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Build Advice The death of the 1366 i7 D0?....

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Lassar, 24 Oct 2017.

  1. Lassar

    Lassar Lean Mean Fighting Machine !

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    Hi Everyone,

    Been a while since I have posted anything on here so I hope everyone is well?

    To those who remember me Im still running my WC i7 920 clocked @4.2 Ghz coupled with an r9 290. At getting on for 10 years old I have had some excellent milage from my 1366 chip but Im wondering if now is the time to upgrade?

    To be honest my system is still more than stable and apart from the low frames occasionally in BF1 I'm very happy with it.

    Can anyone advise me if upgrading to say Coffee Lake will give my GFX card a bit more headroom. I have avoided upgrading to Skylake etc over the last few years after advice from the forums opting to drop money on a better GFX card. I spent a few quid recently to take the RAM from 6gb to 12gb which gave the computer a little boost but nothing spectacular.

    Im also thinking that things like my SSD will benefit from running at Higher speeds?

    Another option is to try overclocking my GFX card, something I have never done. Its currently being WC but that was mostly due to the noise.

    I look forward to hearing from you all.

    Many thanks

    Lassar
     
  2. Xlog

    Xlog Minimodder

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    You could also upgrade your 920 to x5650, that way you'll get ~30% CPU improvement with minimal investment.
    Been running X5650@4GHz with gtx970 (also oc'ed) for quite some time and haven't really seen cpu bottle necking gfx.
     
  3. TheMadDutchDude

    TheMadDutchDude The Flying Dutchman

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    I'm with Xlog, get a hex Xeon in there and you'll get a little more life out of it.

    With regards to your SSDs running faster, yes, but it won't be a massively different speed change as they're still running in AHCI. Things might load a little faster due to the throughput, but it won't change much.
     
  4. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Thirded. A CL CPU would not give your 290 anything more IMO. Drop a hex in there for cheaps and crank on that, it will give you much better performance in BF1 especially. I would rather drop in a Xeon and spend the cash on a decent GPU upgrade.
     
  5. wormy

    wormy Minimodder

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    Lassar, this is timely as I have the same CPU, not clocked as high as yours but it's been proving a little unstable lately. I think it might be crappy electrics in the house giving fluctuations. Would you mind and be able to share your OC settings with me please?

    The idea of switching out for a Xeon sounds cool but not something I can budget for right now (though I've just seen they're available for under £30 sooo...) . Good luck to you if you do
     
  6. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Your caps and fets may be aging. Especially if you have had it overclocked for a long time.
     
  7. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Your graphics definitely. The hex core CPU will also help but won’t affect gaming that much in my opinion. I just went from a i7 2600 at 3.4ghz to an i7 4790k at 4.00ghz with the same graphics card and I’ve noticed no difference at all to be honest. Excepting that I wanted the shrink to mITX I got out of it, I would’ve been better spending the cash on a new card.
     
  8. wormy

    wormy Minimodder

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    Thanks Vault Tec. It's been overclocked for some but not the majority of its life and not by a huge amount. If I can't hold anything stable and it ends of burning out on me totally, that's as good a reason as any to get a new rig
     
    Last edited: 24 Oct 2017
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  9. Lassar

    Lassar Lean Mean Fighting Machine !

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  10. Lassar

    Lassar Lean Mean Fighting Machine !

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    Apologies for the huge photos..... dont know how to make them smaller..... so the consensus is to drop my money on a new GPU rather than upgrade to Coffee Lake?
     
  11. alfizzle

    alfizzle Ooh aah just a little bit..

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    If it was me I’d upgrade the cpu to a Xeon x5650/x5660/x5670/x5675/x5679/x5680/x5690 overclock that and then spend some money on a new Gpu.
     
    Last edited: 25 Oct 2017
  12. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    GPUs are by far the most important component when it comes to gaming, and older cpus tend to hold up pretty well most of the time.

    The upgrade to a hex seems like a relative 'no brainer' for the cost, but it probably won't change your gaming that much, a newer card should be a nice improvement :)
     
  13. Wakka

    Wakka Yo, eat this, ya?

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    Jesus guys, call yourselves enthusiasts?! The guy has had the rig for best part of a decade!

    I reckon you're prime for a new system overhaul, personally. You're missing out on things like M.2 support, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.1, decent on-board audio... and that's before you consider the power efficiency gains that have been made since X58.

    New build all the way.
     
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  14. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Enthusiast does not mean money. It means getting the most out of a given product and using it. A Xeon hex Westmere is a decent gaming CPU. Sure, if he has the cash to go for a whole new rig then by all means do so but people are just giving him enthusiast advice. Enthusiasts don't buy the high end products they go mid range and then overclock the crap out of them and then most importantly they use them.
     
  15. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    In fairness I call myself pragmatic. You build based on need. M2 isn’t noticeably faster than a sata3 SSD. It’s only benchmarks that show it. Pci3.0 bandwidth isn’t an issue with a single x16 card. USB3.1 yikes all my stuff is still usb2 anyway! Onboard sound? Piped through cheap headphones will it matter?

    True enough that power reduction is part of it but the cost of chucking away motherboard, cpu, cooling and ram, and then buying the new kit, will not pay back the electricity reduction particularly quickly, and it won’t provide the gaming performance gains of chucking in a 1070ti or a vega 56 or even an RX580.

    With unlimited funds you can make any changes. There was a member looking to drop 5k the other day. That’s a nearly new small car! Most of us have families, mortgages. You just need some perspective.

    The fact of the matter is that gaming performance will most be affected by GPU on the rig above and a secondhand Xeon would be a cheap boost to make at the same time.
     
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  16. Wakka

    Wakka Yo, eat this, ya?

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    I fully understand what you mean, and I would agree if we were talking about a Haswell/Devils Canyon rig, but we're talking about a platform that has done 9 years of service already... That's a SUPER RIPE upgrade cycle. There's been a solid 20-25% IPC increase from Nehelem through to Broadwell alone, add in another 5% for Sky/Kaby/Coffeelake, top it with another 400-500Mhz of OC headroom and it's suddenly looking like quite a big upgrade!
     
  17. wormy

    wormy Minimodder

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    Lassar thanks very much for the screenies. I'll give those numbers a go. I've been using lower voltages which means I've never got as high as you and is probably why it's been unstable.
     
  18. Lassar

    Lassar Lean Mean Fighting Machine !

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    Your Welcome Wormy, bear in mind though my i7 is under water in a custom loop. I also have HT turned off. Regarding the upgrade my board only supports 3Gbs so I think my drives may benefit from a boost? If I just intend to upgrade GPU would you say that either 1070 or 1060 is ok for 1080 gaming? I should probably overclock my GFX card too considering its under water :D
     
  19. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    I wish I had never replaced my 920. Rock it for a few more years!
     
  20. wormy

    wormy Minimodder

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    Noted Lassar and thanks. I have an all in one Corsair H50 (I think) but I know that's not going to compete with a proper liquid setup.

    For what it's worth, on the GPU side I think it depends on what you play. I suspect that with BF1 you'll notice the benefit of a 1070 over a 60, whereas as a Guild Wars 2 and Total War Warhammer player (who lately has been letting campaign battles auto resolve, so little GPU stress) a 1060 is plenty for me. I don't know though if an AMD card might give better results for BF1. Is it using DX12?
     

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