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Old PC build. Need advice

E

element72

n00b
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
47
Hi fellow enthusiasts!

I am trying to figure out whether I should upgrade the CPU or make the big change to a new mobo and CPU.

I'm still going strong with my Asus P6T and i7-920 @ 3.8Ghz (about 6 years ago).

Right now I am really starting to notice that my CPU is bottlenecking with the more recent PC games that are CPU intensive. Should I buy the i7-990x used on Ebay for about $300 or get a new mobo + CPU? If I take the latter option, what would you suggest for those CPU intensive games?
 
Why not get a Xeon 5660 or x5670 for around 100$.
In the forsale section someone is selling x5650 CPUs for 60$.
Overclock it to 4ghz and you should be good for a while.
 
Don't waste money on a i7-990x unless its under 140 bucks....a xeon 5670, 5675 and possibly a 5660 can all reach the same exact speed. the 70 and 75 can easily reach 4.2 about 9 out of 10 trys.
 
I need a really good single thread and IPC CPU. Since most multicore games still only support about 2 cores.
 
What CPU intensive games or tasks do you run? I ask, because if you aren't sure then you may just have the upgrade itch and need to scratch it, regardless of the actual workload your system needs to process. If you are sure then you will be happier building a system that will perform really well at that task.

That's the way I am, at least. If I want something for a specific task, I better just satisfy that craving or need, because I won't be satisfied otherwise.

That being said, I have an Asus P6X58D Premium originally equipped with an i7 930. I got the upgrade bug bad late in 2014 and was looking at the same thing you are, a six core Gulftown as an upgrade. Luckily, I listened to the advice of others and went with a much, much cheaper Xeon X5670, as others are suggesting.

The 6 core Xeons of that era are insane overclockers. Mine shot to 4.2 GHz rock stable and has been there since. The bump in speed really helped gaming, which is what my systems are built for. My i7 930 was only able to run at 3.5-3.6 GHz, iirc. Great multitasking, strong gaming performance and snappy response times when doing just about everything. The extra two cores do help in certain tasks, but I don't spend my day doing content creation. It was a fantastic upgrade from the i7 930. And way cheaper than the 990x on ebay.

The money I saved not upgrading to another platform helped pay for a pair of 980 ti's for my main system last year. The ASUS went to the Mrs., so the upgrade also "future proofed" that hand me down system.

Search Google for "Bloomfield Takes on Skylake". I ran my own tests and compared with theirs and can confirm that for gaming x5670 at 4.2Ghz pretty much holds it's own. For $100 on ebay, it's a no brainer.

If you are running at stock speeds, need the extra single core performance or for content creation, you may as well invest in a newer architecture.
 
Last edited:
element72 said:
I need a really good single thread and IPC CPU. Since most multicore games still only support about 2 cores.
Click to expand...

If that's what you want then then you need to spend the money on a new MB/CPU.

Since you are at 3.8GHz on your current setup going to 4.x on a Gulftown or x5xxx Xeon won't improve your single thread workload results by much.

Don't expect to see much improvement in GPU dependent games, however. You may not get any at all.

Here's my SR-2 with a pair of x5670's for comparison. Single thread gets beat by newer architecture. Nothing new about this.

Firestrike Ultra with a pair of 980ti's, included. GPU bench so the CPU isn't as much of a factor. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Xeon Processor X5670,EVGA EVGA Classified SR-2

CPUZ.jpg
CPUZ versus 4790K.jpg
 
wareyore said:
If that's what you want then then you need to spend the money on a new MB/CPU.

Since you are at 3.8GHz on your current setup going to 4.x on a Gulftown or x5xxx Xeon won't improve your single thread workload results by much.

Don't expect to see much improvement in GPU dependent games, however. You may not get any at all.

Here's my SR-2 with a pair of x5670's for comparison. Single thread gets beat by newer architecture. Nothing new about this.

Firestrike Ultra with a pair of 980ti's, included. GPU bench so the CPU isn't as much of a factor. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Xeon Processor X5670,EVGA EVGA Classified SR-2

View attachment 584 View attachment 585
Click to expand...
what is your clockspeed on those? lol and how much power you pulling from the wall? I bet its up there:)
 
Buy xeon x5660 - overclock - Profit?

My xeon@4.6ghz matches my 4770k in games, and outperforms it in heavily multi-threaded tasks (SPSS analysis, Remote Sensing etc.). I paid $150 Canadian for it.
 
primetime said:
what is your clockspeed on those? lol and how much power you pulling from the wall? I bet its up there:)
Click to expand...

