CPU Intel Core i3-7100 to i7-7700T Engineering Sample - is that actually a performance upgrade?

[Quango]

I have the long standing desire to boost my fine Asus H110S1/CSM mini-STX board, while keeping the noise levels at minimum, as they are with the Noctua most of the time.
The only real disadvantage of the board is PCIe Gen 2 for the MVMe storage, but otherwise it is of great quality, too good to simply abandon after a year (its predecessors were mini-STX Asrocks of poor quality). The board is equipped with 32 GB RAM.

Now with Kaby Lake there is not much of a choice for upgrading from a Core i3-7100 with 2C/4T at 3.9 GHz max and 3 Mbyte of cache. Core i5 is irrelevant so there remain the i7-7700, 7700K and 7700T. But these are still expensive and too expensive for an old generation.

But there is also the i7-7700T Engineering Sample, 35W TDP, 4C/8T, 8 Mbyte cache with 2.4 GHz base and 3.0 GHz max clock speed. It is sometimes available on ebay for an acceptable price.

Does anyone know if the minus 0.9 GHz in max clock speed would wipe out any advantage in thread count and cache with everyday usage for surfing, office and media replay? I am looking for a smoother and quicker user experience compared to the current 2C/4T .

 

[thewizzard1]

The 7700T will in almost all cases be an upgrade from anything but an 8th/9th gen i3.

 

[Quango]

The 7700T will in almost all cases be an upgrade from anything but an 8th/9th gen i3.

Just to make sure: this is not the regular 7700T but the restricted Engineering Sample I am talking about. The regular has 2.9 GHz base and 3.8 GHz turbo clock, while the ES has 2.4 GHz base and 3.0 turbo clock. So compared to the 7100, I am losing one quarter (!) of turbo speed but win 4 threads and +5 Mbyte of cache.

 

[8mmHeatpipe]

everyday usage for surfing, office and media replay

tbh, I don't see why the i3-7100 should struggle with that. The i7 should be faster, but I dont think it matters in your use case.

Assuming you are using the Intel IGP for graphics (by the looks of your mainboard): That thing is slow. Even for pure office use. I bought a GT 1030 graphics card to replace the Intel graphics (i7 8700K) and man was it worth it. I'm using my PC for the same things as you.

I would only change to the i7 if it is really really cheap, because for a "smoother and quicker" system the Intel IGP should be limiting you.

 

[Quango]

tbh, I don't see why the i3-7100 should struggle with that. The i7 should be faster, but I dont think it matters in your use case.

Assuming you are using the Intel IGP for graphics (by the looks of your mainboard): That thing is slow. Even for pure office use. I bought a GT 1030 graphics card to replace the Intel graphics (i7 8700K) and man was it worth it. I'm using my PC for the same things as you.

I would only change to the i7 if it is really really cheap, because for a "smoother and quicker" system the Intel IGP should be limiting you.

Thanks for you response. You have a point here with the iGPU. Thus the available CPU upgrade path would not change much.

I planned since last year to go the AMD route with the Asrock A300 (I like it small) but my experience with Asrock's quality was disappointing , so nowhere to go at this moment (I want to reuse my 32 GB SODIMM, after all).

Also, since we have 2020 now, I would only buy any new mini mainboard with Thunderbolt.