1K to spend - eying 980x

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vjcsmoke

Supreme [H]ardness
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But I'm not sure it's worth the upgrade. My 920 humms along fine at 4.1 ghz. 4.2 if I give it a little more juice but I like to keep it under 1.3v if possible so I leave it at 4.1 for day to day operation.

But if the 980x allows me to hit 4.5 ghz on water, then it might be well worth it. Thoughts?
 
What do you need a 980x for? Because if you play Minesweeper at 4.5Ghz i don't think it's very worth it.
 
I was going to suggest a GPU upgrade.. then I noticed your current rig really can't get much faster..

Possibly upgrade your audio system? All that high-end gear and a craptastic Creative sound card?

I'm thinking just keep the card but bypass its shitty analog circuity and run digital out to a $1000 worth of home theater grade surround sound gear. Much better upgrade IMO.

Dolby Digital Live will give you 5.1 in games.
 
I have an idea based on your system specs you don't need a 980x.

And it seem like just money to waste so do something productive with it.

1.Put it into savings
2.Invest in some stocks
3.Put it towards your RRSP's
4.Take %25 of it and take your parents out to dinner
5.lol For the love of god don't spend it on anymore computer parts you don't need it.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
I have an idea based on your system specs you don't need a 980x.

And it seem like just money to waste so do something productive with it.

1.Put it into savings
2.Invest in some stocks
3.Put it towards your RRSP's
4.Take %25 of it and take your parents out to dinner
5.lol For the love of god don't spend it on anymore computer parts you don't need it.
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Seriously... Classic example of having more money then sense.
 
[email protected] and GTX 480 SLI and looking for upgrade? seriously why? it still cant run crysis at 2560x1600 if that's what you're looking for!
what about the display? don't tell me you're on less than the res I mentioned.
 
firas said:
[email protected] and GTX 480 SLI and looking for upgrade? seriously why? it still cant run crysis at 2560x1600 if that's what you're looking for!
what about the display? don't tell me you're on less than the res I mentioned.
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I don't play Crysis.
5760x1080 sound demanding enough for ya? ^_^
Well actually 5960x1080 with bezel correction for 6.4M+ pixels.

I'm starting to reconsider now. I think after the 6xxx series comes out we could see some Nvidia price drops. Then I might just grab a 3rd 480 for less! A $400 video card plus a $100 waterblock and I could get about a 29% performance increase in Surround according to Tom's testing.
 
If you're gaming, $1000 for logarithmic gains is a big "No, thanks."
 
vjcsmoke said:
But I'm not sure it's worth the upgrade. My 920 humms along fine at 4.1 ghz. 4.2 if I give it a little more juice but I like to keep it under 1.3v if possible so I leave it at 4.1 for day to day operation.

But if the 980x allows me to hit 4.5 ghz on water, then it might be well worth it. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Here's my suggestion.
Either wait until the 990x comes out, which SHOULD overclock MORE (meaning if the stepping is refined, you should be able to hit 4.5 ghz on air repeatedly), or wait to see how the "high end" versions of sandy bridge pan out. If they can reach 4.8 ghz on air, then there's no need in getting a 980x or 990x.

*edit* I see the above post. In that case, just wait a bit and see what happens with the 990x.
But Socket 2011 5 ghz overclocks on water are just too tempting (Didn't Intel get 4.9 ghz on STOCK cooler on one of their samples?)
 
Getting another GPU won't help much either. Most games run crappy on 3 gpus's. Let alone two gpus's causes stuttering if you get less then 53 fps. I would upgrade the audio, mouse, keyboard, or whatever other tweaks you got left and put the money away for your next upgrade in two to three years. Personally I don't see the need to upgrade for a long time. I got the same system as you and until more games come out utilizing the hardware more now it's not going to happen. Most games are just console ports so we may not see a huge boost in graphics demanding games again for a while.
 
