Most cost-effective upgrades for my i7-920 system

jamieWakeham · Jan 3, 2017

Hi all

My current system: ASUS P6T mobo, i7-920 running at stock 2.66GHz, 3 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz, NVIDIA 9800GT. Velociraptor 150GB as boot drive, and a slow 500GB data drive.

I'm not looking to do anything really challenging with this PC - I'm not a gamer, though I do a fair bit of photo editing. My aim when I designed this eight years ago was to put together a system that would remain usable for as long as possible.

It's starting to feel a little less nippy than it used to, especially post Windows 10, and I'm wondering if it's time to upgrade a little. Am I right in thinking that, in terms of what's going to make it feel a bit sharper, in order of effectiveness:

1) relegate the velociraptor to data duties and get a SSD
2) more RAM - maybe a second set of three 2GB sticks, also at 1600MHz
3) actually replace with faster RAM - so perhaps 3 x 4GB 1833MHz
4) upgrade to a faster i7, or instead overclock the existing 920.

If I do 1), I guess I'm looking at SATA III, even though my mobo will downrate that to SATA II.Given those limitations is there much point in spending on the best SSD out there, or am I looking at cheaper drives such as WD Blue?

If 2), I guess I should simply buy exactly the same model.

If 3) is worth it, should I be aiming for 2000MHz (not at all sure if my mobo can use that) or is 1833MHz what I'm looking for?

If 4), do I need to start thinking about upgrading cooling? I have stock i7 cooling at the moment. I see used i7 950 chips for ~£50... any higher than that gets silly expensive.

Thanks for any advice.

True Buie · Jan 3, 2017

Heyo jamieWakeham

I can't really argue with your points. Although, if you decide to upgrade RAM speeds, it wouldn't really help that much, rather upgrade to more RAM, as you said yourself

When it comes to the CPU, you could probably overclock it, but it may also be time to upgrade that poor CPU. It has done its job trhoughout the years, and it would be a welcome upgrade with something like the 7700k/7700.

Good luck making the right choices regarding your upgrade!

jaslion · Jan 3, 2017

jamieWakeham :

1) get at least a 250gb ssd sata is backwards compatible you will just lose some speed
2) higher speed ram doesn't make a difference just get some more of the same. Also mix and matching ram can give problems I would recommend going on ebay and buying a set of 6*2gb ddr3 ram as your motherboard only supports up to 12 gb of ram and 2 gb dimms
3) look at 2
4) get a 6 core xeon from ebay for lga 1366 your motherboard supports them and ocing a x5650 for example to 3.5ghz + will give you an amazing boost in performance

extra: a newer gpu can help as Photoshop and other image editing software uses the gpu as an accelerator to less the load on the cpu a bit and speedup the workflow.

Jim90 · Jan 3, 2017

"... and it would be a welcome upgrade with something like the 7700k/7700"

--> lol....an interesting suggestion, Sir.

In an ideal world yes, but, this uber absolute top-of-the-range Kaby cpu - and not even released yet - will require some major components replaced e.g. motherboard, memory, with equally uber expensive parts. I don't think the OP is looking at that end of the spectrum, just yet.

Of course, you'd need to balance any outlay with the current system, with the total cost of a new motherboard/cpu,memory,PSU set-up. Only you can decide when that threshold is breached, and with this:-

I'd definitely look firstly at overclocking your CPU (assuming D0 stepping or greater). My previous i920 ran stable at 3.9 and I did see a significant benefit in general responsiveness and Photoshop/Premiere etc filter etc execution. I did replace the cooler (can't remember the name). Try this with your stock cooler first and see how you do. There's lots of info via Google out there on overclocking (very simple in the BIOS, though trial and error required) and cooler selection.

Replace your OS disk with an SSD. For extreme ease, you can image your old C: drive and restore it into the new SSD (using e.g. Acronis, Norton, etc. There are free alternatives also). Make sure Windows is fully SSD-optimised later (easy to do, Google). Try not to go below 250GB. Select a SATA III version (you can use this in any new PC you get). With this you can either use as-is (even a downgraded SATA II speed will be show a huge improvement). Alternatively, buy a SATA III add-in PCIe card, though do a bit of Googling to see if the real-world benefits would be realised here. QD1 is the mainstay of >99.9% of all PC's and even the latest M.2 e.g. Samsung 960 Pro still struggles here.

I'm not sure about replacing the 920 CPU. You'd need to Google the real benefits of any upgrade possibilities. Again, much info out there.

Photo editing (and general responsiveness + multitasking) will definitely benefit from as much RAM as you can install (motherboard dependant) and I'd suggest that you'd see an improvement in more memory. Memory (outside frequency extremes) speed rarely yields any benefit whatsoever.
If you're interested in GPU photo editing acceleration e.g. CUDA, do some Googling around this and see if the benefits are desirable for you. Take note that certain versions of Adobe products accelerate via CUDA only on specific NVIDIA card models.

