CPU Downgrade "What Would You Do"? Situation

[Jeffredo]

Hey guys. I have two PCs in different parts of the house. One is my main with an i7-4790k and the other is my "spare" with an i5-4690k - both on Z97 motherboards. I have pretty much stopped buying new games since Fallout 4. I still play it along with Skyrim Special Edition, World of Warcraft and LotRO. That's been about it since last Fall. I have a backlog of about a dozen unplayed Steam games dating to about 2010 (nothing considered really current or super demanding).

I was thinking about selling the i5-4690k and replace it with a G3258 in the same motherboard which I can get for $60. Should net me about $90-$100 or so. Since its my secondary PC and given my recent gaming I don't think I would miss it. I suppose I could even sell the i7-4790k and get even more money out of the swap. I believe the games I do actually play now will not tax the Pentium too much. Plus it might be fun to overclock it. Do you think its nuts to get a G3258 in 2017, even with my circumstances?

 

[eidairaman1]

Hey guys. I have two PCs in different parts of the house. One is my main with an i7-4790k and the other is my "spare" with an i5-4690k - both on Z97 motherboards. I have pretty much stopped buying new games since Fallout 4. I still play it along with Skyrim Special Edition, World of Warcraft and LotRO. That's been about it since last Fall. I have a backlog of about a dozen unplayed Steam games dating to about 2010 (nothing considered really current or super demanding).

I was thinking about selling the i5-4690k and replace it with a G3258 in the same motherboard which I can get for $60. Should net me about $90-$100 or so. Since its my secondary PC and given my recent gaming I don't think I would miss it. I suppose I could even sell the i7-4790k and get even more money out of the swap. I believe the games I do actually play now will not tax the Pentium too much. Plus it might be fun to overclock it. Do you think its nuts to get a G3258 in 2017, even with my circumstances?

Stick with what you have already is all I can say.

 

[XiGMAKiD]

^ What he said/write

If you're just curios about overclocking G3258 then just buy one and keep the i5

 

[GoldenX]

I'm also with eidairaman1, I've downgraded from a Phenom II x4 980BE to an A4-4000 (from true quad core to an almost dual core), and man I regret it.

 

[Jeffredo]

Well again, its not my only PC. I'll still have my main with a GTX 1070 and i7-4790k (or i5-4690k) regardless what I choose. I just use the secondary one in a different part of the house to game with on occasion.

 

[Toothless]

I'd say not worth downgrading at all.

 

[Kursah]

Frankly I don't see the point. Set your min Cache multis to save some watts at idle.

The G3258 is okay, but you'll notice a difference in gaming...especially if you play something that can use more threads. If you insist on downgrading, look at the i3's. The i3-4160 and 4130 have treated me really well and were noticeable upgrades from the G3258's in my boy's rigs and a fair budget compromise.

I'd get a G3258 to OC the snot out of and to have a spare 1150 CPU that is super cheap for just in case moments.

Repurpose the second rig as a home server, toss in some hard drives, run some virtualization so you can run several virtual servers...run a Plex server for media streaming...run a virtual lab. Use the hardware in other ways beyond gaming. Hell if you can afford the power bill, fold/crunch with it.

You already have the hardware...I would say use it for something else. If you feel your main rig is too much for what you do...swap the i5 in and use the i7 for server duties. I use a 4790K/Z87 combo for a home server with excellent results (see sys specs). I run around 6-10VM's on it at once at any given time. I have various labs, servers, services. Proven really helpful as a network/sys admin.

 

[micropage7]

Hey guys. I have two PCs in different parts of the house. One is my main with an i7-4790k and the other is my "spare" with an i5-4690k - both on Z97 motherboards. I have pretty much stopped buying new games since Fallout 4. I still play it along with Skyrim Special Edition, World of Warcraft and LotRO. That's been about it since last Fall. I have a backlog of about a dozen unplayed Steam games dating to about 2010 (nothing considered really current or super demanding).

