Going backwards? 1156 or 1366 (or neither)?

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Feb 3, 2014
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I recently upgraded from a C2Q 6700 to a second hand i5 760 with an EVGA P55. I added a Corsair H100i and a CX750w Corsair PSU. I've managed a resonable 4.2Ghz from the stock 2.8Ghz.
My problem is that, just the other day, I had someone gift me an i7 965 Extreme and an Intel DX58SO. Should I slide back on the evolutionary scale to an even further deprecated socket and gift my i5 and P55 in an effort to pay it forward, or sell them both and get something a bit more modern?
 
neither.. sell both and buy something recent.. at this point 1366 worth if you have a good overclocked 4.2ghz+ 6cores/12threads chip..
 
Agreed with above. The improved power efficiencies plus advances in performance per clock and the introduction of new instruction sets (and other features like sata 3 and usb 3.0) makes even the highest end Bloomfield a bad choice.
 
...and as a passing comment, the Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H has an M2.PCIe connector which allows a way faster SSD connection.
 
There is honestly nothing wrong with the performance of the first-generation i7s, especially as you get to the higher clocked chips like the 965. They do use more power and the SATA II controller may limit you a bit depending on your SSD (assuming you have one). A lot depends on workload as well.

You could certainly sell the two platforms, and probably get enough for an entire build on LGA 1150, if you don't go crazy, but I wouldn't feel like you have to sell it. The SATA II controller is plenty for a mechanical HDD and if you are worried about performance with an SSD, you could always get a PCIe SATA III card. The power consumption may be a concern if you are in an area where electricity is expensive, but chances are even the savings from that will be insubstantial on an annual basis.
 
Drive performance is part of the decision pushing me towards a newer platform. I currently have a 180G Intel SSD and two WD 10k rpm drives in a RAID0.
Looking at prices on ebay however, it looks like I would have to sell both and still throw down a decent chunk of change to have enough money for a good i7 platform. Mostly due to the cost of replacing my memory.
 
why replace RAM? they are the same DDR3 platform.
 
i7 platform is probably more popular now than when it was introduced. You can sell it easily, or oc it 4ghz+.
 
Sell it all and get Sandy Bridge or Haswell.
I've been seeing results where the newer Haswells will clock higher on air/water.
 
The 1366 setup will be noticeably faster than the 1156 setup, especially in stuff that is RAM intensive.

#1. What are you doing with the system?
#2. What RAM and how many sticks do you have right now?
#3. The 1366 platform really starts to shine once you get the RAM speed up there.

That being said, when I was on the 1366 platform, I saw no reason to upgrade until I went to the 2011 platform.
 
why replace RAM? they are the same DDR3 platform.

This. Unless it is DDR3-1066 or some of the early DDR3-1333 that requires a ton of voltage to run at stock speeds, the memory should be transferable even to a new Haswell platform.
 
I recently upgraded from a C2Q 6700 to a second hand i5 760 with an EVGA P55. I added a Corsair H100i and a CX750w Corsair PSU. I've managed a resonable 4.2Ghz from the stock 2.8Ghz.
My problem is that, just the other day, I had someone gift me an i7 965 Extreme and an Intel DX58SO. Should I slide back on the evolutionary scale to an even further deprecated socket and gift my i5 and P55 in an effort to pay it forward, or sell them both and get something a bit more modern?

1366 and 1156 are of the same generation. There is no step backwards from 1156 if going to 1366, and you gain additional PCI-E lanes and triple-channel memory. As well as a larger cache and hyperthreading.

...and as a passing comment, the Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H has an M2.PCIe connector which allows a way faster SSD connection.

Which is completely irrelevant for current consumer drives.

Drive performance is part of the decision pushing me towards a newer platform. I currently have a 180G Intel SSD and two WD 10k rpm drives in a RAID0.
Looking at prices on ebay however, it looks like I would have to sell both and still throw down a decent chunk of change to have enough money for a good i7 platform. Mostly due to the cost of replacing my memory.

A fast SSD will perform equally fast on any SATA II or SATA III platform, unless you're looking to do lots of large file transfers or enterprise work (highly doubtful).
 
Why not take the socket 1366 platform for a spin and see what you think?
If the i7 965 clocks 4+ GHz at low voltage then power and heat isnt an issue.
If the CPU wants loads of voltage and it is hard to keep it cool then sell the kit and buy new stuff.
Or you could buy a 32nm 6-core if you can find a cheap one that will run in the Intel DX58SO board.
 
I have 2x 4GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix Sport ( http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/bls4g3d1609ds1s00 ).
Using the system primarily for gaming/ESXi management
Under these conditions, and assuming a respectable overclock with the i7 965, would the difference between it and a cheaper Haswell i7 be considerable?

I would dig into benchmarking both platforms myself, but my wife has been in the hospital for a few months now. With all my time with her, I only get an hour or two before sleep to wind down and enjoy some games. I just don't have the time :/
 
I have 2x 4GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix Sport ( http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/bls4g3d1609ds1s00 ).
Using the system primarily for gaming/ESXi management
Under these conditions, and assuming a respectable overclock with the i7 965, would the difference between it and a cheaper Haswell i7 be considerable?

I would dig into benchmarking both platforms myself, but my wife has been in the hospital for a few months now. With all my time with her, I only get an hour or two before sleep to wind down and enjoy some games. I just don't have the time :/
Clock-for-clock, haswell will be faster. And likely able to clock higher as well. The difference will come down to how much the haswell system will cost you. If it's basically a net zero impact after you sell your current stuff, I see zero reason to stick with the older and less power efficient bloomfield.
 
This may not be the case in 6 months. I forgot to add though that the Haswell refresh CPUs apparently have good temperatures.

It would take some major advances in random read/write for consumer SSDs to require more than SATA III. Current top consumer SSDs barely saturate a SATA II link in random read/write, and the vast majority are below that, but still significantly faster than HDDs.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone! I always head to [H] when I need trusted advice :D I think I'm going to post everything on ebay tonight. If anyone wants dibbs, shoot me a pm.
Have a great 4th!
 
Not getting rid of my 1366 system any time soon.....extremely powerful for the money...the cpu race hasn't done much since then
 
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