So, in terms of cost/benefit: CPU overclock on air(free), add in CPU cooler(low cost), add in SSD(highest cost), add in triple set memory (medium cost).
For your usage, I do think you can realise some significant improvements at a competitive cost, compared to a system replacement.

Have a look at the following, for example:https://hardforum.com/threads/sata-iii-for-p6t-deluxe.1695790/

jamieWakeham · Jan 3, 2017

Thanks for your time, all.

My aim is very much to keep the existing motherboard for the time being. I always intended this to be a PC that I can gradually upgrade to keep it reasonably current. It's cost me a bit more than £100 per year of life so far, so if I could extend its effective life for a few more years by spending, say, £2-300, then I'm happy.

Looks like the most straightforward decision is to get a 250GB SATA III SSD. I see eBuyer has the Samsung EVO 850 250GB for £87, which looks a strong contender.

RAM wise, if speed is << important than quantity, that means I just keep the existing three 2GB sticks and add another identical three. I'm reasonably sure the P6T supports six sticks of 4GB each for 24GB max (?), but if there's little to be gained by throwing my existing 3x2GB and buying 12GB of faster RAM then I may as well go the cheaper way! I guess the only risk here is that in a few years I realise I need more than 12GB, and have to junk all six 2GB units to replace with 4GB ones, but I suspect that by that point I will be starting to think it's time for a new mobo and CPU as well...

So I think I'll do those two things, and maybe OC the existing 920 chip, and see how that feels. If that's not enough then I'll think about replacing the chip; I hadn't realised Xeon lga1366 chips were compatible with my P6T, and my gods they're a lot cheaper than high end i7 970/980 CPUs!

Again, thanks for input.

jaslion · Jan 3, 2017

jamieWakeham :

Thanks for your time, all.

My aim is very much to keep the existing motherboard for the time being. I always intended this to be a PC that I can gradually upgrade to keep it reasonably current. It's cost me a bit more than £100 per year of life so far, so if I could extend its effective life for a few more years by spending, say, £2-300, then I'm happy.

Looks like the most straightforward decision is to get a 250GB SATA III SSD. I see eBuyer has the Samsung EVO 850 250GB for £87, which looks a strong contender.

RAM wise, if speed is << important than quantity, that means I just keep the existing three 2GB sticks and add another identical three. I'm reasonably sure the P6T supports six sticks of 4GB each for 24GB max (?), but if there's little to be gained by throwing my existing 3x2GB and buying 12GB of faster RAM then I may as well go the cheaper way! I guess the only risk here is that in a few years I realise I need more than 12GB, and have to junk all six 2GB units to replace with 4GB ones, but I suspect that by that point I will be starting to think it's time for a new mobo and CPU as well...

So I think I'll do those two things, and maybe OC the existing 920 chip, and see how that feels. If that's not enough then I'll think about replacing the chip; I hadn't realised Xeon lga1366 chips were compatible with my P6T, and my gods they're a lot cheaper than high end i7 970/980 CPUs!

Again, thanks for input.

Little heads up: the max support ram of the p6t is 12gb according to the asus site. It does not support dimms that have a higher capacity than 2gb. So you'll need to get extra 3 of the same 2gb sticks.

jamieWakeham · Jan 7, 2017

Ooh, I feel silly now. Just done some checks and found that one of the current 2GB DIMMs is dead. So for an unknown length of time, I've been using it in dual-channel mode with only 4GB total. That does explain why it's felt a bit sluggish recently!

I'm now testing just how good Corsair's lifetime warranty is! Before I spotted this, I'd already bought an identical second 3x2GB set on eBay for £25, so with any luck I will be up to 12GB total very soon. That ought to make a difference...

re the board capacity - this seems quite uncertain. My physical manual says max 12GB; the same manual online at ASUS says 24GB. There seems to be some disagreement online between people who have persuaded their P6T to accept 24GB and those who haven't. It's a bit academic for me, because I expect that by the time I'm finding my 12GB to be a limit, it really will be time for a new board.

Now, a new question. When looking at Task Manager's performance window, as well as telling me it only sees 4GB in two slots, it also tells me it's running this memory at 1066MHz. Has it downrated it because it's not happy about only running in dual channel mode? Or have I been running my 1600MHz RAM at 1066MHz all along?

jaslion · Jan 7, 2017

jamieWakeham :

Ooh, I feel silly now. Just done some checks and found that one of the current 2GB DIMMs is dead. So for an unknown length of time, I've been using it in dual-channel mode with only 4GB total. That does explain why it's felt a bit sluggish recently!

I'm now testing just how good Corsair's lifetime warranty is! Before I spotted this, I'd already bought an identical second 3x2GB set on eBay for £25, so with any luck I will be up to 12GB total very soon. That ought to make a difference...

re the board capacity - this seems quite uncertain. My physical manual says max 12GB; the same manual online at ASUS says 24GB. There seems to be some disagreement online between people who have persuaded their P6T to accept 24GB and those who haven't. It's a bit academic for me, because I expect that by the time I'm finding my 12GB to be a limit, it really will be time for a new board.

