i7 920 to i7 990x upgrade

[viktorbkk]

I've been running a 1366 platform since Q4 '08...

Current specs are:

CPU: i7 920 @ 3.2 GHz - 3.45 GHz Turbo
RAM: 6GB @ 1600 MHz
GPU: R9 280X

Thing is, even after so many years of running the same cpu, my system still isn't CPU bottlenecked in games. I have also upgraded many video cards over the years. I recently upgraded to an SSD, 500GB Samsung 840 EVO and even over Sata 2 the system feel blazing fast, so I don't care much for Sata 3. My mobo has USB3 so I'm covered on that too. So is it worth it to upgrade to an i7 990x from ebay?

My only concern is that this system is PCI-E 2.0. Even though this doesn't matter today, you never know what happens a couple generations of graphics cards later. What do you guys think?

 

[DubbleClick]

I don't think that's worth spending money for, if you are not experiencing bottlenecks. I'd rather wait until it starts becoming slow (the hardware, not the software) and then upgrade to broadwell, skylake or whatever might be the newest technology by then.

 

[viktorbkk]

A 990x scores over 9 points in Cinebench 11.5 @ stock. I don't see how such a CPU could become slow for games in the next 5 years. My only concern is the PCI-E interface.

 

[DubbleClick]

I don't really see why you would upgrade if you do not experience issues with your 920

 

[Vitric9]

the i7 920 and i7 990X are both Nehalem Based processors so Clock for Clock there is not really any noticeable difference between the two. the i7 920 is the first desktop Core i7 to hit the market in '08, mind you the 990x was released in 2011 the only differences you would see in performance would be using applications for rendering media or other content. From a gaming Perspective the is a slight improvement with the 990x as it has higher stock Clock frequency. But you can Overclock the i7 920 as i am sure you know

EDIT: Yes there is a big difference in Synthetic benchmarks and you can get a higher Clock speed on the i7 990x. Though in everyday typical usage the differences are marginal

 

[STbob]

Let me clear some of the confusion up on this.

The I7 990x is a TOC of the Nahalem cpus. It was a a refinement offering some advantages over the first gen. The Nahalems were .45nm tech while the newer Westmeres were 32 nm. The 6 core varient of the Westmeres were called Gulftowns. So the 990x is a Westmere/Gulftown. A 6 core beast.

32nm Westmere Process Technology

Westmere is the Intel codename for the 32nm microarchitecture technology. Formerly named formerly Nehalem-C, Westmere technology is used to produce the six-core Intel Gulftown processor.

Advantages.
Cherry Picked CPU - will be more stable at higher overclocks
More cache (12 MB vs 8 MB)
6 cores
32nm (less power) 105.63W vs 135.63W
Better 3DMark06 CPU score 7,042 vs 4,727.5
Significantly better cinebench r10 32Bit score 30,518 vs 16,211
Is unlocked - This is a big one. The 920 is locked and only can be over clocked via boosting the bus from 133Mhz to what ever. With the 990x you can keep the ram/bus stock speed and just increase the multiplier.

I am in the exact same boat as you. I7 920 @ 3.3Ghz to 3.4 ish turbo.

I love this machine and I do have other newer ones in the house 4770k and 3770k but this one is my baby.

I was going to get Skylake but was underwhelmed and would have to spend around 1600 to get a config close to mine and it would be sort of a step sideways.

The 990x and its clone Xeon sister can be had for around $200.00. It is a straight drop in, no new ram, no cofiguring, no moving HD to new MB no reinstalling OS etc. Less work more fun.

It won't gain a ton in most games but it will gain a ton in multitasking ability. I have 4x4 LCDs mounted on a stand. I will have Starcraft 2 running in one window, A VM on the top left, a remote desktop computer on a 3rd screen and a web browser with netflix on the 4th.

The 920 was an amazing chip as was the x58 MBs. The 990x we allow me to save 1600+, multitask better, and skip skylake and probably the generation after that.

I probably will get the Xeon varient as it supports ECC Ram. The ECC ram will work but it will not report to the bios about single bit errors. To verify its ok you have to run mem test once in a while. But the ecc will be working correcting single bit errors.

Whats not to like man? Best bang for the buck in terms of performance. And its a EZ update and finally affordable. We can thank Intel for dragging feet for 5 years not really improving cpus all that much.

 

[jorge talamantes]

im thinking on doing that also, i have my x58 machine with 12GB ram and a 256GB ssd with a dual HD5970 (quad gpu total) but my cpu is an i7 920, and it feels a bit slow while editing or rendering some videos so i have been thinking to upgrade the cpu with an i7 990x from ebay (about $200) just to give it some extra life, how it worked for you??? do you recomend it???

 

[STbob]

im thinking on doing that also, i have my x58 machine with 12GB ram and a 256GB ssd with a dual HD5970 (quad gpu total) but my cpu is an i7 920, and it feels a bit slow while editing or rendering some videos so i have been thinking to upgrade the cpu with an i7 990x from ebay (about $200) just to give it some extra life, how it worked for you??? do you recomend it???

Waste of time to upgrade cpu alone. I ended up buying a 6 core used Dell Xeon w3690 workstation for 200.00. Not just a cpu but entire computer. PS, 3.47-3.7Ghz 6 core Xeon 12 gig ECC ram CD, HD. Works great, I just remote to it when I need to do anything demanding and still have my 920 system too. I can set up a 3Dsmax rendering farm with both system which will beat the pants off a single cpu updgrade.

I mean its not a total waste but for 200.00 I got the cpu. ram. video card, PS, CD. etc. And the Dell MB supports ECC ram as its a workstation class. Twin 5970s is sort of a power hog, you going to need big PS for that.