I was thinking about selling the i5-4690k and replace it with a G3258 in the same motherboard which I can get for $60. Should net me about $90-$100 or so. Since its my secondary PC and given my recent gaming I don't think I would miss it. I suppose I could even sell the i7-4790k and get even more money out of the swap. I believe the games I do actually play now will not tax the Pentium too much. Plus it might be fun to overclock it. Do you think its nuts to get a G3258 in 2017, even with my circumstances?

maybe better you keep that since you have it, except maybe when you considering buying a new one for just basic needs
i had phenom X4 then i move to G4400, one reason i move is the wattage and now mostly i just use it for basic needs and photoshop sometimes, G4400 serves me well except yeah you cant compare to X4 but its enough

 

[jboydgolfer]

Hey guys. I have two PCs in different parts of the house. One is my main with an i7-4790k and the other is my "spare" with an i5-4690k - both on Z97 motherboards. I have pretty much stopped buying new games since Fallout 4. I still play it along with Skyrim Special Edition, World of Warcraft and LotRO. That's been about it since last Fall. I have a backlog of about a dozen unplayed Steam games dating to about 2010 (nothing considered really current or super demanding).

I was thinking about selling the i5-4690k and replace it with a G3258 in the same motherboard which I can get for $60. Should net me about $90-$100 or so. Since its my secondary PC and given my recent gaming I don't think I would miss it. I suppose I could even sell the i7-4790k and get even more money out of the swap. I believe the games I do actually play now will not tax the Pentium too much. Plus it might be fun to overclock it. Do you think its nuts to get a G3258 in 2017, even with my circumstances?

i have done almost Exactly this in the fall/winter of last year.... i havent regretted it. but i dont really game @ all.FWIW, a G3258 has higher single thread perf than a 4790k when OC'd.

 

[Derek12]

Stick with what you have already is all I can say.

+1

You may not know when you may need its power in the future.

 

[R00kie]

Sell everything and get a better, bigger and faster one.

 

[alucasa]

I don't see the point other than playing with some hardware. You don't even save a lot.

Either way, G3258 is aplenty for basic tasks. Don't underestimate that CPU.

 

[Sasqui]

As sick and twisted as it may sound, it's not a terrible idea if that rig isn't used for gaming and you can pocket the $. However, that's short term. Since the multithreaded trend isn't giving up (on any front really), and there's no HT on the G3258, long term I say no with everyone else. If there was HT on it., then it'd be a different story.

I had the G3358 in my Z97 board and it oc'd to 4.4 iirc. I replaced with a 4790k @4.7 ghz to get more WCG crunching power, then regretted that when I got my electric bill lol.

 

[FYFI13]

Been there, done that. Except i never sold my i7 4790K.
Fallout 4 + G3258 @4.6GHz = ~100% CPU utilization.
Keep what you have, at least in main rig.

 

[Grings]

I wouldnt bother for $90-100, you will only want to upgrade it again sooner than if you'd kept the i5 orr i7

 

[Jeffredo]

After three months I caught a G3258 on Craigslist for $40. Its a pretty good sample - got to 4.7 Ghz @ 1.3v using a Thermalright True Spirit 140 (got it to 4.8 Ghz @ 1.375v, but backed it off for daily use). I'm still pretty much playing nothing but WoW and its performance is indistinguishable in that game compared to the i5-4690k (which I'll be selling soon). Yeah, for an MMO like WoW that piles most things on one core and doesn't use more than two a G3258 is still fine.

 

[Filip Georgievski]

Why in the hell would you want to downgrade?
Just enter bios, disable all exept core 0 and 1 , downclock to 4GHZ and be done with it. It will consume the same as a G3258 in that state.
Saves money, trouble and bill at the same time. Kill 3 flyes with 1 shot.

 

[RejZoR]

I miss the days when you could buy a ridiculously cheap CPU and overclock the hell out of it. I Still remember Core 2 Duo E5200 that I had. It was like 75€ and it ran at 3.7 GHz which was considered really high back then. And dual cores were nothing uncommon back then. If you ca get a quad core that can be clocked to 5GHz today, I think that can be an awesome performer on the cheap.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

I miss the days when you could buy a ridiculously cheap CPU and overclock the hell out of it. I Still remember Core 2 Duo E5200 that I had. It was like 75€ and it ran at 3.7 GHz which was considered really high back then. And dual cores were nothing uncommon back then. If you ca get a quad core that can be clocked to 5GHz today, I think that can be an awesome performer on the cheap.

Had an E2200 that I ran at 3.2 for quite some time with an ATI 2900 Pro to XT (Unlocked via bios flash). Was playing Mass Effect on it when it first came out.

 

[Filip Georgievski]

Yea that can be my milestone for my seco d hand Q9300 i got for 25€.
Plan to OC the hell out of it with my HyperX Black DDR3 Ram Sticks which will go in that PC and run at 1600mhz.