Well, i have been doing some research on various computer components after deciding to go down the cheaper in-place upgrade path rather than building a new computer from scratch. However, I thought I would have a look and see what CPUs my Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME motherboard supports. It turns out that with the last BIOS revision it can support up to the Intel i7 990X.
Back in the day the i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU would set you back over $1000 with its six cores and Hyper-Threading combining to provide an astounding twelve threads from a single CPU. With a 3.46GHz clock speed and the same Thermal Design Power (TDP) as my current Intel i7 920 CPU power consumption wouldn’t be any worse off. Failing that, there are options to go for the i7 980X and i7 980 which are also six core CPUs albeit with lower clock speeds.
Anyway, eBay is a good place to look if your rig is not from the latest generation and sometimes second hand is not a bad thing if you’re looking at the top end of performance in these circumstances (particularly if they have been in a water cooled rig). It can be difficult to find “new old parts” in retail outlets so this is the next best thing.
Of course, warranty could potentially be an issue as such items are sold “as is” so there will be some risk in making any purchases so buyer beware. The onus is also on yourself to ensure that your hardware is compatible as returns in such circumstances can be rejected so do your homework before you take the plunge otherwise you might find yourself trying to flip unwanted goods again on eBay.
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