Upgrade CPU or MoBo in Gateway DX4860

[StupidPlant]

I have a Gateway DX4860-UB33P that I use for photo editing and producing music, and maybe occasionally playing the odd game. It's worked well for me the past five years or so, but obviously it needs some upgrading being that old. I installed an Nvidia Geforce GTX 750 and a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, both of which made a big improvement. Now the bottleneck seems to be the CPU, which is a i5-2320. From scouring the internet, I've determined the most powerful CPU the motherboard can accommodate is an i7-2600. The question is, would that relatively easy upgrade make a noticeable difference, or would I be better served to take on replacing the motherboard and getting a newer CPU? I'd like to keep the budget under $300, which from a quick ebay search looks like it would work for the i7 or a mobo/CPU combo. I'd appreciate any advance. Thanks!

 

[voltoid27]

You can actually install Ivy Bridge CPUs with a BIOS update, so you can pop a Core i7-3770 in there:

http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/drivers-downloads (just select the DX4860 from the menu then go to BIOS/Firmware and pick the second BIOS option, I think you have to pick between Ivy Bridge and USB 3.0 support or UEFI support)

Compared to the 2320, the 3770 should be anywhere between 23 and 43% faster (except for integrated graphics performance, but who cares when you have a GTX 750) according to http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/425/Intel_Core_i5_i5-2320_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-3770.html Compare that to the i7-6700, which is 40-72% faster http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/421/Intel_Core_i5_i5-2320_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-6700.html

I personally would go for the BIOS update and 3770, simply because if you go Skylake you'd have to either risk running at a higher-than-optimal memory voltage for a DDR3L board or buy new memory for a DDR4 board, in addition to the board itself and the new CPU. You could also go Haswell, or heck, even Broadwell...I guess...but the gains Haswell makes over Ivy Bridge don't justify the cost of buying a board AND CPU.


TL;DR: Update your BIOS, get an i7-3770, and get 23-43% better performance on average.

 

[StupidPlant]

Thanks for the response!

I'm not sure if I can update the bios. According to one thread I came across (http://community.acer.com/t5/Gateway-eMachines-and-Packard/dx4860-ub33p-need-correct-p03-a3-bios-rom-says-its-not-the-right/td-p/352614) I have the most recent bios available for my computer. It also sounds like just installing an i7-3770 without updating the bios wouldn't work. I might not have the same issue that poster did when he tried to install the i7-3770, but I'd rather know for certain before buying one. While that's just one person saying it didn't work, I haven't found anyone saying they did successfully.

Another thread I found raises the same issue (http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2183505/upgrade-cpu-gateway-dx4860.html), but the original poster never wrote back to say if it worked or not. Those were the only two sources I could find dealing with a DX4860 and Ivy Bridge.

 

[voltoid27]

Hmm, maybe you'd have to mod the existing BIOS to make it work, who knows. If you go for an i7-2600, the gain is 16-32% over the 2320, which isn't too far off from the 3770 but still not very impressive. To put it in perspective, the cheapest i7-2600 I see on eBay right now is $152.45 shipped. A brand new i7-6700K plus an H170 mobo plus 2x8GB of cheap DDR4 will run you about $460 for 48-93% faster performance, and even higher if you overclock. Of course, there are tons of permutations on these calculations but you get the idea. Ultimately, I can't tell you which route to take, I can only give you as much relevant info as possible to help you decide.