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Should I upgrade? You decide.

Is it time to upgrade from Lynnfield?

  • No, stay with your i7 860, but O/C it.

  • Get a Sandybridge...massive O/C and no heat issues like Ivy.

  • Get an Ivybridge...most current technology

  • Wait till Haswell, your processor is fine for now.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Batmeat

Batmeat

Senior member
I've got an 1156 i7 860 @ stock speeds. I've overclocked it in the past and it hits 3.7Ghz. It's a Lynnfield processor.

I upgrade only to stay ahead the price curve. If you wait to long, your old equipment(mobo, cpu....etc) becomes harder to sell for a decent return to use against the cost of upgrading. I'm already at a loss, cause socket 1156 is discontinued.
 
Last edited:
Charleskoierok said:
Nobody can give a meaningful answer to this question without knowing why you want to upgrade.
Click to expand...

I upgrade only to stay ahead the price curve. If you wait to long, your old equipment(mobo, cpu....etc) becomes harder to sell for a decent return to use against the cost of upgrading. I'm already at a loss, cause socket 1156 is discontinued.

Edit to my OP to reflect this.
 
Full system spec?

No point in leaving it stock if you have overclocking headroom (if you want more perfomance which I assume you do to even bother starting this thread)
 
On my home system I am using an Intel® Core™ i7-860 and will most likely continue to use it for another year. If you are really looking to upgrade if you haven't done so already I would add in an SSD as a boot drive. That will make more of difference on boot times and access times then anything you could do with the processor.
 
Puppies04 said:
Full system spec?
Click to expand...

i7 860 @stock - Corsair H70
MSI P55 GD65
8Gb GSkill Ripjaw Gaming Series...can't remember the timings
Vertex 3 120Gb boot - WD Black 1 TB program and storage
GTX 470 @ stock

had a custom water cooled setup for a long time. To much hassle though buying the tubing, coolant, 3 phase radiator, fans, waterblocks, resevoir...etc Just easier to go with the H70 and leave the graphic card stock.
 
If your reason is to get a lot of value out of your 860, I wouldn't bother. That ship has sailed, and I disagree with the above post. I see all manner of folks trying to unload 920s on the board for the price of a used 2500k. Not gonna happen. I'd say the most you'd get for a used 920/860 is maybe $120. In the case of the 860 with its superior temps/power use, you might as well keep it.

Now, let me give you a counterpoint. I had already decided to wait on Haswell with my 860 sitting pretty, but I got tired of weak game performance on my HTPC with an e8400, so I scored a cheap used 2500k setup and will be moving everything down the line and selling off the e8400/MB/ram. Different situation - I was buying used to go for value on the other end of the buy/sell divide, and I had no interest in getting rid of the 860.

By the way, clock-for-clock, a 2500k is about 3-4% faster than an 860, and a 3570k would be about 10% faster. If you had your 860 at 3.7, it was already as fast or faster than either chip, so obviously you'd need to overclock to get something out of the "upgrade". Does that change your mind at all?
 
Batmeat said:
I upgrade only to stay ahead the price curve. If you wait to long, your old equipment(mobo, cpu....etc) becomes harder to sell for a decent return to use against the cost of upgrading. I'm already at a loss, cause socket 1156 is discontinued.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't think this is a very wise strategy. It makes a lot more sense to continue using your equipment as long as it is fitting your needs, and then upgrade when you feel you need to.

Don't forget that you also need to take into account the time and effort involved in buying and selling and upgrading and testing the gear. Incessant churn is probably a net negative, unless you are one of those people who really enjoys doing all of those things.
 
Why is everyone waiting for Haswell? People always wait wait wait. What if Haswell turns out to be not worth the wait? By the time Haswell hits, it will be old news and you'll be wondering if you should wait for the die shrink or the E version.
Grab an Ivy bridge, delid the thing, stuff some cold jello in there and OC it to 4.8.
 
Basicly OC it and wait for Haswell.

I went from i7 860 to i5 3570K. Huge upgrade, but I also run stock on both. GF now uses the i7 860. So we also gonna buy a Haswell system. Upgrading from Lynnfield today is a 50/50.
 
CharlesKozierok said:
To be honest, I don't think this is a very wise strategy. It makes a lot more sense to continue using your equipment as long as it is fitting your needs, and then upgrade when you feel you need to.

Don't forget that you also need to take into account the time and effort involved in buying and selling and upgrading and testing the gear. Incessant churn is probably a net negative, unless you are one of those people who really enjoys doing all of those things.
Click to expand...


I do it so I always have a top of the line computer. I find the time I put into building, tweaking, researching stuff therapeutic.
 
Termie said:
If your reason is to get a lot of value out of your 860, I wouldn't bother. That ship has sailed, and I disagree with the above post. I see all manner of folks trying to unload 920s on the board for the price of a used 2500k. Not gonna happen. I'd say the most you'd get for a used 920/860 is maybe $120. In the case of the 860 with its superior temps/power use, you might as well keep it.

Now, let me give you a counterpoint. I had already decided to wait on Haswell with my 860 sitting pretty, but I got tired of weak game performance on my HTPC with an e8400, so I scored a cheap used 2500k setup and will be moving everything down the line and selling off the e8400/MB/ram. Different situation - I was buying used to go for value on the other end of the buy/sell divide, and I had no interest in getting rid of the 860.

By the way, clock-for-clock, a 2500k is about 3-4% faster than an 860, and a 3570k would be about 10% faster. If you had your 860 at 3.7, it was already as fast or faster than either chip, so obviously you'd need to overclock to get something out of the "upgrade". Does that change your mind at all?
Click to expand...

Yeeeeahhh....they sell for about $180 on ebay. Lynnfield has held up much better than Nehalem.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...144?pt=CPUs&hash=item2ebf4fd2a8#ht_500wt_1182

I agree that the 920 has crap resale value -- recently had to dump one I had for $100 after it sat listed for $120 for ages.
 
Intel17 said:
Yeeeeahhh....they sell for about $180 on ebay. Lynnfield has held up much better than Nehalem.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...144?pt=CPUs&hash=item2ebf4fd2a8#ht_500wt_1182

I agree that the 920 has crap resale value -- recently had to dump one I had for $100 after it sat listed for $120 for ages.
Click to expand...

Wow, didn't realize there was such a big difference...must be because there are so many dual-core owners on 1156, whereas the 920 was the weakest chip you could possibly buy on 1366, so no one would ever upgrade to it. Maybe I should sell my 860 after all...

😉

OP - if you think you can get $180 for your 860, by all means buy a 2500k or 3570k. Don't know about the jump to 2700/3770k.
 
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