New mobo and CPU advice please

CHOPP3R · May 12, 2016

I've been happily powering along with an i5-3570K 3.40 GHz for four years now. It handled the DK2 fine but might struggle with my new CV1 that's just arrived.
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Money is no object but I don't want to start watercooling. Been there and done that in the past. I just want to rebuild my current setup (Already have a 980 GTX and 16 GB DDR3 RAM).
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A nice mobo with decent onboard sound and a good CPU would do it nicely (hell, might even get a new case if you can recommend one as my front USBs have taken a bit of a beating).
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I see some i7s rated higher than others that I assumed would be the other way round so I'm a bit confused!
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Any help is greatly appreciated thank you!
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EDIT: Great.. Just noticed the typo in the header.. Too late :-/

rkodey · May 12, 2016

Well, for what it's worth, I JUST upgraded from a 2600k (OC'd to 4.4, 2133 ram) to a 6700k (currently OC'd to 4.4 also, 3200 ram). Both ran the exact same GTX 970 (fairly aggressive factory OC). And... I DO NOT notice much of a difference at all in ED with the new CPU/mobo. Now, I'm running a DK2, so not sure if you'll see much difference on the CV1. (My own CV1 is in the queue, but still a month out at least.)

So, the punchline might simply be: You probably can't go wrong with any modern i5/i7.
That said, I'm guessing the new GTX 1070/1080 will make more of an impact than the new CPU will - maybe try that first?

I'm still super happy with the new rig (I was upgrading for other purposes). ALSO - I just switched from air-cooling to liquid, with a Corsair Hydro H80i v2 and am SUPER impressed and surprised. Dropped my temp by a full 10c. No joke.

If you're curious, I ended up with the following:
Intel 6700k
Gigabyte Gaming 7 mobo
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200
Corsair Hydro H80i v2
Corsair Obsidian 450D
(I like Corsair stuff.)

The only thing I'm not pleased with so far: The Gaming 7 built-in SoundBlaster audio does not support Dolby Digital Live - which is the only way to get 5.1 surround via optical to an AV Receiver. I just missed that spec. If that's something important to you, there are several other options.

Other than that, quite happy so far!

CODKill · May 12, 2016

If it's any help, I have a 3570k as well and if you haven't yet you should consider overclocking it. Mine overclocks poorly and I can't get it past 4.3 GHz anymore, but it has never been the bottleneck. If you're set on upgrading, the 6700k or the 5820k seem to be the way to go.

theEmohawk · May 12, 2016

If you're upgrading to Skylake you're existing RAM is no use. But DDR4 isn't expensive now.
Your CPU isn't going to be your bottleneck though.

kaivalagi · May 12, 2016

Can't go wrong with the ASUS Z170-A Mobo, reasonable price with all the features of the more expensive versions of Z170 boards....then slap a i7 6700K in it along with some DDR4 quad channel memory (4 x 8Gb @ 2400MHz cost me £120), job done

CHOPP3R · May 13, 2016

Sound advice everyone, thank you!
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I do like Asus motherboards too. Didn't know about needing DDR4 as well thanks!

Plenty of food for thought.

Yaffle · May 13, 2016

CHOPP3R said:
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EDIT: Great.. Just noticed the typo in the header.. Too late :-/

How's that?

CHOPP3R · May 13, 2016

You star! Thank you

Robert Maynard · May 13, 2016

It might be worth waiting for AMD to release their Zen CPU range later this year (if you can) - not necessarily to buy one, more to see the effect on Intel CPU prices if Zen proves to be competitive on performance.