Is it worth maxing out the CPU On a Dell Optiplex 3010?

[Scott_130]

Hello so I'm buying the Dell optiplex 3010 with most likely the I5 3470 Or 3570. These machines apparently support the I7 3770 But is it worth upgrading? I'm gonna be playing GTA 5 Med-high settings with mods most likely and Euro truck ultra settings.

It'll be paired with a 1050ti and 8GB DDR3.
Would it be worth upgrading or shall i just stay with the I5?
Thanks

 

[zyh1987]

How much can you get 3770? If it’s around 50-100, then I suppose it’s wroth upgrading. Anything over, I would suggest putting the budget on a better graphic card like a good psu and 1060, And keep them both for the next platform upgrade.

 

[t53186]

You could go to the dell support site; http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04?c=us&l=en&s=bsd Input the service tag and Dell will give you all the exact options available with that PC. You will find what's supported.

 

[Scott_130]

Just looked bit too expensive. The I5 Don't seem bad performing so I'll probably keep it.
I can always upgrade in the future if i wanted.

 

[velocityg4]

Did you already buy the Optiplex? It's probably going to be cheaper to buy a used computer on eBay with an i7 already installed or equivalent Xeon. Rather than buying one with an i5 and upgrading it.

Just a quick perusal shows there isn't much price difference between a mini tower desktop with an i5-3570 or an i7-3770. With RAM, Hard Drive and booting into Windows.

 

[Scott_130]

Yah. I'll keep looking around for some pcs.

 

[velocityg4]

Here's a pretty good deal.
HP Z220

 

[Scott_130]

Had a look around. There's some good workstations around but i'm from the UK So pc prices tend to be more expensive around here on the secondhand market

 

[velocityg4]

Had a look around. There's some good workstations around but i'm from the UK So pc prices tend to be more expensive around here on the secondhand market

You can also look at Ivy Bridge and later Xeon servers and workstations. If core count and ghz is the same as an i7 model. Speeds should be comparable. For example a Xeon E3-1270 V2 should be equal to an i7-3770. Intel reused model numbers on a few generations so pay attention to V2, V3, V4 and no V listed.

Just note that many don't support integrated graphics. So, make sure it includes a GPU. Also if they use DDR3 server memory (ECC, Registered). Used DDR3 server RAM is much cheaper than DDR3 desktop RAM. So, you can save a lot of money on RAM upgrades. If you don't care about appearance or noise. 4U rack pulls are often relatively cheap and decked out with RAM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Ivy_Bridge-based_Xeons

 

[william p]

Dell workstations are a good way to go. T3500 is the sweet spot for those. Look around in here to see what they can do.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/throttlestop-overclocking-desktop-pcs.235975/
or here
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Dell-Precision-WorkStation-T3500--/2522

 

[Scott_130]

Given the T3500 A look the I5 Seems to beat the Xeons found in it in terms of performance

 

[william p]

Here's one of the overclocked ones. The result gets buried due to a weak GPU hurting the overall score.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/7540614

 

[Scott_130]

Impressive. Knowing me i'd probably damage it since I'm terrible with overclocking sadly.

 

[william p]

Here in the US and Canada the local recyclers have piles of these, and they cost a bunch to ship. So walking in and buying one is the way to go. But in the UK that might not be the situation. Any way it's an option to be aware of.

 

[Scott_130]

Free PC's in the UK are hard to come across as it's the law to dump computers around.

 

[william p]

They aren't quite free but supply and demand makes them <$100.

 

[velocityg4]

Note that the T3500 is power hungry using the Nehalam architecture. They might support a slighlty better Westmere I know they updated the T5500 but am uncertain if they did so for the T3500. I'd stick with Sandy Bridge and later due to improved energy efficiency. Preferably Ivy Bridge due to PCIe 3.0 support and lower TDP. Since you'll be gaming. They also benefit from a generally higher clock rate per core over Nehalem/Westmere. Especially in quad core models LGA 1155 models.

The HP Z200 and Dell Precision T1650 are good models. Each should be equal to an i7-3770
Z200 Listing
T1650 Listing

Here is a slightly faster T1650 with an E3-1270 V2 and 16GB RAM

Here is another excellent example
32GB RAM Z200

For a little more. You can even get a Haswell based Xeon.
Dell Precision T1700

I think all of these are located in the UK. Although I'm not seeing a serious price advantage over Lenovo, Dell and HP with the i7-3770, i7-4770 or i7-4790. They just usually have more RAM.

 

[william p]

The recommended T3500 CPUs are the Westmere Xeons. The advantage LGA1366 has over 1156,1155 is 3 channel RAM support. It was a high powered platform from the start.
https://youtu.be/skV9exEDM3w