I have an i7 920 with a modest (stock voltage) overclock on air @ 3.6, 12GB RAM and a GTX 770. The 'plan' was to keep it as is, and build a new workstation / VR rig later in the summer or when the new GPUs are released. But... I'm also considering whether an upgrade from the 920 to say a 990x would also keep this machine up and ticking a little while longer, or more likely just run service as a second workstation once it's GPU has been swapped out. Thoughts? I know the bargain CPU to get is the Xeon X5650 which should work in my Asus P6TD, and that's almost a no brainer to pickup if I'm going to hang onto this old rig and keep it as a second / backup.
Anything higher than the X5650 (except perhaps similarly priced but higher spec xeons) would be pointless because they're overpriced. If you were going to be benching or overclocking, it would be a different story. The Xeon W3680 has come down in price a lot on ebay so if you want the higher stock frequency of 3.33GHz it'd be the one to go for - it's the workstation version of the i7 980 and significantly cheaper at £99 (or best offer!). If it was me looking for an upgrade from a quad just now I'd probably get the W3680 and just run it at stock.
I would upgrade, the gains are there if you need them. Even in gaming there is huge gains to be had in min and average fps alone. Skylake is now nearly a 100% performance upgrade over i7 920 levels.
