Ugrade options..... what to do?

ugly ferret

ugly ferret

ugly ferret

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19 Jan 2006
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736
Hello everyone!

Got £150 worth of birthday present coming my way and I'd like to get peoples thoughts on the best way to use it for upgrading my pc. I've recently upgraded to a 500gb ssd and GeForce 970gtx so now looking at sorting the ancient cpu and matching motherboard out. Current spec is:

CPU: s775 q6600 @2.8ghz
Motherboard: Asus P5K-C
RAM: 8GB DDR3 Corsair LP 1600mhz
GPU: EVGA 970gtx 4GB
HDD: Samsung 840 512GB SSD
PSU: Corsair 520watt something or other
Case: Silverstone LS17 HTPC case
OS: Windows 8.1

Setup is used exclusively for gaming, at least with regard to intensive tasks.

Was thinking of a few options:

1) Use the £150 to get a CPU now, something like 4590 (3.7ghz boost) and buy a cheap z97 like the £60 gigabyte with my own money. DC is out of birthday budget and doesn't seem good value at £190 anyway. With this option I can upgrade now and is very cheap. Downside is no overclocking! Total cost to me ~ £60

2) Use the birth day budget to get a decent z97 motherboard for around £100-£120 and wait for broadwell, use the rest of the money for something else. Will still have to fork out £150-£200 of my own money for a nice broadwell cpu and will have to wait a bit to do the upgrade, but will come out with a better and overclockable setup in the long run. Total cost to me ~ £180

3) Do nothing and wait for skylake, use the birthday money for something non-PC related. This is tempting as I don't like upgrading my motherboard and cpu very often, I want this to last a good few years like last time. Downside is I will have to wait at least another 4 months and will have to buy new memory, so will be the most expensive option but at least it will last a good few years and will have time to save. Total cost ~ £450

4) Go 6 core x99 now. Will cost a lot and won't be of any performance benefit now, but will last the longest and I love the fact that the CPU's run cooler, very important in my cramped HTPC case (don't like the idea of running an overclocked haswell in there!). Can use the birthday money to get the motherboard so just need to buy cpu and ram. Total cost ~ £450

I'm leaning towards option 1 over option 2, purely form a vfm point. But seems silly not to wait to see what Broadwell is like. Slightly tempted by option 4 too, not sure at all about option 3 due to the long wait and high cost.

Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated!?

Cheers!:D
 
I would be leaning towards option 2, that way you get to spend your birthday money on something decent, and then you're just playing the waiting game for a new CPU!
 
Thanks for the reply! Just a couple more questions if I was to look at option 2. Firstly if I was to be overclocking, I'd like to carry on initially using my arctic freezer 7 pro cpu cooler, would that be possible? I know if I bought one today it would be compatible with both s775 and s1150, but would my old one still be mountable on the new socket?

Also comparing option 1 & 2, I'm confused as to how the turbo boost clock works? ie if I overclock a DC cpu to 4ghz, would it be only be 300mhz faster than the i5 4590 which boosts to 3.7ghz, or should I be comparing to it's non boost 3.3ghz figure. Just trying to work out whether the overclockable cpu's work out as better vfm - 20% more expensive, needs to be at least 20% faster to be worth it!
 
Well I've decided to get the motherboard now, maybe with a new cpu cooler and wait to see what broadwell's like. I was looking at these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-613-AS

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-038-AR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2338

I have a few more questions:

1) I need a cpu cooler less than 140mm in height to fit in my HTPC, any better alternatives to the one above?

2) Is my 5 year old psu ok? The wattage should be fine (I'm sure my current cpu has quite a high TDP) but just wondering if the newer motherboards have new connections?

3) Could I save some money and use my existing s775 Arctic freezer 7 on s1150? I know the new ones are backwards compatible with s775 but are the old ones forward compatible with s1150?

4) Does the motherboard have everything I need to get the most from my sata3 SSD?

I need to get an answer on these before I can pull the trigger, any help would be very appreciated!

Cheers!:D
 
to answer your specific questions: your psu is okay, if your heatsink supports s1156/1155, then s1150 is okay (they all use the same mounts), yes the mobo you selected is okay.

and fwiw, i disagree with your choice.
if all you are getting right now is the mobo, then may i suggest that waiting would be a better option.
why? cuz z107 will be launching as well, and if you're waiting to use the mobo with a new processor (ie not going to use it right now), then what's the rush in spending the cash right now? why not wait and see (when you have the cash to fully upgrade) to see what options are available to you?
 
Iirc those old s775 freezers were specific to that socket model only as the bracket was fixed to the body of the cooler and used the intel style push pin mounting pegs.

Psu will be fine, i used an hx 850 with the build in sig, had it for 6+ years. Motherboard will indeed allow your ssd to run at native sata 3 speeds. The skylake Z107 series is looking like it wont be released until q1 2016 going by rumours. The next cpu release on Z97 is broadwell k, q2 of this year.
 