Keep your $1000. Come up with another $500-$1000 and buy a ninja 250/500 used. TONS more fun.
 
is this for gaming? 'cause you could disable HT and get a few hundred more MHz, if it is already disabled you could always go through a few more 920s 'till you get one that can do 4.4GHz+, lol. (it's pretty rare, but I've seen claims of a few that can do 4.5GHz with HT enabled on water)
 
For that price, you could buy a dual socket motherboard, and two quad core xeons which would be much faster than the 980x. We all generally agree that there is no point buying the 980x.
 
For that price, you could buy a dual socket motherboard, and two quad core xeons which would be much faster than the 980x. We all generally agree that there is no point buying the 980x.
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You would then suffer with lower performance in applications that do not make use of all 8 cores / 16 threads or have to overclock the xeons.
 
i wouldnt get a 980x.i did the same thing went from a i7-920 running 4.5GHz and got a 980x and OCed it to 4.5GHz.what i learned was that it makes no difference really,except that i blew a lot of money for nothing.well not nothing i did get the "i want a 980x !! ...out of my system".i had it for two weeks when i decided that it wasnt worth it and put it up FS and got another i7-920.
 
this guy must be stupid
im sorry but people like this i call them stupid

you got an extra $1,000 and you want to spend it on a processor? if you were a eprson that upgrades every 5 yrs..i'd be worth it but coming from a 920?

come on dude, go get your self a life....

go get laid,have some dinner, save it, go on vacation do something but PLEASE dont blow it on a CPU !!
 
I would just save up for a used motorcycle, it is fun and also riding attracts the opposite sex.
 
+1 for hookers and blow.

Find a chick she will help you spend your cash faster than you can make it....

Or start another hobby. Guns, rc cars, paintballing, fishing, motorcycles, and dirt bikes are always fun.
 
i bet you that you could find a yamaha banshee 1987-1992 for $1,000
it is a real fun toy to have!!
 
Glad I'm not alone in recommending a Motorsports solution for the extra $1000 problem :)
 
If you're asking about a 980x, you must have a demanding work load. Personally, I would (and am) waiting for the socket 2011 sandy bridge cpu's (8 cores ftw). But if you are cpu limited on highly threaded work loads, or do a lot of multi-tasking it might be worth it. If you have the money, and think you'll find a 980x rewarding go for it.
 
lockheed2266 said:
For that price, you could buy a dual socket motherboard, and two quad core xeons which would be much faster than the 980x.
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I disagree at least based on current newegg prices.

a dual socket xeon board and associated suppost compoents (those things need TWO eps connectors and often special cases too) will probablly cost a few hundred dolars, that leaves about $300 - $350 for each CPU. That will get you a pair of W3520 which are 2.66 GHz quad-core chips. So with a total of 8 cores at 2.66GHz thats 21.28 cores*gigahertz.

an i7-980x has 19.98 cores*gigahertz

(the above ignores turbo boost but afaict that is pretty minimal on both the W3520 and the 980x)

So in heavilly multithreaded apps the xeons will probablly be a little faster than the 980x while in signle threaded apps the 980x will beat the xeons.

Above the W3520 there seems to be a near doubling in price before you get any more clocksped.

With current prices the only reasons I see to go dual-xeon are either you need a LOT of ram (more than the 24GB you can put in an i7-9xx system) or you need more performance than a 980x can give.
 
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1000 hookers
or
1 hooker

Either way your going to need more money to try and get rid of the diseases from them, but at least you'll have something better to do then waste it on a 1k CPU
 
If you have the extra cash why not.. Hell next year buy a 8 core for grand too. You shouldnt ask anyone here to help you with your money.
 
He's got an i7 D0, he's already invested a while ago. That said, still stands true, not worth investing into it some more, just wait for Sandy Bridge.
 
Get the 3rd GTX480, the water cooling equipment you mentioned, and spend the rest on a window AC unit to cool the room so you actually want to turn the computer on.
 
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