Upgrade CPU i7-920

#1

Hello,

I have a question about CPU upgrade. Please let it be noted I am on an extremely tight budget. My current system is i7-920 14gbs of ram 500gb HD AMD 5870 GPU.

I have just upgraded my GPU to a 660 GTX. But I wish to upgrade my CPU but I have a 1366 socket so there’s not much I can do. But my mate offered me a deal on his chip set which is a i5 3550 with a new motherboard.

Is my first generation i7 920 better for rendering ? Or would it be an idea to upgrade to the 3550.

Will my upgraded GPU help speed up any rendering what so ever in 3DS Max,Cinema 4D or After effects. This may be a silly questio but I would like to know if technology is adancing to a point where it can take advantage of the GPU yet for rendering because I am thinking of getting a second GTX 660.

#2

If you wanted to keep your current motherboard a very cheap but decent upgrade for your cpu would be a xeon 5650. I’ve just updated my i7 920 to this and am very happy. Its a 6 core, 32nm process chip, running mine at 4Ghz 24/7.

You can pick these up for an absolute steal from ebay (mine was £60). You might need to update your motherboard bios to enable it to use these, but that’s all.