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Is Ivybridge Worth it/Upgrade question?

platypus

platypus

platypus

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
Posts
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I have a first generation i5 in my computer at the moment. Long story short, I bought an overclocked system from OcUK and its never performed well. I've had a lot of issues with the motherboard in particular, and am considering an upgrade as I've had it two years now.

Looking at reviews of the Ivybridge chipsets, none of them seem to be particularly amazing. I'm not expecting to see massive performance gains, but what I really want is system stability. I game, I encode HD videos, and mix music on this PC.

Is it worth me upgrading to a later generation sandybridge? I like Gigabyte motherboards, have pretty much always had one, but I'm open to suggestions for that as well if anyone could recommend a good mobo/chipset.

Cheers
 
What gfx card do yo have in your present spec as you may benefit far more from a better gfx card for the money as the old i5 is still a very capable CPU for general usage.

Also, how heavily clocked is your i5 - if you're having stabilty issues that are really troublesome you could consider dropping a couple hundred MHz. This coupled with the new gfx card may give you a healthier performance bump, and stability, than a new CPU (dependent on your present card.).

However, if you feel tha the stability issues are more hardware related than clock related - then a jump to IB may be worth considering. Lower voltage and the lower clock performances are on a par with higher clocked SBs. Swing and roundabouts to a degree - but if i was making your jump i personally would buy the IB - especially when comparing prices to SB.
 
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Should have thought to mention that, sorry. I've got a sapphire toxic hd6970 unlocked to 6990 (Hmmm, I think - or is it 6950 to 6970?). The system is actually more stable when I clock it down to ~3.5GhZ, thats the kind of speed I run it at, rather than the 4.0GhZ OC bundle I bought it as.

When running at anything higher I get constant reboots/shutdowns with Kernel Power event errors in the EventVwr. I've subsequently gone through two PSUs to see if that would help as well!
 
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Well if you have 6970 running at 6990 your gfx should be fine for gaming.

You could spend the ~ £400 on a new gfx card (but i wouldn't) but i suspect you would get more satisfaction out of a new MB and CPU. And peformance would still improve across the board.

It would seem that you had a flaky clock - and if it's still unstable at 3.5GHz it would seem that your stability issues are a real problem. Considering it was a 4GHz pre-clocked package.

If it was me i would buy the new CPU/MB for stability purposes - and set the clock myself. It's dead easy with SB and IB. As to which chip you choose it's your choice - read a few threads and decide what you want. But again, personally, i would choose the IB and accept a conservative clock knowing that it will still be on parity with an SB but with lower power consumption and depending on where you read 3%-5% better performance...

Most peoples problems with IB stem from upgrading/comparing from an SB to an IB (which is pointless). If you look at it as a: lower power consuming chip with a lower clocked performance that is comparible to a slightly higher clocked SB it's a solid choice/upgrade from an i5.

I stress again though that it's swings and roundabouts when comparing IB to SB - but in my view when jumping up from an older generation CPU the IB, to me, makes the more logical sense.
 
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Awesome, cheers Plec. Any advice on the chipset/motherboard? As I said I've read a fair bit, and most reviews don't seem overly impressed with IB. I'm also wondering if its worth waiting until the next revision of IB comes out (assuming there will be one).

Looking at the Ivybridge there are an awful lot of choices. 3570k/3770k/3770S, this relates to the number of threads right? Am I going to see a large difference between the 3570k (4 threads) and the 3770k (8 threads)? Not in gaming I would assume, but for video encoding it would make a large difference right?

Lower power consumption is a great seller, I am more than happy with my graphics card as it performs really well (at least for my purposes) at 1920x1080 with all the bells and whistles on in something like Skyrim.

I've got 16GB of Crucial XMS3, I can happily stick with that so won't need RAM. What about cooling as well? All of the OcUK bundles have air coolers on - are the enclosed water loops not sufficient cooling (I prefer the quiet!)?
 
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I can only speak personally, and anecdotally, as i've yet to build an IB setup.

For your uses, personally, i would still be looking for bang for buck - so the the 3570k sticks out as the obvious choice coupled with a Z77 chipset board, for clocking purposes.

The extra threads would help with encoding - but whether that would justify the price tag for the gained performance would be very dependent on you and your needs. If you have the money to spare then usable 'everyday performance boosts' are always a bonus. But if the gains are only slight for the odd bit of encoding i would put the extra to better cooling, MB etc..

As for cooling, again, personally, i would use high end air - i'm a big fan. Less moving parts so less to go wrong and performance is the same/better. However, if you move your rig around a lot then the all-in-one solutions are worth considering - which is why OcUK probably bundle them in their pre-built systems as they wont rip off in transit (plus they're easy to fit so works well with their pre-clocked MB/cpu bundles too.)

