Keep ancient i7 930 tower going or replace?

[sburkart]

Hi, I'm new to these forums so if this is in the wrong place please advise.

Years ago I built a i7 930 machine (Win7) around a MSI Big Bang Power motherboard with 6 gigs of ram, fanless video card and a large Sniper tower case to use for for audio production at home. As I use very few plugins and never use soft synths I rarely went over 5% CPU usage, which eventually led me to start using cheap-ish laptops in an effort to be more green about things. COVID research via World Community Grid had me running the tower again (and 2 laptops) 24 hours a day for the better part of 9 months, and as that shoud be winding down soon I am left wondering what to do with the old girl. My latest laptop (hardly a high end affair) ran circles around the tower doing the WCG stuff...

I find myself wondering if maxing out the ram to 24 gigs would be worth the expense/make any difference, same for upgrading the video card, etc, etc, so I guess I'm looking for a second or thirty-ith opinion on the matter.

Thanks in advance for any input/opinions on this,

Stephen

 

[X71200]

I'm supposing this is for music production, so getting a fast SSD might help with the libraries. I don't know how you're amping your synths, but it sounds like you're not using the PC to its full potential for that. I personally run my keyboards through guitar amp/s + cab/s.

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

I says if you have the funds upgrade the whole package! I recently upgraded from x58 overclocked xeon with a R290...to AMD 5600x and 3060ti..and with a fast NVMe drive and 100 worth it for daily use. Upgrading the whole spare system might turn into your daily if you upgrade. And let the x58 retire as is for office pc or file sever...or buy a xeon and try some cheap overclocking?

 

[X71200]

The i7 930 is fine, it can be clocked up as well. No need for the Xeon if it's just going to be a web browser.

Agreed on the Zen upgrade, though.

 

[sburkart]

I'm supposing this is for music production, so getting a fast SSD might help with the libraries. I don't know how you're amping your synths, but it sounds like you're not using the PC to its full potential for that. I personally run my keyboards through guitar amp/s + cab/s.

Yeah, it's got a SSD; I have a roomful of hardware synths and guitar/bass preamps (and another roomful of mic'd in a heartbeat backline) all going into an RME UFX for conversion. I have had no need for softsynths and most other plugins, otherwise I would have been taxing the tower a bit more than I had been.

The i7 930 is fine, it can be clocked up as well. No need for the Xeon if it's just going to be a web browser.

Agreed on the Zen upgrade, though.

Oh, yeah the MSI Big Bang MB has a genie overclocking button on it; I've never tried it as the thing was a beast for my purposes as it was. I just feel that I'm using a lot of electricity for no reason right now, unless I just use it for distributed processing (like the COVID research.)

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

That is why I said retire it because efficiency wise if your to run 24x7 for research...the cost of power makes no sense. That is why I say upgrade to new generation intel or amd and buy a 50$ xeon for the fun of overclocking. If that is a early version 930 they could not overclock that well....at least no as well as the xeons. And when you have the upgraded system...you can mess with the X58 system. These newer platforms do not allow for overclocks like the 1-2 gigahertz xeon used to.

 

[sburkart]

That is why I said retire it because efficiency wise if your to run 24x7 for research...the cost of power makes no sense. That is why I say upgrade to new generation intel or amd and buy a 50$ xeon for the fun of overclocking. If that is a early version 930 they could not overclock that well....at least no as well as the xeons. And when you have the upgraded system...you can mess with the X58 system. These newer platforms do not allow for overclocks like the 1-2 gigahertz xeon used to.

Okay, thanks, that's the info I was looking for. A shame, at the time I pulled the parts together to build it the total was close to $1800.00 US. Well, I guess the SSD is a keeper anyway. And the V8!

 

[Toothless]

That poor thing needs some management on them cables. If you can't find a use I'm sure WCG would love to have more processing.

 

[sburkart]

That poor thing needs some management on them cables. If you can't find a use I'm sure WCG would love to have more processing.

LOL! That pic is from when we first got it to boot Win7, it ended up a bit neater than that. The pics of us getting the cooler installed are pretty funny. I'll look into donating it to WCG, thanks for the tip.

 

[Toothless]

LOL! That pic is from when we first got it to boot Win7, it ended up a bit neater than that. The pics of us getting the cooler installed are pretty funny. I'll look into donating it to WCG, thanks for the tip.

We have a team on the forums. I'd say take a look if you're interested.

 

[JustAnEngineer]

If re-using your old cooler is possible, you'll need a new mounting plate.

