Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Aslanna
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

Post by Aslanna »

I recently added a SAPPHIRE 100354XTL Radeon HD 7870 XT w/Boost to the mix. Too early to tell but seems decent so far for the price. When just web browsing and stuff I don't really hear it as the fans are only running at 25%. At 50% it starts to become noticeable but it's not like a hair dryer or anything. At 25% the card itself sits at 46c.

Due to the fan design it does blow hot air into the case and I would have preferred a blower style where most of the heat goes out the back. On average my CPU temperatures are about 3 degrees celsius more than before I installed it. I do have my system fans running pretty low (~750 RPM) so might bump those up a bit if heat becomes an issue although I don't see that being the case.

I haven't encountered any driver issues at this point! The Catalyst control panel is pretty crappy though compared to what nvidia has. But hopefully I won't be spending too much time in there. I have noticed tearing while doing things like scrolling while web browsing which I don't seem to recall when using onboard graphics. I'm not saying I didn't have that, I probably did, just that I don't remember.

It came with a card for Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider. It's funny though that you can just shine a flashlight through the back and get the code without having to do the scratchoff thing. Which doesn't seem like it was thought out well. People could return things for a full refund even after using the code since it looks like it wasn't used. Hopefully they have a way to verify those so people don't use some shenanigans to try getting some free games. Since the games aren't even out yet I wont be using the code just in case I end up sending it back.

Using the new Final Fantasty 14 benchmark thingie and at 1920x1200 and maximum settings I got 6269 which it classifies as 'Very High" but I don't know how that compares to like a GTX670 or anything. Maybe someone with one of those could run it and post their numbers!
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Aslanna wrote:Using the new Final Fantasty 14 benchmark thingie and at 1920x1200 and maximum settings I got 6269 which it classifies as 'Very High" but I don't know how that compares to like a GTX670 or anything. Maybe someone with one of those could run it and post their numbers!
Looks good. I got 5126 using GTX 670 with an i7 920 @ 2.7GHz My CPU/MB is four years old now, starting show a bit. I had three screens active during the test. Not sure if that has much of an effect or not.

What processor/GHz are you running?
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Aslanna
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Winnow wrote:
Aslanna wrote:Using the new Final Fantasty 14 benchmark thingie and at 1920x1200 and maximum settings I got 6269 which it classifies as 'Very High" but I don't know how that compares to like a GTX670 or anything. Maybe someone with one of those could run it and post their numbers!
Looks good. I got 5126 using GTX 670 with an i7 920 @ 2.7GHz My CPU/MB is four years old now, starting show a bit. I had three screens active during the test. Not sure if that has much of an effect or not.

What processor/GHz are you running?
True, guess it's not all video card so hard to get a good comparison. i7 3770K @ 3.5 GHz.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Aslanna wrote:
Winnow wrote:
Aslanna wrote:Using the new Final Fantasty 14 benchmark thingie and at 1920x1200 and maximum settings I got 6269 which it classifies as 'Very High" but I don't know how that compares to like a GTX670 or anything. Maybe someone with one of those could run it and post their numbers!
Looks good. I got 5126 using GTX 670 with an i7 920 @ 2.7GHz My CPU/MB is four years old now, starting show a bit. I had three screens active during the test. Not sure if that has much of an effect or not.

What processor/GHz are you running?
True, guess it's not all video card so hard to get a good comparison. i7 3770K @ 3.5 GHz.
It might be a little closer if I still had my system OC'd to 3.7 but it's pretty obvious that 4 year old system with faster graphic card < new system with a little slower graphics card. My system doesn't feel slow but at least from those scores, I know it probably needs updating soon.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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It turns out I was somehow running at 3.9GHz. Not sure how that got set! I guess that's the Turbo Boost thing that happens automatically. My score was 6160 when I manually set it down to 3.5GHz. While I was at it I then set it to 2.7 GHz and got a score of 5815.

One benefit of using an addon graphics card as opposed to the onboard graphics is that my memory usage is lower so apparently onboard graphics steals system memory to do it's thing. Which makes sense when you think about it but I never really thought about it before so that was a bit of a "duh" moment. I'll have to monitor memory usage for awhile but I might be able to disable the swap file once again.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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No where to really put this so I'll place it here.

