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Wow what a difference 5 year makes, cpu help needed

Peter450

Peter450

Peter450

Associate
Joined
26 Jan 2008
Posts
557
5 year ago I built my first PC, it went rather well I didn't blow anything up and got a very nice gaming rig for the price of some midrange tat from Dell. Anyways it's serve red me well and a GFX refresh kept things humming along nicely.

Today however the trusty steed is on its last legs, games have always run well but new games need more power, more memory, and fans that actually generate some cooling.

I need a processor to take me trough the next 5 years of gaming, I just have no idea what I need, theirs some new I7 skylark ones that seem like they fit the bill, but would an I5 be an option ?

I want something that I won't have to replace in 2/3 years along with the graphics card, so any advice on what I should get would be appreciated.
 
What is your budget?

And is gaming all you need the processor for? No streaming or anything on the side?
 
It's just for gaming. I currently have a yorkfield I think quad core at 3.6

My. friend had a similar processor and the same Asus mobo as me and had to upgrade when his GFX card failed as the newer nvidia cards would not work with his mobo, he tried several nvidia cards and in the end got a new mobo as he could not get them to work.

My GFX card is on the way out with a weak fan, and due to the age of the whole system I think a new mobo is needed, I also need a new HD so I think the time has come for a major internal upgrade.

My budget is around 250 I can maybe stretch up to 300 if that's what's going to be required but ideally I like to keep the cost down and get one as cheap as possible. Although I don't want false economy in the sense that games start to stutter 3/4 years down the line because the CPU can't handle it.

I'm happy to swap out the GFX card in two years but once the cpu is in I don't really want to have to change it till the next mobo refresh in 5 to 6 years
 
Peter450 said:
I thought skylake was newer and better ? Are the older gen better value then with you getting more bang for the buck ?
Click to expand...

On your budget bud you won't be able to get either Skylake or X99, if you could post your exact system specs though we could better advise where you could improve things.

Skylake is the new Mainstream socket and cpus yes, I7 with 4cores 8 threads, but X99 is the top Intel platform with the 5820K that i posted being 6 cores, 12 threads.

X99 is a much better platform.
 
uksoldierboy said:
On your budget bud you won't be able to get either Skylake or X99, if you could post your exact system specs though we could better advise where you could improve things.

Skylake is the new Mainstream socket and cpus yes, I7 with 4cores 8 threads, but X99 is the top Intel platform with the 5820K that i posted being 6 cores, 12 threads.

X99 is a much better platform.
Click to expand...

Well I don't mind paying up to 300 for the chip, if that's what's needed to keep the games working sweet into the 2020s. It's just i don't want get an i7 if say an i5 will also do the job for the next 5/6 years.

I can pick up a reasonable mobo I would have thought for around 100 to 120 or so
 
Peter450 said:
Well I don't mind paying up to 300 for the chip, if that's what's needed to keep the games working sweet into the 2020s. It's just i don't want get an i7 if say an i5 will also do the job for the next 5/6 years.

I can pick up a reasonable mobo I would have thought for around 100 to 120 or so
Click to expand...

Totally depends on what platform you go for bud, but were it me, looking to build something that could hopefully last until 2020, i'd put the extra in and go for X99, 5820K etc, basically the absolute best you can get.
 
Peter450 said:
I need a processor to take me trough the next 5 years of gaming, I just have no idea what I need, theirs some new I7 skylark ones that seem like they fit the bill, but would an I5 be an option ?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you need a new CPU, motherboard, and memory.

Peter450 said:
Well I don't mind paying up to 300 for the chip, if that's what's needed to keep the games working sweet into the 2020s. It's just i don't want get an i7 if say an i5 will also do the job for the next 5/6 years.

I can pick up a reasonable mobo I would have thought for around 100 to 120 or so
Click to expand...

£300 for the chip (CPU) won't even get a Skylake i7 (the i7-6700K is £320), as prices have gone mental. The i5-6600K is much cheaper at £195.

This is why people are saying if you're going for an i7 you might as well get a Haswell-E i7-5820K for £300 which has six cores.

On the other hand though, the cheapest X99 motherboards are a lot more than Skylake - £170 for an X99 motherboard - compared to as low as £90.

But if £300 includes CPU, motherboard, and memory I'm afraid the current gen is out of reach, as an i5 bundle would start at about £330.