I'll agree with everyone else that the day of your 45 nm Bloomfield CPU has come and gone. If you need a new PC now, then 7 nm Zen3 (Ryzen 5000 series) offers great performance and efficiency when you can find one in stock at MSRP, but the entire PC hardware market is depressingly short of stock and prices are painfully inflated right now.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

If re-using your old cooler is possible, you'll need a new mounting plate.

I'll agree with everyone else that the day of your 45 nm Bloomfield CPU has come and gone. If you need a new PC now, then 7 nm Zen3 (Ryzen 5000 series) offers great performance and efficiency when you can find one in stock at MSRP, but the entire PC hardware market is depressingly short of stock and prices are painfully inflated right now.

I'd argue going for a 3000 series if need be, as well.

 

[Mussels]

Okay, thanks, that's the info I was looking for. A shame, at the time I pulled the parts together to build it the total was close to $1800.00 US. Well, I guess the SSD is a keeper anyway. And the V8!View attachment 190268

Why are you using molex to PCI-E, when its a modern looking seasonic? that's going to have a native cable


i'm with the others that you should find a zen 3 (ryzen 5000) series chip when you see one available and build a system around it.

From the sounds of it you do not need any high end harwdare at all, really just an upgrade to keep the system running - good odds that mobo will just die one day replacements are hard to find.

 

[xtreemchaos]

id upgrade to a ryzen "which" take your pick there all good but 2700x are going at a nice price 2hand or a 3700x if you dont mind paying a bit more or if your feeling flush a 5000.

 

[X71200]

The 2700X is old, it'd boost up to proper speeds nowadays, but no point. I got one in my mom's at stock (no boost). 5600X would be the best for this kind of simple DAW usage, since he's micing up his amps physically, rather than on the PC.

 

[xtreemchaos]

The 2700X is old,

old/OLD/O.L.D are you mad man ? 3 years i wouldnt call that old now im old. id take a 8c over a 6c and save money any day bud.

 

[X71200]

I'm not mad, the CPU is 2 gens old and performs worse in most aspects. For 2 more cores, you're not getting much more. The 5600X can do with smaller Wraiths, while you'll ask for the Prism with that garbage mount on it. Don't troll, nobody is mad over PC parts here unless you make them be.

 

[xtreemchaos]

but dont take the anti im have a joke notice the smiley face or maybe you dont like fun in that case im truly sorry.

 

[Mussels]

old/OLD/O.L.D are you mad man ? 3 years i wouldnt call that old now im old. id take a 8c over a 6c and save money any day bud.

i own a 2700x. i'd take a 5600x over it any day. So much faster per core that the extras are meaningless on the 2700x, and so much lower power consumption

 

[sburkart]

Why are you using molex to PCI-E, when its a modern looking seasonic? that's going to have a native cable


i'm with the others that you should find a zen 3 (ryzen 5000) series chip when you see one available and build a system around it.

From the sounds of it you do not need any high end harwdare at all, really just an upgrade to keep the system running - good odds that mobo will just die one day replacements are hard to find.

I honestly don't remember the details of how it all went down the day we built it, other than it sat around a bit after I put the power supply in the case, the dust in that pic reminded me of that. It booted, easily ran everything I threw at it, and I never once had a need to clock it, so outside of an occasional case cleanup I just used it as it was. I found that the combination of huge case, V8 cooler and fanless ATI video card enabled me to run it without any fans, which was the hoped-for result. (There are a couple 200mm fans in there.)

Many thanks to all who responded here. I've decided hold off on any new PC, and to just get a monitor to hook the 15" laptop to. That should hold me over until things shake out in the world.

 

[xtreemchaos]

i own a 2700x. i'd take a 5600x over

yes but your not me are you . its just a joke bud. id go for the extra 4 threads for processing than the extra few mhz you get from the 5600x dont float my boat.

 

[Mussels]

yes but your not me are you . its just a joke bud. id go for the extra 4 threads for processing than the extra few mhz you get from the 5600x dont float my boat.

but... its faster. at everything.
the 6 cores in the 5600x are faster than the 8 cores of the 2700x combined.

read any page on the TPU review, it's not a one off... it's faster at everything.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Review - Rendering | TechPowerUp

 

[xtreemchaos]

good point , i think that changes my mind, i live n learn hows about that for a turn around thanks for the link it will stop me being daft in future now where did i put my straight jacket .

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I see two options with this rig:

1, Use it as a file server.
2. Use it as a boat anchor, or large paperweight if you dont own a boat.

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

Right now building a gaming pc is tough, but if you honestly wanted a cheap replacement that uses half the power to keep powered up for folding a newer Intel for 250ish is the way to go. Probably double multi performance and half the power. Reuse case, drives, video card and power. The X58 is still a nice system, just older and not point on spending more into. You might be able to sell you X58 motherboard and have a really cheap upgrade.