Just graduated to Haswell!

killroy67

killroy67

2[H]4U
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Oct 16, 2006
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Just upgraded my Intel I7-950 and X58 board to a Intel I7-4790 and a Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Black Edition motherboard!! Very sweet!!:D
 
Im really liking all the features that these Z97 boards pack into them. The new Sata Express and M.2 connectors are very interesting, maybe when price goes down some more I may have to pick up a SSD drive. The UEFI bios is also really cool, after years of working with your white on blue type bios.
 
I build a lot of systems for clients (and for my last job doing software testing), so I was already used to UEFI and Z68/Z77/Z87/Z97. But personally? Well my last system was a Core i7-930 on X58, with BIOS, and lacking native USB 3.0, native SATA v3 6 Gbps, PCI-Express 3.0, etc. Last year I moved to X99 Haswell-E. And yyyyeeeeeeeeaaaahhh. Everything you said and more. Can't wait to use that M.2 slot. And booting off that 850 Pro SSD for now, geezus lawdy. I have yet to truly tap into this system's potential. I haven't even finished OC'ing the thing. I stopped at 4.1 GHz, but at some point I'm gonna go back and push for more. I'm used to my clients always having better systems than me, but every once in a long while I manage to save up enough (even without steady employment and long periods of unemployment) to build myself a really nice system that ends up lasting a long-ass time. UEFIs, when done well, are really damn nice and convenient. Definitely prefer consumer-level UEFIs over the server/workstation EFIs (and ugh, the Itanium ones), when it comes to visuals and designs. Well, have fun with your new system, homes!
 
Congrats! Oh man if you haven't upgraded to a SSD yet you are in for a real treat. Unless you want to do it RIGHT NOW I'd suggest waiting a while to get a M.2 chip that uses NVMe (instead of the older AHCI protocol).
 
ditto here coming from an i7 860 @ 4.2
waiting on my i7 4790K to arrive this week

op could tell it was faster w/o benchmarks?
 
Have you noticed an appreciable difference in performance between the two systems, if so, in what apps/games? I know you like the new features, but seems like you haven't gotten the chance to use them yet. There's a lot of people who have what you had and are contemplating if an upgrade is worth while.
 
One big difference I have noticed is boot up time for Windows 7. With the X58 and I7-950 it was slow, now I see a quick flash with the Gigabyte logo and its already loading Windows and Im quickly in the OS. This is without even enabling any fast boot options. Overall I noticed marked improvement with how Windows 7 performed. It seems to be quicker and more responsive. I also notice the same with programs like Office 365, IE11, FF and Chrome.
Currently I am playing only BF4 at this time, and pretty much at the same settings as I was with the X58 setup. So I cant say I really notice anything different.

I am very happy I made the jump, it was the easiest build I have had to date. I was able to use the same DDR3 ram from the X58, and got the components on sale. I paid under $500 for motherboard, cpu and cooler. Im confident that this will get me though the next 3-4 years easily.
 
Glad you're enjoying your new build, sounds like most of the benefits you're seeing though are due to a clean install not the CPU or the platform. UEFI does start the windows booting processes a bit faster, so you'll see some improvement there with a shorter POST but beyond that none of those another tasks are particularly CPU intensive except for the occasional poorly written website. The SATA interface wouldn't make much if any difference since you're on an HDD and even on your other system, the HDD would be the bottleneck well before the SATA interface would be.
 
RamonGTP said:
Glad you're enjoying your new build, sounds like most of the benefits you're seeing though are due to a clean install not the CPU or the platform. UEFI does start the windows booting processes a bit faster, so you'll see some improvement there with a shorter POST but beyond that none of those another tasks are particularly CPU intensive except for the occasional poorly written website. The SATA interface wouldn't make much if any difference since you're on an HDD and even on your other system, the HDD would be the bottleneck well before the SATA interface would be.
Click to expand...

Actually I didn't do a clean install, its the same windows 7 install that I have been running for the last 4 or so years (with the X58 build). All I did was remove the GPU and sound drivers, installed the new hardware, and used the latest Intel chipset drivers. A good friend of mine recommended this to me. It worked perfectly fine and saved me a big headache of a clean install.
 
I took my X58 board with the Intel I7-950 and installed it in my GF's sons computer. Now he was running my really old Abit Fatality board with a AMD 4800!! I didn't do a clean install on that one ether, and it worked out just fine.

But I do notice a big performance difference between the X58 and Z97 setups, the X58 machine seems to be less responsive and slower, while the Z97 is just really quick!!
 
I have two sandybridge configurations. One I run on a Asus Rog Z77 and another I run on a gigabyte Z68. Both are 2500k and are clocked at 4.5ghz. One computer boots lightning quick and feels more responsive, while the other seems a tad bit slower. Both have Samsung Evo 840's in them. I tend to think that motherboard, and programs running seem to be the factor. The true test is games, and when ripping blurays, or doing any intesive cpu work.
If I could cut down the time it takes handbrake to rip a bluray in half then it might be worth it. If I could gain 20%+ fps in games then it would be worth it. :)
 
I really cant comment on games since Im only playing BF4 right now. My X58 setup ran it fine, just as the Z97 setup does. I dont think Battlefield is a really good indicator for performance also, seeing how the game still has its bug issues and is not really well optimized at all.
I could of probably stuck with my X58 setup for a good while. But that said, I felt under $500 for a platform upgrade is a pretty good deal. By the time I upgrade again DDR4 will of matured, and the boards will drop in price. I certainly wont get off as easy as I did with this build though as far as price goes.;):p
 
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