• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

i7 nehalem upgrade?

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

Associate
Joined
15 May 2006
Posts
496
Hi Guys

My computer main central CPU, motherboard and memory is starting to age a bit and is nearly 4 years old
Yet it still runs all games i throw at it in highest possible settings.

Im getting the itch to upgrade it, but thinking its maybe not nessessary so need a voice of reason either way!
My main thinking was possibly a 3rd gen I7 or even the upcoming 4th Gen

Currently running:
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) (Clocked at 3.8GHz)
Asus P6T Deluxe v2 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply
OCZ Reaper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-14400 (1800MHz) Tri-Channel

Graphics card is obviously a more recent purchase and is fine
HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M)

I run games on a single monitor at 1080 resolution (reason for this as its a:)
Samsung S27A750D 27" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Ultra Thin LED Monitor

Am i actually going to notice any improvements? Or just hang fire?
 
Wait to see what haswell brings to the table. What you have is still a pretty decent setup. Your cpu, board and ram are pretty much the same as what i swapped out for the spec in sig. Not one of my wisest moves tbh.
 
CPU is boss.
GPU is obvs boss too.

I recently got an SSD and did a clean install. Now the whole thing is boss.

If you've got £150 ish and want to upgrade, get an SSD, go go go
 
I've a similar system to you, same CPU with same OC. No need to rush an upgrade tbh, at least not for gaming. The sensible option is to wait for Haswell, even if it is looking a bit dull atm. For me its between Haswell or something on LGA 2011.

I also agree with billysielu, if you don't already have one then go forth and get yourself an SSD. Its the best upgrade you can get for your system right now, they really are just brilliant.
 
Last edited:
Same as what I did for my similarly spec'ed system: upgraded with an SSD rather than anything CPU-related, considering what is currently available.

Looks like I may end up bypassing Haswell as well.
 
+1 for the SSD, as you can see from my sig I have a similar setup;

an SSD will provide a much 'snappier' system

Get yourself a Samsung 840 series or Crucial M4 SSD for your OS drive and never look back :D
 
Just digging this old question out again
When doing comparisons, I find plenty of comparative references to 2nd and 3rd gen but not the old trusty first gen

I'm thinking the answer is going to remain the same, but would chance my luck!
 
Anantech briefly compared the 965 and an i5 750 to the 4770k and whilst it was noticable increase I'm not sure it would be worth it. It should be the anantech review, 'going back even further' page. Check in the Haswell Review page. You won't need to upgrade but you might want to if you're itching...
 
I was going to go Haswell too but changed mind so trying to get a 2nd 680 and i would suggest you go for a 2nd 7950 perhaps since you are using a 120hz monitor too.
 
Yeah, I was contemplating an upgrade to my i7-920 but looking at the Anandtech benchmarks kind of put me off bothering TBH.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/7

In most instances the Haswell chip is only around 50% faster than the Nehalem i7-920. Disappointing considering it's being compared to a 4 year old CPU. I doubt there's anything out there my current PC would struggle to run given a video card upgrade to replace my GTX470.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom