to upgrade or not to upgrade

poisonheart · 3 Jul 2020 at 19:16

Evening
Been out of the loop for some years as I ended up with a stable rig I was happy with. Just wondered how it compares to todays stuff?

i7 4770K OC bundle with
Z87X-OC-OF mobo (I believe it's E-ATX size?)
16Gb Ram DDR3
Noctua NDH14 cooler

My old Phantom Enthusiast case is dying and it's now discontinued, so as I'll be looking ofr a new case I figured I'd better check my stuff isn't so out of date it's worth scrapping!

I mainly use PS, LR, I do stack images for astrophotography...my gaming get's about as adventurous as WOW, and I do use Cubase for recording.

Any thoughts?

Grimley · 3 Jul 2020 at 19:30

I would say it would depend on what bit of software you use to stack those images. If its photoshop then you would see a definite increase in performance.

Tetras · 3 Jul 2020 at 20:09

For light gaming there's nothing wrong with your system, it'll perform somewhere near a Ryzen 3 3100.

For workstation stuff it's way behind, a Ryzen 3700X or i7 10700 are twice the CPU, but it depends how heavy what you do is; if it is heavy work and the programs support multiple cores, then you could see a massive uplift in performance. If it's light work, or the programs don't support more than 4 cores, it'd be a waste of money.

poisonheart · 3 Jul 2020 at 20:23

Registax for stacking.
Looks like just a new case then!

Now the phantom enthusiast is decontinued, any decent full size cases for e-atx overclocked system?

EsaT · 3 Jul 2020 at 21:21

While old program, RegiStax v6 should support up to 8 core processing.
So there should be good improvements.
That Haswell has had its performance nibbled by numerous vulnerability fix band aids.

PlanetBBQ · 4 Jul 2020 at 09:48

I7 4770K (At 4.8mhz, )
Gigabyte Z87X-DH3
Coolmaster silent pro 900 (or was it 800)
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme CPU Cooler
16Gb cORSAIR VENGANCE ddr3 @ 1333MHz
Gigabyte Auros GTX1080Ti

I was/am in more or less the same position as you as far as CPU age, i game more than i should for a man my age and after several months of research the answer to do i need to upgrade was no, want to, yes.
I was slightly disappointed that CPU's have not really pushed on in terms of raw speed as much as i expected (was hoping for quantum any day now) Core counts are up at the moment though, which would suit your needs more than mine

I looked at a lot of case reviews, Gamers Nexus i found one of the most honest

I may change my case in the near future and see what the state of CPU etc is later in the year. Liked this case, removable front/ top panel is good, especially if your chip runs hot.
My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Phanteks Eclipse P600S Glass Silent Midi Tower Case - Gunmetal Grey= £134.99

Total: £146.69 (includes shipping: £11.70)

poisonheart · 4 Jul 2020 at 10:01

PlanetBBQ said:
I7 4770K (At 4.8mhz, )
Gigabyte Z87X-DH3
Coolmaster silent pro 900 (or was it 800)
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB E Extreme CPU Cooler
16Gb cORSAIR VENGANCE ddr3 @ 1333MHz
Gigabyte Auros GTX1080Ti

I was/am in more or less the same position as you as far as CPU age, i game more than i should for a man my age and after several months of research the answer to do i need to upgrade was no, want to, yes.
I was slightly disappointed that CPU's have not really pushed on in terms of raw speed as much as i expected (was hoping for quantum any day now) Core counts are up at the moment though, which would suit your needs more than mine

I looked at a lot of case reviews, Gamers Nexus i found one of the most honest

I may change my case in the near future and see what the state of CPU etc is later in the year. Liked this case, removable front/ top panel is good, especially if your chip runs hot.
My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Phanteks Eclipse P600S Glass Silent Midi Tower Case - Gunmetal Grey= £134.99

Total: £146.69 (includes shipping: £11.70)

Thanks for that PlanetBBQ, I guess you've told me what I "needed" but didn't necessarily "want" to hear ;-p

Looks like just a new case then, and it looks like that one will provide the clearance my Noctua NDh14 needs.
Interestingly, some of the builds that case is used in appear to have a mesh front, I wonder if that's a custom thing or an addon you can buy?

And yes, at 51 I still play WOW daily , haha

PlanetBBQ · 4 Jul 2020 at 10:34

Comes in white too!
I believe The panel top and front is removable, so you can have it silent or airflow, double check that though
I am 54 myself and have 3000 hours on Squad, currently playing Assins Creed and Tomb Raider all on Ultra at +50 frames.yup game every day too, got furloughed 8 weeks so mind drifted back into lets tinker with the pc, not because it was struggling, but because its been 7 years. I did upgrade my fans and change the airflow, temps are good at 28/70. I think we are victims of picking the right CPU at the right time for the right application and its stood the test of time. Well done us i say.

poisonheart · 5 Jul 2020 at 19:07

PlanetBBQ said:
Comes in white too!
I believe The panel top and front is removable, so you can have it silent or airflow, double check that though

I watched a few reviews and it really does look like it'll do the business, so I went ahead and ordered it in black with the RGB lighting kit too. The external fan controller on my NZXT has been packing in for the last 2 years, and only half the fans work now, so it really was time to change the case. Yes, you can remove the panels for more airflow! Thanks for the heads up on that!

PlanetBBQ said:
I am 54 myself and have 3000 hours on Squad, currently playing Assins Creed and Tomb Raider all on Ultra at +50 frames.yup game every day too, got furloughed 8 weeks so mind drifted back into lets tinker with the pc, not because it was struggling, but because its been 7 years.

That is exactly why I thought I might be due an upgrade, the system is rock solid and handles everything I chuck at it, but, it seemed so long since I bought it (2014 I think). My /played on WoW is terrifying , ha!

PlanetBBQ said:
Comes in white too!
I think we are victims of picking the right CPU at the right time for the right application and its stood the test of time. Well done us i say.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more!

BongoHunter · 5 Jul 2020 at 19:10

Can't see it mentioned but if you guys don't have SSDs in your systems if definitely worth it for making things feel quicker

poisonheart · 5 Jul 2020 at 19:50

Yes, I have an SSD for my OS and programs, and then hdd for storage

PlanetBBQ · 6 Jul 2020 at 21:30

I have same,1 x 500gb ssd for os and a 1tb Hdd storage. both could be faster. Next build i'll go for a 1TB SSD Like the look of these PCI-e NVME, very neat, not 100% sure i will go that route, will depend on the motherboard.
Your gonna want something new to put in that case now. How long do you think you can hold out!