Is it worth the upgrade

I have the 7 month upgrade itch. My current system is by no means a dinosaur but I was wondering if upgrading to an i7 920 setup would yield any signifigant gains to justify the cost and effort. I would probably sell some current components being replaced to fund the upgrade.

My current system:

Intel E3110 OCd at 3.8ghz stable 24/7
Asus Maximus Formula
8gb G.Skill DDR2 PC800
Sapphire 5850 (stock atm)
3 28" Hanns G LCD in Eyefinity at 5760x1200
2 74gb WD Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and a few apps
1 500gb WD for games
X-fi Fatality sound card
Watercooled using mostly Swiftech parts
Corsair 750watt PSU

I use this system primarily for gaming, mostly FPS such as LFD, Battlefield Bad Company 2 (beta), Borderlands, Bioshock 2 -soon ,TF2, just to name a few.


I have been speccing out a possible upgrade like this:

I7 920 (to be OCd on water)
Asus P6T deluxe
6gb OCZ DDR3

Leaving everything else the same.

I have also kicked around the idea of just a minor updgrade and holding out till something trumps the 920 and then doing a full overhaul.

Minor updgrades might be:

• another 5850 for Crossfire
• upgrade the Raptors to 1 or 2 SSDs (not sure if this would be worth it or just add 2 more Raptors for 4 drive RAID 0)
• replacing the E3110 with a Q6000 or other socket 775 quad core.

So would an i7 920 be worth it or should I just maybe do another 5850 and hold out for a little while longer?

Das kobold said:

I have the 7 month upgrade itch. My current system is by no means a dinosaur but I was wondering if upgrading to an i7 920 setup would yield any signifigant gains to justify the cost and effort. I would probably sell some current components being replaced to fund the upgrade.

My current system:

Intel E3110 OCd at 3.8ghz stable 24/7
Asus Maximus Formula
8gb G.Skill DDR2 PC800
Sapphire 5850 (stock atm)
3 28" Hanns G LCD in Eyefinity at 5760x1200
2 74gb WD Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and a few apps
1 500gb WD for games
X-fi Fatality sound card
Watercooled using mostly Swiftech parts
Corsair 750watt PSU

I use this system primarily for gaming, mostly FPS such as LFD, Battlefield Bad Company 2 (beta), Borderlands, Bioshock 2 -soon ,TF2, just to name a few.


I have been speccing out a possible upgrade like this:

I7 920 (to be OCd on water)
Asus P6T deluxe
6gb OCZ DDR3

Leaving everything else the same.

I have also kicked around the idea of just a minor updgrade and holding out till something trumps the 920 and then doing a full overhaul.

Minor updgrades might be:

• another 5850 for Crossfire
• upgrade the Raptors to 1 or 2 SSDs (not sure if this would be worth it or just add 2 more Raptors for 4 drive RAID 0)
• replacing the E3110 with a Q6000 or other socket 775 quad core.

So would an i7 920 be worth it or should I just maybe do another 5850 and hold out for a little while longer?

Click to expand...

PM sent.

Now on to what you need/want.

* will your motherboard accept the quad(i know it's 775 socket, but not all mobo's can run the quad)
* is the price for the upgrade worth it to you? (roughly $740, mobo, ram, cpu)
* will your PSU handle the i7

The new i7 platform will be around(as will the 775, but it's the older quad on the scene)

really, all you need to upgrade is the mobo, ram and cpu. I would not pay the premium for the p6t del or any of the p6t boards. I would (if money is any factor) recommend a gigabyte x58a and one of the following ud3, ud5, ud7. they are wonderful boards, and if max oc is of any importance they rock. for the ud3 and 920 and ram can be had for $219 ud3, $100 ram (3gig) and $229 cpu (i7 920) and a very worthy upgrade. and most 920's oc like crazy. but you will also need to upgrade the cpu cooler if you are planning to o/c as they will build tons of heat, so be prepared to deal with it

dejo said:

really, all you need to upgrade is the mobo, ram and cpu. I would not pay the premium for the p6t del or any of the p6t boards. I would (if money is any factor) recommend a gigabyte x58a and one of the following ud3, ud5, ud7. they are wonderful boards, and if max oc is of any importance they rock. for the ud3 and 920 and ram can be had for $219 ud3, $100 ram (3gig) and $229 cpu (i7 920) and a very worthy upgrade. and most 920's oc like crazy. but you will also need to upgrade the cpu cooler if you are planning to o/c as they will build tons of heat, so be prepared to deal with it

Click to expand...

