Keep old I7 920 @ 4.2 GHz or go Skylake/Haswell-E?

[Tomgang]

I am in a midlife crisis. I just cant deside to keep my old I7 920 @ 4.2 GHz or go skylake/Haswell-E. I think im suffering from upgrade sickness.

I feel so sad by letting my old I7 920 go away and i would properly never get such a oc friendly cpu Again according to base clock and how high they will go even on aircooling, but it is also an old CPU i mean i have had it for like over 6 years now and she refuses to die so i can upgrade so im thinking and upgrade is maybe on its right place cause i would maybe get a desent FPS boost in CPU intensive games like GTA V.

The CPU has been oc almost 3 years now some where from 3.8 GHz in the beginning to 4.2 GHz the last year and i feel whit Water coling it would even go higher. I have seen ohter i7 920 whit Water cooling run up 4.5 GHz. And i dont have any of those problems that can come from overclock over time like CPU degradation. Well no now at least. It just keep on going... These old i7 920 have been such long life CPU´s compared to all the others i have had before mostly AMD cpu before my I7 920.

So what would you do.

Keep the old sucker till she dies (properly a year or two more, i would be very impressed if she last that long at 4.2 GHz) or upgrade?

The most intesive i do is gaming and not that much online/MP.

Not so long ago i upgrade from GTX 660 TI SLI to GTX 970 SLI and that alone gave me a desent boost i games alone.

3D Mark firestrike score of the old sucker. The gfx is clokket lower for every day gaming than in this test.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5018467

https://billedeupload.dk/images/gT4ou.jpg

Complete system setup

Core i7 920 @ 4.2 GHz
ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme cpu cooler.
ASUS Rampage II Extreme ROG motherboard
12 GB DDR3 ram Corsair 1600 MHz (6 x 2GB)
Samsung WriteMaster SH-S223F DVD-drive
Crusial M4 64 GB SSD for OS
SAMSUNG EVO 250 GB SSD for my newest games
2 x WD Velociraptor 150 GB 10000 RPM i raid 0 for older games
WD Caviar Black 1 TB
WD AV-GP 2 TB
2 x Zotac GTX 970 in sli
Thermaltake ToughPower 1500 Watt PSU
Antec Twelve Hundred case
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

 

[Devon68]

Does it do what you require it to do? If yes, I see no reason to change it.

 

[the54thvoid]

I am in a midlife crisis....

Enough said - get a tattoo, start some dangerous sport and buy a trophy wife - crisis sorted.

As for the cpu - that's a far harder story. Upgrading is fun but if you can't afford it - stick with what you have but if you can afford it - help the economy by buying new stuff and help TPU forumers by donating the old 920.

 

[Tomgang]

Does it do what you require it to do? If yes, I see no reason to change it.

More or less it does what i need from it. It is not that it feel a need for upgrade more like i want to upgrade and in the same way save som on my electricity bill.
It is no secret that these old CPU´s eats more power than newer and more energy-friendly CPU´s. The question is whether it is worth it or not besides save some on the power bill.

 

[the54thvoid]

More or less it does what i need from it. It is not that it feel a need for upgrade more like i want to upgrade and in the same way save som on my electricity bill.
It is no secret that these old CPU´s eats more power than newer and more energy-friendly CPU´s. The question is whether it is worth it or not besides save some on the power bill.

They're not GPU's, I doubt you'd see real term savings on a 140 watt cpu*. You might shave off 50 watts (load power) which isn't a whole lot.

* assuming you'd overclock the new cpu so the energy saving would be comparable.

 

[Tomgang]

Enough said - get a tattoo, start some dangerous sport and buy a trophy wife - crisis sorted.

As for the cpu - that's a far harder story. Upgrading is fun but if you can't afford it - stick with what you have but if you can afford it - help the economy by buying new stuff and help TPU forumers by donating the old 920.

Upgrade is indeed fun and i can afford it. It is more like would it give a good enough more performance vs. the cost. New CPU would also need new motherboard and properly new memory also,
But it is not fun spending so much Money on something and then be disappointed with performance.

