4ghz i7 920, worth it to upgrade now

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Geno750

Gawd
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Apr 28, 2006
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I got a 2700k from the intel retail edge, will it be worth it to get a mobo and new ram to use this cpu or not really?

I play Serious Sam 3 and BF3 atm. as well as photo shop/lightroom a lot for photography.
 
If you live near a microcenter grab a mobo, if not wit until January, hopefully the new socket will help lower 1155 prices.
 
I would sell your i7 920 and motherboard. And get a new lga1155 motherboard and have some cash in your pocket. Keep your old ram for the lga1155 if it is 1.5V or less.
 
Sadly I have 1.65v ram. This system has been running since December 09 so while I want to upgrade, I don't think I will notice a difference.
 
Geno750 said:
I got a 2700k from the intel retail edge, will it be worth it to get a mobo and new ram to use this cpu or not really?

I play Serious Sam 3 and BF3 atm. as well as photo shop/lightroom a lot for photography.
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I have a i7 920 and it was clocked at 3.7GHz but I got occasional lockups in BF3 so I clocked back to 3.5GHz. It is plenty fast, obviously you're 4GHz should be a little faster but I didn't notice a drop in performance for 99% of stuff from 3.7 to 3.5.

I have a i5 2500K system running a H67 MB so stock 3.3GHz. I ran my 6970's in it to see how it compared and my i7 920 was 3-6% faster at 3.5GHz for gaming, 3dmark, etc. I tried the i5 2500K with my video cards in a Z68 MB (Asus V-Pro) and it clocked to 4.6GHz just fine using stock cooler. Ran some benchmarks and found that it was barely any faster for gaming at 1920x1200 than my i7 920 @ 3.5GHz. Some games were 1-2 fps faster. Nothing was more than 5-7 fps faster. The difference in 80fps and 87fps wasn't noticeable. Even 3DMark 11 was less than 100 points higher on Performance and only 40 points higher on Xtreme.

I was considering getting a SB or SB-E setup but after testing I decided to invest in a U3011 30" monitor instead and I'm very happy with it. I don't think upgrading from a i7 1366 setup is worth it right now. You'd be better off waiting to see what Ivy Bridge offers, or investing in something else.
 
drescherjm said:
I would sell your i7 920 and motherboard. And get a new lga1155 motherboard and have some cash in your pocket. Keep your old ram for the lga1155 if it is 1.5V or less.
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I would do this as well. You could just toss your current ram in with the motherboard for a few more dollars if it's cheap ram. Either way, ram is so cheap now for dual/quad channel configurations, that you'd end up either breaking even or making a few dollars after upgrading.
 
RamonGTP said:
So the point of this thread would be???
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To see if I missed something? Or to just confirm my thoughts?

I assumed this would be obvious given that this IS a forum. I guess even here, some people just need everything spelled out for them.
 
From everything I have read there has been no stability or dependability issues with running 1.65v ram.

1. Sell old MB and the 920
2. Buy new MB and use i7 and old ram
3. Profit?

:)
 
Geno750 said:
Sadly I have 1.65v ram. This system has been running since December 09 so while I want to upgrade, I don't think I will notice a difference.
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Your ram will probably run at 1.5v if you run it at 1333. You won't see any serious performance hit running your ram in asynchronous mode, as the controller will prefer the 4GB matched pair (and what game uses more than that?)

You can probably confirm the 1333 1.5v mode by looking under CPU-z under the SPD tab, and looking for the voltage under 666MHz.

If your ram has a 1.5v mode, that means all you need is a motherboard. Go for it :D
 
Just run the ram at 1.65v. It will be fine. I just took a look at the approved ram for my p8z68 deluxe and their are a lot of 1.65v sticks on there.

Gibbo from the UK OC forum...

Sandybridge maximum safe voltages

Core Voltage - Not recommended too exceed 1.38v, doing so could kill the CPU, we therefor recommend a range of 1.325-1.350v if overclocking.
Memory Voltage - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means upto 1.58v is the safe recommended limit. In our testing we have found 1.65v has caused no issues.
BCLK Base Clock - This is strictly a NO, anyone using base clock overclocking could/will cause damange to CPU/Mainboard. (Set manually to 100)
PLL Voltage - Do not exceed 1.9v!!



Processor - Basically we recommend customers not to exceed 1.35v to play it safe, all our bundles are set at 1.3250v or lower, any competitors offering bundles above 4.6GHz you should be enquiring as to what voltage they are using as we believe anything over 1.38v will limit CPU lifespan and anything over 1.42v will likely kill the CPU or severely limit its lifespan.

Memory - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means 1.60v is the ideal safe maximum, but we have found in our testing all 1.65v memory is fine. We have also found most new 1.65v like Corsair XMS3 will run at its rated timings with just 1.50-1.55v which is well within Intel specifications. So people upgrading to Sandybridge you can still use your old DDR3, but we do recommend you run it at 1.60v or less. We are shipping most of our bundles which feature Corsair XMS at 1.50v-1.55v at rated timings. We've also discussed with Asus and MSI regarding voltages for memory and they also confirm in their testing 1.65v caused no issues with reliability.

Base Clock - To put it simple if you value the life of your components, do not overclock using base clock!

PLL Voltage - Again do not exceed 1.9v!
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There is no reason to upgrade from that system. Just wait for Haswell next year.
 
leh18621 said:
There is no reason to upgrade from that system.
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My reasons to upgrade if I were in that situation:

1. The additional cost of the upgrade will be minimal if any.
2. The new system will use less power.
3. The new system will have more value when you sell it years down the road over the already 3 year old lga1366 system
4. You will gain a little more performance.
 
drescherjm said:
My reasons to upgrade if I were in that situation:

1. The additional cost of the upgrade will be minimal if any.
2. The new system will use less power.
3. The new system will have more value when you sell it years down the road over the already 3 year old lga1366 system
4. You will gain a little more performance.
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+1 on all points
 
I think these Nehalem systems are holding their own pretty well still.
 
You should upgrade and sell the i7 920 gear while you can still get some decent coin for it. When IB comes out, if you feel the need to upgrade, it would be a drop in-upgrade on a Z68 (iirc). I don't think you would need to, though.
 
FoxhoundOp said:
You should upgrade and sell the i7 920 gear while you can still get some decent coin for it. When IB comes out, if you feel the need to upgrade, it would be a drop in-upgrade on a Z68 (iirc). I don't think you would need to, though.
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I think this is sound advice. I'm in the same boat as the OP. The 2700k is just sitting here staring at me everyday as I decide what to do with it...

The extra $200 in my pocket would be nice though...
 
Since you have the CPU I guess the upgrade might be worth it. I think in your shoes I'd rather just sell the CPU. I personally have been considering upgrading to a 6-core CPU from my 920... but I don't really need the extra cores (It would be nice for the video rendering I do, but I don't know if that's worth spending $500).
 
leh18621 said:
There is no reason to upgrade from that system. Just wait for Haswell next year.
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ivy is the most logical upgrade, Haswell wont be out for a loooooooooooooooooooong time.

Just wait 90 days, get a pci 3.0 mobo, and ivy , it will make everything obsolete.
 
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