Upgrade i7-920, Worth it? (Currently OCd to 4ghz)

[eF.U]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been pondering if I should upgrade my i7-920 to a Xeon, probably a Xeon x5675. 

 

Currently, my 920 can run at 4ghz. I haven't tried pushing it past that since I haven't needed to until I encountered Assassin's Creed Origins.

 

Is it worth the hassle of taking out the heatsink, my processor, and reapplying thermal paste for the "improvement in speed"? How noticeable is the boost in speed?

 

I can't really splurge for a full build right now, so that's out of the question.

 

Any other thoughts, tips or advice?

 

Thanks in advance!

Erik

[Chronified]

Xeon processors aren't unlocked so they won't overclock well, if you can get the multiplier to budge at all. It's pretty likely that the 4ghz you're getting with your 4c/8t i7-920 is going to be better than anything you'll get with a locked Xeon on that platform. 

 

Tbh, the 920 is 11 years old, even a Ryzen 3 2200g would run circles around it. It might be time for you to consider a platform upgrade (motherboard, ram, cpu)

[Stormseeker9]

Have to agree with @Chronified here.

 

especially as in less then a month ryzen 3000 will be released, including new Navi cards and updated cards from Nvidia.

 

good time to have a look for a new build/pc.

[jonrosalia]

i say go for it if you can get it super cheap($20) and OC it to 4ghz its almost as good as a stock ryzen 1600 so you get good cpu performance just going to be missing out on new options but not a bad stop gap cpu for now

[Chronified]

3 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Have to agree with @Chronified here.

 

especially as in less then a month ryzen 3000 will be released, including new Navi cards and updated cards from Nvidia.

 

good time to have a look for a new build/pc.

Adding on, if you're going to do the platform upgrade right NOW, make sure to get a X470/B450 chipset motherboard, they'll be guaranteed to have the BIOS update to unlock 3rd gen Ryzen support, for when a CPU upgrade is due down the line (I always consider the 2200g a temporary CPU for an upgrade path) 

[Stormseeker9]

-nvm-

 

 

[Chronified]

Just now, jonrosalia said:

i say go for it if you can get it super cheap($20) and OC it to 4ghz its almost as good as a stock ryzen 1600 so you get good cpu performance just going to be missing out on new options but not a bad stop gap cpu for now

Don't listen to him, it's not true. Unless you can almost DOUBLE clock speeds on that platform, you'll be coming no-where near to "almost as good as a stock Ryzen 1600". I'm sure if you go run Cinebench R15 @ your 4.0Ghz you'll see that you're long overdue for an upgrade. 

 

[jonrosalia]

Just now, Stormseeker9 said:

those Xeon’s are locked. 

 

 

no its not look it up 

[Chronified]

1 minute ago, jonrosalia said:

no its not look it up 

All that's unlocked is the multiplier and even then adjusting more than 3-4 steps causes unstability in 1st/2nd gen xeon chips. 

Voltage is locked and it'll crash if you even touch it. 

 

I tried upgrading a 1st gen i5 to an xeon yearrrrrrrrrs ago before I switched to my FX 8350. While, yeah, I guess they do "support" overclocking, you're not going to get far. Nothing offered is going to come close to the 4.0Ghz he was able to OC his 920 to, so there's not really an upgrade path to be seen. 

[jonrosalia]

1 minute ago, Chronified said:

All that's unlocked is the multiplier and even then adjusting more than 3-4 steps causes unstability in 1st/2nd gen xeon chips. 

Voltage is locked and it'll crash if you even touch it. 

 

I tried upgrading a 1st gen i5 to an xeon yearrrrrrrrrs ago before I switched to my FX 8350. While, yeah, I guess they do "support" overclocking, you're not going to get far. Nothing offered is going to come close to the 4.0Ghz he was able to OC his 920 to, so there's not really an upgrade path to be seen. 

 stop helping if you dont know what your talking about

[Stormseeker9]

6 minutes ago, jonrosalia said:

no its not look it up 

Well, I withdraw my statement. I googled a bit and did indeed see that some gen’s from Xeon do overclock (not being W/K models). 

 

 

[r2724r16]

28 minutes ago, Chronified said:

Xeon processors aren't unlocked so they won't overclock well, if you can get the multiplier to budge at all. It's pretty likely that the 4ghz you're getting with your 4c/8t i7-920 is going to be better than anything you'll get with a locked Xeon on that platform. 

 

Tbh, the 920 is 11 years old, even a Ryzen 3 2200g would run circles around it. It might be time for you to consider a platform upgrade (motherboard, ram, cpu)

 

20 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

those Xeon’s are locked. 