 

[Schmuckley]

eh..the new thingamabobber is about to drop..Skylake is it? 1151?
cuz it absolutely needs a new socket right?
I doubt Haswell-E would eat less power.and tbh imo..
Westmere-EP is snappier in desktop stuff AND has a good bit of grunt if you need it.
I know those newer chips bench faster and all...
but take longer to load progs than AMD Deneb,Westmere-EP,even Ivy Bridge..
I swear I observe that.
like AMD thuban..you click something..it's open.
get to that haswell-E thingy..you click..and go..did i click that? and then about 5 secs later it opens
or regular haswell for that matter.
Westmere-EP..you click it,it's open..and has about 85% of the grunt of the newest chips
/end ramble

 

[xkm1948]

Hey the x99 platform. With haswell-e and broadwell -e it should last you a good amount of time.

 

[the54thvoid]

Upgrade is indeed fun and i can afford it. It is more like would it give a good enough more performance vs. the cost. New CPU would also need new motherboard and properly new memory also,
But it is not fun spending so much Money on something and then be disappointed with performance.

I know where you're coming from - I'm itching to upgrade my 3930k (OC'ed at 4.4 - 4.2, from 3.2 stock for almost 3 years). I know it'll not give much better perf if i go to Haswell-E but I like shiny new things

 

[Tomgang]

They're not GPU's, I doubt you'd see real term savings on a 140 watt cpu*. You might shave off 50 watts (load power) which isn't a whole lot.

* assuming you'd overclock the new cpu so the energy saving would be comparable.

So an upgrade is not for power alone.

Whit the new CPU i would do the same ass whit I7 920. Let it run stock at the beginning and over time and when i need it overclock it.
A the beginning at stock i7 920 had plenty of power but over time games needs more cpu powr.

 

[EarthDog]

Upgrade is indeed fun and i can afford it. It is more like would it give a good enough more performance vs. the cost. New CPU would also need new motherboard and properly new memory also,
But it is not fun spending so much Money on something and then be disappointed with performance.

"Whit"?

I would upgrade to Skylake when it releases. The performance difference, in benchmarks, is likely going to be on the order of 50% clock for clock. There is also SATA3, M.2, DDR4 etc. Now... is that TANGIBLE? Maybe. Depends on how you use your PC. While the 920 is plenty serviceable, I would want another CPU after 6 years.

 

[Tomgang]

eh..the new thingamabobber is about to drop..Skylake is it? 1151?
cuz it absolutely needs a new socket right?
I doubt Haswell-E would eat less power.and tbh imo..
Westmere-EP is snappier in desktop stuff AND has a good bit of grunt if you need it.
I know those newer chips bench faster and all...
but take longer to load progs than AMD Deneb,Westmere-EP,even Ivy Bridge..
I swear I observe that.
like AMD thuban..you click something..it's open.
get to that haswell-E thingy..you click..and go..did i click that? and then about 5 secs later it opens
or regular haswell for that matter.
Westmere-EP..you click it,it's open..and has about 85% of the grunt of the newest chips
/end ramble

So if i am correct you say newer cpu´s take longer time to open software and not give that much more performence?

 

[Tomgang]

Hey the x99 platform. With haswell-e and broadwell -e it should last you a good amount of time.

It shut do if i upgrade to it and if it goes like whit my old i7 920. I shut last 4-6 years also.

 

[Tomgang]

I know where you're coming from - I'm itching to upgrade my 3930k (OC'ed at 4.4 - 4.2, from 3.2 stock for almost 3 years). I know it'll not give much better perf if i go to Haswell-E but I like shiny new things

You got that right. New Things is nice, but i also hate waste of Money. Thats why i just cant make a decision. Keep or upgrade.

 

[XL-R8R]

Power consumption was my main reason for upgrading......I have a similar setup lurking around to your current one listed as "Antique" in my signature area.

For games, the 3520/920 I had was nearly (within 10% clock-for-clock) as quick as my current CPU.... the RAM was obviously slower but not very noticeable and it ran warmer then the never tech does (duh!)


In all fairness, if you dont care about power usage, I'd hold out until the next release from Intel and grab someones cheap X79 or X99 (preferably) cast-off's when they upgrade for peen value as it'll be a true investment and a definite upgrade instead of a side-grade/something barely noticeable for the loot spent.


Hold off.

 

[EarthDog]

Power consumption was my main reason for upgrading...

You F@H or something that has your PC pegged 24/7?

If not, do the math and see how many dollars you save over the course of a year (hint: low single digits if you 'game' a few hours /day). Upgrading a CPU for solely power savings is not a good reason. You will not come close to making up the tax over the life of the CPU in most cases (again unless you run 24/7 full load).

 

[Tomgang]

"Whit"?

