Worth Doing?

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:18

I'm seriously thinking of getting a R9 290 to replace the 7850 in my rig but I'm not sure if I'm going to see much in the way of a benifit due to the aging nature of the rest of the system.

I currently have a q6600 OC'd to 3.4 and 4g DDR2 in an IP35 Pro and I'm struggling to find any benchmarks or comparisons due to how old it is.

I know the CPU/RAM factor will probably affect performance and from litle i've been able to find this seems to be the case but would you think it would make the upgrade not worth doing?

4737Joker · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:36

If it were me i would upgrade the core of the system first, the 7850 can still hold it's own.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
Total : £402.77 (includes shipping : £9.00).

You can save a little by going for an i5 instead over the i7 but if you sell your old stuff it shouldn't cost much more than a 290.

I saw big gains in performance going from q6600 to a 3570k.

4737Joker · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:37

Oh and you will want an aftermarket cooler to go with that.

Doomedspeed · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:39

I think the 290 will be bottlenecked to much..

I'd wait until you can do a full upgrade/new build.

Akagi · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:43

4670K, Z87-D3HP with free Prolimatech Panther CPU cooler, 8GB TeamGroup Elite Black.

I wouldn't want to put a 290 with a Q6600. I had a 4870X2 with mine and it even bottlenecked that.

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 09:15

Ok. Cool. I thought the q6600 would be an issue I was just hoping I could get away with it for a while longer

Do you think I'll see a decent jump in real world gaming performance by going to Haswell? Or could I get away with an i5 2500k?

Akagi · 20 Nov 2013 at 09:20

A 2500K would be a big step in the right direction.

overclock it and you'll get to Haswell performance anyway

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 09:32

acme15 said:
A 2500K would be a big step in the right direction. overclock it and you'll get to Haswell performance anyway

And a fair bit cheaper!

I'll get trawling the MM

bennydragonboy · 20 Nov 2013 at 09:38

I agree. New motherboard, CPU, and RAM.
You might even want to get an SSD.

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 10:50

bennydragonboy said:
I agree. New motherboard, CPU, and RAM.
You might even want to get an SSD.

Just bought a 2Tb Sata3 HDD which I was going to use with the Sata2 mobo but now should see some benifits there.

4737Joker · 20 Nov 2013 at 12:31

An SSD would be well worth it if you can squeeze one in to the budget, if your going the second hand i5 2500k route you should manage

bennydragonboy · 20 Nov 2013 at 12:35

There's a quite nice 128GB SSD on offer this week.

TheBDog · 20 Nov 2013 at 12:35

4737Joker said:
An SSD would be well worth it if you can squeeze one in to the budget, if your going the second hand i5 2500k route you should manage

Agree with this. SSDs have such a massive impact on performance it's definitely worth the leap!

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 12:36

I'll check out the SSD's

On a side note, are the mounting pins the same for 775 as they are for 1155? Would quite like to keep my W/C set up.

Akagi · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:09

I don't think you'll see a great amount of difference going from SATA 2 to 3 with a HDD as most can't harass the full potential of SATA 2 in the first place.

An SSD would be far far better. No comparison

Akagi · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:12

northun_munky said:
I'll check out the SSD's On a side note, are the mounting pins the same for 775 as they are for 1155? Would quite like to keep my W/C set up.

Sadly not, though my old motherboard (Z68 ASRock Extreme 4 Gen 3) had mounting holes for 775 and 1155 but with that said I really couldn't recommend that board.

What CPU block do you have?

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:36

D-Tek Fuzion v2.

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:38

After some reading up I don't think I can but I can buy a backplate and bracket for use with the 775 v2 that will fit 1155...

Akagi · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:45

northun_munky said:
D-Tek Fuzion v2.

You can get a socket 1155 mounting kit for that CPU block I believe

northun_munky · 20 Nov 2013 at 13:52

acme15 said:
You can get a socket 1155 mounting kit for that CPU block I believe

good

I started off this whole thing by seeing what I could do to upgrade whilst keeping the cost below that of a PS4 lol! Any money I can save here and there is good by me. If I can find a 2500k, z77 mobo and RAM AND still have enough left for another 7850 i'll consider it mission accomplished.