Upgrading from X58 gaming system - Logical next step?

I've been giving some serious thought to making the move from my aging Intel LGA1366 X58 gaming system to something newer. Black Friday/Cyber Monday is around the corner and I'd like to leverage the sales for a new PC build.

Can anyone provide advice or recommend what Intel LGA platform I should upgrade to for gaming? I am currently using an Intel Core i7-950 (Bloomfield) CPU based on the LGA1366 platform.

Thanks! =)

Depends on your Budget honestly, and were you are. Biggest improvement will be video card any day of the week & SSD drive. I've seen I7-920's still rocking with those simple improvements. Otherwise, if you want to make the big jump, it's X99, DDR4, and the like.

I'm currently using an EVGA 780Ti Classified Kingpin as my sole videocard, paired with a 240GB Intel 530 SSD. I'll be re-using everything else I have, with the exception of the CPU, mobo and likely the RAM.

The budget is pretty flexible. With Black Friday/Cyber Monday being around the corner, figuring there might be some good deals to be had to aid in my upgrade process.

You could go super cheap and just throw in a hex core XEON and from Ebay (X5675 is a good one) and overclock.

What are you wanting to gain with a new build?

For a new build, x99 is probably what you want to go with since you already have an x58 setup.

Syran said:

Depends on your Budget honestly, and were you are. Biggest improvement will be video card any day of the week & SSD drive. I've seen I7-920's still rocking with those simple improvements. Otherwise, if you want to make the big jump, it's X99, DDR4, and the like.

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this guy is 100% right. I still run 3 X58 systems, my HTPC, Server, and Gaming PC's are still X58 however I put SSD's and new video cards in them (980Ti and 970) (5450 in server)

They still play all the new games with no problem at all, and no reduced performance and stuttering that I can see.
The x58 platform is still very viable with today's games if the cpu is overclocked to a decent speed. my main computer at 4.2 has no problems with any game. I will be upgrading to 1151 or X99 in the next year hopefully for USB3.0 and M2 drives mainly. However the X58 is still holding its own for now.

w35t said:

Upgrades are always better spent in video cards and monitors for gaming. If you have extra cash I'd recommend looking into a monitor upgrade as well.

Hell I finally just upgraded my i7 950 to a 5820k and don't honestly know if it made a significant difference for gaming.

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From another thread I've posted in with a similar type of question.

That said, if you really want to upgrade, agreed on X99 based system.

Is spending a little money on a Xeon to replace my i7-950 even really worth the performance increase? What kind of performance increase are we even talking about between a Xeon and a i7-950 anyway?

Depends honestly. Mostly, looking at more cores. So, better multi-threaded performance. Can find a few some that run 2-500 Mhz faster then the i7-950, if you look around, probably able to find them semi-cheap in FS/T or Ebay. Look for X or W series Xeon 1366 processors.

garetjax27 said:

Is spending a little money on a Xeon to replace my i7-950 even really worth the performance increase? What kind of performance increase are we even talking about between a Xeon and a i7-950 anyway?

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Well, with the x56XX series you would be going from Bloomfield to Gulftown

your current CPU is 45nm and the Xeon is 32nm. 130w vs 95w TDP. runs cooler and generally overclocks better.

You also gain AES, so for programs that can use that there can be a big increase.

For the X5675, you would be going from a QPI speed of 4.8GT/s to 6.4GT/s at stock speed. Not sure if this really makes any difference other than helping overclockability though.

The X5675 also officially supports DDR3-1333 whereas the i7-950 only officially supports DDR3-1066 (better RAM overclockability).

I went from an x58 Xeon W3580 to a x79 4930k and the RAM throughput and overall speed was noticeable.

If you have stuff that is very CPU or RAM throughput limited or you need/want features that your current motherboard doesn't support, it would be best to just upgrade platforms. And you can most likely get a pretty penny for your current x58 board on Ebay.

If not, then going to a x58 hex core might just be the thing to do.. wait till the next generation of CPUs are out.