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Worth upgrading from i7 950 @ 4Ghz?

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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On holiday
Guys I'm getting that upgrade feeling as my system is getting a bit ancient (for me) but then my sensible head is wondering if it'll be worth it?

Currently got an i7 950 @ 4Ghz on a Asus RampageII Extreme, 6Gig of 1600 Dominator and AMD 7870.

I'll be sticking with the same graphics for now as that's not too old but was pondering either a 2500K Sandy or 3570K Ivy and clocking up to 4.5Ghz+, suitable mid range Z77 mobo and 8Gig ram.I would definitely use the newer features of the mobo (6Gb SATA, Lucid Virtu MVP) but as said am I wasting my money at the moment on that proposed combo, will mainly be used for gaming and general day to day stuff and tbh there's nothing I can't run atm that I'm unhappy with so do I then splash out on a really nice topend monitor instead and stick with my old box for now!
 
Associate
Joined
8 Sep 2009
Posts
2,260
Location
Swindon
I would think not worth the upgrade purely based on performance.

I am still running an i5 760 which will run upto 3.8Ghz but quite often just runs at stock and it does everything fast enough for what I need.

An i7 950 at 4.0Ghz is still an amazing performer and will be for a long time.

The top end monitor would be a good choice as the display quality is quite often more important than the speed things are running at.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2004
Posts
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n/east-the toon
Hi, as above, your i7950 will last agood couple of years more abit longer if you can get it to 4.2GHz. The only thing if you still have the upgrade bug, is your GPU to 670 or a 7970, but you can OC your 7870 to get thet little bit extra.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
21 May 2012
Posts
31,940
Location
Dalek flagship
Guys I'm getting that upgrade feeling as my system is getting a bit ancient (for me) but then my sensible head is wondering if it'll be worth it?

Currently got an i7 950 @ 4Ghz on a Asus RampageII Extreme, 6Gig of 1600 Dominator and AMD 7870.

I'll be sticking with the same graphics for now as that's not too old but was pondering either a 2500K Sandy or 3570K Ivy and clocking up to 4.5Ghz+, suitable mid range Z77 mobo and 8Gig ram.I would definitely use the newer features of the mobo (6Gb SATA, Lucid Virtu MVP) but as said am I wasting my money at the moment on that proposed combo, will mainly be used for gaming and general day to day stuff and tbh there's nothing I can't run atm that I'm unhappy with so do I then splash out on a really nice topend monitor instead and stick with my old box for now!

Your current rig is fine for games. I think the idea of a topend monitor is your best option. Once you get used to a good monitor its hard to go back.

You may find though that once you have a better monitor you may want to get a GTX 670 or HD 7970 to go with it. Having said that those cards should be ok in your current rig running @4.0ghz.
 
Associate
Joined
14 Oct 2004
Posts
979
Unless you run at over 120fps, even haswell wont offer a significant upgrade imo. At those frame rates you already have more than enough grunt to keep your graphics card running at full pelt.
 
Caporegime
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
28,071
Location
armoy, n. ireland
Doing this in the next few weeks, getting shot of one of my x58 rigs, (my main 920 gaming machine). Making the move over to ib with a 3570k. Ill keep the other 930 based machine for what few encoding tasks i do. Selling the parts on to a friend who's in need of a new setup.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Feb 2011
Posts
267
Location
Corby,UK
Just upgraded too from same cpu/ram/mobo combo to the one on my sig, and to be honest no much difference really, i see faster boot times and better performance in games(due too gtx680 really) but i dont regreat one bit.

Again if money is no object do it as overall im guessing an 10% improvement in performance .
I was on a i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz also, but im using it to build a test rig for all my testing.

My advice is do it, then again waiting may be best choice. That feeling of new hardware compensates for the days you think thats no difference from my old one. :D
 
Associate
Joined
23 Sep 2009
Posts
782
Location
London
I'd say get SATA3/USB3 PCI-E expansion cards if that's the only reason you want to change & maybe up your RAM to 12GB as I did & stick with your current spec. Unless you're doing some extreme heavy encoding or working with 3DS Max and other heavy 3D renderers or something that spec is more than enough.

I also got a Revodrive X2 SSD because I got that upgrade itch! But CPU & Mobo, etc are not worth replacing for a couple negligible fps!
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2005
Posts
4,985
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Reading
How much voltage you putting through your i7 950 Harpss? and BIOS settings? tryed going over 4ghz on my i7 930 and requires a lot more voltage.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
826
Location
Reading
I have just had to swap from X58 (990X) to Z77 (3770K) due to an expensive mistake involving a leaking res!!

Its is nice having decent SATA3 6G ports and PCIE3 but I would not have swapped unless forced to.

Matt
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2011
Posts
4,533
Location
bristol
Im on a i7 920 that can do 4ghz no problem but i still get the same upgrade itch and start looking at the ocuk site pricing up new parts, but i keep my upgrade urge under control by asking myself why bother save the cash for later and stop acting like a plonker
 
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