i7 920 Gaming

[THFourteen]

Anybody still running an i7 920? 

 

I want to build a machine for light TV gaming in the lounge @1080p (i can use steam streaming from my main PC, but i also want the option to just play stuff directly on the machine)

 

I have an i7 920 + 12GB RAM lying around unused, so was planning to use that with a 1050Ti.

 

My other option is a G3258 + 8GB of RAM, but I reckon i'd get more out of the i7 920? I could upgrade the CPU on this motherboard, but even an i5 is over £100 on ebay here.

 

Cooling wise i have a noctua nh-d14 so i should get some mild overclocking on the CPU.

[Droidbot]

It'd do better than a G3258 when OC'd, and you have room for really cheap 6core Xeons that would smash the poor Pentium into the floor. 

[Ground]

Do you already have an x58 motherboard? If so, which one? You could get a 32nm CPU for that and overclock that one (those overclock much better and stay cooler than the 920), should be able to handle pretty much anything. Quad cores with Hyperthreading can be had for under 10 bucks, and 6 cores for 30.

[THFourteen]

Hmmm ok now you guys are putting money spending ideas in my head :-)

 

I have a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (IIRC), looking at the website, i am pretty sure i have revision 1.0 because i bought it on launch, it supports only the below Xeons : 

Intel	Xeon W3690	3.46GHz	12MB	Nehalem-WS	32nm
Intel	Xeon W3680	3.33GHz	12MB	Nehalem-WS	32nm
Intel	Xeon W3580	3.33GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3570	3.20GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3550	3.06GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3540	2.93GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3520	2.66GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm

 

So i guess the two 32nm ones the best i could do, and the W3680 is about £80 on ebay at the moment.

 

The 980X / 990X are still over £100!!

[BloodyWaters]

The i7 920 will be fine. 

[THFourteen]

6 minutes ago, BloodyWaters said:

The i7 920 will be fine. 

I think i'll start with it anyway, i can always change out the CPU if i really have to.

 

i mean what kind of fps am i going to get out of a 1050ti anyway even with a better CPU, not that great i imagine.

[Ground]

The thing with the cheap *56** Xeons is that they are meant for dual CPU setups - thus not officially supported by the motherboards. Googling around, there are some people who ran the combination of a *56** xeon on your motherboard, so they should run. 

If you just want to try it out, e5620/e5630/e5640 (Quad Cores, 32 nm) can usually be had for quite cheap (and use a lot less power than the i7 920 and stay much cooler(my e5620 at 4.2 GHz ran much cooler than my i7 930 at 3.6)), and the interesting 6 cores start with the e5649 up to the x5660 (the others are too expensive I find). 

[panther420]

16 minutes ago, THFourteen said:

Hmmm ok now you guys are putting money spending ideas in my head :-)

 

I have a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (IIRC), looking at the website, i am pretty sure i have revision 1.0 because i bought it on launch, it supports only the below Xeons : 

Intel	Xeon W3690	3.46GHz	12MB	Nehalem-WS	32nm
Intel	Xeon W3680	3.33GHz	12MB	Nehalem-WS	32nm
Intel	Xeon W3580	3.33GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3570	3.20GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3550	3.06GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3540	2.93GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm
Intel	Xeon W3520	2.66GHz	8MB	Nehalem-WS	45nm

 

So i guess the two 32nm ones the best i could do, and the W3680 is about £80 on ebay at the moment.

 

The 980X / 990X are still over £100!!

Usually the manufacturers don't list support for the Xeon X56xx series, but most x58 boards will work with them after a bios update with the updated Westmere microcode. The X5650 is $20 on ebay (not sure in pounds) and is 6 core /  12 thread with great overclocking capability. I would highly recommend you get either that or the x5660 ($30-$40 on ebay) for a slightly higher clock speed out of the box which will grant you better clocks in the end. Even if it doesn't work in your board, the x5650 is such a cheap investment that it is not a huge loss. Just update your bios like I said. Also, this website contains a list of motherboards and how well they support the x5650. I'm not sure where exactly their data is coming from (maybe user experiences?), but basically each board has a compatibility score. It looks like your board doesn't have a great score, but maybe you could still use it as a guideline.

[Tiwaz]

32 minutes ago, THFourteen said:

 

games like BF1 already use up to 8 threads so that cpu might be a very viable option, though i am not sur eif 80 pounds would be worth it, except if you already have the mobo

[THFourteen]

29 minutes ago, panther420 said:

Usually the manufacturers don't list support for the Xeon X56xx series, but most x58 boards will work with them after a bios update with the updated Westmere microcode. The X5650 is $20 on ebay (not sure in pounds) and is 6 core /  12 thread with great overclocking capability. I would highly recommend you get either that or the x5660 ($30-$40 on ebay)

Thanks - looking at ebay, the X5650 is £25 here... plus it'll be fun trying to get it to work and overclocking it right?

 

@Ground - good point, i've had a google around also now, and i see at least one person claiming to be running X5650 on the same motherboard as I have...

[BloodyWaters]

1 hour ago, THFourteen said:

I think i'll start with it anyway, i can always change out the CPU if i really have to.

 

i mean what kind of fps am i going to get out of a 1050ti anyway even with a better CPU, not that great i imagine.

I have the 1050 Ti with a worse CPU and I get good frames. 

[asand1]

I don't have a gigabyte board, but I have talked to folks that run X5650s in the Gigabyte board with no issues. Depending on what games you want to play I would upgrade to a six core and OC, or just get an X5680 and run it stock at 3.3Ghz.

[asand1]

6 hours ago, Ground said:

The thing with the cheap *56** Xeons is that they are meant for dual CPU setups - thus not officially supported by the motherboards. Googling around, there are some people who ran the combination of a *56** xeon on your motherboard, so they should run. 

If you just want to try it out, e5620/e5630/e5640 (Quad Cores, 32 nm) can usually be had for quite cheap (and use a lot less power than the i7 920 and stay much cooler(my e5620 at 4.2 GHz ran much cooler than my i7 930 at 3.6)), and the interesting 6 cores start with the e5649 up to the x5660 (the others are too expensive I find). 

X56xx Xeons have the ability to run in tandem but it is not a requirement, just as ECC RAM is an option but not a requirement.

[Intelfreak]

Dont worry. If you oc that I7 920 to around 3.6-4 GHz, then you will be just fine with that GTX 1050 TI.

 

For until at the begining this year i ran a I7 920 @ 4 GHz and games ran brilliant with two GTX 970 in SLI. Now i have I7 980X @ 4.3 GHz and a GTX 1080 TI. That is a freaking awesome setup.

 

Take a look here for inspiration. But for saving some money get a 6 core Xeon in sted of I7 6 core cpu. Xeon models like X5650/5660 are way cheaper and overclock more or less just as good.

 

I7 920 with GTX 970 SLI

 

 

I7 980X with GTX 1080 TI

 

 

[bimmerman]

Former i7-950 user on the Gigabyte UD3R board, now running a X5675 xeon. Great upgrade. Just make sure to update your BIOS with the most recent revision before swapping processors around.

 

[THFourteen]

Just dropped in to say thanks for all the help on this one.

 

I'm now the proud owner of a Xeon X5650 which so far seems to be running nice and stable @ 4.0ghz!

 

Running Prime95 now to test stability, but so far it hasn't gone higher than 68C in the last 30mins. 

 

Waiting for the 1050Ti to arrive on Monday, and then this will be a nice little gaming system for my living room! Just in time for PES 2018 in 2 weeks!

[IKnight]

Sweet. Another x5650 with gigabyte board-owner. 

[asand1]

We need to start an Official X58 Xeon club thread.