings with plenty of headroom to spare. And as said you'd need more then £600 to upgrade the CPU/MoBo/RAM/GPU.
 
Squid Vicious said:
Option 2 with Xeon 6 core (shouldn't cost much more than £50-60) and graphics card upgrade - should see you good for some time to come and give you the needed performance to run the latest games & software.

skylake you'll need to replace motherboard, CPU and graphics card which will significantly increase required budget
Click to expand...

This is what I'm pretty much doing. From the reviews, there's not much reason for me to move to anything more than a 5650 just for gaming. All in, the upgrade is going to cost me about 30 quid after I sell off my current i7 - great value!

Going to push the rest of my budget into a high end graphics card, new case and a new cpu cooler (Thinking H100 or thereabouts).
 
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