Upgrade Decision

Saitex

Saitex

Saitex

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Joined
4 Oct 2010
Posts
144
Hey guys,

So I have been wondering is a Z77 a good choice to with a 2500k since as far as I`'m concerned IB is completely not worth the money for the additional heat + lower OC capabilities.

I know that the socket is the same etc. but the Z77 were designed for the IB, so my question is will it work the same with SB? Will it affect the performance and the OC in any way?

If a Z68 would be a better choice than a Z77, maybe someone could recommend a good board for OC'ing?
 
Z77 work just as well as Z68 boards for Sandybridge chips.

You are gaining native USB3.0 support mainly.

Some reviewers have been able to use less volts to overclock their Sandybridge chips with a Z77 than with a Z68 board.
 
everything I've seen suggests that Z77 is a better platform than Z68. Also, due to architecture improvements Ivy Bridge is, clock for clock, faster than Sandybridge and it also provides a much better memory controller.

I wouldn't suggest that anybody with a P67 or Z68 system running Sandybridge should upgrade to Z77 & Ivy Bridge but to me it's lunacy for anyone looking to upgrade to LGA1155 to choose the last generation of hardware.

If you were to get yourself a 3570K, a good cooler, a good overclockable motherboard and some 2000Mhz+ capable memory I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.
 
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The thing about the new i5's, is that with a 4.7 OC it's hitting 90C with an aftermarket cooler while the 2nd gen i5's can hit the same clocks with 10-15C lower temps.
 
I hit a bit under 80c running prime95 with a 3570K and my Vcore was high, bad chip I think.

Everyday use wont reach these temps.
 
Paul Watkinson of Benchtec UK was running an Ivy Bridge demo for a competitor's launch event this weekend.

His rig was:
i5-3570K Retail not Engineering Sample
MSI Z77A-GD65 Motherboard
four sticks Corsair (sorry cant remember the exact model) 2400MHz Memory
Corsair H80 Cooler

He was running Wprime on all four cores @ 4.8Ghz with memory at 2600MHz and at 100% load the CPU reached 75C, this is far from excessive, especially when you consider that you'll never get close to this in normal operation.

He finished off my benching to show performance before cranking it up to 5GHz to demonstrate stability. At 4.8Ghz his bench scores were equivalent to a 5.4-5.5GHz Sandybridge and you won't find many of those. I'd read all the reviews and comments so I have to say that I was surprised by the results and after spending the day with Paul It's my opinion that Ivy bridge is getting some unfair bad press.

Anyone who approaches Ivybridge the same as they did Sandybridge is bound to find temperature problems because it's much more temperature sensitive and the Sandybridge approach of cranking up the voltage is a big problem.
 
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ScottiB said:
He was running Wprime on all four cores @ 4.8Ghz with memory at 2600MHz and at 100% load the CPU reached 75C
Click to expand...

Wow man, I would like to read that review. All the ones which I read so far showed everything against IB and that SB overall is better. Is there a vid or a review of that?

Now I'm really confused about the IB :confused:
 
there may be a vid as I know Hexus was filming, it wasn't a review it was a live demo. I have to admit to being nervous when he started because he'd only had a few hours prep time with our motherboard but he didnt have a single crash or lock up during the entire day.

I think many of the reviews are a bit tainted by disappointment because everyone was expecting miracles, some of the early engineering samples were fantastic & that made it worse. It's like a kid on Christmas who doesnt get exactly the right toy.

It seems as though a lot of the reviewers were expecting a 5Ghz smashing CPU and so were focused on comparing clock speeds, voltages and temps rather than performance. Also, don't forget that the OC capability of 2500 & 2600K's have dropped quite a bit since launch so I think you are more likely to find a 4.6Ghz capable IB than a 5Ghz capable SB.

In my opinion, the performance you'd get from a 4.6-4.8Ghz IB with 2000MHz+ memory is better than you could ever get with a new Sandybridge processor at the usual 1600Mhz memory and as long as you are careful with the voltages the operating temps will be fine.
 
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Hmm, this is a truly interesting outcome, didn't think that IB could do that since none of the reviews actually said anything about that -.- . This might be off topic a bit, but I'm currently runing a i3 530 @ 3.8 + 580 and current gettin an average of around 60-65fps on bf3 with AA+AF disabled. Been trying to find a bench which would tell me an aproximate increase in FPS which would be attained by upgrading to the IB but the search proved to be kind of pointless.

Maybe any1 here has upgraded from a low end CPU to something of a higher end with a higher end GPU and seen any kind of FPS increase? Since currently in my oppinion the games are utilizing the GPU more than the CPU unlike it was a couple of years ago. Therefore I wonder would a £300 upgrade actually increase the performance for it to be worth it, or should I wait for the next gen :confused:
 
if you are just look at gaming performance then I think a CPU/mobo/ram upgrade would make such a small amount of difference that it would not be unnoticeable. You'd be better served spending the money on more graphics power (if 580 isnt enough already - a 6970 is fine for me)

That said, day to day performance & loading times would be better. Also the "next gen" isn't going to come any time soon.

Also, back on subject, don't forget that IB offers PCI-Express Gen 3.0 for the newer graphics cards.
 
That's what I'm considering at the moment. Since anything after IB is a year if not even more away. And somehow I don't think that the next gen of CPU's will have a major upgrade to the current ones, though you never know. Also I believe IB or SB will still go pretty strong for the next 3-4 year as imo. Therefore the last thing which comes I think is the PCI-E 3.0. It has higher bandwidth etc. but I don't really understand how come when the benches for SB and IB with the same GPU i.e. 680 are nearly the same. Been checking them and somehow that 3.0 doesn't seem to be giving anything extra at all fps wise currently. Is it just that there isn't a proper comparability yet or something?
 
ScottiB said:
there may be a vid as I know Hexus was filming, it wasn't a review it was a live demo. I have to admit to being nervous when he started because he'd only had a few hours prep time with our motherboard but he didnt have a single crash or lock up during the entire day.
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The vids are now up on HEXUS TV and you can see Paul Watkinson of Benchtec talking about the OC performance.
 
Saitex said:
If a Z68 would be a better choice than a Z77, maybe someone could recommend a good board for OC'ing?
Click to expand...

I recently bought a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H to go with my I5-2500K.

I`ve just been running Prime95 for an hour and a half with the CPU @ 4.6hz. Max temps -

Core 0 : 61
Core 1 : 67
Core 2 : 67
Core 3 : 65

The cooler is a Gelid Tranquillo, and yes, it is tranquil, even when under load.
 
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