Hey!
I recently got the oportunity to upgrade my ancient q9400 to a less ancient i7 920. I am a student working with Archicad, Photoshop, 3DSMAX. The curent rig is: q9400@3GHz, gigabyte p43-es3g 6Gb DDR2, GTX 660 ti, 120Gb ssd. Should i go for the upgrade, is the i7 920 still usable? Thing is i can do this swap on the cheap and avoid spitting out a lot more money for a later generation i7 and mobo.
Thank you!
are you getting this for free? I would look at other options before considering the 920. it's almost 5 years old. you can get something much better depending how much you want to spend.
I would be swaping out a q9400 + gigabyte p43-es3g + 6Gb DDR2 + Xonar DX sound card for the i7 920 + Gigabyte x58a ud5 r2.0 + 8gb DDR3 + about 70 $. I find the fact that the seller is willing to take my old hardware a plus.
it's a head-scratcher. it's definitely a good deal, don't get me wrong but if you can get it why not. I would personally wait a bit and just save a bit more. just get something much more newer. The Skylake Mainstream platform is coming in a few months and it's going to have DDR4 support.
misty eyed..
Sounds like a steal at that price, seller must be desperate
he is in the old hardware market i guess, there's always profit to be found :)
Yeah, it is. I am sure i'd just be stuck with this crap cpu for another year if i do not take it. Renders getting really slow. I just wanted a second opinion if the i7 920 has got some "umpf" in it still.
not sure how those application work but there will be a noticeable performance boost from going with the i7. the motherboard seems to be a high end x58 then i would suggest grab the Xeon X5650 and OC that mother which the perfomance will rival many modern processors out there today if you are not happy with the current i7 920. Just make sure you have enough of a power supply (Decent 750w) and patience. Don't worry the Xeon X5650 goes for around 100 bucks on eBay.
in short: go with the i7 920 there will be a difference.
I have a Seasonic 620W 80+bronze.
Yeah that 6 core sure sounds nice.
Thank you for the reply. I think i made up my mind.
oh btw if going with the six core it will drain a crap ton of power.
Do it and get a x5650 on ebay, overclock it if you want :v.
the q9400 is a solid overclocker your 3Ghz is very conservative with a higher overclock that thing should run much the same level as a FX 4 core; the DDR2 sucks but ram is rarely the bottlenecking factor. The I7 920 isn't a huge upgrade I would save my money and get a modern system. Also it is worth noting that the old parts like you have are fairly valuable you could likely sell them for a decent price to vintage system builders or as parts to keep older setups running.
Check if its the CO or DO version of the cpu. If its the later DO version ~ less voltage, better overclocker, etc then jump at it. Plus its the better revision of that ud5 motherboard as well.
I think i am hitting the bus limit on my motherboard ( its about 380ish i think), if i go higher to 3.1 it freezes.
I would see how much the parts you have are currently going for on ebay before I do anything.
Thank you guys for all the valuabile input, honestly i wasn't expecting so many replies. As ever, i decided to do the smart thing and save up some more gold. What i really want is something something i7 3xxx or i5 4xxx, i think that would make me a happy camper.
Do it. But do you have a motherboard for socket 1366? Also remenber that the i7 920 is a triple channel processor, so 3 stix of ram. You should also note that the 1366 platform works best with mem 1.5v for 1333 and 1333+,1600 etc. 1.65v. You may need to bios update the motherboard for memory compatibility, but if you get a kit of dual channel Kingston Hyperx and a single stick, just note the timings on board. :)
I would always go for the i7 over i5 especially when rendering 3D. Whatever you can find even a 2600k use alot less power than the 920, so 2600k(heat spreader soldered(better temps)), 3770k(1155), 4770/90k(1150).
Yeah, i saw some folks with that problem.
I'll look for one that still has some life in it :)
Gigabyte x58a ud5 r2.0
Ok, then I would just go with the 920 ;)