Please don't comment if you know nothing about this platform. I have an overclocked Xeon X5675, almost every (if not all) Xeon of this platform has an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

[Crash Dummy]

I'm going from a i7 950 up to a Intel Xeon W3680 for the grand total of $55.88usd delivered. I haven't taken overclocking ability into consideration but as far as I'm concerned the base clock increase and 2 extra cores is a substantial upgrade for the price of a meal at a nice restaurant. IPC is obviously not fantastic compared to a brand new CPU but I have confidence that this will still spank the Ryzen 5 2400G in my "main" PC for every day usage for outright grunt.

So yes. It's worth upgrading. Grab the best CPU you can afford for your motherboard. Remember. It's only not worth using anymore if it won't do what you need it to do.

*Edit*
My CPU upgrade choice is based on the OEM list of known compatible CPU's. The W3690 is the highest clocked highest core CPU for my board but was significantly higher in price for 110Mhz (iirc) so I went the next best option at near half the price which is 3.33ghz 6c12t.

[pizapower]

Seems like kids these days don't know that it's possible to overclock locked CPUs on X58 platform.

[SenKa]

X58 is an amazing platform, don't upgrade if it can run all your games well!

 

Also yes, repasting the CPU every few years is good.

[asand1]

3 hours ago, Stormseeker9 said:

those Xeon’s are locked. 

 

 

They bclk overclock very well. My x5680 is running at 4ghz without even trying hard.

 

You can pick up a 6c/12t x5675 for $40 and get 4ghz. Totally recommend.

[Intelfreak]

4 hours ago, eF.U said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been pondering if I should upgrade my i7-920 to a Xeon, probably a Xeon x5675. 

 

Currently, my 920 can run at 4ghz. I haven't tried pushing it past that since I haven't needed to until I encountered Assassin's Creed Origins.

 

Is it worth the hassle of taking out the heatsink, my processor, and reapplying thermal paste for the "improvement in speed"? How noticeable is the boost in speed?

 

I can't really splurge for a full build right now, so that's out of the question.

 

Any other thoughts, tips or advice?

 

Thanks in advance!

Erik

Well if you cant afford a new build. Then i will say, Go for it. I had a I7 920 oc to 4.4 GHz at the end time i had it and replaced it with a I7 980X (I7 6 core is the same as the 6 core xeon just with some features dissable that the xeons has). You will get a boost you can feel. Games will get a FPS boost, just the fact that games these day now can use 6 cores and also get better FPS still with HT on. I cut feel it and i have no regrets replacing my I7 920 for a i7 980X.

 

Just be sure when you overclock X58. higher uncore clock also gives you better performance as well as higher clock ram.

 

To others: Xeon on X58 can indeed be overclock. You just overclock them by BLCK just as with the locked i7 models as I7 920. 6 core xeons typically can overclock to between 4.2 to 4.6 GHz with good cooling. heck if you get one of the two W models, that will be Xeon W3680 or W3690, you even get unlocket multiplier as these two are just rebranded I7 980X/990X. Getting a EVGA SR-2 motherboard will allow you to even overclock two X models xeons at the same time.

 

Xeon overclock. X5670 and a X5675.

 

here is my own old system with first a I7 920 and later my current I7 980X

 

 

My system in userbenchmark.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10037039

 

I even have a m.2 NVMe SSD in my system as a boot drive. That will be Samsung 950 PRO as this SSD has a legacy mode or OPT-rom build in. This means this SSD can work on systems with legacy bios as X58 has.

 

if you still want to know more about X58. look in this thread dedicate to X58:

X58 has been an amazing platform to screw around with. Else i have not been on it for 10 dam years now.

 

All throw im planning on to get a AMD Ryzen 9 3950X setup because i need a CPU that can video convert and work as a light workstation. But i will keep my X58 for nostagic and also as a second/backup pc. I have had to much fun and good memory´s with X58 that i can never sell it. I just know i will regret it short after any way.

 

[wildgg]

4 hours ago, eF.U said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been pondering if I should upgrade my i7-920 to a Xeon, probably a Xeon x5675. 

 

Currently, my 920 can run at 4ghz. I haven't tried pushing it past that since I haven't needed to until I encountered Assassin's Creed Origins.

 

Is it worth the hassle of taking out the heatsink, my processor, and reapplying thermal paste for the "improvement in speed"? How noticeable is the boost in speed?

 

I can't really splurge for a full build right now, so that's out of the question.

 

Any other thoughts, tips or advice?

 

Thanks in advance!

Erik

i have had a x5660 run 4.4ghz at 1.36v for ever and it still works great, i even hammered that thing upto 1.55v to get in the hwbot r15 top10, if you have like a big air cooler (dark rock noctua etc) or a good AIO you can get most of these 6cores xeons around 4,3/4,5 without much work.

 

is it worth? i'd say yes.

 

ps. to the ppl saying these xeons are locked don't know anything about the platform.