Edit: alternatively you could wait for the lower range Skylake chips to come out, or look at a previous gen system.
 
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Do you think a 4 core I5 take me to 2020 for 1080p gaming ?

If not I'm gonna get the 6 core as recomended, and just bite the bullet on the higher cost
 
Conm8 said:
Get a skylake and a GTX 980 ti mate if you got the budget. If not, perhaps an i5 4690k and a GTX 970
Click to expand...

This is bonkers advice:confused:

If he had the budget for skylake, only a fool would get it over X99!

Op, imho, i'd do what it takes to get an X99 system, especially seeing as you want it to last, more is better.

Ocuk are doing fantastic deals on X99 bundles, (i've used the deals to build two systems in the last month).

We can't know what hardware requirements will be like in 2020, so if your buying now, the best way to go is X99.

It's as simple as that.
 
uksoldierboy said:
If he had the budget for skylake, only a fool would get it over X99!
Click to expand...

This seems to be the default advice these days but it's plain wrong!

As I wrote above X99 is a lot more expensive than an i5 Skylake however you look at it.

i5-6600K + mobo starts at £285
i7-5820K + mobo starts at £470

The min budget for a good Skylake machine comes in nearly £200 cheaper than the 5820K option.
 
joeyjojo said:
This seems to be the default advice these days but it's plain wrong!

As I wrote above X99 is a lot more expensive than an i5 Skylake however you look at it.

i5-6600K + mobo starts at £285
i7-5820K + mobo starts at £470

The min budget for a good Skylake machine comes in nearly £200 cheaper than the 5820K option.
Click to expand...

Ah slight misunderstanding here bud, i was referring to the I7 skylake, i'd assume the OP, seeing as he wants it to last until 2020s he'd not go with an I5 (He has a quad core already so I5 isn't going to be much of an upgrade in terms of future-proofing, regardless of overclocking imo)

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-020-GI&groupid=2833&catid=2836

£440 for x99 cpu + mobo, still much more expensive than and I5 skylake build of course.
 
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uksoldierboy said:
Ah slight misunderstanding here bud, i was referring to the I7 skylake, i'd assume the OP, seeing as he wants it to last until 2020s he'd not go with an I5 (He has a quad core already so I5 isn't going to be much of an upgrade in terms of future-proofing, regardless of overclocking imo)
Click to expand...

Ah I see. Agreed, good points.
 
Conm8 said:
Get a skylake and a GTX 980 ti mate if you got the budget. If not, perhaps an i5 4690k and a GTX 970
Click to expand...

I'm thinking of a GTX970 as its a lot cheaper than the TI.

I think that for 500 I'd probably get more performance from 970s in SLI ? And I can always add a second one later when it's needed.

On that basis I think the 970 makes more sense ?

Thanks for all the advice guys, I was looking at the newer chips and had not looked into the haswell chips
 
What res will you be gaming at bud? 970s in sli would be great at 1080p, but I'd go with a 390 with the view of crossfire by adding a second later down the line.

More vram(double) too with will only help going forward.

To finalise, my suggestion would be:

X99 platform, better features and performance.
Get the bundle off ocuk with the 5820k, gigabyte sli mobo.
16gb of teamgroup ddr4 quad channel ram
And a 390, but you'll have to take into account the power usage, depending on your current psu.
 
uksoldierboy said:
What res will you be gaming at bud? 970s in sli would be great at 1080p, but I'd go with a 390 with the view of crossfire by adding a second later down the line.

More vram(double) too with will only help going forward.

To finalise, my suggestion would be:

X99 platform, better features and performance.
Get the bundle off ocuk with the 5820k, gigabyte sli mobo.
16gb of teamgroup ddr4 quad channel ram
And a 390, but you'll have to take into account the power usage, depending on your current psu.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much what I've ordered, except I went for the 970, I've always used v-sync in my games as I really don't like all the tearing and glitching you get without it, and now I've got a g-scan monitor coming too the 970 seems to make the most sense.

Cheers for all the advice, after looking at all the options I think 6 cores is the way to go, a quad core might offer a bit more performance now, but if games start to move on from 4 cores in the same way they did from 2 cores, then the 5820 will likely be the more consistent performer over the longer term.

It's a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I don't want to save money via false economy.
 
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