i7 920 to i7 4790k upgrade

[xhunter97]

My current lga 1366 MB died on me... so it is time for an upgrade. I haven't stayed in touch with what has been out there and it has been interesting to read up on it. I am leaning on upgrading to a 4790k. I have The cpu, mb and ram picked out but then I read about x99 boards coming out. Will the 4790k last me another 4 years like the i7 920. I had not complaints with it until my mb broke lol. I also just recently upgrade to a pair of 660 ti's I got for cheap.

 

[Zircoben]

My current lga 1366 MB died on me... so it is time for an upgrade. I haven't stayed in touch with what has been out there and it has been interesting to read up on it. I am leaning on upgrading to a 4790k. I have The cpu, mb and ram picked out but then I read about x99 boards coming out. Will the 4790k last me another 4 years like the i7 920. I had not complaints with it until my mb broke lol. I also just recently upgrade to a pair of 660 ti's I got for cheap.

Yes, the 4790K will last for more than that. It is an excellent CPU that is really at the top of the consumer CPU world right now.

I would pick up a Z97-HD3 motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128715

It isn't one of the killer gaming motherboards, but it should work well and allow you to overclock at a pretty low price.

Z97 will also let you upgrade to Broadwell, Intel's upcoming CPU generation, at the end of the year.

Hope that helps!

 

[logainofhades]

It should easily last you that long.

 

[InvalidError]

Since CPU performance has been mostly stagnant for the past three years particularly at the high-end, I would not worry about modern mid/high-end PCs feeling under-powered any time soon for most everyday and gaming uses.

On the other hand, Skylake next year brings a ton of platform updates that are likely to give many people an itch to upgrade even if they do not actually need it.

 

[xhunter97]

Thanks for the input. I think I have a sever case of always looking to see what comes out next. I thought about waiting to upgrade for some price drops... but I really want to get into the Battlefield Hardline Beta! lol

 

[Arksun]

I'm in the same boat. Have a i7 920 still working (but not overclocked) and trying to decide whether to go with the 4790K, or wait for Haswell-E.

What puts me off a bit with the Haswell-e is that its also the first of the DDR4 memory usage, so new territory. Stability is absolutely paramount for me (will be using the machine for DAW use) so going 4790K might be the safer option. Plus the latency timings on those first DDR4 modules don't seem all that great and will probably need more time and development to improve.

..but then there's having 6-8 cores with much greater L2 cache and ability to run way higher total memory amount...

decisions decisions....

 

[InvalidError]

I thought about waiting to upgrade for some price drops...

Price drops? When was the last time Intel did any significant amount of those? 15-20 years ago, AMD and Intel were slashing prices so quickly and aggressively that they had to offer refunds to retailers for unsold stock. I do not remember Intel announcing significant price drops in many years. Instead, they simply discontinue chips and you end up with a chip launching at $193 getting discontinued 1-3 years later with a list price still at $193.

The i7-920 launched at $284 and Intel still listed it at $305 by the time it got discontinued... so the price actually went up $21 instead of down.

Same thing happened with Ivy Bridge with most popular i5/i7 models going up $10-20 after launch. I paid $165 (CAN) for my i5-3470 in late 2012 and the current price is $190 on Newegg.com. ($220 CAN on Newegg.ca)

Waiting for Intel to drop prices on stuff may take a long time.

 

[xhunter97]

I thought about waiting to upgrade for some price drops...

Price drops? When was the last time Intel did any significant amount of those? 15-20 years ago, AMD and Intel were slashing prices so quickly and aggressively that they had to offer refunds to retailers for unsold stock. I do not remember Intel announcing significant price drops in many years. Instead, they simply discontinue chips and you end up with a chip launching at $193 getting discontinued 1-3 years later with a list price still at $193.

The i7-920 launched at $284 and Intel still listed it at $305 by the time it got discontinued... so the price actually went up $21 instead of down.

Same thing happened with Ivy Bridge with most popular i5/i7 models going up $10-20 after launch. I paid $165 (CAN) for my i5-3470 in late 2012 and the current price is $190 on Newegg.com. ($220 CAN on Newegg.ca)

Waiting for Intel to drop prices on stuff may take a long time.

