Should I or upgrade or not.

[Eight08]

Right.

I'm more of a lurker on these forums. But I want some real advice.

I've currently got a Rampage III and a i7 960 - Not extreme just the general one.. and 24 gb of corsair 2000 mhz ram. It's been a great system bar I had a CPU die and replaced under warranty by intel. I'm currently overclocked stable at 4 ghz on 200x20 and I think a touch over 1.3v ( I haven't really tried to get the voltage low low )

I'd like a bit more power and was thinking of throwing in a 6 core xeon

My questions are as follows.

How overclockable is the E5649?

Will say a 4.2 - 4.4 ghz OC on a 1366 6 core xeon be close to a 2600k overclocked to it's limits?

I know that logic suggests I should move platforms.. But I'm pretty happy.. and I figured for not too much money a used E5649 can give me some 6 core goodness... and if I got bored I could always buy a SR-2 and a second cpu just for giggles.

Oh - My cooler is a H100 one set of fans

 

[remember300]

what do you use the machine for?

 

[Eight08]

what do you use the machine for?

gaming - Black Ops II , Flight Simulator X

Also has 2 x Raid cards with 2 Raid Array's hanging off it. Machine runs 24/7

 

[alienware]

Then absolutely no to the above.

BTW FWIW the 2600k is faster that the 980x in nearly everything. It's only encoding movies and other stuff that the 980x wins.

 

[remember300]

As alien said
yeah keep your CPU maybe OC it if you can
the xeons are just number crunchers not so good for things like games
im sure TTL did a vid or a comparrison on that?

Then absolutely no to the above.

BTW FWIW the 2600k is faster that the 980x in nearly everything. It's only encoding movies and other stuff that the 980x wins.

 

[Eight08]

Then absolutely no to the above.

BTW FWIW the 2600k is faster that the 980x in nearly everything. It's only encoding movies and other stuff that the 980x wins.

Ok.

So the 2 additional cores given I have a fair amount of supplementary hardware won't help my cause?

will I gain anything at all going from my 4 core at 4 ghz to a 6 core at 4 ghz?

 

[remember300]

with the additional proccesors it means each one is taking more of the work load, but if you intend on gaming most games are just getting used to quad core most wont support 6, as far as im aware.
but just look at comparrison charts and you will see what i mean

Ok.

So the 2 additional cores given I have a fair amount of supplementary hardware won't help my cause?

will I gain anything at all going from my 4 core at 4 ghz to a 6 core at 4 ghz?

 

[alienware]

Ok.

So the 2 additional cores given I have a fair amount of supplementary hardware won't help my cause?

will I gain anything at all going from my 4 core at 4 ghz to a 6 core at 4 ghz?

You would gain something but not in what you've told us you're doing.

If you use tools such as Handbrake and Virtualdub to encode videos? you'll get them done quicker. You may also render things faster in programs such as Maya. However, at a desktop level just doing normal stuff and playing games? you won't benefit hardly anything.

What comes into it for you tbh is core performance and thread performance. The Xeon is pretty much the same as what you have now only with more cores. You'd be far better off with either an overclocked 3570k or if you insist on having HT then get a 3770k and overclock that also.

The main selling point for Sandy and Ivy was the thread performance. It pees on everything else including the old Gulftown from the 980x and 990x.

 

[I Hunta x]

Either stick with what you have or move to a 1155 setup tbh, the only way i would recommend swapping to a hexcore 1366 is if you picked it up for silly cheap and even then there wouldnt be much in it performance wise out side of encoding ect, Only reason i got mine was because i managed to pick it up for 300 pounds back in Mid 2011 otherwise i woulda just gone with an i7 950 for like half that.

EDIT: and even with swapping to 1155 the only noticeable difference other than a few fps here and there are your power bills would probably drop noticeably if the machine is on 24/7 tbh as the 1366 chips like to suck down the juice when clocked.
A new gpu might serve you better than a new cpu for similar costs on the raw fps side tho depending what your using atm.

 

[Vicey]

I don't think you would notice a difference in your games by upgrading the CPU. What are the specifications of your entire system?

 

[Eight08]

I don't think you would notice a difference in your games by upgrading the CPU. What are the specifications of your entire system?

I have a GTX580

use win7 64 bit

24gb 2000 mhz ram

i7 960 @ 4.0

2 x dell h700 (2 x 8 drive raid 6 array's) with 2x SSD cache drives on each.

6 x intel x25 40gb Raid 0 SSD on the stock raid controller.


I'd kind of love to just get another little bit of performance out of the rig as I'd prefer to hold off on upgrading till 8 - 10 core i7's come out.

My main gaming is Flight Sim X and it's really cpu hungry.

I also do often spend time unpacking alot of 1080p movies while still doing other things i.e unpack 1080p while watching one.

I have access to a single E5649 Xeon for not very much money. Hence the thinking of switching to it.

 

[Eight08]

Oh.. also have a corsair HX850 & HX520 for power.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Mine as well hold off till Haswell. If you are upgrading then mine as well get the latest tech.

 

[Deejeta]

just upgrade your gpu if your just gaming. it will be awhile yet until you will need anymore cpu grunt than you already have. it would be a large outlay of cash for very little improvement.