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Message
Looking to upgrade processor - advice sought
Posted on 4/30/15 at 4:48 pm
Posted on 4/30/15 at 4:48 pm
When I built my computer a few years back, I could only afford an i3 processor. Now I am looking to upgrade.
Here's my MB: the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4
I've seen 1156 socket processors with exceedingly high prices but this one is exceedingly reasonable. What am I missing? Why is this one hundreds of dollars cheaper than the others I've found?
Here's my MB: the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4
I've seen 1156 socket processors with exceedingly high prices but this one is exceedingly reasonable. What am I missing? Why is this one hundreds of dollars cheaper than the others I've found?
2
Posted on 4/30/15 at 5:29 pm to Bard
quote:
could only afford an i3 processor
Which one? Just like this one is an "i7-860," yours should have a set of 3 or 4 digits in addition. It's important because there are, I believe, 3 separate generations of Core i# CPUs on the 1156 socket. This one is falling in price because it was released nearly 6 years ago.
Can I ask why you are wanting to upgrade? For the price of this cpu, if you aren't using an SSd, you'll almost definitely get better results by adding a 240gb (or bigger, but you can definitely find nearly all sub-240gb sata III models worth buying for general consumer use for under the price of the cpu you linked). There are a few exceptions, of course. If you provide the cpu model (you can see it on the Windows Experience page and Device Manager in Windows, if im not mistaken), whether or not you use an SSd, and what type of performance increase you're looking for, someone around here should be able to help you out in short order.
Posted on 4/30/15 at 6:12 pm to Bard
Doesn't matter what i3 you have. It's a Clarkdale for sure. Don't upgrade your CPU to another 1156 CPU. Waste of money unless you can get that i7 for like $75 and actually NEED it. The IPC is low compared to modern processors. Even a 6-core AMD (FX-6300) outperforms that i7 you linked. In fact, a $100 Haswell i3 outperforms that i7. For a home build, never, ever, ever build on the Intel platform with the intent to upgrade the CPU. By the time the CPU is worth upgrading, Intel will have changed sockets. In this case, they've changed sockets twice.
Take Hopeful Doc's advice if you don't have an SSD. If you do already have an SSD, collect some hard data on your CPU usage, as well as RAM, when you're running specific programs. Monitor temperatures to make sure nothing is throttling. Be absolutely sure it's the CPU bottlenecking your work. Too often, people see their PC underperforming and automatically assume it's the CPU.
Take Hopeful Doc's advice if you don't have an SSD. If you do already have an SSD, collect some hard data on your CPU usage, as well as RAM, when you're running specific programs. Monitor temperatures to make sure nothing is throttling. Be absolutely sure it's the CPU bottlenecking your work. Too often, people see their PC underperforming and automatically assume it's the CPU.
Posted on 4/30/15 at 10:20 pm to Hopeful Doc
quote:
Which one?
530, 2.93GHz
Running 12GB RAM
quote:
Can I ask why you are wanting to upgrade?
I'm starting to see lots of pausing in the two video games I'm running (DCUO & Marvel Heroes). I don't think my video card (GeForce GTS 250 w/2GM VRAM) is the culprit as I don't notice the issue outside of online games (movies, browsing) and I haven't noticed any dropped pings so I don't think it's my ISP (had UVerse in my old house, moved in December, new place has Cox, issue followed me to the new place & ISP).
Running 2 SATA HDD's.
This post was edited on 4/30/15 at 10:22 pm
Posted on 4/30/15 at 11:00 pm to Bard
quote:
I don't think my video card (GeForce GTS 250 w/2GM VRAM) is the culprit as I don't notice the issue outside of online games (movies, browsing)
There are some things wrong with these words up here. Browsers use much more CPU than GPU. And depending on your browser/decoder/player, your movie-watching may be more CPU-dependent than you think. Basically, had you said browsing and movies were exhibiting similar problems, I'd be more inclined to look at CPU/motherboard/RAM issues. But since movies and browsing aren't particularly tough on your hardware to begin with, it's more inconclusive. Also, it's hard not to cringe at the GTS 250, a card that was underpowered even when it was released. But if it gets the job done, no problem. Your game settings may be pushing it or your CPU too far.
You need to watch your CPU usage while gaming and see its highs and lows and whether or not they have any correlation with the frame drops. Monitor your GPU usage at the same time. And your frame rate. Adjust graphics settings and see how it affects all three.
That i3 well exceeds the minimum requirements for both games, and exceeds recommended requirements. For Marvel Heroes, your GPU barely passes muster for the minimum requirements (vram is not the issue or the determining factor in this case). Your CPU could still be the culprit, but you need to do the proper detective work or you might throw money at the wrong thing.
Posted on 5/1/15 at 7:18 am to ILikeLSUToo
Will do my due diligence, thanks for the response! 
Posted on 5/4/15 at 2:20 pm to Bard
Over the weekend I picked up a nice 480GB SSD and an EVGA GTX 750ti (there was a 950 begging for me to buy it for just $100 more instead but I've been bitching at the wife about spending money so I had to leave it there :( ).
Tried swapping the vid cards out first. With just the 750 in, the computer would BSOD the moment Windows tried to load (error code was all 0's).
-Uninstalled the 250 drivers (750 drivers wouldn't install without the card present). Same issue.
-Booted up with both cards seated, video works for the 250 but the system doesn't even recognize that the 750 exists (tried swapping power cables between cards, no change).
-Maybe it's Windows issue? Went back to the 250 then swapped out the HDD for the SSD, spent a stupid amount of time looking for my Windows key, best I could find was an Upgrade key as well as my full version of Vista.
