Should i replace my i7 950 with an i7 975 extreme?? (1366 mobo)

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Kenton82

Kenton82

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Hi guys and girls, I have an ageing rig from 2008 and i am trying to 'max' it out before it either dies, or i have to get a new one. Current specs are; Asus Rampage ii Extreme mobo, i7 950 3.07GHZ - not o/c'd, 16GB Ballistix Sport RAM, Asus 970GTX Strix 4GB gpu, 1010w Everest (i think) PSU, 1tb wd hdd, windows 10 pro 64. I have never overclocked in my life, i am quite experienced with pc's hardware and windows wise, but the bios and cmos areas leave me baffled! Plus i do not want to break anything! So i wondered which of the 1st gen i7 cpu's would be the max i could go to. I have been looking at trying to pick up a used i7 975 Extreme, but this maybe futile... Will i see much gain? Or is it a case that i will only realise more processing power with overclocking my current CPU, which may not be a good idea, given its age!?
I use this PC mainly for gaming, 1080p and 60-80 FPS is what i get now on games like BeamNg Drive and TS17.
Many thanks, and sorry for yet another 'old rig' question!
Kenton.
 
Solution
spdragoo
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_II_EXTREME/HelpDesk_CPU/

technically, you can go all the way up to the i7-990X Extreme Edition. Both it & the 980X have an unlocked multiplier, which probably make them better for overclocking.

That being said...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

It's not going to be that big of an improvement. You'd move from a 3rd-tier CPU to a 2nd-tier CPU, but that's not that big of a jump. Unless you really plan to OC that used 975 extreme, I would just keep what you have.
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Obakasama

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I'm of the mind that when you're on an i7 (regardless of generation), an upgrade to a technically more powerful CPU on the same platform gives very little real world performance gain. Tom's here had a review: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-975,review-31595-8.html

The gaming benchmarks show minimal differences and can be put down to margin of error. For me, not worth the upgrade. By contrast the productivity benchmarks show a more marked difference.

Overclocking would probably make more sense. The motherboard should be fine, but I'm not sure about the PSU.
 
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spdragoo

spdragoo

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https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_II_EXTREME/HelpDesk_CPU/

technically, you can go all the way up to the i7-990X Extreme Edition. Both it & the 980X have an unlocked multiplier, which probably make them better for overclocking.

That being said...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

It's not going to be that big of an improvement. You'd move from a 3rd-tier CPU to a 2nd-tier CPU, but that's not that big of a jump. Unless you really plan to OC that used 975 extreme, I would just keep what you have.
 
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Kenton82

Kenton82

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Hey cheers for the answers guys, pretty much what i suspected! Just had to make sure. I have heard many people say that the 950 can still hold its own pretty well these days, and i must say the old pc still runs very quickly!
I would however love to hear from anyone who would be up for telling me how to do a small O/C on the one i have. Maybe to 3.8Ghz or something? I know the MOBO i have was 'meant' to be really easy to O/C with, because of the controls on the board and the bios menu. But i do understand that someone like me who has never O/C'd before is probably an experts worst nightmare! I am ok with altering RAM freq's and general very basic bios tasks, but processor settings have always frightened me somewhat!
Anyway, many thanks again for the reassurance guys. Much appreciated!
Kenton.
 
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tomgang

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Dont now if you have made up your mind, but after owning both a I7 920 and now a I7 980X.

The answer is right forward. I7 950 is a I7 975X just with locket multiplier and a lower clock speed/stock multiplier and same core count. And i know by fact that LGA 1366 socket CPU overclock just as great as the unlocket cpu. In fact when it comes to X58 BCLK oc is more effektive than OC with multiplier or a combo of BCLK/multiplier oc at least with my I7 980X cpu. It overclock better with BLCK only.

So answer short: Keep your I7 950 and overclock the crap out of it (I had a I7 920 with the same mohterboard as yours and it overclokket to 4.4 GHz at max and for daily use clokket to 4.1 GHz cause heat and that run for almost 4 years before i swapped it out with another mobo and the I7 980X) and it can outperform I7 975X with ease or you get your hands in a 6 core I7 CPU if you want to upgrade CPU (OBS: for 6 core support, your mobo may need a bios update before it is supported).

So keep I7 950 and oc it unless you want to upgrade to a 6 core cpu (6 core I7 models are I7 970/980 non X/980X/990X). But remember if you oc a X58 cpu when ever you keep I7 950 or get your a 6 core, They get hot when overclokket, so dont use a cheap crap cpu cooler if you want 4 GHz+ oc.

Here are my two X58 systems.

I7 920

http://peecee.dk/uploads/022017/3dmark_firestrike_rekord_1.jpg

I7 980X

http://peecee.dk/uploads/022017/3Dmark_Fire_Strike_4.77_GHz.jpg
 
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