I bought some memory for my PC from Newegg yesterday. I paid for 3 day shipping and got it overnight. Newegg has been an outstanding place to do business with since May 2nd 2002. I know that because I can see my entire order history which made it easy to figure out what memory to buy for my motherboard.

my first order from Newegg:


1 x CPU P4/1.6A GHz 400M 478PIN/512K RT

1 x SAMSUNG 256MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) System Memory Model M368L3223FTN-CB3 - OEM

1 x MB INTEL 845D|6P2D 4BDA2+ W/A EPOX


P4!
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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1/22/2004
$599.99

1 x Intel Pentium 4 3.0C Northwood 3.0GHz Socket 478 Single-Core Processor BX80532PG3000D
1 x DDRAM 256MB TWINX512-3700 COR RT
1 x ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe 478 Intel 875P ATX Intel Motherboard

P4! $600!

My main complaint about NewEgg is the sheer number of emails they send out. I like being informed of deals but shit seems like I get two emails a day from them.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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So now I have 18 GB of RAM

3 x 2 GB 9-9-9-24 1600 gskill
3 x 4 GB 9-9-9-24 1600 gskill

I always thought running 6 GB was on the borderline of too little.

I play around with virtual OS's from time to time so at least I have some room now. Can also screw around with a ramdisk.

Still rocking the i7 920 I picked up back in 2009. Having a hard time convincing myself to upgrade but probably will with the next intel refresh and USB 3.1 around April of next year.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

Post by Kluden »

Well I just went Haswell i7 myself last month. Totally not worth it. Runs hot as hell and OC's for shit. So upset with intel.

I would definitely wait for the next die shrink.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Still doing fine with my Ivy Bridge here. Doesn't seem that hot, about 96 degrees or so, although I don't overclock. However due to the boost it's usually running at 3.9GHz instead of 3.5. Not sure if one can turn that off or not. I'd care if things got too hot but doesn't seem to have much impact on temps overall so I just leave it be.

I don't see myself upgrading the CPU in the next 5 years to be honest. If anything I'd pop in a newer video card but that's about it.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

Post by Animalor »

Kinda wish I had the Surface Pro 2 with Haswell. Crazy battery life in that one. The Ivybridge i5 in this thing does run like a champ though. Fast as hell.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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have read haswell is a much better low wattage mobile cpu. I am only pissed, because the i7 i bought is sold as a "K" processor, allowing OCing...but when the room to OC is barely more than the turbo boost...its bullshit.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Aslanna wrote: So final build ended up being:

MB - ASUS P8Z77-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU - Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)
HDD - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256D/AM 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Case - Antec P280 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Oh and also an Antec 920 cooler which I got a couple weeks ago when it was on sale.
System update 5+ years later: Everything is still running well! No real incentive to upgrade as I'm not a PC gamer. However even if I was a PC gamer I'm sure I can still run most modern games just not on ultra settings obviously.

So those people who say you need to upgrade your PC every year are dumb! This will probably last me a couple more years. The only possible upgrade I could see is a new video card but even that's not something I need.

My only advice when putting something together is to spend a little more money and not get the cheapest components you can find. You get what you pay for!
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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Yeah, agreed, after Moore's law has been broken, what's the use.

My crappy OC Haswell mentioned above is still fantastic at all things, mostly gaming. The GPU will always rule this roost anyways when it comes to that. Its the only upgrade I've done in four years. Bought a 1070gtx when they came out and haven't looked back since.

I'll probably add another SSD and reinstall windows at some point, after 3 years I'm starting to get some blue screens I can't fix (some memory access thing, pointing to the ssd failing more than anything).
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

Post by Animalor »

I haven't jumped to the Nvidia 1XXX family but I'm still getting performance I'm more than happy with on my 900 series card. The motherboard is probably nearing 7-8 years old now so the next upgrade will be a full system lift, more than likely based on the Threadripper CPU family.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

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I'll stick with Intel. But hopefully due to AMD the Intel CPU prices will be more competitive.
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Re: Ivy Bridge Upgrade Thread

Post by Kluden »

It has already helped some on the Intel side from what I've seen.

as for the 1070, I upgraded from SLI 670's...I was way past due for my resolution. I'll state it again, I hate sli/xfire. As a stop gap, its even annoying. I wouldn't see any reason to upgrade from the 970/980 either at this point.
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