Maximum PC

Hi,

Relative newbie - only two systems under my belt in 10 years and looking to upgrade my second build in advance of MW3/BF3 (yes, those overplayed plebeian FPS'). My mobo is an Asus P6TSE (X58) with an i7-920 and evga gtx 285. I plan on upping the vc and have a good sense what I want there but I have fallen out of touch on what procs I should consider. I (naively) assume there has been a second generation of processors released since I've gone ignorant of most hardware news after building the rig.

Appreciate advice,

Chris

Intel i7-920
Asus P6TSE
Corsair ddr3 1600 6gb
EVGA GTX 285 SC
Patriot Torqx M28 128gb
Corsair H50 cooling
Corsair 750HX PSU
Thermaltake Element S
Win 7 64

Well.. The GOOD news is that there have been TWO new generations of Core iX CPUs released. They are the Core i3,5 & 7 500,700 & 800 series "Lynnfield" CPUs, and the Core i3, 5 & 7 2000 series "Sandy Bridge" CPUs. The BAD news is that they're NOT compatible with each other OR the Socket 1366/X58 platform! The Lynnfield CPUs run on the Socket 1156/P55 platform, and the Sandy Bridge CPUs run on the Socket 1155/P67,Z68 platform. The OTHER bad news is that Intel will soon be releasing the Socket 2011/X79 platform to replace your 1366/X58 rig.

The best advice I can give you is to overclock your 920 and wait to see how X79 shakes out. No matter what, you'll have to replace your mobo, CPU & RAM. The 1366 platform uses tri-channel memory, the 1156 platform uses dual channel & the X79 platform uses quad channel memory (since the CPUs are just rebadged Xeons). So if you were to ditch your X58, you could just use 2 DIMMs for 4GB on an 1155 system, or you could get another kit for your X58 system and use 4 DIMMs for a total of 8GB in a quad channel board and keep the other 2 in case of a failure. Personally I would just overclock your 920 and upgrade to a GTX 560Ti or Radeon 6950 for now. Or if your budget allows, a GTX 570 or Radeon 6970. Then you can see how the new stuff plays out and then decide if a platform upgrade is prudent.

The i7 950 is the most intelligent upgrade from a 920. To get any better you're playing with Extreme procs and I'd never recommend doing that. I've found that the 920 holds it's own against the 950 in reality and it's really the platform itself that holds it back. Sandy Bridge is just a better path all around, even if it means moving that killer x58 build down to another user in the home or selling it off.

Sounds radical, but it's really not. I've got pretty much the same build (Version one P6T deluxe though) and it barely holds it's own against an iTX 1155 build, let alone the 2600K build. So going back to your post, yes there's newer 1366 procs, but I don't feel they'll suit you much this late in the Tick-Tock timeline. What you're missing is USB3.0, S/ATA 6G AND drive caching the z68 offers currently for that SSD to spread it's wings, 8G dual channel memory is on the cheaper side, and a proc upgrade just doesn't do much for you really at this point in time.

I'd just dance with the one you brought for now, as it's a really solid box still.

Got it... seems consensus is stick with my processor and oc.

Thanks for the advice,

Chris

Well, if you have some cash to build and find a want to get better (not bench racing mind you...actual usage seems lacking), then there's very affordable options. Knowing what I paid early on for the x58/920/12G, what you can get now at half the price still makes my head spin. I'd just really be sure you're feeling the machine is letting you down to make a purchase rather than watching everyone else run around with their bling.

I know this thread's a little old, but I just saw it. I had my x58 system in the same situation. I looked around and found it wasn't too wise to upgrade this close to a new chipset's release, but I really wanted a boost. What did I do? I kept all the little pieces and replaced the mobo. I replaced my Rampage II Extreme with an inexpensive Asrock board that was designed so much later that it has USB3 & SATA3. I replaced a $430 board with a $130 one and now my system boots off an OCZ SSD! My Velociraptor 300GB is now secondary. lol
Windows rates my system as 7.4 (using HD4850) now instead of 5.9!