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- Joined
- 21 Sep 2010
- Posts
- 455
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?
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?