Question Cpu upgrade for Socket 1156

RealSmoke

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Jul 31, 2019
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Hey i'm currently using a intel core i3-530 and i've been looking for a upgrade. I don't have a big budget so i can't upgrade the motherboard, it's a socket 1156 / Socket H1 intel motherboard.

Pc is a medion ms-7616

And i'm not sure which cpu i should pick as a site says it supports i3 i5 i7 and xeon cpus. I3 560 max I5 680 max I7 880 max Xeon X3480 max
Which should i pick? Which offers biggest difference and which offers a good difference but for the cheapest price?
 
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It does have pretty good single thread performance but i think i'll pick a quad core xeon, as they are cheap and have 4 cores compared to the 2 cores of the i5
This may be a step backwards depending on if you need these extra cores or not as the processor may actually 'feel' slower. Plus, you will need to make sure you have a discrete video card as the onboard video won't work anymore due to the xeon not having built-in video:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/90/Intel_Core_i5_i5-680_vs_Intel_Xeon_X3480.html
 

RealSmoke

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Jul 31, 2019
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This may be a step backwards depending on if you need these extra cores or not as the processor may actually 'feel' slower. onboard video won't work anymore due to the xeon not having built-in video:
True. But the gpu is not a problem currently have a msi gt 330 soon upgrading to asus gt 1030.
So you'd recommend the i5-680? what about the i7? And i'm not sure if i need all the extra cores, i mostly play games that are < 2010 though i would like to play fifa 20.
 
True. But the gpu is not a problem currently have a msi gt 330 soon upgrading to asus gt 1030.
So you'd recommend the i5-680? what about the i7? And i'm not sure if i need all the extra cores, i mostly play games that are < 2010 though i would like to play fifa 20.
Good, so you've got that covered. Depending on if the games you're playing need more cores or more single thread speed. If you don't have enough single thread speed, you'll end up bottlenecking the gpu if it's fast enough.

But I will say this much, moving from the i3-530 and GT 330 to any faster processor and a 1030 will be a huge improvement. :)
 
With the same TDP you can easily use the same cooler. :)

I'm actually going to be doing the same upgrade from an i3-540 to an i5-680 on one of my systems. :)

That really isn't much of an upgrade, both the i3 540 and i5 680 are dual core CPUs with hyperthreading. The only difference is the i5 will be clocked a bit higher and has TurboBoost. You could get the same results overclocking your i3 instead. If you need more processing power on the same socket, the i5 750 or 760 are the actual quad core CPUs, but they don't have integrated graphics so you would need a dedicated GPU, same if you went to the i7 8xx series.
 
That really isn't much of an upgrade, both the i3 540 and i5 680 are dual core CPUs with hyperthreading. The only difference is the i5 will be clocked a bit higher and has TurboBoost. You could get the same results overclocking your i3 instead. If you need more processing power on the same socket, the i5 750 or 760 are the actual quad core CPUs, but they don't have integrated graphics so you would need a dedicated GPU, same if you went to the i7 8xx series.
I don't think you've looked at the i5-680--it's single thread performance exceeds all of the processors in that generation:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-540-vs-Intel-i5-680/738vs771

And the base clock on the i5-680 is 3.6Ghz, so that means a 540 would have to be overclocked by 500Mhz. And then it still won't have the i5's turbo of nearly 4Ghz. It's going to be a noticeable upgrade.

The i5-760 would actually feel the same as the i3-540 I already have and is a higher TDP than my setup can handle:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-540-vs-Intel-i5-680-vs-Intel-i5-760/738vs771vs773

The i7-880 is too high a TDP as well, but is a bit of a boost from the i3-540, and still not close to the i5-680 in terms of single thread performance:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-540-vs-Intel-i5-680-vs-Intel-i7-880/738vs771vs833
 
Don't get a 2 core even if its higher clocked as nowdays most apps are optimized for 4+ cores. The i7 880 is only 13% slower in single threaded but is 57% faster in multicore. You can simply overclock it to make up for the 13% single core performance and even more.
 
Don't get a 2 core even if its higher clocked as nowdays most apps are optimized for 4+ cores. The i7 880 is only 13% slower in single threaded but is 57% faster in multicore. You can simply overclock it to make up for the 13% single core performance and even more.
It depends on what you are doing as that 13% can be felt. Of course, if you're using a lot of cores, the real 4 cores makes a difference too if you can handle the TDP. Overclocking will also push the heat, so adequate cooling would be important.

Frankly though, if you're wanting even low-end modern performance levels from this architecture, it's not going to be possible so an upgrade makes more sense.
 
Fakes. Watch out for fakes. There were some that sold at those prices on ebay during the holidays at the end of last year, but I don't think those were real either or the seller's haven't been caught yet.

It took me 2 years to figure out my dual x5460 processors are fakes. I just happened to run across an Intel testing program that worked on that generation. And they were the going price on ebay and were used.
 
Fakes. Watch out for fakes. There were some that sold at those prices on ebay during the holidays at the end of last year, but I don't think those were real either or the seller's haven't been caught yet.

It took me 2 years to figure out my dual x5460 processors are fakes. I just happened to run across an Intel testing program that worked on that generation. And they were the going price on ebay and were used.
Wow, fake CPUs? Do they work at least?

The seller I posted on AliExpress seems legit as he has good reviews. He sold 122 Xeons X3470.