Who is still using a Sandy Bridge era chip

Looooong time lurker here: still using a 2500k as my main rig. Gigabyte z68 mb and a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870. Uses are web browsing, gaming, photo editing. Gaming is certainly interesting lately, but the retro and pixel games renaissance has certainly helped. Most modern games (laugh if you must) were CoD BlackOps 3 (ran ok, but most textures didn't load, so it was UGLY!) and Plague Tale: Innocence (great game, but did get choppy at times.) All gaming done on 1920x1200. Remember that?
I've got an upgrade list ready to go, but am having a hard time justifying the cost given the few games I can't really play now. Actually am considering just buying an RX6600 and waiting for the next gen. Yes, I know it will be quite bottle-necked!

Edit: the few game I can't really play 'that I actually want to play'
Edit2: corrected monitor resolution. Nobody games at 1920x1600!
 
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Looooong time lurker here: still using a 2500k as my main rig. Gigabyte z68 mb and a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870. Uses are web browsing, gaming, photo editing. Gaming is certainly interesting lately, but the retro and pixel games renaissance has certainly helped. Most modern games (laugh if you must) were CoD BlackOps 3 (ran ok, but most textures didn't load, so it was UGLY!) and Plague Tale: Innocence (great game, but did get choppy at times.) All gaming done on 1920x1600. Remember that?
I've got an upgrade list ready to go, but am having a hard time justifying the cost given the few games I can't really play now. Actually am considering just buying an RX6600 and waiting for the next gen. Yes, I know it will be quite bottle-necked!

Edit: the few game I can't really play 'that I actually want to play'
You would be surprised on a GPU upgrade. My daughters son got a rig put together by me for Christmas last year. He wanted a gaming system. Threw together some old parts and he can play a good bit of newer stuff. He has a 2500 on a p67 board with a 1060. He def is not getting 100+ fps but good enough to play on.
 
Went for it and just upgraded my 4930k to an E5-1680 V2. Using only quick stability tests, I'm able to run it at 4.4 ghz on stock volts, a 200 mhz improvement over the 4930k. 2 additional cores and an additional 200 mhz is pretty good for $70. The 4930k is going to replace a 3820 I have in another system, so that will be getting a nice upgrade as well.
 
Still using my old first gen Clarkdale Intel i3-540, GeForce GTS 450 rig to type this (circa 2010, which even predates this thread). Works great for most activities except for that it still runs Windows 7 and the video card doesn't support Vulcan api which makes even light gaming hard in 2022.

Looooong time lurker here: still using a 2500k as my main rig. Gigabyte z68 mb and a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870. Uses are web browsing, gaming, photo editing. Gaming is certainly interesting lately, but the retro and pixel games renaissance has certainly helped. Most modern games (laugh if you must) were CoD BlackOps 3 (ran ok, but most textures didn't load, so it was UGLY!) and Plague Tale: Innocence (great game, but did get choppy at times.) All gaming done on 1920x1600. Remember that?
I've got an upgrade list ready to go, but am having a hard time justifying the cost given the few games I can't really play now. Actually am considering just buying an RX6600 and waiting for the next gen. Yes, I know it will be quite bottle-necked!

Edit: the few game I can't really play 'that I actually want to play'
I know that your sig is probably 18 years old and such but it would be awesome if you were still running it. I had a Radeon 9600XT back in 2004 and I was always mad that I didn't pay $30 more for the 9800 pro. The 9800 Pro was one of the greatest cards ever made and was basically the only card of its time that could play PC Halo at a decent res.
 
Still using my old first gen Clarkdale Intel i3-540, GeForce GTS 450 rig to type this (circa 2010, which even predates this thread). Works great for most activities except for that it still runs Windows 7 and the video card doesn't support Vulcan api which makes even light gaming hard in 2022.


I know that your sig is probably 18 years old and such but it would be awesome if you were still running it. I had a Radeon 9600XT back in 2004 and I was always mad that I didn't pay $30 more for the 9800 pro. The 9800 Pro was one of the greatest cards ever made and was basically the only card of its time that could play PC Halo at a decent res.
I was actually using that p4 until recently as a backup file / media server, but it's become challenging to find a 32-bit OS that's supported. I used the 9800pro AIW to record a lot of TV, and edited out the commercials and burnt to DVD. Unfortunately, very few of those DVDs still read (and I even bought what was supposed to be the best). I should probably update the sig though!
 
