Should I or shouldn't I? another upgrade question

[kyp275]

I'm really tempted to go for either an i7 920 or 860, with the current discount available at micro center.

I'm leaning more towards a 860 w/ the P7P55D-E and 8GB of ram, as I'm not looking to do any serious OC on this thing, and I do like the power saving feature. My primary use outside the mundane stuff atm is just playing Eve Online, though with multiple clients running @ 1920x1200, it does tax my current rig.

I guess I'm just not too sure if it's a worthwhile upgrade for me, I know a lot of people w/ Q6600 are either holding off or simply swapping for the Q9550, but unfortunately my mobo doesn't support quad core very well (I have the revision A0, which iirc doesn't sit well w/ the quads).

Any thoughts and suggestions?

 

[fffblackmage]

I wouldn't do it. I don't really think it's worthwhile, considering the high cost versus small gain.

 

[Dadofamunky]

If you have the cash, why not? But I'd go for the 920. The current generation of Bloomies are supposed to be monster OCers - and the best bang for the buck.

 

[kyp275]

I suppose my problem is that I don't really know how much diff. going to quad core will be compared to just dual core, esp. when I start running multiple clients.

 

[Shmee]

believe me, you are right to say the 680i has some problems with quads, or at least quad OCing. I would agree, seems like time to upgrade. And you probably will notice significant gain going to 4 or more threads. I would also recomend the 920 and x58, they do tend to OC pretty nicely, though the 860's arent shabby either. The advantage of the 1366 socket would of course be extra RAM slots, and of course upgrade path to six core processors or crossfire.

 

[Dadofamunky]

I'm getting ready to change out my board to a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P and put a Q9550 in to replace my E8600 after a couple more months. In my case I've already invested in a reasonably current setup so the incremental upgrade should be no problem (and is light on the budget). In your case, the 680i is really long in the tooth. I'd also skip the Core2Quad entirely and go i7 (920 or 860). Your 5850 is a perfect match for that and could go along for the ride, as could your SSD. You have already made good forward-looking investments in certain things.

 

[kyp275]

hmm... damn, x58 boards sure are expensive, lol...

 

[Jimbo]

You will be upgrading anyway, and if you have the money now, and there is a sale now, then I would do it now.

If you already had a Q6600 or better, and were overclocking beyond 3.0 GHz, then I would say to wait a while more.