Yeah you are right. After looking around I found some 4770k's going for more then the 4790k preoder price. I really want to order something right now because I hate being without my PC lol

 

[Aarkane]

I am currently on a i7 920 myself and was pondering the same questions. Go with a new build around 4790K, or wait for the X99 platform. I decided on the 4790K because, as stated, it will be the first gen of a new platform (unproven). It will also cost twice as much right out of the gate. Lastly, I would not benefit from a new 6 core processor with my gaming. I plan on playing Star Citizen which Chris Roberts has touted will be a hardware hog. But he has never said anything about the game requiring any specific number of cores or if it will utilize hyper threading. With that, I decided to go with the 4790K on a proven platform, which should last a good while. My 920 has lasted ~6 years now and is still going strong. But it is simply time for an upgrade...and the 4790K has shown to be the best prospect I've seen in years.

 

[Arksun]

I went with the 4790K option in the end as well, just don't want to risk being one of the first with the all new DDR4. I'll wait for the tech to mature a bit more first.

 

[InvalidError]

I went with the 4790K option in the end as well, just don't want to risk being one of the first with the all new DDR4. I'll wait for the tech to mature a bit more first.

What risk? Fundamental DRAM architecture has not changed in 30+ years. DDR4 is only a handful of minor tweaks over DDR3/2/1.

And unlike DDR3/2/1 which started where the previous standard left off (200-400, 400-800, 800-1600), DDR4 makes a 50% leap from 1600 to 2400MT/s which will eliminate the usual awkwardness of entry-level next-gen memory failing to beat standard previous-gen memory.

The only thing that will really need maturing is availability to bring prices down to mainstream level.

 

[oxiide]

I went with the 4790K option in the end as well, just don't want to risk being one of the first with the all new DDR4. I'll wait for the tech to mature a bit more first.

I doubt DDR4 is a concern, but I still think the i7-4790K is a great upgrade from the old -920. Its already been four generations, you owe yourself an upgrade. I don't think the -4790K will leave you wishing you had something faster.

Haswell-E/X99 will be very expensive and its likely at least several months away.

 

[Arksun]

I went with the 4790K option in the end as well, just don't want to risk being one of the first with the all new DDR4. I'll wait for the tech to mature a bit more first.

What risk? Fundamental DRAM architecture has not changed in 30+ years. DDR4 is only a handful of minor tweaks over DDR3/2/1.

And unlike DDR3/2/1 which started where the previous standard left off (200-400, 400-800, 800-1600), DDR4 makes a 50% leap from 1600 to 2400MT/s which will eliminate the usual awkwardness of entry-level next-gen memory failing to beat standard previous-gen memory.

The only thing that will really need maturing is availability to bring prices down to mainstream level.

Both the price AND the latency imho. Have you seen how high the CAS latencies are for the first lot of consumer grade DDR4 sticks?. The transfer speed is only one aspect of memories effectiveness, latency is just as important for certain applications. DDR4 needs to mature a bit more first before realising its full potential. We've had years of motherboards design to bring the best out of DDR3 in terms of both speed and stability. I'd rather go with something more established as being rock solid. than be a guinnea pig with the next-gen.

But yeah I'm pretty happy going from a 920 to 4790K,should serve me well for at least a few years and hopefully I can just plonk an 8-core Broadwell chip into the Z97 mobo in the future. If not no biggy.

 

[InvalidError]

Have you seen how high the CAS latencies are for the first lot of consumer grade DDR4 sticks?. The transfer speed is only one aspect of memories effectiveness, latency is just as important for certain applications.

No-frills DDR3 is 1600-10-10-10 (6.25ns latency) so DDR4 1600-15-15-15 (also 6.25ns latency) does not change anything latency-wise but it does make memory bursts complete 50% faster after that first byte so you save 1.67ns on an 8-cycles/16-words burst.

Yes, this is slower than enthusiast DDR3 2400-11-11-11 but DDR4-2400 is only the starting point for DDR4 running at stock 1.2V instead of the overclocked DDR3's overvolted 1.65V. Not exactly a fair comparison

There is no doubt there will be much faster DDR4 DIMMs available by the time PCs that can use them launch. Even more so if DIMM manufacturers take the liberty of cranking RAM voltage to ~1.35V.