Loriath wrote:Geopan wrote:What kind of an I5 btw, since I am considering a desktop with a 6500 as a processor?
An Old one
Purchased this system in 2010 so its been around the block a little. Here is the CPU-Z information. My system is being more held back by the GTX 650 than the CPU at this point.
(removed i5 750 Lynnfield graphic)
Don't knock those old Lynnfield (and Clarksfield in mobile) units from circa '09, they are still quite capable, especially if a true quad-core (like your i5-750). The only, major limitation is their support limit for 4GiB/UDIMM (8GiB/2R channel).
I ran
32-bit Elite 1.x on an circa '10 $200
i5-2500K (SandyBridge) with a circa '12 $220
GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GiB GDDR5 at
2.5K (2560x1440) and it was quite playable. The i5-2500K was long lauded for its overclockability, and even its base performance (including the non-K version) was a great bargin for the price.
Allof the SandyBridge (2xxx), IvyBridge (3xxx) and Haswell (4xxx) generations are
quite potent, and support 8GiB/DIMM (16GiB/2R channel).
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However, for 64-bit, OpenGL 3 Elite 2.x, I'm glad I upgraded to a $270 i7-4790K (quad-4GHz Haswell) with a $290 (they priced matched Amazon) GeForce GTX 970 4GiB GDDR5 (the
Gigabyte 6.7" long Mini-ITX special version) when Fry's had a closeout mid-last year (SkyLake was coming). I fit it all in a tiny, portable (I travel a lot)
SilverStone SG05 7x9x11" Mini-ITX cube (4" wide "SFX" PS required), which has a slim 5.25", plus 3.5" (which I break out as 2x2.5") and a 2.5" bay (I use 3x2.5" -- 1 SSD + 2xSSHD hybrid drives in RAID-1).
My professional, mobile workstations are all off-lease ($300-350) Dell Precision m4600 (i7-2xxx mobile SandyBridge) because they can have 4x8GiB UDIMMs, take up to a 1GiB mSATA card, and dual 2.5" bays (removing the optical). Nothing that can run Elite well at all, only an nVidia Quadro K1100 (roughly like a GeForce GTX 645m, about 2/3rds of a desktop GTX 650). But the quad core, 32GiB, and all the storage helps me run a virtual datacenter in VMs, and it runs GNU/Linux flawlessly (actually, with less power/standby issues than the pre-installed Windows 7 Pro).
Unless one needs the 16GiB/UDIMM (32GiB/2R channel) DDR4 or wants the latest uEFI NVMe (the mass random access/commanding, which really makes PCIe much faster) boot/storage support (Intel has really lagged on getting it working in uEFI firmware until SkyLake boards), the SandyBridge is just as good as a Haswell, and the Clarksdale/Lynnfield not far from it (other than half the memory maximum). This includes older mobiles too.
Now I would not recommend people purposely buy a new 2xxx-4xxx product, as SkyLake (6xxx) is now established and DDR4 has come down in price. But if you can find an
used box, a 2xxx (SandyBridge) or newer, for cheap, especially a 4xxx (Haswell, whether used or new, old stock), it'll work with a GTX 970 (or better) quite well. Just always get a
true quad-core i5 (4/4, not 2/4) or i7 (4/8, and beware of 2/4 mobiles which often limit memory too), like your i5-750 and my i5-2500[K] in a desktop.
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If you go used, ask if it's been overclocked, especially overvolted, as transconductance etc... does tend to drastically reduce the lifespan, at least the nominal operation, of an IC. I.e., even if it worked for a year, it might now be causing errors that are significant. Many 1st hand experiences talking here, beyond my EE specialty (semiconductor materials, layout and timing).
Feel free to correct me if Elite 2.x has some sort of benefits/requirements for processor extensions in the SkyLake, or something only SandyBridge (and later) support. But the true, quad-core GPU has become commodity for $200 new since '10, other than differences in on-package cache of various models and support for increased memory density in newer models.
ED TRACKER...? Did someone mention ED Tracker??... 
A marvellous thing, you will have endless fun using it.. 