Don't buy a new board now. When the new cpu's launch no doubt there will be a new chipset too. Put the money to one side and save up some more so that you can buy the motherboard and cpu in one go. In the meantime overclock that Q6600 to cut down the bottleneck it's giving your poor 970. With a decent cooler a G0 stepping Q6600 should hit 3.4-3.6Ghz.
 
tamzzy said:
to answer your specific questions: your psu is okay, if your heatsink supports s1156/1155, then s1150 is okay (they all use the same mounts), yes the mobo you selected is okay.

and fwiw, i disagree with your choice.
if all you are getting right now is the mobo, then may i suggest that waiting would be a better option.
why? cuz z107 will be launching as well, and if you're waiting to use the mobo with a new processor (ie not going to use it right now), then what's the rush in spending the cash right now? why not wait and see (when you have the cash to fully upgrade) to see what options are available to you?
Click to expand...

Have to agree, I don't see the sense in buying a mobo now only to stick it in a box for future use, if for no other reason than it may drop in price a little when it's actually closer to the time you need it.
 
tamzzy said:
to answer your specific questions: your psu is okay, if your heatsink supports s1156/1155, then s1150 is okay (they all use the same mounts), yes the mobo you selected is okay.

and fwiw, i disagree with your choice.
if all you are getting right now is the mobo, then may i suggest that waiting would be a better option.
why? cuz z107 will be launching as well, and if you're waiting to use the mobo with a new processor (ie not going to use it right now), then what's the rush in spending the cash right now? why not wait and see (when you have the cash to fully upgrade) to see what options are available to you?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Good points but there's method to my madness! Firstly, the motherboard will be in the form of a birthday present, so needs to be bought in the next few days. Not actually getting the money myself, sounds silly but that's the way it is!

Secondly, I considered waiting for skylake, z107 and the new socket but I'm itching to do this upgrade as soon as possible and could be waiting another 6 months for this. Currently using a 7 year old cpu with a 970gtx and as you can imagine it's causing a massive bottleneck and don't want to be doing this for another 6 months. I could just about wait a month or two for broadwell though...

I'm open to ideas though, feel free to convince me otherwise!:)
 
I think previous members have made a good point: don't bother buying a motherboard in anticipation of buying a CPU, save up and then see what options are available when you have enough for the full upgrade :)
 
Last edited:
pastymuncher said:
Don't buy a new board now. When the new cpu's launch no doubt there will be a new chipset too. Put the money to one side and save up some more so that you can buy the motherboard and cpu in one go. In the meantime overclock that Q6600 to cut down the bottleneck it's giving your poor 970. With a decent cooler a G0 stepping Q6600 should hit 3.4-3.6Ghz.
Click to expand...

Thanks, tried but it ain't happening!! Got up to 2.8ghz fine, 3ghz needed load more volts (1.35 iirc) and still wasn't 100% stable. Unless I'm missing something.

Also I thought z97 was designed to accept broadwell? Please correct me if I'm wrong!:)
 
1.35 is more than fine on the q6600, iirc i ran mine at 3.8 on 1.55 for a year or so. Z97 will indeed accept broadwell. Skylake is the one that will require the new Z107 socket, but it wont be out for quite some time.
 
setter said:
Iirc those old s775 freezers were specific to that socket model only as the bracket was fixed to the body of the cooler and used the intel style push pin mounting pegs.

Psu will be fine, i used an hx 850 with the build in sig, had it for 6+ years. Motherboard will indeed allow your ssd to run at native sata 3 speeds. The skylake Z107 series is looking like it wont be released until q1 2016 going by rumours. The next cpu release on Z97 is broadwell k, q2 of this year.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, I suspected as much with regard to the freezer, just wanted to check just in case.

And yeah, no way I'm waiting q1 2016 for z107! My next board WILL be z97 (unless I go mad and go x99), just made sense to get one as a present while I could.

Maybe I'll just ask for some clothes instead....
 
setter said:
1.35 is more than fine on the q6600, iirc i ran mine at 3.8 on 1.55 for a year or so. Z97 will indeed accept broadwell. Skylake is the one that will require the new Z107 socket, but it wont be out for quite some time.
Click to expand...

Haha, had no idea they could take so much volts! Might have a play later tonight. Was getting about 65c load (just gaming) at 3ghz, what's a safe limit for these chips?
 
tamzzy said:
could always /puppyeyes and ask for the money (i know you said that's the way it is, but no harm trying ;P)
Click to expand...

Haha don't think that'll work tbh, I'm very lucky with what's already on offer. Besides, more money would only help for x99, no way I'd ever get away with asking for a £300 cpu....
 
ugly ferret said:
Firstly, the motherboard will be in the form of a birthday present, so needs to be bought in the next few days. Not actually getting the money myself, sounds silly but that's the way it is!

I'm open to ideas though, feel free to convince me otherwise!:)
Click to expand...

If you're not getting the money, but need to have it spent on you, maybe you could draw the gift-givers attention to the lovely range of Overclockers gift vouchers...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/search_results.php?keywords=gift+vouchers&_=1426104272374

You can then use the vouchers in a few months time when Broadwell or Skylake comes out, in addition to any further funds you might have generated.
 
What to do with £150 birthday money...?
How old are you...It's a very important question and will determine the correct answer.

go out and p1$$ it up the wall - there's no point wasting it :p
 
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