Source
r/buildapc•
exploding_cat_wizard

Is a Core i7-950 worth a €200 upgrade?

Build Upgrade

###Build Help:

I've got an old Core i7-950 lying around at work, with all the components except for a mainboard, which broke. The use case would be simulations (not high-end ones, obviously). I could get the "cheap" mainboard option e.g. a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 for approx. €150, or an expensive one , like one of these for €380+, which could fit all 48GB of RAM left over.

So my question is: do I get the cheap mainboard and use it as a control PC instead of simulation (definitely good enough for that, and a new one to do the same work would cost the department €275), or is there any worth left in an old high-end CPU with hyperthreading (nice for calculations) as compared to low-end modern setups with lots of RAM?

Or, perhaps less specifically, how good is the multithread speed of this old CPU as compared to modern ones, considering the "main specs" like cores and single-core speed are rather close?

Posted Apr 25, 2017, 11:30 AM UTC

87
Shapitizer•

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-950-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1600/617vs3919

I'd just get a new CPU like the 1600

12
exploding_cat_wizardOP•

That link is exactly what I needed, thanks!

2
nidrach•

You can get a new 16 thread processor running at 4 GHz and with better ipc for around 500€ including mobo and ddr4 ram. An AMD r7 1700 is going to blow basically everything out of the water when it comes to multithreaded performance/Euro.

10
Paracelcus•

EBay likely has way more economical choices for motherboards and ram.

If you can't find a cheap motherboard, go ryzen.

3
itsbailey672•

Personally, I'd use it as a control PC. Whether your simulations are well multithreaded or need high single core performance isn't going to matter. The specs may appear similar, but Kaby Lake/Ryzen have a huge IPC increase over them, so they'll win any benchmark. I'd buy a 1600/x, but you could also make a case for a 7700k if your simulations like hertz.

2
rturke•

Simulation of what? I used to simulate FEA and CFD with Ansys, which only operated on a single core. Check your software utilizes more cores and possibly see if CUDA is supported, as CUDA will perform generally much better on a modern GPU than most CPUs.

2
jhalls13•

You can get some standard board for a lot cheaper (one that supports 2 or 4 sticks of RAM) and use what you have for less than $100. Buying server boards is where it starts to add up if you need more than 4 slots and in some cases you will need ECC RAM as well.

Nehalem is getting a bit long in the tooth, but they are still decent machines.

2