i7 920 upgrade (or downgrade) to i5 4570

[1hello]

I have a dell 435mt which has a i7 920 stepping cpu. This computer does not have USB 3.0 nor SATA III.

From everyone's opinion what should I do?

Should I just upgrade the motherboard to a sabertooth x58 board that has the USB 3.0 and SATA 3

or should I go for a haswell i5 4570 (non k) and a new board (lower end).

My budget is about $300-350 bucks. .

I feel the current machine is bottle necked by the SATA II, as I have a SSD drive. I have a paid version of windows already, so that will not be a factor either.

Your opinion is greatly appreciated

 

[beginner99]

while you will get higher benchmark scores with SATA III, I doubt you will notice a difference in real-life usage.

The only scenario were you might notice if you copy large files from one ssd to another one.

USB 3 is another story but I would not upgrade just because of that. you could get eSATA instead for external harddrives.

 

[dmoney1980]

upgrade the motherboard to a sabertooth x58 board that has the USB 3.0 and SATA 3

do not upgrade to this motherboard, it's a waste of money (I had this board about 2 years ago)! the SATA 6 ports are not intel chipset, so you end up with a subpar marvell sata 6 g chip that doesn't perform very well. For usb 3, you can always pick up a pci expansion card if you really need usb 3.

 

[_Rick_]

There's an ASUS USB3/SATA combo card. Nehalem platform has plenty of PCIe, so I would recommend that (ASUS U3S6), if you're happy with the computing throughput.

CPU-wise Haswell would be a nice upgrade, memory bandwidth should remain similar, only I/O-wise you lose some PCIe lanes (but gain PCIe3.0, so overall PCIe bandwidth will probably be rather similar)

 

[1hello]

Thanks for your help and input guys. I will look up that combo card rick. dmoney, i read that is the best x58 board, thats why i selected that.

 

[dmoney1980]

Thanks for your help and input guys. I will look up that combo card rick. dmoney, i read that is the best x58 board, thats why i selected that.

It is a great board no doubt, but hardly worth the investment just for SATA 6 / USB. I'd look for that add on card instead, or do a full fledged upgrade if you have the budget.

What kind of things do you use the PC for?

 

[1hello]

Nothing intensive just some gaming. My thoughts on sabertooth as well was to OC as my chip as it is a d0 stepping. I just feeling my machines still isnt that much faster even though I have a SSD. thanks.

 

[tarmc]

There's an ASUS USB3/SATA combo card. Nehalem platform has plenty of PCIe, so I would recommend that (ASUS U3S6), if you're happy with the computing throughput.

CPU-wise Haswell would be a nice upgrade, memory bandwidth should remain similar, only I/O-wise you lose some PCIe lanes (but gain PCIe3.0, so overall PCIe bandwidth will probably be rather similar)

i think i may have read a review about that combo card, doesnt work properly if its used on a non asus mobo.

personally i prefer the gigabyte boards, might be able to find something decent on ebay with sata 3 support if thats the route you choose

 

[sxr7171]

I went from i920 to 3570K and while performance is better and that's great but the BIG difference was just how much easier it was to build a quiet system with IB. You will notice the same when moving to Haswell. My system is quiet, cool, and uses less power.

 

[tarmc]

Would likely cost alot less to swap out the board and oc the cpu(assuming you havent) im still running sata 2 with a ssd and dont really think its bottlenecking too badly