I7 920 upgrade to Ryzen?

[Moorron]

Hi guys, I asked a while ago about my ageing I7 920 setup but want to order parts now and want some input please.

My current spec:
I7 920 @ 3.4 on water
16GB ram
SSD main drive
Windows 10 home (upgrade from W7 oem)
1080TI FE on water
External water cooling setup (not sure if I can mention the make due to being a competitor)
Rift VR

Budget is a nice healthy £1000 for:

New case (I like the look of the corsair 460x RGB)
case lighting
CPU
MOBO
RAM

I can buy a 1800X but not sure if this overkill, I just want something that is a nice big upgrade from what I have giving me a nice long lifespan. Mobo is the same, doesn't need to be the best as I wont SLI in the future and only really need lots of USB connections on the back but I do like the VI hero. Again I have seen what I can afford but don't really know if its wasted money or incompatible/hassle to get working out of the box.

Could you give some 'baskets recommendations' and advice for my budget please?

Cheers
Drew

 

[mickyflinn]

Will you be overclocking ?

 

[hornetstinger]

Are games unplayable? If games are fine then keep your rig till you can't play games anymore.

 

[Moorron]

I want to overclock at a later stage, but seeing people struggling with the 1700 especially with ram I want something working out of the box. If you think the 1700/x is a huge upgrade even at stock I would go for that and not pay the premium for the 1800X and then overclock when I have time?

Most of my games and tasks work fine on the 920, but with VR and a 1080TI I do get the odd stutter with my VR head unit and wonder if this is due to the CPU. I was tempted to just stay as I am, but the budget is there and I get the sense I am strangling my VR experience with the current CPU when I have the 1080TI (an odd pairing).

 

[EsaT]

Nehalem definitely isn't that "hot" in performance by todays standards.
Also whole platform was rather power hungry so especially with that overclock (unless undervolted) Ryzen would improve power efficiency/lower idle consumption good amount.

And in upgradeability AMD definitely is better than Intel who makes you buy new motherboard for just renaming and minor tweaks.
(Coffee Lake is apparently quite plain renaming of Kaby Lake)

 

[AMDPower]

have you considered a x5650/5670 cpu? they are so cheap(~£30) and if you get a good chip you can ht-4.4-4.5ghz on air cooled and 4.6-4.7ghz on water cooled. At these speeds they should be not far away from ryzen performance. Just upgrade your bios and drop it into there. The performance is very respectable and they are 6 core cpu too. Then you could save your money for AMD next refresh next year which is should early next year. This will also fix your VR issues if they CPU based for the sake of £30 its worth a shot.

 

[mickyflinn]

Heres a starter have gone for rog strix b350 motehrboard which will doesnt support SLI but this can be changed for an x370 board if required.

Remember the 1700x doesnt come with a cooler so you will either need to get one or get a AM4 bracket for you cooling loop.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Corsair Crystal 460X RGB Midi Tower Tempered Glass Case - Black (CC-9011101-WW)= £154.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1700X 3.80GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £329.99
• 1 x Asus ROG Strix B350-F AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £117.95
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000 3000MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMR16GX4M2C3000C1= £163.99

Total: £779.52
(includes shipping: £12.60)



​

 

[Moorron]

Cheers mickyflinn.

Whats the main difference other than sli on a 370 board?
Is there a reason for not using 3200 ram other than price or is it not needed?
Wouldnt mind some case strip lights too but will they interface into the 460X case light controller?

Luckily my new water cooler I have bought to replace my very old reserator has an amd4 bracket in the box.

The selection you have listed is nice on my budget so I can spent some more if you think it's worth it.

 

[hornetstinger]

Cheers mickyflinn.

Whats the main difference other than sli on a 370 board?
Is there a reason for not using 3200 ram other than price or is it not needed?
Wouldnt mind some case strip lights too but will they interface into the 460X case light controller?

Luckily my new water cooler I have bought to replace my very old reserator has an amd4 bracket in the box.

The selection you have listed is nice on my budget so I can spent some more if you think it's worth it.

In my experience with computers only upgrade your rig when you really have to.

Just replace your CPU for <£50 and that'll be fine for another few years. I went from i7 950 to x5670. The xeon is cooler, uses less power, can overclock way better than the 950 and runs cooler again even when overclocked. Plus it has two more cores.

 

[Moorron]

Trust me I don't want the hassle of upgrading other than the smaller case which will suit my computer location.

But with VR and a 1080ti doesn't it sound silly to run on a 10 year old CPU?, which I hope will remove the random stutter I get in VR and will help with more usb3 plugs anyway. Apart from those issues my good old 920 is fine.

 

[mickyflinn]

The reason i didnt go for 3200mhz was just the price if you can afford it go for it, there are cheaper ram alternatives but i thought you mite like the rgb lights.

If you plan on going SLI in the future you will nead an X370 motherboard as the b350 only supports a single gpu.

The case lights you would be better of picking and maybe asking Overclockers about suitabilty for the case .

 

[hornetstinger]

Trust me I don't want the hassle of upgrading other than the smaller case which will suit my computer location.

But with VR and a 1080ti doesn't it sound silly to run on a 10 year old CPU?, which I hope will remove the random stutter I get in VR and will help with more usb3 plugs anyway. Apart from those issues my good old 920 is fine.

Read opinions of those with VR and hex core Intel Xeons.
As for USB 3 a simple PCI-E card..

 

[ocrease]

Read opinions of those with VR and hex core Intel Xeons.
As for USB 3 a simple PCI-E card..

I've got a Rift VR and have just upgraded to a Xeon X5670 running at 4.2GHz on air and a GTX 1080. On water you should be able to take it further. I've only been playing iRacing so far and haven't had any issues.

Regarding the USB 3.0 PCIe card, I tried the dynamode one available here, but the Rift didn't play ball. On the Rift hardware requirements page on the Oculus website they recommended a different one. Just put that in and it seems to work fine. Having said that, I was running on USB 2.0 and haven't noticed any difference.

For the sake of less than £50 to upgrade the CPU (don't forget you'll need thermal paste if you do), it seems like worth a shot. You didn't mention which motherboard you have. Most X58 boards seem to be fine with the Xeons, but check the thread on the CPU sub forum or a quick search online to verify.

 

[Putty]

As above, sell the 920 and try out a 5650 or 5670. If you're not happy with the performance you can probably sell it for the same price that you pay for it.

There's a massive thread here about people using 5650s etc. They clock rather well! (Mine is at 4.4).