6-core Nehalems?

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Mr. Stryker

Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 15, 2005
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I'm wondering if upgrading to a i7 970 would be worth it (32nm compared to my 45nm) since it might overclock better and help futureproof my system even more? If so, where can I get one for a good price? They seem to be going for over 400 dollars on eBay and Amazon...
 
I have had my i7 970 for a little over 2 years. I paid $365 for mine new in box back then. I expect it was an Intel Retail Edge cpu being sold for profit. Anyways the 970 definitely runs cooler than the i7 920 it replaced however I only do a slight overclock (BCLK in the 140s).

futureproof my system even more?
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I believe it will do that.

where can I get one for a good price?
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I would look used. I see people picking these up used for steals at times.
 
I personally think that the Intel® Core™ i7-970 is still a viable processor for most applications. So based on what you are doing and going to be doing I believe that the Intel Core i7-970 can be a good processor for years to come.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
I'm wondering if upgrading to a i7 970 would be worth it (32nm compared to my 45nm) since it might overclock better and help futureproof my system even more? If so, where can I get one for a good price? They seem to be going for over 400 dollars on eBay and Amazon...
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Depending on what you use your computer for you may benefit from moving to 6 cores. If you don't encode video, fold, or anything else that will take advantage of the increased core count you probably should keep saving your money for a new build down the road.

If you can take advantage of the cores you probably will have to shell out at least $300 for a 970 & $400+ for an unlocked CPU. I got lucky about 6 months ago and got a Xeon W3680 (essentially a 980X) for $285 on eBay when I lowballed a seller on a best offer and he accepted. Watch eBay and the FS forums and you may be able to snap one up on the cheap. So far I have not found anything that brings my CPU to its knees and I'm hoping to get another 2 years or more out of my setup.
 
I picked up a brand new in box one for $400 almost a year ago now and it runs cooler than my 920 D0 and overclocked higher with lower voltage. I encode and runs VM's so it was worth the upgrade.
 
weuntouchable said:
I got lucky about 6 months ago and got a Xeon W3680 (essentially a 980X) for $285 on eBay when I lowballed a seller on a best offer and he accepted. Watch eBay and the FS forums and you may be able to snap one up on the cheap. So far I have not found anything that brings my CPU to its knees and I'm hoping to get another 2 years or more out of my setup.
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Wow, nice.
 
They're called Westmere :p

If you're focused on gaming, it's still more prudent at the moment to go with 4 faster cores than 6 slower ones. 6+ cores for gaming isn't quite here yet.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
I'm wondering if upgrading to a i7 970 would be worth it (32nm compared to my 45nm) since it might overclock better and help futureproof my system even more? If so, where can I get one for a good price? They seem to be going for over 400 dollars on eBay and Amazon...
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You will not get much more than 4.2 out of a 970. It's taking 1.46v to get 4.28 out of mine.

Agreed with other posters sentiments here. If you don't know if you need 6 cores, you probably don't need 6 cores. For you to see a noticeable improvement in most applications you will need to jump architecture to SB/IB.
 
Yeah I game. I don't do any video editing or VMwaring. I've already owned a 2600K and 3770K and didn't really notice a difference in gaming with these processors and now I've went back to the 920 where it feels like home to me. :p
 
Mr. Stryker said:
Yeah I game. I don't do any video editing or VMwaring. I've already owned a 2600K and 3770K and didn't really notice a difference in gaming with these processors and now I've went back to the 920 where it feels like home to me. :p
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Then I suggest to stay with the i7 920 and to upgrade at broadwell or skylake because for gaming you will most likely not notice a difference with the i7 970.
 
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Skylake will most likely use DDR4. Broadwell will most likely still be on DDR3.
 
I got an offer from someone on this forum for a ES i7 980X for $350. Should I take it?
 
do it, sell your 920 for $100-$120, have a ~$250 hexcore upgrade

also; cue up IntelEnthusiast's usual warning of ES chips


edit; just saw your sig and you are showing 16gb, why not get 24gb for full trip channel awesomeness???
 
Motherboard only has 4 DIMM slots. 3 are blue-colored, 1 is white-colored. I can remove one stick (from the white DIMM) if I have to?

And I know that ES chips wouldn't have warranty and may have compatibility issues with some boards, but he has the same board as mine; except his is revision 1.0 and I have the latest revision 1.7 board. (Not BIOS; the board revision)
 
Mr. Stryker said:
Motherboard only has 4 DIMM slots. 3 are blue-colored, 1 is white-colored. I can remove one stick (from the white DIMM) if I have to?

And I know that ES chips wouldn't have warranty and may have compatibility issues with some boards, but he has the same board as mine; except his is revision 1.0 and I have the latest revision 1.7 board. (Not BIOS; the board revision)
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oh right, the ones that have 4, don't worry about tri channel, don't think it makes too much difference, just a weird amount if you did have 6 dimms.

other thing with ES is that they are still 'technically' owned by Intel and can be recalled at any time. so if they find out you have one (and care enough) they can request you send it to them or face possible legal action.

i still say get it if you have the money, sell the 920, use what you get with that to get an AIO water cooler so you can crank up the MHz!
 
Uh, really...? .. is that kind of risk worth it? I mean, how would they know I have it?
 
Got the 980X, let's see how it goes with my board... hope it won't spit it out as if it was having negative effects on a foreign transplant.
 
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