* he's not going to find the 920 @ $229 unless he has a Microcenter around him
* if he's going to oc I wouldn't get a cheap quality of ram or a lesser speed than 12800 ( IMO )

I suggest the i7 build, but preferably corsair ram as that tends to be better for your gaming needs. The i7 build will also be future proof and you won't have to worry about upgrading for a long time. I do not suggest going crossfire. Better invest your money elsewhere. As for i7 motherboard, get cheap or get high-end. For instance Rampage II Gene or Rampage II Extreme. Your raptor set up is already good enough, I don't really suggest paying for SSD. Rather invest in i7.

Most important: What is your budget? So we can see what you can do with it.

If you're just gaming, no you won't see a difference. I was using an E8600 @4.5ghz on a Maximus II Formula with 8gb of Dominators. I moved to i7 920 on a Rampage II Extreme with 6gb of Dominators, and noticed no difference in gaming. Sure, stuff like Vantage scores shot through the roof, or if I wanted to zip or unzip something it would go speedy fast, but there really was no noticeable difference with day to day use and gaming.

Does that mean you shouldn't upgrade? Hell no. I'm a fan of the "upgrade early to get the most resale value for your parts" mentality. That's why generally every 6 ~ 12 months my computer gets a whole revamp. If you've got the money to burn (hey, it is tax return season), I say go for it. Just don't expect a day and night difference between what you currently have, and what your purposed upgrade is.

I can only second what JonSimonzi said. You won't be "Blown Away", but you will be on the leading edge. That being said, cost is a major factor. If you have money to blow or can find a really good deal then it might be worth it to you, but realistically an i7 is gonna put you back almost 700 dollars just for the 8GB of Ram, Motherboard and CPU. Pound for pound you would get an awsome performance gain just by upgrading to a C2Q. I think the 9550 was on sale for like $169. If you have 200 bucks to spare, go that route, if you have $1000 spare, go i7 920. In addition to the core components, you will need a different Cooler, or at least base attachment. You may need a better power supply. So that adds to the cost of course.

Well I know this is an Intel forum, but lets not forget...

You can get a fast AMD P2 965 for about $180, and a really decent board for <$140. You could even recycle your ram for the time being if you wanted.

I know they aren't quite as fast as the i7 line, but really, you won't notice any differences in the real world (Other than the weight of your wallet)

Just throwing it out there....

I usually like to upgrade while my current components still bring a decent resell value but I've been on the fence for a while since my current system can handle most games at max at a decent frame rate. With some of the new crop of games and running Eyefinity I am starting to see a large drop in frame rate. I know a lot of that has to do with the extra resolution required for Eyefinity. I am leaning towards holding out for another 6 months before a full upgrade (gotta still pay off my server upgrade on the Newegg account). If it can get me a little extra frame rate from a 775 quad maybe I will sell the E3110, they still go for about $100+ on the eBay. I would like to pick up another 5850 soon.

Is there anything on the horizon in the $250-300 range that will be a worthy i7 920 successor, maybe the 32nm cores?

I would keep your current system, it should be fine for games. Games are slowly starting to use Quad cores, but not enough to justify buying a LGA775 C2Q, in my opinion. The only successor to the i7 920, that I know of, is the Gulftown Hex Core, and it will be at least $600.

I agree with the above - wait til there's actually software to take advantage of all the processing power. since you're just playing games primarily, this should tide you over pretty well.

Well a 5850 is a hunk of change too. I would think your dual core would also likely bottleneck two of those cards. I would step up to a Quad before the seconds card, and then buy the card afterward otherwise you may negate the benefits of even using a second card. If your range is 250-300 dollars, then you might as well stick a C2Q 9550 in there or do nothing. As for your pricing, I think your E3110 may not be as valuable as you think. Especially if your selling it to buy something else (so time is of the essence). I sold my Q6600, 8GB of DDR2 and a P5Q Motherboard and only got $250 for it. Yeah, if I would have held out I may have gotten $300, but not likely. On a brighter note though, ram is getting expensive so you will probably get more for your ram then I got for mine..... but not much more. I don't think you would realistically get more than 200 dollars for your whole setup (but I am being conservative).

If you did get 200 dollars you could put that towards a 1156 system and maybe pick up a i5/i7+Mobo and 4GB of Ram for about $475 dollars. Or you could go with 1366 and get i7+Mobo and 6GB of Ram for $650. Since your future is a second Video card there is a real good chance you will need a new power supply which will set you back at least $100 dollars but probably closer to $150. So in the end your looking at $1100-1200 towards your new system. Champagne tastes on a Beer Budget. Dollar for Dollar, I think the C2Q will be your best bet unless your really good at Wheelin' and Dealin'.

I say go for an SSD. you wont notice it in games except quicker loads times, but it will make other every day tasks of your system feel faster which will give you the perception of having a faster pc. im glad i went with LGA1156 and an ssd over LGA1336 w/out an ssd