Brands of board i would choose Z77 - MSI (GD65 ticks most peoples needs, and more, and is good value for all the 'bells and whistles' - or the GD55 cheaper and usually has everything you need.) or Gigabyte (quality boards and UK rma) - purely for ease of rma. But Asus are a great brand and make great boards - they just have an awful rma process once your past that 28 days/1year (depending on retailer).
 
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If you really feel the need to upgrade from your 1st gen i5 to IB go for it. You'll see for yourself the performance gains etc. Personally Id say IB is worth every penny.
 
platypus said:
Too many motherboards to choose from :p.
Click to expand...

Hehe, i know what you mean i have the same problem every 2 years on average...

I went for bang for buck (purely for experimental reasons) with my last buy and although it's been a solid performer and easily clocks to 5GHz - i wish i had spent the extra mainly for a thicker PCB and slightly more BIOS options.

SO if i was buying the z77 equivalent now i would be buying the G55/G65 or the Gigabyte UD3/UD5 - dependent on your needs and wallet.

Don't let me put you off Asus - they make quality motherboards (apart from the occasional blip like every other brand) but if they do 'blip' the rma process is a PITA.
 
The UD3/Ivybridge are on this week only as well.

Am I being had here :p?

I'd be concerned that the larger air coolers won't fit in my case (Antec gaming 300).
 
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platypus said:
Should have thought to mention that, sorry. I've got a sapphire toxic hd6970 unlocked to 6990 (Hmmm, I think - or is it 6950 to 6970?). The system is actually more stable when I clock it down to ~3.5GhZ, thats the kind of speed I run it at, rather than the 4.0GhZ OC bundle I bought it as.

When running at anything higher I get constant reboots/shutdowns with Kernel Power event errors in the EventVwr. I've subsequently gone through two PSUs to see if that would help as well!
Click to expand...


I used to get that error. It was due to either CIE/EIST or the offset voltage. I disabled CIE/EIST and set the volts to a fixed voltage (1.285v) and no more problems. It's worth trying on your rig as in my opinion Sandybridge/Ivybridge is'nt worth the price for the small (real world) performance gain.
 
pastymuncher said:
I used to get that error. It was due to either CIE/EIST or the offset voltage. I disabled CIE/EIST and set the volts to a fixed voltage (1.285v) and no more problems. It's worth trying on your rig as in my opinion Sandybridge/Ivybridge is'nt worth the price for the small (real world) performance gain.
Click to expand...

Ok I'll give it a go tonight; where abouts in the BIOS is that if you know off the top of your head?
 
Hi just to add a little input,

I went from an I5 750 @ 3.8 to a Ivy I5 3570k @4.2, i have crossfire 6970's with trip screens and its much much better, games i could not play in trip screen before i can now play with ease also at a better detail level. so worth every penny for me.

not sure what gain you would get on a single screen with a single card, however i always found it was the mem control that made the overclock on the gen 1 I5 unstable, so to get 3.8 i had to down clock the mem to 1100 not the 1600 speed it was made for, the IVY just works compared to the I5 750.
 
EL_JOCK said:
Hi just to add a little input,

I went from an I5 750 @ 3.8 to a Ivy I5 3570k @4.2, i have crossfire 6970's with trip screens and its much much better, games i could not play in trip screen before i can now play with ease also at a better detail level. so worth every penny for me.

not sure what gain you would get on a single screen with a single card, however i always found it was the mem control that made the overclock on the gen 1 I5 unstable, so to get 3.8 i had to down clock the mem to 1100 not the 1600 speed it was made for, the IVY just works compared to the I5 750.
Click to expand...


Been running my memory at 1600mhz at 1T from day one. Even tightend the timings slightly to 9-8-9-20 with the default 1.5v. Never had any problems with the controller.


platypus said:
Ok I'll give it a go tonight; where abouts in the BIOS is that if you know off the top of your head?
Click to expand...

What board do you have? On my Asus i had to go into AI Tweaker to change the voltage to manual from the offset that was applied. EIST/C1E and C-State are in the advanced menu.
 
pastymuncher said:
Been running my memory at 1600mhz at 1T from day one. Even tightend the timings slightly to 9-8-9-20 with the default 1.5v. Never had any problems with the controller.
Click to expand...

I could as long as it was not overclocked, i was also on a gigabyte P55 UD4, maybe a gigabyte issue, so in short i was just added input to the reason why he could be seeing unstable overclocks as after much testing thats where the issue was for me.
 
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