Traded away a lot of random crap I had lying around to build my friend a respectable PC on a budget of zero dollars. Started out with a Sandy bridge motherboard paired with a i7-3770, then went from there.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor Traded for GTX 750 Ti
Motherboard: Asus P8H61-M LE/CSM R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard Traded for GTX 750 Ti
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler Harvested from his previous PC
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1866 CL10 Memory Traded Radeon R7 360
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Harvested from my previous PC
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive Harvested from his previous PC
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB XC GAMING Video Card Sold a used GTX 1070 Ti that was originally going into this PC, bought new a RTX 3060 instead. Pocketed about $100 profit
Case: Cougar MX330-G ATX Mid Tower Case traded for Corsair CX500 PSU
Power Supply: EVGA K1 700 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Harvested from my dad's old PC
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer Harvested from his previous PC

Plot-twist: he doesn't even use it. A lot of wasted effort.
 
Longtime lurker, still running an i5-2500K. Built the rig in February 2012 with a ASRock Z68 mobo, Mushkin DDR3 8gb Ram, MSI 560ti 2GB, Corsair 750w PSU (upgraded from the original rosewill 500w) and a bunch of psinning disks with a SSD boot drive. Since then I have swapped almost all storage to SSD, added a Evo 212 cooler (ran the chip at 5.2ghz for quite awhile) and upgraded my GPU to a EVGA 1070 SC Black Edition. My gaming has gone from monitor 1080p to 52" TCL TV 4k gaming on my couch and the 2500k has become a major bottleneck. I just ordered a Core i9 11900K and a Z590 mobo on a combo deal from Newegg. Adding 32GB of DDR4 to it and I should be set to wait for the 4 series cards to come out to upgrade and take full potential. This chip has been amazing and it will not be forgotten.
 
Sandy Bridge was such a huge jump. Compared to what came before, definitely recommended. One of those "Intel mistakes" (where you jump maybe too far?). Maybe 12th gen to an extent is also in this camp (?).

Mistake? Where you can upgrade from mid to high end prior gen by buying the "new" lower end.

Of course, YMMV since SB is pretty old now. But does show that "jump" I mentioned. Don't get me wrong, Nehalem was a nice jump as well. As with anything, past jumps might not be so loveable after long periods of time have past.
 
Still using my 2600K built in 2012 with 16GB of RAM on a MSI Z68A-GD65 G3. Ugraded the graphic card to a R9 390 in 2016 and went with SSDs over the years. Should upgrade next year if Zen4 is good when prices go down a bit.
 
I turned mine into a server. Slapped some old HDDs in the case and put it up in the closet for the kiddos to do minecraft on.
 
My brother is using an i7-2600k, 16GB, and a MSI P67A-GD65 (B3). I rescued the motherboard by removing the bad BIOS chips and soldering on some donor chips from a different dead motherboard and manually flashed the BIOS ROM files on to them. It was the first time I brought a motherboard back from the dead. I then gave it to him around 4 or 5 years ago and it has been working perfectly ever since. His Geforce 1050 Ti runs all of his games without a sweat.

My mom has 2 Sandy Bridge computers. One is a HTPC that records her favorite TV shows off the air. It has either an i3-2120 or i5-2400, 8GB, and Asrock B75M. Her work desktop is an HP Pavilion p6-2220t I picked up for $4 from a thrift store around 2015 that I upgraded to an i7-2600 and 8GB.

My father has a 27" all-in-one Samsung DP700A7D that I picked up in 2017 as a scratch and dent. The touchscreen was cracked so I removed the touchscreen glass panel and downgraded the i7-3770T to an i5-2390T and sold off the original i7 and pocketed some change. He just watches Youtube and plays old games like chess and dominoes on it.

I semi-regularly use a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 laptop with an i5-2520M to do diagnostic and repair duties for other computers.

Everything I mentioned has SSDs which seems like a requirement nowadays.

I've had other Sandy Bridge systems but they've come and gone. I still have an Asus P8-Z77i-DELUXE mITX motherboard waiting in the wings for if and when I ever build a portable retro rig.

Sandy Bridge was probably the last generation that elicited a "wow" response from me. It was the last period I really still played games on a regular basis and saw a big leap in performance over my Core 2 system when I upgraded to a 2500K. The vast majority of what I do on computers nowadays is web browser based and desktop GUI based. I haven't noticed much difference in general user experience between Sandy Bridge and my Rocket Lake i9 desktop. My young gamer self would be so disappointed in boring current me. :D
 
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I built a 2500k system for my wife before we were married, back in 2012 and she loved it dearly until eventually in 2017 I had to turn the overclock down and repaste it, and by 2018 it was back to stock speeds so I paid the shop down the street to build a 9900k one with a 2080ti and I like it because it costs about the same and they fix it for free, is 5.6 miles down the street.
 
