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Your best CPU's over the years?

opteron 146... my first ever custom PC when I was like 12 had that overclockable bad boy!

Then came conroe and now the 2600k which has lasted me since it was released and still going strong!


I think I have been lucky at my times to upgrade!
 
AMD Duron 800Mhz is one that I remember being happy with for quite a while.

Replaced that with an Athlon 1400Mhz which was also amazing to me at the time.

I think my current i5 2500k is probably the best I've owned. Had it 4 years now and its still good enough for more or less anything.
 
Selekt0r said:
My current Xeon 5650 has to be my best ever CPU. Only £69 for 4GHZ hex-core goodness (even better that it is in a free GA-EX58-UD5/Coolermaster Cosmos which I was given!). I can't see me needing to upgrade for years.
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The platform will limit you, not the CPU.

No USB3, no PCI-E V3, no SATA3, no M.2,

Though if you can live with 200MB/sec speeds from SSD's and slow transfer to external devices, then it could last you a while.
 
PCIe usb 3.0 card will solve that one issue, and they are reliable if you get the right chipset. SATA bandwidth is hardly noticeable to be honest and plenty fast enough, also with SATA 2 i consistently saw speeds in the 250-280mb/sec range, not 200. Not clued up on graphics well enough to say whether PCIe 3.0 is a dealbreaker.
 
By far my 2700K which I bought years ago and got super lucky as it does 5.0Ghz. Went from a AMD 955 Black Edition at 4.4Ghz (if I remember right) to the 2700K and even when I booted up at stock the speed difference and overall smoothness was night and day. After that i'd never have another AMD CPU again (not like they can even compete with Intel anyway).
 
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (SKT 754)
Intel Core i7 920
Intel Core i7 3930K

Those are the only three CPUs I've had and they have each lasted me a long time. My 920 is still going strong so I'll go with that as my best CPU. That said I can't see myself upgrading my 3930K for a very long time and haven't even felt the need to overclock it.

The AMD was still special though. I just hope that whatever I get in the future will have the same sort of longevity.
 
Justintime said:
PCIe usb 3.0 card will solve that one issue, and they are reliable if you get the right chipset. SATA bandwidth is hardly noticeable to be honest and plenty fast enough, also with SATA 2 i consistently saw speeds in the 250-280mb/sec range, not 200. Not clued up on graphics well enough to say whether PCIe 3.0 is a dealbreaker.
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200-250MB/sec is over times less what the new PCI-E SSD's can do.

Also, using addin card controllers to add USB3 etc is never ever as good as natively having it on your chipset. Speeds and reliability will suffer, as well as cluttering your PC up inside.
 
AMD Athlon 700 I went from an AMD K6-2 400 to this beast and it was one hell of a difference.

AMD Thunderbird 1200 It was great !!

AMD Athlon 64 3200 With a Geforce 6800GT was a common set up, and a very good one too.

Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad Awesome chip for the money, good overclocker , just good everything really.

Intel 2500K As above and my current chip. Plenty of life left in this chip too me reckons.

Had a few other CPU's in-between the others like a Pentium MMX 266, AMD Athlon 64 4400+ Dual Core e.t.c. But these are the one's that stood out for me as the years rolled by.
 
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Dave2150 said:
200-250MB/sec is over times less what the new PCI-E SSD's can do.

Also, using addin card controllers to add USB3 etc is never ever as good as natively having it on your chipset. Speeds and reliability will suffer, as well as cluttering your PC up inside.
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Yes but for what it is transfer speeds are hardly noticeable in real world use unless the machine is specifically for transferring files, its the access times for SSDs that make the most difference. The USB 3.0 cards i've used and tested (mostly ASMEDIA and VIA based) have been solid once you get the right manufacturer and the bottleneck is usually the transfer speed from the portable disk etc.. not the card, and in the real world i've noted even chipset based USB 3 isn't anywhere as reliable as USB 2.0.
 
AMD Athlon 3200+ - Threw everything i had at it in the day and was a stable and reliable CPU for my first ever gaming build (had build previously but were adapted or mixed usage)

But my top one has to be:

I7 920 DO Stepping - Current CPU since Dec 2009 i think, and still bossing everything I throw at it and I still havent even bothered to ramp it upto 4ghz (which it manages easily and at very low voltage). Rock steady, great value for money and been a pleasure to own.
 
HybridX said:
AMD Athlon 3200+ - Threw everything i had at it in the day and was a stable and reliable CPU for my first ever gaming build (had build previously but were adapted or mixed usage)

But my top one has to be:

I7 920 DO Stepping - Current CPU since Dec 2009 i think, and still bossing everything I throw at it and I still havent even bothered to ramp it upto 4ghz (which it manages easily and at very low voltage). Rock steady, great value for money and been a pleasure to own.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to think with the way i use pcs lately i could've kept my 920 and still be happy, did 4.4Ghz with ease and with a full 12GB RAM installed too.
 
Gotta also add the i7 920. What a fantastic cpu, I upgraded from a Q6600 like a lot of people.

I only replaced the 920 with a Xeon X5670 because I had an upgrade itch and it was such a cheap upgrade :)

I had a AMD Barton 2800+ until I got the Q6600, was a fantastic little chip that served me all my time at university until I could afford an upgrade :p
 
I have only really had 3 cpu's and all of them have been fantastic.

I had my Pentium 4 3.0C 30 capper which did 3.75Ghz on stock cooling. I got that for ~£120.

Then I had my E6750 which hit 3.7Ghz easy and did me from 2007 to 2012.

Now I have a 3570k which is sitting at 4.5Ghz at 1.2V and great too.
 
I could mention the Intel 486 DX2, or the slot based Pentium III's (Slot 1?) which I loved the style of, as the likes of those always stick in my head.

That being said, the one I will always miss and wish I still had for sentimental reasons would be my Athlon 3400+ 939 Venice. It was a great chip, had it for many years! Overclocked well too... not that I can remember exactly by how much now :( Wish I still had it to play with.
 
lol the only problem was keeping it tamed with the heat, the chip was good for it but got hot as hell. Got a TRUE copper version rather cheap and 2 decent Noctua fans, kept it under 85C even with IBT
 
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