I run them at 4.2GHz. I pulled the killawatt out. The system pulls ~325w while browsing here. I fired up prime95 and ran Firestrike Ultra and got it to spike just over 1200w.

Comes in handy during the winter.
 
Thank you all for posting.. :) I am almost certain the FPS issue I'm observing in cpu-intensive games might be related to a fault in my mobo. I am still using the Asus p6t vanilla for about 6 years. It still sells for about $111 on ebay. I plan on trying out an x5675. If it doesn't work out should I buy the Asus p6t mobo replacement from ebay?
 
Have you looked at the For Sale / For Trade section? Here is a 4790k / Z97 ATX mobo combo that's reasonably priced and fairly modern.

While you can't reply directly to that specific thread, you could contact the seller directly via private message.

BTW, I am not the seller, just a person who remembered this thread when perusing the classifieds.
 
Last edited:
element72 said:
Thank you all for posting.. :) I am almost certain the FPS issue I'm observing in cpu-intensive games might be related to a fault in my mobo. I am still using the Asus p6t vanilla for about 6 years. It still sells for about $111 on ebay. I plan on trying out an x5675. If it doesn't work out should I buy the Asus p6t mobo replacement from ebay?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend putting any additional money into upgrading the LG1366 platform. While I loved it (and still do), it only makes sense if you can drop in a $100 6 core processor. If you had to buy a mobo to do along with it (and they easily go for $200+), you would be better served getting something like the deal iowa_doug recommended.
 
I also say to get a hex core XEON.

One other thing. How mauch RAM and what speed is the RAM running at?

The 1366 platform really opens up once you get the RAM speed up there. If it is at 1066 or 1333, I would ramp it up to 1600 minimum. Around 2000 is really nice.

Back in the day when one of my friends build a 1366 setup with a 920, there was very noticeable jerking/inconsistent fps in some games. I checked out his computer and noticed that the RAM was only running at 1066 even though it was rated at 1600. I bumped it up to 1333 and it got a lot smoother. 1600 was even better.

When my main system was 1366, I was running at almost 2000. It was great.
 
I can confirm that in newer, heavy CPU use games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider that RAM speed can make a big difference - the difference between dipping into the low 50s to consistently over 60FPS. Especially for dual channel rigs running 1600MHz RAM (4790K 1600MHz to 2400MHz ~12FPS), quad channel (4930K equivalent (my 1650V2)1600 to 2400MHz ~4FPS) 1600MHz does see improvement but not nearly as much.
 
arestavo said:
I can confirm that in newer, heavy CPU use games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider that RAM speed can make a big difference - the difference between dipping into the low 50s to consistently over 60FPS. Especially for dual channel rigs running 1600MHz RAM (4790K 1600MHz to 2400MHz ~12FPS), quad channel (4930K equivalent (my 1650V2)1600 to 2400MHz ~4FPS) 1600MHz does see improvement but not nearly as much.
Click to expand...

The 1366 platform is an even larger difference as the memory controller is not nearly as fast as the ones on the newer CPUs.
 
iowa_doug said:
Have you looked at the For Sale / For Trade section? Here is a 4790k / Z97 ATX mobo combo that's reasonably priced and fairly modern.

While you can't reply directly to that specific thread, you could contact the seller directly via private message.

BTW, I am not the seller, just a person who remembered this thread when perusing the classifieds.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much sir. That will be my last resort option. I looked at the benchmarks for that cpu and it scored the highest for passmark single thread on the cpubenchmark site. That is exactly what I was looking for :)
 
arestavo said:
I can confirm that in newer, heavy CPU use games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider that RAM speed can make a big difference - the difference between dipping into the low 50s to consistently over 60FPS. Especially for dual channel rigs running 1600MHz RAM (4790K 1600MHz to 2400MHz ~12FPS), quad channel (4930K equivalent (my 1650V2)1600 to 2400MHz ~4FPS) 1600MHz does see improvement but not nearly as much.
Click to expand...

You mean 1600 MT/s and 2400 MT/s right? There is no DDR4 RAM with 2400 MHz, because that would 4800 MT/s.
 
element72 said:
You mean 1600 MT/s and 2400 MT/s right? There is no DDR4 RAM with 2400 MHz, because that would 4800 MT/s.
Click to expand...

No, I mean exactly what I said for older dual channel platforms that use DDR3 1600MHz RAM - they benefit a ton (if they can support it) with an upgrade to faster RAM, such as 2400MHz, in those games.
 
yeah I'd do the hex or even a quad core xeon and oc it. Will get higher MHz oc on the proper quad xeon, but the six cores are so sexy. What I did with my old P6T combo and it brought it back to life. New install of windows 7 helped as well.
 
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