CPU upgrade from i5-2300?

[t-ray]

I have an off-the-shelf PC that I purchased about two years ago. It is a gateway DX4850-27eu. Full product specs are here (max mem capacity is 16gb, unlike the 8gb listed): http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/model/PT.GBL02.017

I would like to upgrade the CPU. I don't care about graphics - I am looking for purely raw cpu performance. I don't want to change out the mobo or any other components - so what is the best likely cpu that I can use on gateway's h67 mobo?

I've done some cursory research, but I haven't found many people upgrading the cpu on this specific model. I did find some guy that had trouble getting an i7-3770 to run on his gateway h67 mobo (not sure if exact same mobo or not) due to a bios issue.

So I'm thinking the best I can get is an i7-2600 or 2700k. It's my understanding that the h67 chipset won't overclock, so is there any reason to get the 2700k?

I'm mostly worried about single core performance. Just software development, and no gaming at all.

Is there any reason an i7-2xxx won't run on this board?

 

[sm625]

If you can wait for haswell you could probably save money by just simply selling the machine and buy a new one. Then as a bonus you would get usb 3.0 and a few other features that you lack currently.

 

[t-ray]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that is very unlikely to happen. Wife controls the purse-strings, and that grip is quite tight.

 

[Maximilian]

Buy a new wife then buy haswell.

Tbh if its single core perf you want you will be sorely disappointed with any non-overclockable upgrade you do.

I would just deal with what you have for now, that i5 is no slouch at 3.1ghz. The best you can do is a 2700k which goes to 3.9ghz. I dont know if the ivy bridge 3xxx series will work, OEM bios support might not be there.

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=3452

Those bios updates mention nothing about ivy bridge and predate its launch so yeah i think you may be stuck with 2700k as the highest you can go.

 

[escrow4]

I bet your wife loosens the purse strings for more pointless shoes or dresses, no?

I'd stick with what you have. Its enough for any encoding/rendering, sure not the fastest, but more than sufficient. I'd skip Haswell and build a new system based around Broadwell.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Buy a new wife then buy haswell.

Tbh if its single core perf you want you will be sorely disappointed with any non-overclockable upgrade you do.

I would just deal with what you have for now, that i5 is no slouch at 3.1ghz. The best you can do is a 2700k which goes to 3.9ghz. I dont know if the ivy bridge 3xxx series will work, OEM bios support might not be there.

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=3452

Those bios updates mention nothing about ivy bridge and predate its launch so yeah i think you may be stuck with 2700k as the highest you can go.

I tend to agree. If you look at base clock the 2300 is 2.8ghz and a 2600 is 3.4 I believe. or only about 20% improvement. Depending of how multithreaded you workload is, you might see an additional benefit from hyperthreading, but unless you workload is extremely time critical, probably not worth the upgrade.

 

[t-ray]

I'm not doing anything critical - mostly just compiling java code, starting/stopping jboss, stuff like that. I don't do many things that would span cores (our codebase is rather poor in that regard) - the majority of my wait time at present is waiting for the dev environment to do things or waiting on ant scripts to complete.

I might just put the money towards an SSD instead. Thanks for the feedback folks.

 

[SPBHM]

if you buy a p/z motherboard ($80 at least I think), you can run this CPU at 3.3GHz

the 3.2/3.3GHz ivy bridge (3470) will cost you $200.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'm not doing anything critical - mostly just compiling java code, starting/stopping jboss, stuff like that. I don't do many things that would span cores (our codebase is rather poor in that regard) - the majority of my wait time at present is waiting for the dev environment to do things or waiting on ant scripts to complete.

I might just put the money towards an SSD instead. Thanks for the feedback folks.

Oh, god. You don't have an SSD yet? D:

Buy that instead. You'll fall in love with your CPU again.

 

[Torn Mind]

Ivy Bridge CPUs don't work on "6" series chipsets without a BIOS upgrade. That's why people have some trouble. If Gateway actually released a BIOS update, then you can upgrade to an Ivy Bridge CPU without issue. (Ok, I checked after posting, and there isn't any BIOS update)

Sandy Bridge CPUs should drop in without any issues.