CPU upgrade question

[CanadaOne 36]

Yea im not telling you to get an i7 but im saying for 50$ less you can get an i3 and 1156 motherboard which sets you up later for a i7-875K for example. And you will have the DDR3 RAM already, and it's less than just that Quad!

I'm going to NewEgg your advice and see what da dillio is?But I still have to replace my 4GB of DDR2, no?

[CanadaOne 36]

Okay, so NewEgg.ca puts an i5 CPU at about $200 and an L1156 Asus MB at about $150. (I thought someone here said L1156 MBs were over $300?)Hmmm... Just saw that 4GB of DDR3 RAM is less than $100. That's pretty cheap.So... compared to my present E6700/4GB DDR2, an i5 with 4GB of DDR3 (instead of a 9650) is what kind of increase? We talking big time smiles here, or what?

[dazz 69]

Okay, so NewEgg.ca puts an i5 CPU at about $200 and an L1156 Asus MB at about $150. (I thought someone here said L1156 MBs were over $300?)Hmmm... Just saw that 4GB of DDR3 RAM is less than $100. That's pretty cheap.So... compared to my present E6700/4GB DDR2, an i5 with 4GB of DDR3 (instead of a 9650) is what kind of increase? We talking big time smiles here, or what?

The only differences between I5 7xx series and I7 9xx are: Hyperthreading: totally useless for FSX, some other apps benefit from it, maybe a 15-20% extra performance on apps that use 8 threads (not so many at all out there)Tripple channel: utter fraud that only "forces" you to get 2 extra GB of RAMAnd 2 more cores with the massively overpriced 980x, that very few apps use anyway (certainly not FSX) Only thing about the 980x is that it overclocks better (say 10%)And you can even run FSX very well on a I3 (dual core), the performance hit between an Intel I3 dual and a I5 quad is maybe 10% in FSXJust get 1600 rated ram in case you overclock some time in the future to make sure that ram doesn't limit your OC and also because ram speed has some impact on FSX performance too.OCing is actually what will give you the biggest performance boost, and I3 and I5 overclock better than qx9650

[CanadaOne 36]

Well, this is getting interesting.So you are saying the better of the i3 CPUs or the lesser of the i5 CPUs are good enough? I thought it was i7 or else you were getting a "Celeron grade" CPU.As I am unlikely to OC (though I might, my Antec 900 case has great ventilation), is there a particular CPU you would suggest? Am I better off with the best i3 or the worst i5?Again, going from my E6700, is this going to be a nice difference or a HUGE gain?

[luckyman 0]

Well, this is getting interesting.So you are saying the better of the i3 CPUs or the lesser of the i5 CPUs are good enough? I thought it was i7 or else you were getting a "Celeron grade" CPU.As I am unlikely to OC (though I might, my Antec 900 case has great ventilation), is there a particular CPU you would suggest? Am I better off with the best i3 or the worst i5?Again, going from my E6700, is this going to be a nice difference or a HUGE gain?

I say go for the i3-530 which is like 112$ and it will be quite an improvement over your dual core!

[CanadaOne 36]

I say go for the i3-530 which is like 112$ and it will be quite an improvement over your dual core!

Really? That squidgly $112 i3 stomps the $350 9650? Fine with me but the prices seem back***ward.But if I have a few extra dollars, is it worth getting a better i3 or going to an i5 that costs around $200, like an i5-650 or 660?Pardon the million questions, but as I said, I have been out of the tech-loop for at least a year and the new nembers are all Greek to me.

[dazz 69]

Watch your step there: I5 6xx are dual cores, just like the I3. They are good, but are much more expensive and not worth the extra money. If you are on a budget pick an I3.The I5 we are talking about is the I5 760 Lynnfield (that's a quad) cheaper than the dual Clarckdale I5's

Really? That squidgly $112 i3 stomps the $350 9650? Fine with me but the prices seem back***ward.But if I have a few extra dollars, is it worth getting a better i3 or going to an i5 that costs around $200, like an i5-650 or 660?Pardon the million questions, but as I said, I have been out of the tech-loop for at least a year and the new nembers are all Greek to me.

[luckyman 0]

Really? That squidgly $112 i3 stomps the $350 9650? Fine with me but the prices seem back***ward.But if I have a few extra dollars, is it worth getting a better i3 or going to an i5 that costs around $200, like an i5-650 or 660?Pardon the million questions, but as I said, I have been out of the tech-loop for at least a year and the new nembers are all Greek to me.

So yea If you have some extra money, a quad i5 is better the a C2 quad and is similar to an i7.But an i3 is still the best deal.

[CanadaOne 36]

So yea If you have some extra money, a quad i5 is better the a C2 quad and is similar to an i7.But an i3 is still the best deal.

Good stuff. Thanks for the help. :Peace:

[CanadaOne 36]

Good stuff. Thanks for the help. :Peace:

I think I'll get the prize for being a major PITA here, but...Over at Tomshardware they have a bunch of performance charts for CPUs and the 9650 beat every i3 and most i5s in every test.So (and leaving aside the future upgrade options), given that the 9650 appears to run as fast or faster than the i3s and most i5s, is the increase in RAM speed and BUS speed on the L1156 MB and the DDR3 RAM going to even things out or make it faster?

[luckyman 0]

I think I'll get the prize for being a major PITA here, but...Over at Tomshardware they have a bunch of performance charts for CPUs and the 9650 beat every i3 and most i5s in every test.So (and leaving aside the future upgrade options), given that the 9650 appears to run as fast or faster than the i3s and most i5s, is the increase in RAM speed and BUS speed on the L1156 MB and the DDR3 RAM going to even things out or make it faster?

Trust me the i3 system will give you really good results for less, read the results bangoman got vs me and Dazzhttp://forum.avsim.n...sx/page__st__50 look at post 57 thats about 53FP/s average with a modest overclock. And the DDR3 ram gives a really really small improvement

[CanadaOne 36]

Well, I've got to tell you, Luckyman, you are making me do my research.For that I thank you.

[luckyman 0]

Just look at the results he even make a table hold on... https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ahq4ws8Rx4gudEtLYlE5ZGdDanc1ZG1WcVdZY1FIMUE&hl=en&authkey=CKrfrI8D#gid=0 And thats even with a low end GPU

[CanadaOne 36]

Just look at the results he even make a table hold on... https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ahq4ws8Rx4gudEtLYlE5ZGdDanc1ZG1WcVdZY1FIMUE&hl=en&authkey=CKrfrI8D#gid=0 And thats even with a low end GPU

Neat. I might have to look into the OC thing. My Antec 900 has great ventilation.I think you've pretty much sold me. So for (about) $450 tx incld., I could get the i3 + MB + 4GB DDR3 RAM. And I'm sure my buddy would give me $125 for my E6700 + MB + 4GB DDR2. So now I'm at $325 paid out. And he'd take my Nvidia 8800GTS 640MB for $75 in a heartbeat, that puts me down to $250 paid out and "frees up" $200 towards a GTX 460.Hmmmm...

[luckyman 0]

Looks like a good rig, when can you get it?The GTX460 will boost you frames, as you've prably seen in the chart.Glad I convinced you to make the best possible upgrade!