Upgrade i7-930 and X4-965BE or wait?

Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
58
Hi, gang:

Trying to decide whether to upgrade my two main PCs. I like to stay in the price/performance sweet spot...not the $$$ bleeding edge. :)

Box 1: Productivity: i7-930 on an ASUS Rampage II Gene OCd to a moderate 3.8 GHz with a Hyper 212. Win 7 64-bit HP (soon Win 8 Pro so I can double the RAM) 12GB RAM (soon to be 24GB). Silverstone 750 PS. Two Samsung 830 SSDs, plus a pair of 750 GB hard drives (manually mirrored) for local data. Video = my old BFG 7950GT OC on two 1920 X 1200 monitors (desktop and movies only, no gaming).

Used for productivity apps and all general-purpose computing, INCLUDING several VMware virtual machines ALL THE TIME.

I'm looking for input on whether upgrading to a 3550k or 3770k would make for easier, higher overclocks, noticeably faster performance, give me speed improvements because of SATA 6 GB and USB3, etc. Another concern is the medium-term availability of decent (overclockable) X-58 MBs that don't cost $300 if my Rampage II craps out :)

Will I notice the improvement, or will I just be shuffling hardware and spending money? Best to wait for Haswell/Whatever-well, or do something now?


Box 2: Gaming PC and backup PC for productivity box: X4-965BE clocked at 3.6 GHz on a Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H with a Hyper-212 (clocks stable at 4 GHz, but no heat sinks on my MB VRMs at present). Two SSDs (Samsung 830 and a Crucial M4). 8 GB RAM. Win 7 64-bit. Antec True-Power Trio 650 PS. Video = HD-5870 1 GB. Monitor = single 1920 X 1200 (no need for gaming above this resolution, multi-GPU setups, multi-monitor gaming, etc).

I'm definitely noticing the need to upgrade the 5870, especially on FC3, etc, so I'm looking for a 7870, 9650, 7950, 660Ti or a 670 on super sale over the next couple of months. No real question there, but I'm wondering whether the 965BE is still suitable for gaming (with new GPU), or whether I should slide the i7-930 over from my productivity PC if it gets upgraded, etc?

My present PCs are working fine, but my local Microcenter is but an hour away :)

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

Thanks,

--Kirk in MN
 
SATA improvements were noticeable for me going from the 930 to a 3930K/2011 mobo setup. I also went from 24gb to 32gb RAM when I upgraded, and faster/latest Gen 840 PRO SSDs. 1 for Win, 1 for VMs.
 
Definitely slide over the i7-930 for Box 2. As for Box 1, I'd wait till June 2013 to upgrade to Intel's new Haswell CPUs and if 32GB of RAM is more than enough for your needs.
 
hey op, for box 1, you don't need win 8 to get 24gb ram, i have win7 64bit with 24gb ram
 
I only have Win 7 64 Home Premium for the moment. Getting above 16 GB of RAM requires Win 7 Pro, which is 3-4 times more expensive than Win 8 Pro (of which I already own several copies :)

I'm not a fan of Win 8, as it violates the two Prime Directives concerning MS OSes: (1) Skip every other release, and (2) Wait at least until SP1 hits the shelves before adopting...but I have already tried Win 8 on the productivity box. It runs VMWare and all of my usual apps just fine...and with the addition of Stardock's Start8, it's pretty much back to being a WIn 7 box, Start Menu and all.

Still... If anyone Wants to trade Win 7 Pro for Win 8 Pro, I'm all ears :)

--Kirk in MN
 
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