Now, a new question. When looking at Task Manager's performance window, as well as telling me it only sees 4GB in two slots, it also tells me it's running this memory at 1066MHz. Has it downrated it because it's not happy about only running in dual channel mode? Or have I been running my 1600MHz RAM at 1066MHz all along?

The board doesn't support the 1600mhz speed so it downclocks the ram to a compatible speed. However you won't notice any difference between 1600 and 1066 mhz ram.

jamieWakeham · Jan 10, 2017

I'm now having problems with the new memory; can't quite figure out what the hell is going on here.

Before this all started, I had three 2GB DIMMs, installed in A1, B1 and C1 as recommended by the manual. Task Manager was reporting only 4GB memory so I assumed one DIMM was dead. I tried swapping that one DIMM around the various slots and it was as if it was simply not there, regardless of which slot was being used. All understandable.

Then my new three 2GB DIMMs arrived. The manual doesn't recommend using five DIMMs, only four or six, so I put the three new ones into A1, B1 and C1, and one of the good old ones into A2. Task manager now says 6GB in three slots. ah heck, I think, one of the new DIMMs must also be dead. I download CPU-Z to see if it will shed any light.

The thing is, CPU-Z sees all 8GB.

This triggers an endless series of swapping DIMMs in and out, and Task Manager and CPU-Z almost never agreeing on what's actually installed. But there is NO logic to what works and doesn't; the exact same set of DIMMs plugged into the same slots can give different results.

Right now I have five plugged in, all but the one I thought was dodgy at first. CPU-Z happily tells me I have 10GB, but Task Manager tells me I have 8GB. The last time I tried this config TM said 2GB. About the only constant I can find is that trying all six invariably causes the machine to either fail to boot at all, just running fans and never loading the mobo screen, or getting to windows and then giving me the 'windows needs to restart' screen endlessly.

What on earth have I done? Is it possible I need to update the mobo drivers? Is there a more reliable way I should be testing if each stick is good or not?

jaslion · Jan 11, 2017

jamieWakeham :

I'm now having problems with the new memory; can't quite figure out what the hell is going on here.

Before this all started, I had three 2GB DIMMs, installed in A1, B1 and C1 as recommended by the manual. Task Manager was reporting only 4GB memory so I assumed one DIMM was dead. I tried swapping that one DIMM around the various slots and it was as if it was simply not there, regardless of which slot was being used. All understandable.

Then my new three 2GB DIMMs arrived. The manual doesn't recommend using five DIMMs, only four or six, so I put the three new ones into A1, B1 and C1, and one of the good old ones into A2. Task manager now says 6GB in three slots. ah heck, I think, one of the new DIMMs must also be dead. I download CPU-Z to see if it will shed any light.

The thing is, CPU-Z sees all 8GB.

This triggers an endless series of swapping DIMMs in and out, and Task Manager and CPU-Z almost never agreeing on what's actually installed. But there is NO logic to what works and doesn't; the exact same set of DIMMs plugged into the same slots can give different results.

Right now I have five plugged in, all but the one I thought was dodgy at first. CPU-Z happily tells me I have 10GB, but Task Manager tells me I have 8GB. The last time I tried this config TM said 2GB. About the only constant I can find is that trying all six invariably causes the machine to either fail to boot at all, just running fans and never loading the mobo screen, or getting to windows and then giving me the 'windows needs to restart' screen endlessly.

What on earth have I done? Is it possible I need to update the mobo drivers? Is there a more reliable way I should be testing if each stick is good or not?

First test 1 at a time and see with wich ones the system boots into windows. After doing that run memtest86 from abootable cd/usb stick and see if it reports any errors.

jamieWakeham · Feb 17, 2017

Hi all

An update: Corsair have taken forever, but eventually replaced my dead XMS3 DIMM with a brand new set of 3 x 4GB Vengeance. I'm calling that a win.

I've popped the three modules in, wondering what the mobo would make of them, as there are so many conflicting reports on whether the P6T is compatible with DIMMs greater than 2GB. For the benefit of future readers, my P6T (which is the original, not SE or Deluxe) happily reads all 12GB, and CPU-Z and Task Manager agree on what's in there!

So, I have the 12GB I was aiming for. Now I have a follow up question. I have two working XMS3 2GB sticks on my desk. Will I actually see any appreciable benefit if I:

a) put the extra two DIMMs into the second memory channel and thus get 12GB triple plus 4GB dual
b) source a third XMS3 2GB DIMM and achieve 12GB triple plus 6GB triple

I get that mixing RAM is usually a bad call, but I don't know if that applies to different configurations in the two separate channels.

Or should I just sell the two DIMMs, thus providing a service to people who've lost one of their three and for whatever reason can't claim on warranty?

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