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Before pulling the trigger on a 3570k build.

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

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As you can see im still running a Core 2 Quad system.

Now Im thiking of upgrading for gaming purposes.

I did wait out on SB as I wanted to make sure that my primary PCI-Ex slot was v3. (Whether it makes a difference is not the point)

The build I have spec'd myself will come in at around £370.

I will be keeping my 5870 for the time being, as I want to go green this time around and am waiting on the 670's to be released.

I will obviously see a performance increase in games by upgrading my platform?

Should I wait for Haswell? Will Haswell make 6+ cores mainstream, or is it another 4 cores?

I wouldnt hesitate at all if IB was more than 4 cores as then I would truely agree it was next gen, but my Qx9650 already has 4 cores, so Im a bit uncomfortable spending cash on a cpu which only has 4 cores.

I do understand that at this moment in time, cores arent important, its ipc which is as games havent really managed to fully utilise multicore architectures yet.

But with the new consoles on the horizon im thinking this might change?
 
Are you hitting any kind of bottleneck with your current system? CPU loads bottling at 100% with poor frame rates? Or is the 5870 holding you back?

But with the new consoles on the horizon im thinking this might change?
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Nah, new consoles will be medium range gaming PC at best, like always. Even with mass production, you can't really expect to fit a £700 PC into a £250 console. PCIE3 isn't that much of a deal, and I don't really see the 2500K / 3570K becoming obsolete any time soon.

If you feel you are hitting a CPU bottleneck (which I am not certain), 8GB 12800C9 (£40), 3570K / 2500K (£170), and a good motherboard (£100), and a decent cooler (£30).
 
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olivier renault said:
Are you hitting any kind of bottleneck with your current system? CPU loads bottling at 100% with poor frame rates? Or is the 5870 holding you back?



Nah, new consoles will be medium range gaming PC at best, like always. Even with mass production, you can't really expect to fit a £700 PC into a £250 console. PCIE3 isn't that much of a deal, and I don't really see the 2500K / 3570K becoming obsolete any time soon.

I would save a little more, to get the good stuff. 8GB 12800C9, 3570K / 2500K, and a good £100 motherboard.
Click to expand...

What I have speced my self is this:

3570k
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77
8Gb of the Samsung green 1600Mhz
Noctua cooler

Add in my existing M4 and 5870.

What do you reckon?
 
mauserk98 said:
Have you looked at this one ? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-518-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261 .

I have only used asus boards so im a bit bias may me, but its in you price brkt .:confused:
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it's micro-ATX.

opethdisciple said:
Recommend a board, in a similar price range?
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That's what I mean by spending a little. If you're splashing out for a NH-D14, I would get something a bit more suited for overclocking, meaning more expensive.

Its bigger brother, the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H would be good, as is the MSI Z77A-GD55 / GD65, Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (looks like my board with similar VRM design and features).
 
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I have an Asus board currently.

What I didnt like about it, is they completly abondond my board in terms of driver updates.

The latest sound drivers for my chipset are still win7 betas!!

In a cheap gigabyte mobo I bought for a second PC, I find that Gigabyte keep the drivers up to date.

So I'm a bit reluctant to go with Asus again.
 
Ok I have found a good price on the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H.

So I guess I can swap the board for that one.

Are there any other cheaper coolers I should consider with similar performance to the noctua?
 
Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom. A lil bit cheaper.

Thermalright SilverArrow. Same deal.

If you want 4.4GHz, and quiet, the DarkRock Advanced, Thermalright VenomousX, Titan Fenrir (quiet? Stulid used to have one), Scythe Ninja 3. maybe even the Gelid Tranquillo, CNPS10-X Quiet will do it. Not as good as the big dual fan, dual radiator air coolers.

A50, Hyper 212 bit less quiet, better performing than the Gelid (looking at charts).

With big coolers, check for case space. Needs 160-165mm clearance.
 
why not get a z77a-g43? it has an 8-pin power connector, whatever that means :p. and i hear that overclocking potential will hardly be marred by a cheaper board. that's like £40 for 100mhz... this board has better sound and ethernet (?) than the cheap gigabyte. afaik it's just missing lucid virtu mvp which might be useless, and two pcie3 slots.
 
I'v just noticed else where you can get:

Intel Core i7 3770K Processor
2 x 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz Memory
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 Motherboard

For £400...

Better cpu, cheaper board, slower ram and only half of it.

Is it better value than what I have spec tho?

Probably not.........
 
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Na, I wouldn't gimp the build just for the CPU. Better off with a 3570K, a better motherboard, 8 GB RAM, and a CPU cooler for the same price.

If you want a i7 (although unecessary outside thread heavy tasks), then it's worth spending around it as well.
 
A platform upgrade will defo breath some new life in to my 5870 wouldnt it?

I do plan to upgrade to something like a 670 but for the time being was going to stick with the 5870..
 
opethdisciple said:
A platform upgrade will defo breath some new life in to my 5870 wouldnt it?

I do plan to upgrade to something like a 670 but for the time being was going to stick with the 5870..
Click to expand...

It's an old card, still OK if you dont push AA, resolution and tesselation.

It's not gonna break new grounds, but if your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU then yes, you could see some framerate benefits.

Again a QX9650 at 3.7GHz is nothing to be sniffed at tbh. I'm not entirely sure you will see an improvement.

you can look at this to get an idea.

It's not just the CPU. more RAM is always good. Going for a 3570K / 2500K you will be getting the latest 'affordable' hardware available, and for some time.
 
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