Did I make a bad upgrade? E6600 to i7 920 upgrade

N

necros

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May 2, 2007
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Hey there, so here's my situation. I had a power supply blow the other day, but before I could fully diagnose it I was convinced I had a bad motherboard or at least some bad memory. I have a Gigabyte 965-DS3 mb, 4gb corsair ram, E6600, and a Zalman cooler. I ended up doing a bunch of ordering for a "cheap" i7 upgrade, although I'd say it's a moderate build. I got the MSI Platinum MB, 3x2gb 1333 OCZ sticks, the i7 920 retail, a socket 1366 bracket converter for my Zalman cooler, and a 700W OCZ power supply that was on sale and highly rated.

Well, I end up swapping another power supply into my E6600 system that I found in my closet, and my system seems to be running much better now. So I've got all these parts incoming for the i7 upgrade, all at somewhere around $700 ish total, and I'm starting to wonder if I really picked the wrong time to jump to the next level of CPUs. I should note, I got the 920 at a great sale price at Fry's, $229.99.

I don't do a lot of app heavy stuff. I am the type to usually leave Outlook and 5-15 browser windows open while I game, along with Trillian / Skype, but that's about it. Once in awhile I'll encode a video from my camcorder or write a song, maybe even resize a photo, but that's about it.

I am a huge gamer though, and performance is very important to me. The Far Cry 2 situation really scares me, I am really concerned that other upcoming games might suffer as well. So I guess my question is, should I not have initiated this upgrade or should I just go forward with it? I'm really looking forward to Empire: Total War, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 most of all.

I was thinking that I could sell off the E6600 w/fan, motherboard, 4gb of corsair xms ram, and the fresh power supply for at least $250 or so. If I can pull that off, realistically the cost will not be insanely huge. I'm keeping my GTX 280, and I don't think I'll ever do SLI so the MSI crossfire limitation didn't bother me. I'd go to the 295 first before I went 2x or 3x.
 
well...just be happy with what you just bought and try to part with the older parts ASAP. :)

For gaming...I would have rather have gone with a smaller upgrade. e8500 ($150) and another 4Gb of ram and maybe a 300GB Raptor.

Anyways...you got the i7 at a great price.

To answer your original question.....Upgrades are NEVER bad....they're just costly at times :D
 
necros said:
I don't do a lot of app heavy stuff. I am the type to usually leave Outlook and 5-15 browser windows open while I game, along with Trillian / Skype, but that's about it.
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Wait, how many browser windows? You know IE and Firefox have tabbed browsing right?

Anyways, grats on the good deal on the i7 920. I'm sure it'll be freaky fast! I'd totally pick one up if there was a Fry's within a hundred miles of me. :D
 
Wow double positives so far, I'm feeling a little better now atleast. The reviews were bumming me out so hard, I was thinking that I was taking a step down more than a step up. I was actually going to not overclock for the first time since like 1995, but now I feel like I have to. It seems like the 920 has a lot of untapped potential, so I think I'm doing to do a light push up to 3.0 / 3.3ghz or so.

I know IE and Firefox have tabbed browsing, but I can't stand how it crunches up together where you can't even tell what the tabs are after so many. I find it a lot easier to just click on my stack in Vista so I can see the names of all my open windows.

Since we're on the topic of upgrades, what do you think my odds are of pulling off an upgrade like this to a new chipset without having to reinstall windows? What I'd do sometimes before in this situation is go into device manager and remove all MB / CPU related devices, then shut down and upgrade. I'm not sure how Vista handles it though. I just hate having to reinstall all my games, I've got probably 40 installed right now and they're all patched up too.

If I do have to start fresh, what do you think about 64-bit Vista? Is it any better these days? Is it still a freak about having signed drivers?
 
If you have the money for the upgrade, then just leave it as is.

If you could've kept using your E6600, then it obviously would have been better to wait until the Phenom II comes out next week, or possibly even until the summer if your system can last you.

I was seriously planning to upgrade this month to a Q9550 or i7 920 setup, but decided against it with the high X58 and DDR3 prices. I decided to keep my E6750 until summer since it can handle everything I throw at it so far. Ultimately, it's a personal choice based on budget, market prices, and personal needs.
 
necros said:
It seems like the 920 has a lot of untapped potential, so I think I'm doing to do a light push up to 3.0 / 3.3ghz or so.
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it does. 3.3Ghz is just set the bclock and forget it.
I know IE and Firefox have tabbed browsing, but I can't stand how it crunches up together where you can't even tell what the tabs are after so many. I find it a lot easier to just click on my stack in Vista so I can see the names of all my open windows.
Click to expand...
So group tabs by task. Work, play, one forum, different forum, etc. And use one window per subject.
Since we're on the topic of upgrades, what do you think my odds are of pulling off an upgrade like this to a new chipset without having to reinstall windows?
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entirely possible, but I would just do a fresh install. vista x64 and start over. Keeps things fresh.[/QUOTE]
Im a vista fanboy myself, but even moreso win7. Especially with what you said about windows/tabs. Keeps things easy. Id wait a day or two (since stuff hasnt arrived yet) and install (as a secondary at least) win7 x64.
 
That's a better upgrade than I did last month.

I went from:
e6600->e8400
P35-> P45
8800GTX->HD4850

Upgrading to a Core i7 makes much more sense.
 
Odio said:
That's a better upgrade than I did last month.

I went from:
e6600->e8400
P35-> P45
8800GTX->HD4850

Upgrading to a Core i7 makes much more sense.
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It all depends on the user, what he/she is doing with the computer, and the price. If money is no option, sure it would make sense to get the latest technology. But if there is a fixed budget and the user just uses Word and browses the internet, I seriously doubt there is any reason to go with an i7 over an E8400 or Q9400.
 