I would upgrade to Skylake when it releases. The performance difference, in benchmarks, is likely going to be on the order of 50% clock for clock. There is also SATA3, M.2, DDR4 etc. Now... is that ? Maybe. Depends on how you use your PC. While the 920 is plenty serviceable, I would want another CPU after 6 years.

Sorry about my riding. English is not my main language.

Well i already have sata 3 and USB 3.0. So i cant even use that as an excuse. I have these Little sucker in my motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/U3S6/

About DDR4 and other new Things. I dont now because besides gaming i only do normal surfing and random stuf on the old pc. No encoding and other Things like that.

 

[sneekypeet]

Buy a new case....

All the fun of a build, but none of the cost. I really cannot see investing near or over $1000 for surfing and "random stuff".

 

[Tomgang]

So i beginnig to get an understanding that most off you would keep the old CPU. Cause power saving isent that much and the more power i get vs. Money i spend is not worth it for my use.

Am i wrong?

 

[dorsetknob]

You got a nice very overclockable motherboard suitable for a sidegrade/upgrade

Have you considered going "" 6 core Xeon ""
They fit your motherboard Socket1366
They are relatively cheap either throu the forums or from ebay
Very overclockable ( see the Xeon owners thread for examples )
A X5670 would suit you for upgrading
Read the Xeon owners thread and consider that as a cheap option for you

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

I am still waiting for my I7 to die. I bought it when it first came out. Still waiting for it to die. I have had it overclocked from day one...CO stepping also first ones. With a decent video card and SSD....i can not justify spending more money for newer CPU and board. I have helped a few friends with newer builds and they are shinny but perform close to what i have. So until this beast dies...video cards will have do. When i built this i had a 9800GTX 512mg then a 5850,6970 and now R9 2900. So i am waiting for a power surge or something...my battery died on my battery back-up and i have it plug into the wall. That has to help my chances at making this old cpu die.

 

[Tomgang]

You got a nice very overclockable motherboard suitable for a sidegrade/upgrade

Have you considered going "" 6 core Xeon ""
They fit your motherboard Socket1366
They are relatively cheap either throu the forums or from ebay
Very overclockable ( see the Xeon owners thread for examples )
A X5670 would suit you for upgrading
Read the Xeon owners thread and consider that as a cheap option for you

I dit have it in my mind upgrade just the cpu whit a xeon or an I7 970/980. But these CPU are also old and would they give any thing in games. I mean most games if even any games out there cant handle more than 4 cpu cores so would 6 cores even give me any thing. I mean i am not end coding or other cpu heavy Things, and if i even dit i would properly use software that supports nvidia´s cuda core any way. I have two nice GTX 970 that cut do that part ans shut be far faster than any cpu can do even Intels 8 core monster I7 5960X.

But it is a nice idea. What do others think about it?

 

[Pill Monster]

My mate has a 4Ghz 920 and 290 VaporX. He runs Assetto Corsa maxed out at about 85fps.

 

[OneMoar]

hell going to LGA 1150 would be a upgrade the difference in IPC between Nehalem and haswell is like 20%
which is pretty significant

 

[Tomgang]

I am still waiting for my I7 to die. I bought it when it first came out. Still waiting for it to die. I have had it overclocked from day one...CO stepping also first ones. With a decent video card and SSD....i can not justify spending more money for newer CPU and board. I have helped a few friends with newer builds and they are shinny but perform close to what i have. So until this beast dies...video cards will have do. When i built this i had a 9800GTX 512mg then a 5850,6970 and now R9 2900. So i am waiting for a power surge or something...my battery died on my battery back-up and i have it plug into the wall. That has to help my chances at making this old cpu die.

I now what you mean. These old first gen i7 will just not die. So you have a CO i7 920 oc to 3.8 GHz according to your profile lasting close to 7 years now and run oc the hole time. That is dam impresive. And CO even tend to need more voltage than a DO like mine at same clocks and by that also runnig hotter. This could mean my CPU can end up lasting for years to come cause mine have only being oc the last 3 years. The first 4 years it just run stock. Oh my. Looks like to kill these old ladies i need to overvoltage it alot.

About GFX i have also had 4 different Cards whit this one CPU. 3 x GTX 285 3 way sli, 2 x GTX 570 sli, 2 X GTX 660 TI sli and now 2 x GTX 970 sli. GFX does not last for long for sure. About two years for me and then they are to slow for me.