I cant sell my 3570k system but can't bring myself to throw it out, 3570k 16 GB Ram still so capable, but I already have a Synology 918+ that handles all my Plex Server & VM needs at like 50 watts less lol - back in the Windows Media Center days you'd just make another 'extender' at another TV - but now with Plex I got Plex on everything like Doom I just got no need for it 😞

Edit: I could try to build a very overpowered Home Assistant Server seeing as Synology no longer allows USB accessories natively on DSM 7
 
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Last weekend I moved my 2600k system to a bigger case with more rads. It would not stay cool enough in the 780t.

It's happier in the 7000d.
 

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Last weekend I moved my 2600k system to a bigger case with more rads. It would not stay cool enough in the 780t.

It's happier in the 7000d.

I find they run a lot cooler if you disable turbo. That's how mine has ran since 2012 and my CPU fan never ramps up faster than 600 RPM.
 
I cant sell my 3570k system but can't bring myself to throw it out, 3570k 16 GB Ram still so capable
I am pretty sure you can sell it.
Just not for much.

BTW. if my memory timings are correct Z67/Z77 were still supported by Windows XP so it can be used for older stuff with also compatible GPU
 
BTW. If I had virgin 3570K I would remove IHS, lap IHS and then use liquid metal on it...
Actually I did just that, like one or two days after I got it. Got from a friend who got new 4570K with new mobo and sold me his used 3570K + Z77 board for like $220 which barely covered price of Hashwell CPU. He used 3570K at 4.7GHz and 4570K at 4.5GHz... AMAZING upgrade 💩

I had slightly worse case than him and targeted silent PC. At 4.7GHz temperatures were ridiculous, like 9xC so I delidded it and he helped me lap IHS after which I remember I had them around 7xC. I finally managed 4.8GHz with relatively silent fan profiles. No chance for 5GHz, could go 4.9 but with like ridiculous voltages so I settled on 4.8GHz
 
I am leaving sandy bridge with Ivy Bridge i7-3770. While I could upgrade to a more recent system, it's nice to have an 8-core system for the first time.
For general office work, youtube, no gaming, is there any benefit using a GT 610 GPU instead of integrated GPU?
 
I am leaving sandy bridge with Ivy Bridge i7-3770. While I could upgrade to a more recent system, it's nice to have an 8-core system for the first time.
For general office work, youtube, no gaming, is there any benefit using a GT 610 GPU instead of integrated GPU?

Does the i7-3770 really have 8 cores? I thought it only had 4 cores and 8 threads but perhaps I'm misremembering.
 
I am just finishing up my new folding rig. Running a 2600k and P8P67 WS Asus board. Has 4 2080ti's and running good. Was my wife's old system until her upgrade. View attachment 507490View attachment 507491
2 360mm rads internal and a 480mm mounted on the back. 3 pumps to push through all of it.
This is one hell of a rig lol nice work. I have the same case with two 360s front and top and a 120 rear all alpachool i even experimented with all rad fans exhaust except for bottom intake only and the results were better than any other config but i didn't like the hot air blowing towards me at all i'd rather have it all push to the back like how u have it if u only have 1 gpu the top 360 and rear 120 are even enough which is how i have it right now currently. How do you have your 780t setup right now? Like how it is in these pics? It's a spacious good case i like it a lot actually.
 
I am leaving sandy bridge with Ivy Bridge i7-3770.

As was mentioned, the 3770 only has 4 physical cores, however I think it's worth noting that the gap between 4-core/4-thread chips and 4-core/8-thread chips has widened especially in recent years. It really didn't matter much a decade ago, which is why it was the 2500k that became the legendary chip instead of the 2600k. But with operating systems, programs, and games all being designed for systems with more cores, all of a sudden those extra threads on older CPUs are coming in handy. Upgrading the 4c/4t i5-2500 in my HTPC to a 4c/8t Sandy-Bridge Xeon made the difference in being able to software-decode high-bitrate 4K x265 (HEVC). The specs of the two CPUs are nearly the same except for the number of threads.
 
This is one hell of a rig lol nice work. I have the same case with two 360s front and top and a 120 rear all alpachool i even experimented with all rad fans exhaust except for bottom intake only and the results were better than any other config but i didn't like the hot air blowing towards me at all i'd rather have it all push to the back like how u have it if u only have 1 gpu the top 360 and rear 120 are even enough which is how i have it right now currently. How do you have your 780t setup right now? Like how it is in these pics? It's a spacious good case i like it a lot actually.
Everything has been moved to my bigger case. So after a upgrade to my daughter's I had left a z370 Taichi and some old gpus. Stuck all these in the 780t and have it up and running with a 1080 a 1080ti and a Titian. It pulls a good bit of power per ppd but I am making good use of case. Still have to 2 internal 360mms in it.
 