I'd like to use Win7, but I'm not in the beta and I haven't seen any way to sign up for it at this time. I have an old MCP cert, I don't know if I can get in that way, but beyond that I've been waiting for a public beta. I'm guessing it will be like the Vista beta though, where you could not transition from the beta to retail code even with the RC1 / RC2 builds. I was pretty ticked that I had to go and reinstall again. There's not much else I hate more than having to reinstall windows and everything else. :) How is Win7 for stability? Is it possible to officially join the beta somehow?

In terms of hardware, I'm feeling a lot better now about my choice. I built up the E6600 system two years back, and the only upgrade I had made in between then and now was switching from an 8800gtx to a GTX 280. It sounds like this upgrade should be pretty significant, despite the crappy Far Cry 2 performance.
 
Good price on i7 though.. Not sure if it was worth, but don't look back now.
 
Well, the components are all starting to arrive. I've got my CPU and MB here now with some Arctic Silver. Just waiting on the rest tomorrow AM, and I'm good to go.

I do have to say, the MSI X58 Platinum looks to be an extremely sweet board. My only complaint right now is that it REEKS so bad of superglue, or at least the box it came in does. I can't figure out the source, but it is super strong.
 
I think you made the right choise. Sounds like you got it for a really good price aswell.

Im currently looking to upgrade aswell and I´m going core i7, however I´m comming from an AMD 64 so the choise for me was pretty easy :)
 
Enjoy your upgrade and don't let jealous people change your mind ;)
 
$700 sounds like a good deal for an i7 system.
If you can afford it, why not? I'm on an E6600 myself, have been pretty much since the introduction, but I can't shake the impression that it's getting a tad long in the tooth... i7 is so much faster, especially with multithreaded applications. I suppose the need for more than a E6600 will surface eventually, even with games.
 
I upgraded from an x48 with a q6600 running at 3.6ghz and i can say that i dont regret my x58/920 1 bit. I'm currently running at 3.2ghz and it blows my q6600 out of the water. You'll definately enjoy it coming from a dual core system and an old 965 mobo.
 
my 2 pennies:

return the stuff. A little much if the system you had was good for you for now, which it sounds like it was. I7 will come down in 3-6months, jump on it then.

I sent a PM to you as well. Good luck!

While a tad jealous of your deal, the only thing you got a deal on was the CPU. In 3-4months time, that deal could spread out to the RAM, the MB, etc...saving you more than 80$.

Your choice!
 
The e6600 to i7920 jump isn't too great IMHO. From the sound of it, you're not going to benefit much from it. I say return your parts or try to sell the 920 on ebay for a profit even. Wait for something big like octo-core to come around... that's what I'm doing anyway.
 
I say it's a pretty decent upgrade, but I would have personally overclocked the E6600 to 3.2ghz+ and held onto to it for a while longer.
But the Core i7 is amazing.. it overclocks extremely well and 8 logical cores...
*drools*
 
I also have an E6600 but it's in a very limited upgrade path since it's in a Dell XPS 710 with a nForce 570 motherboard. Plus it's a BTX only case.

I got shafted by Dell when they offered me a E6600 with an 8800 Ultra (which died a year later) instead of a Q6600 with a 8800 GTX (which I originally ordered but the PSU was faulty). I knew I should have held out for a quad otherwise I wouldn't be looking to upgrade/rebuild in a new case that actually upgrades well.

Anyway, I would say get the i7 since it's going to last you for quite a while. I'm getting one mainly for the easy overclockability.
 
Yeah I'm a bit pumped now, although I ended up slipping on ice and busted my hand / wrist yesterday plus got a concussion spent 6 hours in the ER. The UPS folks kept insisting they didn't know where my packages were with the last of the parts even though two fo them said out for delivery. I found a driver twice, he insisted he didn't have then, then at 5:30pm they call and say they did have them and it was on that guys truck. So they told me where he was, to go meet him, and I did. On the way back to my car, I walked over an ice patch that was covered in fresh snow and fell straight forward. I'm sure anyone who saw it was laughing their asses off.

So here's the real kicker, now I'm stuck with a semi gimped hand until I heal up, which sucks as it is. But the worst part is, the tiniest part of my entire order the Zalman 1366 mount for my 9500 cooler did not ship for some reason. Newegg is sending a new one today, but now the build is stalled yet another day. I didn't even have to go hunt down the UPS driver, but they were telling me they were all probably together.

Fun stuff. I'll let you guys know how the system is running compared to the E6600 once I get it going.
 
well the answer is obvious, it the 920 is not worth the injuries you sustained, shoulda stayed with e6600 like me :)
 
necros said:
I'd like to use Win7, but I'm not in the beta and I haven't seen any way to sign up for it at this time...
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Just a little FYI, Windows 7 should have a public beta available starting this Friday. However, I wouldn't recommend using your main PC with it, especially as you've said you are a power user. Last thing you want is to be down because of buggy beta code.

Also, as far as the i7 goes, I'm extremely happy with it. I went from a E8400 with 4gb DDR2, to the 920 with 3 GB of DDR3. I've certainly overclocked, but even at stock I've seen performance gains, which makes me happy.
 
CraftyChicken said:
Just a little FYI, Windows 7 should have a public beta available starting this Friday. However, I wouldn't recommend using your main PC with it, especially as you've said you are a power user. Last thing you want is to be down because of buggy beta code.
Click to expand...

Well, considering all the paches we all have been installing, isn't xp and vista we are running still beta?:rolleyes:
 
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