i7 930 to i7 990x - Worth it?

[me_in_va]

I have an older system that I want to upgrade somehow. Right now this is what I have:

i7 930

12GB 1333Mhz

1TB 7200rpm

512GB SSD

512GB hybrid

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (I think that is the model of the board)

 

I was thinking of upgrading just the CPU. There are plenty of 1366 socket CPU's out there for a decent price, other not so decent. And then on the other hand I was considering just building a new system from scratch. BUT...the finance department (wife) isn't too thrilled about $2,000+ going into a system that will have limited use. So upgrading just the CPU seems to be the wiser (and safer) option.

 

The i7 990x is the 'highest' spec CPU that works on the same socket in the ix-core family. I have seen other CPU's with the same socket but i am not familiar with them. Is the Xeon line of CPU's the same as the ix-series? The Xeon chips seem to be going at a much lower price than the i7 990x chips.

 

As for the use of this system, it is a dual boot system: Mac OS and Windows 10. On the Mac side I am running Final Cut Studio - not iMovie pro (FCX). On the Windows side, I just installed that and have not really done much with it yet. Gaming? I ran both Minecraft and a Minecraft server on the Mac side. The server went away when my nephew went to college. So this machine is not going to see a lot of action other than FCS. It would be nice if the upgrade(s) will let me run Fortnite but that isn't a deal breaker. My interest in that game has died off considerably.

 

Anyway, would it yield much of an improvement to drop a new CPU into this old system? I don't want to spend a lot of money on this system as it really doesn't get much use. If it will give me a considerable boost then I might start using it a lot more. But if it is only a marginal improvement then I'll just wait on getting a newer laptop later and relegate this computer to some other use.

 

Thanks!

Me_In_Va

[Origami Cactus]

I would get a better gpu before upgrading the cpu, but if you are not doing any gaming maybe go for it?

[Guest]

I'd start with the card. That CPU will idle with that graphics card in games.

[Spotty]

5 minutes ago, me_in_va said:

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT

Upgrade this, not your CPU. Get a 1050ti for about $180 USD.

[DildorTheDecent]

4 minutes ago, me_in_va said:

The i7 990x is the 'highest' spec CPU that works on the same socket in the ix-core family. I have seen other CPU's with the same socket but i am not familiar with them. Is the Xeon line of CPU's the same as the ix-series? The Xeon chips seem to be going at a much lower price than the i7 990x chips.

The Xeons of that era are essentially better binned too I think.

 

The 980X/990X is not worth it especially if the comparable Xeon is much cheaper. The X5650 (or X5670) is a much, much better deal than a 990X or X5690.

[Firewrath9]

Get a 960 for 100$ or a 380/280x

[Lotus]

Also, if you're going to upgrade the CPU, get a Westmere Xeon like the X5660 instead of the i7-990x. You can still hit high clock speeds with BCLK Overclocks and they've got the same architecture and core count as the 990x without costing ridiculous amounts.

 

That being said, the single-threaded performance, even when overclocked over 4 GHz, is not going to be as good as a modern CPU. It'll do fine in gaming, but I'd really only bother if you need the extra 2 cores.

 

Are you currently overclocking your i7-930?

[LienusLateTips]

Upgrade the GPU to something newer, then get a X5650.

[Lotus]

You can pick up a Xeon X5670 for $30.

[Mooshi]

I have the same financial Dept, but the rules are whoever brings in the cash makes the ultimate decision. 

[me_in_va]

8 hours ago, Lotus said:

Also, if you're going to upgrade the CPU, get a Westmere Xeon like the X5660 instead of the i7-990x. You can still hit high clock speeds with BCLK Overclocks and they've got the same architecture and core count as the 990x without costing ridiculous amounts.

 

That being said, the single-threaded performance, even when overclocked over 4 GHz, is not going to be as good as a modern CPU. It'll do fine in gaming, but I'd really only bother if you need the extra 2 cores.

 

Are you currently overclocking your i7-930?

Yes, it is over clocked to 3.36GHz. I think the stock clock speed is 2.8GHz.

 

Gaming isn't really on the plate for this machine. like I said, I do a little Minecraft. But only when time allows and I am in the mood. I'm not really into gaming. The main improvement I am looking for is in FCS. I also have Adobe CS5 on this machine and it gets some fair use as well. Just not as much as FCS.

[me_in_va]

Thanks for the replies. A lot of you have said that I should change out the GPU. It is working fine for what I do. I'm not really much into gaming. This machine is primarily an editing computer. As I stated, I run FCS on it. I also have Adobe CS5 on it. They both run fine so all I am looking for is a boost in performance to make rendering go a little faster.

 

I'll have to do some research to see if either software package would take advantage of 6 cores or if they are limited to using only up to 4 cores. I know that FCS only looks for the first four gig's of RAM and no more. So the 12GB I have doesn't get used to its fullest with some of the programs in that suite. And for the CS5 suite, I have no idea if RAM or CPU cores are limited by the software.

 

Currently I am leaning toward the Xeon chips as they are priced better than the i7's. The specs on the Xeon's look pretty good and more importantly, the motherboard is compatible with them (or more correctly, the CPU's are compatible with the motherboard).

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Xeon 56xx line vs the i7-990x? Did you try both? What differences did you find?

 

Thanks,

Me_In_Va

[Stefan Payne]

12 hours ago, me_in_va said:

The i7 990x is the 'highest' spec CPU that works on the same socket in the ix-core family.

Are you a collector?

If not, thet CPU makes no sense because its too expensive.

 

The Xeon version is more easily available and thus cheaper. As mentiond the higher speced X56 series is like 50 bucks and like the same CPU...

[LienusLateTips]

4 hours ago, me_in_va said:

Does anyone have any experience with the Xeon 56xx line vs the i7-990x? Did you try both? What differences did you find?

Just check to see if your motherboard support and then buy. Simple as that.

 

You should still upgrade your GPU though, for more VRAM.

[ScionRay]

I just upgraded both my x58 systems to xeon's.  I was running a i7-990x and an i7-980 I also have a i7-970.   I would say go for it on the xeon side, I'm getting way better performance out of those xeons.  I got x5675 running @ 5ghz  on a H-100i  Asus mobo.  I still have my other chips and they are great.  I do see the difference though, my cooling is more stable and my OC's are more stable as well.  I'm about to buy a x5670 to replace my i7-970.  I've been told also to buy a newer system but these babies still run great and are still doing the job I want them to do.  I have the insides updated running SSD's and the mothers I have are usb 3.0.  (I do get slow speeds out my front side usb 3.0 though, so not sure if that is just my mobo's or drivers but windows 10 keeps saying I have the latest drivers?) I would get another x5675 but my Evga sli lite doesn't support that xeon.  I have a 2 1080's and a 780ti for graphics cards in these systems. I can play anything I want, I haven't had anything drop below 60fps at max settings in 4k yet so I'm happy.  Here is something I thought about because I was going to OC my cpu's and why I went with x5675 it has a 95w TDP the I7-990x has a 130w TDP just like the x5690.  So not sure if you are going to OC your cpu's but just something to think about.  Also going from 8 to 12 cores on these old guys for editing or multitasking is worth it. I had a i7-950 before I upgraded it and built those other systems.  Plus the prices for 1366 xeons is so cheap you can't go wrong.  I hope you upgrade you will like it.  Good luck