UPDATE Processor Intel I7 3820 Socket LGA 2011

[Attaren]

I want to upgrade my Desktop which is equipped with an Intel I7 3820 processor on the LGA 2011 socket. I want to know which is the fastest Intel Core processor I can mount on the LGA 2011 socket.
The price is not important. Thank you.

[AlHill]

You need to ask your motherboard/system manufacturer what processors are supported by their BIOS.  Then, you can select from those.

An upgrade processor must be socket, chipset, and bios compatible.

I doubt you will find much in the 3rd gen processors, which is as far as you can go.

Money and disposible income being no problem, get yourself a new, modern motherboard, and memory, and processor, and step into the supported world.   I recommend an 8th gen processor or greater.

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Windows 11 is the new Vista]

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

Presuming that the motherboard that you have supports all of the Sandy Bridge E processors, the best you could do is the i7-3960X, which really isn't a huge magnitude improvement. I agree with Al, getting something much more modern is the best use of available funds. Yes, it also means motherboard and memory upgrade, but it's worth it in the long run.

...S

[Attaren]

I was advised by Asus that makes my computer's P9X79 WS motherboard to upgrade the I7-3820 CPU with the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 CPU even though the I7-3820 is a Sandy Bridge while the Intel Xeon E5- 2697 v2 is an Ivy Bridge.
Do you agree with this suggestion?
Can I rest assured about compatibility?
Will I have a noticeable increase in performance?
Thanks.

[n_scott_pearson]

Asus should know better than us what processors are supported by their motherboards' BIOSs.

This Xeon has lower Base and Max Turbo frequencies, which means thread-level execution will be slightly slower. Then again, it has 12 cores/24 threads versus your i7's 4 Cores/8 Threads, which means it can get more done when there is software that can take advantage of the additional cores/threads (Windows does spread processes out for you in general, but...).

Whether this is a worthwhile 'upgrade' depends upon what you are going to be doing with this PC. If the software you run can take advantage of the extra cores/threads, then this could be worthwhile. In either case, you are still using a discontinued processor that will not support Windows 11.

Hope this helps,

...S