Interim Upgrade - X58 to Z68...yay or nay?

Random Guy · 9 Sep 2013 at 13:57

So I have a i7 920 driving GTX 680s in SLI at a 2560 x 1440 resolution. The chip is a D0, which has had difficulty running at frequencies greater than 3.7 GHz.

So far, the most appealing aspects of the newer (since X58) chipsets to me are the USB 3 and SATA 6 GB/s capability, especially considering how poor the CPU performance increases have been, relatively speaking, since Sandy Bridge.

The choice I have is to upgrade to a 2600k/Z68-V PRO Asus Mobo combo for a relatively good price I believe (£180 all in), and the thinking here is that even though I am perfectly happy with my setup, I think going to the 2600k and clocking it up will (a) maximise the benefits of my 680s, (b) prepare for incoming new games like BF4, (c) afford a little more future-proofing so that I can weather out 1 or 2 more years sans expensive full upgrade, and (d) benefit from using SATA 6 GB/s on my SSD.

Of course, it goes without saying that it would be nice to have new (second-hand) toys to tinker with. What I want to ask is, has anyone else made a similar move or has a similar setup to this, that can comment/advise? If not, anyone's feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

Doomedspeed · 9 Sep 2013 at 14:09

You will see an improvment,

There will be a little/fair bottleneck on those cards and a 2600k @ 4.5/4.8 will release those a lot more.

Thats an epic price so i would go for it.

But if you were paying retail (hypothetically) i'd personally opt for the 2011 route with a X79 motherboard (obviously) and a 3820.. This gives you an upgrade path to the 3930k, 4930k.. ect. THough not rerally needed at the moment..

TL;DR.. Go for it!

swiftmetal · 9 Sep 2013 at 14:14

+1 for going the x79 route it offers some good performance increases and great upgrade path if need/wanted.

Roady · 9 Sep 2013 at 15:59

Sell me the 2600K lol! Sounds an epic deal as that board still goes for £60+!

wazza300 · 9 Sep 2013 at 16:29

go for it,have same cpu/board @4.5ghz,runs nice and cool too compared to x58

Random Guy · 9 Sep 2013 at 19:48

Cheers for the advice all

Hopefully the deal pulls through and I can get on with the new build

bicpug · 9 Sep 2013 at 21:04

my upgrade from i920 to 4770k was just about worth it, not sure it is worth it for anything much slower. i920 was a great cpu and the x58 has pretty high ram bandwidth.

Random Guy · 9 Sep 2013 at 21:33

bicpug said:
my upgrade from i920 to 4770k was just about worth it, not sure it is worth it for anything much slower. i920 was a great cpu and the x58 has pretty high ram bandwidth.

What res and GPU set-up were you running? Those would be the 2 main factors imo which would make it "worth it" or not