Upgrade CPU?

J

jjonsalt

New Member
My Dell computer is several years old. It would be nice to speed things up a bit if it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm running 18 GB RAM, Windows Vista and my HDs are set as RAID 0. The CPU info is a follows.

2.67 gigahertz Intel Core i7 920
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)

Thoughts on the benefit of upgrading the CPU and with witch one?
 
Thats a great cpu imo. And 18gb is overkill lol. What are you using ur computer for and whats your budget? I domt see any reason to upgrade but if u were to upgrade id grab a i5 3570k for $220 a gigabyte ga-z77x-ud3h for $140 a case of your choice, your old hard drive should be fine but a new 2tb hard drive is around $100 if that matter to. 8gb (2 x 4gb) of any 1666mhz (anything past that speed is useless unless u oc ur bclk ehich u should not be touching lol) 1.5v ram (latency doesnt make any real world difference to the averge user). If you are not gaming any cheap video card or no video card will do. If you will do slight gaming or anything else that may require a gpu a amd 7790 for $150 would be perfect. If you plan to do serious gaming nvidia gtx 670 ($390) will do in any game max settigs. If you decide you dont want to overclock just get a xeon e3-1230v2 for $220 (its a i7 3770 in server form, Exactly the same (not the same, but for the sake of simplicity we will say they are) as a 3770 except without integrated graphics card so you will have to buy a discrete one, any will do along with msi zh77-g43 motherboard for $90 with any of the videocards i mentioned. I reccomend a GOOD 650w or 750w psu from seasonic corsair or xfx if u go down the i5 and gtx 670 route. (650w if u go for i5 and the 7790 route) if you go with xeon + 7790 550w will be plenty. I put that together with as little as possible bias possible! Of anything was unclear please say so because i typed this up on my ipod so it may not be as clear as i would like it to be. Once you tell us your budget and what you will be using your computer for I will reccomend you a good build and you can change it to you likong and then go out and buy it :). And ftr if you ipgrade you will see a rough performace increase around 30-40% cpu wise. If you include gpu might even be 200-800% increase depending what your coming from!
 
That is a great CPU. The biggest factor is, what do you use you conputer for? Rendering, gaming, as a server?
 
Why'd you need to upgrade the CPU? If I were going to upgrade an i7 920 to anything, it'd be probably an i7 3770K or an i7 3930K, but either of those options will require a new motherboard too.

There's nothing on LGA 1366 (which is what your CPU runs on) that is worth upgrading to from an i7 920.
 
The 3570k is still slightly faster then a 920 not that i would justify upgrading from one. If anything he should only upgrade his cooler and overclock. Otherwise stay where he is. I just gave him upgrade options if he meant he wanted to upgrade his whole computer.
 
Might be hard to him to overclock since he is on a Dell PC and they will have likely locked the BIOS, preventing overclocking.
 
My guess based on the RAID array is that he uses it for photo or video editing.

Thus the high amount of RAM?

To the OP, please download PC Wizard, install and run it, and go to FILE, SAVE AS, click OK and copy the text out of that file into this thread.

If you're not gaming, an SSD is probably the best bet.
 
I think it'd be a good idea to get an NVIDIA graphics card in there, then you can use CUDA to speed up rendering video a bit. Something like a 650 Ti or a 660 would be good. You'd need a new power supply though probably.

I think your CPU is still all right. If you're going to upgrade that though, you'll need to change your motherboard too for reasons I mentioned earlier.
 
In that case if you want to upgrade you would have to change up your whole system. You can keep the case, psu, and hard drives though, adn if you really want to save money you can keep your current video card (but I recomend you upgrade. $100 on a new gpu will go along way).

Motherboard (if you have no preferred brand) this h77 msi board is a good quality one if you dont plan on gaming/overclocking
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130674

Processor $240 (its a xeon e3-v1230v2, basically a i7 3770 but cheaper and cant be overclocked, runs really cool and stable, stock heatsink will be fine)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117286

Memory $90 (cheap 16b ddr3 ram, cl10 1.5v 1600mhz fitting exactly what you need, if you really want you can buy two for these for 32gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313346

Everything else you can move over from your old computer, the xeon uses only 69w and is very power efficient. If you want a new video card for $100 you cant go wrong with this msi gtx 650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127703

If you have 400w or better psu of a decent brand you should be fine, this upgrade will be using more or less the same power as your current setup, if you do want/need a new power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
Thats a very good and reliable 430w psu, only $45.
 
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^ what are you talking about?

to OP. your computer, for the most part is good for what your doing with it (editing). as far as I can see, these are the components id change, starting with (in my opinion) most needed to less needed:

Nvidia GPU (gts 250, gts 450 or 460, or gtx 650, all with 2 gigs of memory if possible, although not an absolute need. depends on how much effects and ect your adding into the project. anything higher than these cards, and you really wont see a difference in performance with editing.)

650watt to 700 watt power supply (seasonic, corsair, ect...)

ssd to load windows and your editing software, and using your raid 0 drives as your scratch disc and destination (working) folder.

as far as your cpu, it is a good cpu for the task, but could be improved if you could raise the speed of it. lastly, id recommend getting a motherboard of the same socket and chipset (1366, x58), so you can overclock it to 3Ghz, or more. grab a aftermarket cooler as well so you keep temps where they need to be. this last upgrade will tie it all together nicely, but is sort of pointless if you don't get the 1st 2 upgrades first.

and getting an i5 over an i7, regaurdless of socket, is ignorant in my opinion considering your doing editing. for gaming maybe, but having 8 threads over 4 makes a big difference in editing. I do a lot of editing as well, and have learned that the upgrade path I showed you is for sure the route that will fit your needs best.

everything else you have will be fine to use. even if you get another motherboard for your 920, the dell case will still be fine. you may have to do a little change up with the fp header, but let us know and we can help you out with that, so no biggy or concern. the ram you have is fine too, although I am wondering how many sticks of ram are installed, and what is their speed? be sure to run 3, or 6 sticks of ram, so you get tri channel mode on your ram. if there is 4, or 5 sticks installed then remove some so you have 3, or 6, otherwise it will drop the ram down to dual channel mode.
 
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CPU still is OK. can overclock it and get a little more oomph out, grab a new gpu for a kick in the pants, seeing that the power supply is adequate.
 
^ might also want to get an SSD too like mentioned before.

So really what you want is an SSD and an NVIDIA graphics card.
 
When I first got the computer, I had an 80GB drive installed to use strictly as a scratch disc. To accommodate this the PSU was upgraded to a 650W one.
 
Yeah I'd suggest upgrading your graphics card to a 650 Ti or 660 or something, and maybe getting an SSD and reinstalling Windows too. You're on Vista right now aren't you? If so, it might be worth upgrading to 7 or 8.
 
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