Hey all,
My Gigabyte X58 mobo finally died. It's been running since about 2010, and traversed 3 countries with me. No shock that the CPU pins finally had enough. Motherboard performance degraded slowly over time, until not it's completely unstable and has lost 3 of it's 6 DIMM slots. I've reseated the CPU on straightened pins enough times that's it's not worth the effort anymore.
Current setup:
Motherboard: GA-X58A-UD3R REV 2.0 (Dead)
CPU: i7-920 (4.2Ghz overclock on air)
RAM: 24 GB DDR3 (6x4GB sticks, not sure what clock)
GPU: 2x Sapphire R9-290 (in Crossfire)
My rig, when last stable, was able to game at the 1080p quality that I'm happy with. Last intensive games I was playing were FarCry Primal and Shadow of Mordor, usually at high to Ultra settings, 40+fps. These numbers may still have been affected by system instability.
I have 2x R9-290s that were running in Crossfire. The second one was acquired as an attempt to improve performance when my system started to get laggier, but I feel that may have actually been my motherboard slowly dying, since my single 290 was sufficient for the same games when I first bought it. In fact, since I'm aircooled, the crossfire setup could be heat-throttling me.
Main application is gaming at 1080p, perhaps with Eyefinity on 3(1024x1280) monitors. The Eyefinity is just if manage it with the 290s, I have no goals to upgrade just yet. This post tells me my current OC'd i7-920 shouldn't bottleneck much.
Which would be the best option?:
1) Buy a used X58 motherboard and continue using my i7-920. Main concern here is that I dislike buying used boards of that age, and I have no clue if OC-ing my processor for 4 years will have affected the processor's own performance. ~$200 CAD
2) Buy a new X58 branded ASUS/GIGABYTE motherboard (not sure if legit, since shipping from China), and carry on as normal. Least component changes. ~$350 CAD
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3
3) See if I can get a decent DDR3 motherboard/CPU combo for under those prices. I'm not too sure where the market sits right now; I haven't been CPU hunting in years. I've looked at the AMD FX-8350, but even that is 5 years old now. My system requirements don't justify any of the newer intel processor architectures. Would like to stick with DDR3, because of how much RAM I have sitting around.
Any and all advice appreciated here!
My Gigabyte X58 mobo finally died. It's been running since about 2010, and traversed 3 countries with me. No shock that the CPU pins finally had enough. Motherboard performance degraded slowly over time, until not it's completely unstable and has lost 3 of it's 6 DIMM slots. I've reseated the CPU on straightened pins enough times that's it's not worth the effort anymore.
Current setup:
Motherboard: GA-X58A-UD3R REV 2.0 (Dead)
CPU: i7-920 (4.2Ghz overclock on air)
RAM: 24 GB DDR3 (6x4GB sticks, not sure what clock)
GPU: 2x Sapphire R9-290 (in Crossfire)
My rig, when last stable, was able to game at the 1080p quality that I'm happy with. Last intensive games I was playing were FarCry Primal and Shadow of Mordor, usually at high to Ultra settings, 40+fps. These numbers may still have been affected by system instability.
I have 2x R9-290s that were running in Crossfire. The second one was acquired as an attempt to improve performance when my system started to get laggier, but I feel that may have actually been my motherboard slowly dying, since my single 290 was sufficient for the same games when I first bought it. In fact, since I'm aircooled, the crossfire setup could be heat-throttling me.
Main application is gaming at 1080p, perhaps with Eyefinity on 3(1024x1280) monitors. The Eyefinity is just if manage it with the 290s, I have no goals to upgrade just yet. This post tells me my current OC'd i7-920 shouldn't bottleneck much.
Which would be the best option?:
1) Buy a used X58 motherboard and continue using my i7-920. Main concern here is that I dislike buying used boards of that age, and I have no clue if OC-ing my processor for 4 years will have affected the processor's own performance. ~$200 CAD
2) Buy a new X58 branded ASUS/GIGABYTE motherboard (not sure if legit, since shipping from China), and carry on as normal. Least component changes. ~$350 CAD
Example 1, Example 2, Example 3
3) See if I can get a decent DDR3 motherboard/CPU combo for under those prices. I'm not too sure where the market sits right now; I haven't been CPU hunting in years. I've looked at the AMD FX-8350, but even that is 5 years old now. My system requirements don't justify any of the newer intel processor architectures. Would like to stick with DDR3, because of how much RAM I have sitting around.
Any and all advice appreciated here!
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