i3 540 to i5 3750k worth it for bf3?

4737Joker

4737Joker

4737Joker

Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2004
Posts
1,428
Hi,

I've been wanting to do a new build for years, but i allways end up just buying a few parts and trying to do it on the cheap (mainly to keep the wife happy).

Earlier this year i bought an ATI 6850 to replace my Nvidia 260gtx as it was struggling a bit with BF3, the difference was amazing for such a budget card and i left it at that.

I later upgraded my hdd to an SSD, which again an amazing difference in load times, id never go back now.

Then recently i have upgraded my ram to 8gb and bought a new case, my thermaltake tsumami dream was a bit old, but served me well :)

Now i find myself wanting to upgrade the processor, and would like to make better use of my SSD's as my current motherboard only supports sata 2.

My main question is, do you think i would see enough of a difference in performance to justify the upgrade? And do you think a completly new build with maybe a gfx card upgrade (7850/660) would serve me better than just swapping out bits and pieces all the time?
 
This would be my possible proposed new spec, just need to add a cpu cooler (dont like stock ones)

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply
BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)

The rig would be used for gaming and general browsing, i play bf3/swtor/CS:GO
 
current spec

Intel i3 540 clarkdale @3.6ghz ish
2x4gb 1600mhz ram (forgot the brand ill look when im home)
Radeon 6850 1gb
Gigabyte H55m-UD2H
xilence black-hornet case
corsair enthusiast 650w non modular psu
 
get the nvida 660
Z77 motherboard
Intel 3570k
and a cpu cooler if your overclocking
it will be better then buying a whole new system
 
i would keep case, psu, and ram then get

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x Xigmatek Dark Knight SD-1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775 and AMD FM1/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £34.99
Total : £483.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



you can then sell your old parts separately or as a bundle and get some moneys back.

if your adamant on getting a full new setup

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £69.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Blue £39.98
1 x Xigmatek Dark Knight SD-1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775 and AMD FM1/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £34.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £638.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
yes you would see a difference, how much is hard to say but if you simply upgraded the graphics card it would be bottlenecked by your i3, so as recommended by those above a partial build is the way forward for you.

one thought might be that with AMD pushing a bunch of new free games with their cards it might be worth waiting to see what sort of deals are available for the 7850/70, but either way the 660 is a very good card and that priceis very good.
 
thanks for all the advice, im so tempted by a new build. If i could sell my old stuff easily enough id definately go that route.

Im tempted to go with a 7850 though over the 660, as that motherboard doesnt support sli. Just incase i want to add a second card later, or i could go with the MSI board thats on offer at the same price. But the 660 gives better fps on bf3 etc when using a single card so im not sure.
 
the D3H does support crossfire, as you say but will run at 16x/4x i believe so isn't adviseable.

the msi board supports both sli and xfire at 8x/8x

if you can stretch your budget and get the below giabyte mboard, it also supports xfire and sli.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-390-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

two forum posts belo confirm sli on g45 mboard as there is some confusion around it

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=162411.msg1190185#msg1190185

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=161514.msg1183510#msg1183510

the g45 will no longer be on sale tomorrow i believe? as its on the weekly deals so will have to snap it up today if you did choose that route.
 
Might be an obvious thing but be sure to prepare for a SSD and HDD wipe before you even think about getting a new Motherboard: I did a huge 'derp' and installed an old HDD into a new system thinking it would automatically work, which it might well do but it's not really worth the risk of attempting. I am now looking for another HDD to purchase so i have something to transfer the data on to before i wipe everything and re-install Windows (which also requires re-building my old system so i have a way of backing up said data).
 
thezeronumber said:
Might be an obvious thing but be sure to prepare for a SSD and HDD wipe before you even think about getting a new Motherboard: I did a huge 'derp' and installed an old HDD into a new system thinking it would automatically work, which it might well do but it's not really worth the risk of attempting. I am now looking for another HDD to purchase so i have something to transfer the data on to before i wipe everything and re-install Windows (which also requires re-building my old system so i have a way of backing up said data).
Click to expand...

This wont ever really work, due to the HAL. if you try to put an old hdd into a new system with an os insatlled on it you will most likely blue screen as it has no ifnormation or drivers about the new system.
 
yeah think i3 is slightly underated. and wont bottleneck your gpu at all. i was running an i3 clarkdale 540 @ 3.06 ghz with a gtx 660ti about a month ago. bf3 everything ultra, 16 aa, 4 msaa ran like a dream.

but for some future proofing its probably worth getting an i5
 
Yeah it seems to be running fine, theres the odd moment where ive felt its struggled. This is more of a persuade me in to buying new things thread though :P

Might be an obvious thing but be sure to prepare for a SSD and HDD wipe before you even think about getting a new Motherboard: I did a huge 'derp' and installed an old HDD into a new system thinking it would automatically work, which it might well do but it's not really worth the risk of attempting. I am now looking for another HDD to purchase so i have something to transfer the data on to before i wipe everything and re-install Windows (which also requires re-building my old system so i have a way of backing up said data).
Click to expand...

I have my games etc on a seperate SSD to my OS so its not a big deal really, plus i have never thought about just swapping drives from one machine to another as i just prefer a clean install :)
 
Your I3 is about 10% slower in gaming but the 3570k will give you better overall performance, so if it was me i would upgrade your gpu.
 
I did consider just upgrading the GPU, i havnt ruled this out yet either.

But my existing motherboard only supports sata2 and my SSD drives are sata3, this is one of the other reasons for the upgrade, but again will there be much difference?
 
stick with your 540 and plump for a 7850,sata2 and sata3 speeds arent noticable at all imo

surely you can push to 4ghz on that chip? they overclock verywell
 
4737Joker said:
i think its at 3.6 at the minute, but yeah i probably could overclock some more. I have Artic cooling freezer 7R sat on it at the moment, should that be ok for cooling?
Click to expand...

Maybe? You'll have to keep pushing and see :p

Google the thermal and voltage limits and then go for it. Generally you can tell if the cooling is insufficient as you will get thermal runaway up to the Tmax at which point a reset happens, but what I do is stop the test when the temperature hits a level I'm not happy with. Remember that too much heat can affect other components such as GPU, which can cause crashes and hurt your gaming performance!

I start by raising the clock and running OCCT for 20 minutes using the stability test setting (finds errors quicker than prime95). If it passes, I raise the frequency until it fails. Then I bump the voltage up until it passes a 20 min test. I find a 20 minute test is good for 3-4 hours of gaming in Battlefield 3 before a crash. I keep doing this until I reach the thermal limit, then it's a case of running a test for an hour and tweaking the frequency down until it passes. At this point I'll play some BF3 for a few hours to make sure the heat from the CPU isn't causing my GPU to overheat as well (this is an important step people often don't do, it's much better than running prime for the same length of time).

I think 4GHz should be doable with that cooler, I had my 955BE at 4GHz with it. You might need to manually raise the fan speed though, and that 92mm gets loud at max RPM (which is about 2200). at 4GHz your chip should be on par with the current core i3s which have a max clock of 3.4Ghz. Nehalem is 15% slower than SB/Ivy.
 
i have no idea,but try and keep temps below 80c,ideally around 78-79c and youll be fine

you could try an upgraded gpu first then see how it performs and decide on whether to get a new cpu/mb,but i think it should handle games fine
 
Cheers guys ill give the overclock a go first, if im not comfortable with it or can't do it i'll buy a new gpu before going all out on a new system.

Once again thanks for the suggestions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom