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How to Upgrade my current Intel processor?

M

MSwhip

n00b
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
10
I would be upgrading my Intel Q9550 2.85 Ghtz Intel Quad Duo Core2.
Which of the Sandy or Ivy Bridge current Intel processors is the first level that upgrades mine?

Thank you kindly
 
Any of them really.

i5-3570K if you want to spend $220 and be able to overclock. i7-3770K if you can spend $320 and want to overclock. If you don't want to OC then get t non "K" chip and save a few bucks.
 
If you intend on reusing your motherboard, that's not going to happen.

Nehalem would even be an upgrade for you (again, would need a new mobo).

Do you game? Other CPU-intensive tasks? What exactly do you use this computer for?
 
to colinstu:

my use is Big time Web browsing 50 + open pages at once. Office Suite 15 Word Documents + 15 spreadsheet files open at once going back and forth. Online TV watching and/or recording, eMail, Internet Radio, YouTube and videos, and NO games.

.
 
Sounds more like the need for ram and a ssd rather than a cpu.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Sounds more like the need for ram and a ssd rather than a cpu.
Click to expand...
Kendrak
QUOTE
Originally Posted by BlueFireIce View Post
Sounds more like the need for ram and a ssd rather than a cpu.
I would also agree.
UNQUOTE

Right now with a 6GB DDR2 RAM and an Intel Series 320 160GB SSD I am plenty self sufficient (there is also 7 HDDs for a total 8.5 TB)

Thanks for the thoughts
 
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I honestly think you need to upgrade the chipset/buses to see any big gains if you already have an SSD.

New motherboard, CPU, and some RAM...everything else will likely still work [unless you have an AGP GPU...then things may get squirrely]
 
BlueFireIce said:
Sounds more like the need for ram and a ssd rather than a cpu.
Click to expand...

Upgrading to the new IB platform will increase the speed of everything a lot as all the buses are faster as well as everything else in the system. SSD or not I say upgrade to a 3570K - I just did an I saw a huge performance increase even over my i7 860.
 
Krazypoloc said:
Upgrading to the new IB platform will increase the speed of everything a lot as all the buses are faster as well as everything else in the system. SSD or not I say upgrade to a 3570K - I just did an I saw a huge performance increase even over my i7 860.
Click to expand...

I really doubt bus speed will have any meaningful impact on what he does, including sata, as what he does will be more access times and not capping throughput of the controller. Being someone who went from a q9550 and a 600gb vr to my current system, the only thing that had any impact was the ssd. I also deal with pipeline surveys in Excell (hundred of thousands of cells) and word docs full of high resolution alignment sheets.

If he has a ssd and lots of ram already, I don't see him seeing much of an improvement in normal tasks other than conversions/compression or encoding if he does so for video.
 
BlueFireIce said:
I really doubt bus speed will have any meaningful impact on what he does, including sata, as what he does will be more access times and not capping throughput of the controller. Being someone who went from a q9550 and a 600gb vr to my current system, the only thing that had any impact was the ssd. I also deal with pipeline surveys in Excell (hundred of thousands of cells) and word docs full of high resolution alignment sheets.

If he has a ssd and lots of ram already, I don't see him seeing much of an improvement in normal tasks other than conversions/compression or encoding if he does so for video.
Click to expand...

I meant bus and architecture improvements as a whole - integrated memory controller, L3 cache, hugely imrpoved single threaded processing with IB, ect.

Not to mention the heat and power efficiency improvements.

IDK IMO if you are still on the 775 socket and are thinking about going to IB then I say go for it. There have been so many huge improvements to things that it is totally worth it. UEFI, USB3.0, Thunderbolt, ect.

Obviously an SSD will make a HUGE improvement in any PC, so if you have the cash go for it.
 
Thank you folks.
Reading all you are saying, I am m inclined to just sit it out for now and wait for Haswell to be launched. Check the bench marks and reviews by the expert types, wait till the processor prices go down a little..say couple of months wait and maybe just maybe, jump to a totally new system assembled to my taste. No more brand name computers for me> just brand name components assembled maybe even for 50 dollars by Ncix tested by them with breaking in and 1 year warranty included

Thank you all.
 
I have a Sandy Bridge system with 8 GB RAM at work and a Q9550 @ 3.4 GHz with 4 GB RAM at home. There is absolutely no real world difference between the two for the kind of use you mention (except maybe TV recording as the encoding is much faster on the newer processors).
 
BlueFireIce said:
Sounds more like the need for ram and a ssd rather than a cpu.
Click to expand...

Mostly RAM - not CPU. (I would know - my daily beater is LGA775, but a Q6600. It's not the CPU, but the 4GB of DDR2 that's a pain in the rear. Adding more is impossible due to only two RAM slots.)

That is what got me off my duff and got BridgeWalker started - and that was while Sandy Bridge was in flower, and prior to Ivy Bridge.

Rough specs:

CPU - Intel i5-(2500/3570)-K (while at one point I had considered both i3 and even Pentium-G as placeholders, i5-K of some sort was always the target)
RAM - 8 GB/16 GB (16 GB came on the radar when 8 GB DIMMs became affordable; now it's cheaper in terms of price per GB than 8 GB - still, it's overkill for even my niche/outlier use - virtualization)
Motherboard/chipset - Z68/Z77 (again, Z was a no-brainer - amusingly, primarily due to features for price)
Motherboard form-factor - ATX (I'd went mATX for my last two motherboards for price reasons - despite using the same full-ATX case I've used since UNserver 2.0A and the enthusiast/workstation-class ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe; thankfully, Z77 lets me go back to full-size ATX without breaking my wallet)

Everything else was planned to be carryover with the exception of the PSU (despite not having tall overclocks even remotely planned) - in the case of the drives, it still is. (It may surprise some folks, but an SSD - for me - is a want, but not a need. While both SSD prices have dropped and capacity for price has risen, that remains the case.) A GPU change is now more likely (however, this is due to price drops on both previous-generation and current-generation GPUs) - multi-GPU sounds interesting, but is not a need.

While I HAVE looked at higher-end hardware (one motherboard option was the ASUS P8Z77V-PRO), I've had to realize that I'm not a Member of Congress with seemingly limitless access to my Uncle Sam's line of credit - and have remained on the side of pricing sanity.. Still, it got kicked off due to the RAM limits of my current setup.
 
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