i5 worth the move?

[krooton]

My estimations see me able to get £150 for my current cpu/mobo/ram.

I can get a 2500k, MSI P67A-G45 and 8GB DDR3 for £300.

Is it a worthwhile move for £150 outlay?

 

[Engram]

It depends what you do with your PC!

If you play games then try and find a CPU benchmark chart that shows you the difference in FPS for your favourite games.

 

[IvanDobskey]

This is exactly the move I am considering. What you have to remember is you're also getting a newer chipset with ddr3 and sata3 support. So it'll be an all round better system. I'll be upgrading this Xmas I reckon.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Benchmark wise Sata 3 is great, real world, pretty much meaningless, the "instance on" feel of ssd's comes from being faster in random read/writes than hdd's, and in those situations ssd's are WELL below the sata 2 limitations anyway, sequential is nice, but nothing to do with how a system feels with an ssd over a HDD, likewise ddr3 won't provide any tangible benefit at all.

Is it worth upgrading, depends on what you do, if it is gaming(most people here would have gaming as the most intensive thing they do regularly, its not worth upgrading for one dvd encode every 6 months, or anything you do now and then, but for things you do regularly).

3.8Ghz quad, I'd be inclined to say for most things, not worth it, for gaming, absolutely not, if you regularly encode or render things, then you'd probably see some pretty decent real world performance increases.

If you were stuck at the 3-3.3GHz overclock then you start to be borderline to little power for some games, but 3.5Ghz plus is pretty much the point that no games really end up CPU limited, there are still some, Starcraft 2, Supreme commander, but again in these games due to being overhead and not graphically fast moving at all, its a case of anything over pretty much 25fps looking identical.

 

[Witcher1979]

Yes for sure, the difference is pretty big. You will also get a nice 4.5ghz+ overclock with very little work:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/50?vs=288

I have a pretty big boost from my old overclocked q6600, upgrade was worth every penny.

 

[IvanDobskey]

At the end of the day, it's new shiny pc kit to play with

 

[Zinth]

Thinking of doing the same. But gunna wait to see how BF3 runs first

 

[krooton]

Gaming primarily, audio encoding secondary, and video encoding rarely.

I was just thinking more about getting return on my current kit, I don't know how much longer decent E0s will be worth £90+

 

[Scougar]

Yes. I believe it is worth the outlay.

 

[Adam_101]

yes def, the i5 is the way to go and like was mentioned earlier you will have a shiny new pc

 

[Miidget]

Im just about to invest into the i5 2500k and everyone ive asked about it says its an amazing processor, really stable even when overclocked.

 

[Michaeljcox24]

Have considered similar system shift myself. Personally, I don't think it's worth it, unless you want to run BF3 on absolutely maxed out everything.

I reckon a decent high end overclocked socket 775 still easily holds its own against the newer cpu's in games. Yeah, you're bench score might be lower than those lads with sandy rigs, but in games, I personally, can't really justify it.

 

[krooton]

I'm doubting a 3.8Ghz quad and crossfired 5850s would have trouble with anything at 1080p any ways (I don't play FPS).

 

[Fens]

Have considered similar system shift myself. Personally, I don't think it's worth it, unless you want to run BF3 on absolutely maxed out everything.

I reckon a decent high end overclocked socket 775 still easily holds its own against the newer cpu's in games. Yeah, you're bench score might be lower than those lads with sandy rigs, but in games, I personally, can't really justify it.

Same here, I was also thinking about upgrading but since the bf3 beta ran ok at 1080p and I don't really do much encoding then I figure that the q9550 still has some life in it.