Well I took the plunge late last year and upgraded to Sandybridge after finding several deals that I couldn't refuse!
I only went with the i5-2300 because of the price (half that of a i5-2500k). So if you are reading this and looking at upgrading I'd recommend a "k" CPU unless you get a really good deal.
My previous E8400 was clocked to 3.9GHz so general PC usage was already pretty snappy. I didn't notice any immediate increase in speed of the PC in my own usage perception. However compressing and uncompressing files, encoding video all seem much much quicker than on the E8400.
I performed some before and after benchmarks to try and log performance increases. Benchmarks were run at stock speeds and also with the Turbo ratios increased to x34 (x33 on four active cores).
Shared hardware/software (used on both systems)
E8400 System
i5-2300 System
3DMark 11
wPrime v2.06
CineBench R11.5
SiSoft Sandra - Processor Arithmetic (v2011.SP5)
Colin McRae - Dirt 2
These results show that Dirt 2 is CPU bottlenecked and does benefit from the extra cores and architecture of Sandybridge.
I have run more gaming benchmarks but most show only a very small improvement in FPS depending on whether the title is capable of using the extra cores.
I only went with the i5-2300 because of the price (half that of a i5-2500k). So if you are reading this and looking at upgrading I'd recommend a "k" CPU unless you get a really good deal.
My previous E8400 was clocked to 3.9GHz so general PC usage was already pretty snappy. I didn't notice any immediate increase in speed of the PC in my own usage perception. However compressing and uncompressing files, encoding video all seem much much quicker than on the E8400.
I performed some before and after benchmarks to try and log performance increases. Benchmarks were run at stock speeds and also with the Turbo ratios increased to x34 (x33 on four active cores).
Shared hardware/software (used on both systems)
- Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850 (Reference)
- Intel X25-M 80GB (G2)
- 2 x 7200RPM SATA HDDs in Raid 0
- Enermax Noisetaker 600w PSU
- Windows 7 Home Edition x64
E8400 System
- ASUS P5Q-E Motherboard with Intel E8400 Wolfdale @ 3.9GHz
- 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC Edition
i5-2300 System
- Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 with Intel i5-2300 Sandybridge
- 2 x 2GB OCZ PC3-12800 Low Voltage Edition
3DMark 11
wPrime v2.06
CineBench R11.5
SiSoft Sandra - Processor Arithmetic (v2011.SP5)
Colin McRae - Dirt 2
These results show that Dirt 2 is CPU bottlenecked and does benefit from the extra cores and architecture of Sandybridge.
I have run more gaming benchmarks but most show only a very small improvement in FPS depending on whether the title is capable of using the extra cores.