-Skipped the key and installed Windows. Running smooth as silk. Running smooth as silk. Tried putting the 750 in, same issue comes back.
-Called EVGA, they suggested updating my BIOS. Odd choice but okay. BIOS was v3, current version is v11... maybe this will work after all... Nope! On reboot the computer won't even POST!
Went to Gigabyte's site, the info from the manual on the board did not work for resetting the BIOS (it has a reset and clear CMOS buttons). The wife and I were scheduled to take her father and grandmother to dinner and a movie so the project was put on hold (and anyone that works on computers knows how aggravating it is to drop everything when you are "in the zone").
-Got back, tried removing the CMOS battery, left it out while I watched GoT. Same issue. Long series of VERY rapid beeps.
-Time for bed. @#*&_@*(&@
-Working on it today, found a ridiculously easy work-around to force Gigabyte's Dual BIOS if jumpers of the buttons on the board do not work: hold the power button on the tower in until the system boots then shuts down. Power it on again and it forces the original BIOS from ROM to overwrite the flashable BIOS. Reboot again and voila!! *whew!*
So here I am now, waiting for my thumb drive to finish formatting (I used Gigabyte's Windows flashing program the last time, going to use Q-Flash this time but the drive the file is on has to be FAT, not NTFS) so I can try once again to flash my BIOS up to the latest version in the hopes it will bring my mobo and video card together in harmony.
While waiting, anyone have any thoughts on what else it could be other than:
ID-10-T error
A short between the keyboard and the chair
BIOS
The video card being bad right out of the box.
Other info:
-MOBO is Gigabyte P55M-UD4 (rev 1)
-500w power supply
-12GB DDR3 RAM
-Only things plugged in during these tests were keyboard and mouse (both wireless) and the monitor (VGA for the old card, DVI through a VGA adapter for the new card).
Tried swapping the vid cards out first. With just the 750 in, the computer would BSOD the moment Windows tried to load (error code was all 0's).
-Uninstalled the 250 drivers (750 drivers wouldn't install without the card present). Same issue.
-Booted up with both cards seated, video works for the 250 but the system doesn't even recognize that the 750 exists (tried swapping power cables between cards, no change).
-Maybe it's Windows issue? Went back to the 250 then swapped out the HDD for the SSD, spent a stupid amount of time looking for my Windows key, best I could find was an Upgrade key as well as my full version of Vista.
-Skipped the key and installed Windows. Running smooth as silk. Running smooth as silk. Tried putting the 750 in, same issue comes back.
-Called EVGA, they suggested updating my BIOS. Odd choice but okay. BIOS was v3, current version is v11... maybe this will work after all... Nope! On reboot the computer won't even POST!
Went to Gigabyte's site, the info from the manual on the board did not work for resetting the BIOS (it has a reset and clear CMOS buttons). The wife and I were scheduled to take her father and grandmother to dinner and a movie so the project was put on hold (and anyone that works on computers knows how aggravating it is to drop everything when you are "in the zone").
-Got back, tried removing the CMOS battery, left it out while I watched GoT. Same issue. Long series of VERY rapid beeps.
-Time for bed. @#*&_@*(&@
-Working on it today, found a ridiculously easy work-around to force Gigabyte's Dual BIOS if jumpers of the buttons on the board do not work: hold the power button on the tower in until the system boots then shuts down. Power it on again and it forces the original BIOS from ROM to overwrite the flashable BIOS. Reboot again and voila!! *whew!*
So here I am now, waiting for my thumb drive to finish formatting (I used Gigabyte's Windows flashing program the last time, going to use Q-Flash this time but the drive the file is on has to be FAT, not NTFS) so I can try once again to flash my BIOS up to the latest version in the hopes it will bring my mobo and video card together in harmony.
While waiting, anyone have any thoughts on what else it could be other than:
ID-10-T error
A short between the keyboard and the chair
BIOS
The video card being bad right out of the box.
Other info:
-MOBO is Gigabyte P55M-UD4 (rev 1)
-500w power supply
-12GB DDR3 RAM
-Only things plugged in during these tests were keyboard and mouse (both wireless) and the monitor (VGA for the old card, DVI through a VGA adapter for the new card).
Posted on 5/4/15 at 2:41 pm to Bard
Most of the stuff you did was ID-10-T, but the video card causing BSOD right of the box is either the mobo bios or the video card itself being bad.
Posted on 5/4/15 at 3:50 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
Most of the stuff you did was ID-10-T
Posted on 5/4/15 at 4:06 pm to Bard
Well, mostly what sounds like a botched bios flash initially.
Posted on 5/8/15 at 12:27 pm to ILikeLSUToo
Finally got it all fixed.
After some correspondence exchanged back and forth with the fine folks at Gigabyte, it seems the old BIOS didn't like my new card and the new BIOS doesn't like my old card (they didn't know why, even when provided with the CHECKSUM error).
New SSD: working
New video card: working
Games: running smooth as silk, even with all graphics turned to max
Thanks for pushing me toward a solid state drive. I've heard they make a difference, but had never had one so I had no idea the difference would be so great!
After some correspondence exchanged back and forth with the fine folks at Gigabyte, it seems the old BIOS didn't like my new card and the new BIOS doesn't like my old card (they didn't know why, even when provided with the CHECKSUM error).
New SSD: working
New video card: working
Games: running smooth as silk, even with all graphics turned to max
Thanks for pushing me toward a solid state drive. I've heard they make a difference, but had never had one so I had no idea the difference would be so great!
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