I-7 950 - Need more storage and USB 3.0. Worth an upgrade to I7-4790K?

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trikcard

Distinguished
Jan 26, 2012
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Here are my current system stats...

Processor

I-7 950 @ 3.07 GHz
Socket 1366 LGA

Memory

20 GB

Mainboard

Asus P6T
X58 Chipset

Graphics
2 x ATI Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire'd together


The computer seems to run great and I don't see much lag time. Primarily I don't do gaming, but do a lot of photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and video conversion. My reason for looking for an upgrade is I really need to be able to throw in more hard drives (and possibly faster) so I need a bigger case, and I really would like to have USB 3.0 as all my externals are 3.0, but slowed to 2.0.

So my options are to get a motherboard and move the current I7-950 over to a new MB that has USB 3.0 and more ports (if there is such a creature), or to upgrade completely to a processor like the 4790K. (The guy at Tiger Direct was even trying to get me to upgrade to an i5 4690K, but that doesn't seem like much of an upgrade.)

My question is that will the performance be that much better if I upgrade my MB and CPU to a Z97/4790K combination? On one hand I don't see much of a lag in the system now, but I may just not know what I'm missing. Or would it be worth just getting a new MB that can do all I want and sticking with the 950 although the work alone in making the transfer would be a pain.

What are your thoughts? Well worth it? Or should I hold off for Black Friday or something else on the horizon?

Everytime I need to upgrade, it's like I have to re-learn everything from scratch...

Thanks ahead of time.
 
Solution
ssddx
i'm running an older i7-920 here on x58 and i use photoshop and similar programs as well.

some older x58 boards such as the one i'm running do have a few usb3.0 ports and the like so what you wanted is available but its not wortwhile to upgrade due to the cost.

i would suggest something like the z97-a along with an i7-4790k and just move over the rest of your components provided they are all compatible.
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Joseph DeGarmo

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Mar 12, 2014
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You can do what I did and upgrade to an i7-4790k and get a motherboard which has built-in USB 3.0 ports, SATA III (6 Gb/s), and PCI-E 3.0. I experience less lag in games since the upgrade. But also take into consideration that the 4790k supports only 16 PCI-E lanes compared to the 950's support for 40 PCI-E lanes. Your two crossfire GPUs will be running on PCI-E 3.0 x8 mode, which can be a slight bottleneck in graphics performance, but is usually negated by the upgrade from PCI-E 2.0 to PCI-E 3.0. If you will be installing additional PCI-E devices, such as an audio card or PCI internal SSD, then you will need a socket LGA 2011 CPU. A 3rd generation i7-4820k is a cheaper option since DDR3 is cheaper than DDR4 which is required for the pricier 4th generation 5930k. The 5820k is a cheaper CPU, but supports up to just 28 PCI-E lanes.
 
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spentshells

spentshells

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Apr 1, 2006
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Nope just get a cooler and some more recent graphics cards. If you need usb 3 that bad get an adapter card. For gaming you have no good reason to upgrade when an overclock will do just fine. Perhaps a powerful single card or crossfire some r9 270's if you want, for 320 I don't think they can be beat. Yes microstutter and such , blah blah blah. I would get a single card but the option is still there.
 
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ssddx

ssddx

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May 27, 2009
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i'm running an older i7-920 here on x58 and i use photoshop and similar programs as well.

some older x58 boards such as the one i'm running do have a few usb3.0 ports and the like so what you wanted is available but its not wortwhile to upgrade due to the cost.

i would suggest something like the z97-a along with an i7-4790k and just move over the rest of your components provided they are all compatible.
 
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Solution
J

Joseph DeGarmo

Honorable
Mar 12, 2014
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I tried using a USB 3.0 PCI-E add-on card with my previous motherboard, but Windows 8 does not seem to play nice with it. My external hard drive sometimes does not register on file explorer when booting Windows, forcing me to disconnect and reconnect the device, which was annoying. I switched to a current-generation Z97 board with four rear USB 3.0 ports and never had any problems with it since. Devices connected to my USB 3.0 ports boot up every time. Knock on wood. :D
 
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