Processor upgrade worth it?

[Dangerous_Dave]

Hi all,

I'm updating my ITX mini gaming computer, but wondering whether I can be bothered to do the whole processor motherboard thing.

I currently have a Gigabyte H55N USB3 and i5 750 @ 3.5GHz (resale value ~£100)

Thinking about getting a 2500K or 3570K OC and a Z77 board (upgrade cost at second hand prices, approx £180-200)

Or an i7 860 and keep the motherboard (860s are about £70)

I'm upgrading the cooling in my new case to an AIO water cooler, probably a Corsair H50.

My graphics card is an HD7970.

Option 1: Obviously the cheapest is to keep the same, probably clocked to 3.8GHz, but is the CPU likely to bottleneck the GPU?

Option 2: The next cheapest is to upgrade to an 860, probably around 3.7GHz with hyperthreading (net cost ~ £10). I'm considering this because the latest consoles have 8 processing cores, so more ported games may be able to use the 8 logical cores (with hyperthreading) of the 860 over the 750.

Option 3: Upgrade motherboard and processor to Sandy/Ivy bridge @~4.2GHz. This would cost £80-100 and take the most time. Is it worth it for the overall gaming performance boost?

 

[silent]

i'd question if you need to, seems you are happy with your present but want a slightly newer one. why not get the i7 and the AIO and see if that makes a massive difference, it might not do.

otherwise, i'd get a haswell refresh bundle - new, or haswell secondhand.

that said, my pc is coming out of storage soon and it has a ivy 3570k sitting at 4.5 ghz without struggling and i'm pondering a upgrade to haswell refresh or keep for a while and get ddr4 stuff next year.