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Does the i7-3770 really have 8 cores? I thought it only had 4 cores and 8 threads but perhaps I'm misremembering.
Good memory and thanks for correcting me. The PC upgrades from 4C/4T to 4C/8T. Photoshop filters run faster. I don't notice any other performance improvements. Idle heat is higher, load is lower. Power usage is slightly lower.
After trying to install gt610, the display would not turn on. Windows then updated Nvidia AND HD4000 at the same time. BSOD loop that wouldn't let me log into safe mode.
I dare not overclock manually (hyper 212 cooler). Asus MB set to auto.

So, the update was fun. Somewhat pound foolish as this is a stopgap. Eventually, I need a full work PC update in the next month or so.
 
Good memory and thanks for correcting me. The PC upgrades from 4C/4T to 4C/8T. Photoshop filters run faster. I don't notice any other performance improvements. Idle heat is higher, load is lower. Power usage is slightly lower.
After trying to install gt610, the display would not turn on. Windows then updated Nvidia AND HD4000 at the same time. BSOD loop that wouldn't let me log into safe mode.
I dare not overclock manually (hyper 212 cooler). Asus MB set to auto.

So, the update was fun. Somewhat pound foolish as this is a stopgap. Eventually, I need a full work PC update in the next month or so.

There's a setting in Windows 10 to tell Windows never to update hardware drivers. It's probably best to always switch that on and just update drivers yourself manually. Without it I've had Windows revert to an older version of my sound card driver on me.
 
Everything has been moved to my bigger case. So after a upgrade to my daughter's I had left a z370 Taichi and some old gpus. Stuck all these in the 780t and have it up and running with a 1080 a 1080ti and a Titian. It pulls a good bit of power per ppd but I am making good use of case. Still have to 2 internal 360mms in it.
Whoa that's a lot of hardware stuffed in there? What are the 3 GPUs used for?
 
I have considered building a new computer around my i5-2400 but it looks as though a dual-core Alder Lake Celeron outpaces it. Of course that means a new processor, mainboard, RAM etc...
 
My 2600k + 16gb ddr3 2100mhz g.skill ripjaws + Asus z68v-pro gen 3 is still in use in my parents rig. Still going strong to this day.
 
Looooong time lurker here: still using a 2500k as my main rig. Gigabyte z68 mb and a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870. Uses are web browsing, gaming, photo editing. Gaming is certainly interesting lately, but the retro and pixel games renaissance has certainly helped. Most modern games (laugh if you must) were CoD BlackOps 3 (ran ok, but most textures didn't load, so it was UGLY!) and Plague Tale: Innocence (great game, but did get choppy at times.) All gaming done on 1920x1200. Remember that?
I've got an upgrade list ready to go, but am having a hard time justifying the cost given the few games I can't really play now. Actually am considering just buying an RX6600 and waiting for the next gen. Yes, I know it will be quite bottle-necked!

Edit: the few game I can't really play 'that I actually want to play'
Edit2: corrected monitor resolution. Nobody games at 1920x1600!
Bump to a 7000 series (GCN 1.0) and keep her goin! AMD 6000 series was a bad speed bump to say the least. GCN sup[ports everything modern for the most part. Just make sure it is a 3GB part :)
 
Looooong time lurker here: still using a 2500k as my main rig. Gigabyte z68 mb and a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870. Uses are web browsing, gaming, photo editing. Gaming is certainly interesting lately, but the retro and pixel games renaissance has certainly helped. Most modern games (laugh if you must) were CoD BlackOps 3 (ran ok, but most textures didn't load, so it was UGLY!) and Plague Tale: Innocence (great game, but did get choppy at times.) All gaming done on 1920x1200. Remember that?
I've got an upgrade list ready to go, but am having a hard time justifying the cost given the few games I can't really play now. Actually am considering just buying an RX6600 and waiting for the next gen. Yes, I know it will be quite bottle-necked!

Edit: the few game I can't really play 'that I actually want to play'
Edit2: corrected monitor resolution. Nobody games at 1920x1600!
After you upgrade your GPU Consider also upgrading your monitor to something with Freesync.
VRR provides amazing improvement in gaming experience thanks to elimination of tearing and or input lag caused by V-Sync.
If you do then consider higher resolution higher refresh rate monitor. Even if you expect framerates well below 60fps its still beneficial to have higher refresh rates because drawing image faster reduces input lag. Experience in desktop is also much better. Additional advantage is that lower refresh rate monitors rarely properly sync to 60Hz videos and having higher refresh helps with that a lot. Kinda like 30fps video on 60Hz monitor always look good, even if doubled video framerate and monitor refresh rate do not quite match.
 
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