Hardware & Technical Rig upgrade insight

NaySayer

NaySayer
Hello all, I'd like to upgrade my rig by adding a new gpu, cpu, and some ram. My concern is if my mobo and socket 1155 cpus are a bottleneck. Should I just get a new the current gen cpu and mobo?

My current rig:
Mobo: MSI P67A GD55
CPU: Intel i5 2400 Sandy Bridge
GPU: MSI GTX570 Twinfrozr III
RAM: Mushkin Silverline 2x 4GB 1333MHz

I was thinking of getting an unlocked Ivy Bridge cpu, but not sure if my mobo can take advantage of an unlocked cpu. Add to that a GTX970 and 8 more gigs of ram, possibly even a gsync monitor.

Any thoughts?
 

Jaeger

Jaeger
NaySayer said:
Hello all, I'd like to upgrade my rig by adding a new gpu, cpu, and some ram. My concern is if my mobo and socket 1155 cpus are a bottleneck. Should I just get a new the current gen cpu and mobo?

My current rig:
Mobo: MSI P67A GD55
CPU: Intel i5 2400 Sandy Bridge
GPU: MSI GTX570 Twinfrozr III
RAM: Mushkin Silverline 2x 4GB 1333MHz

I was thinking of getting an unlocked Ivy Bridge cpu, but not sure if my mobo can take advantage of an unlocked cpu. Add to that a GTX970 and 8 more gigs of ram, possibly even a gsync monitor.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

SSD main drive is an awesome upgrade
 

adoredtv

adoredtv
You're not going to get any decent value for money upgrade on that i5 still I'm afraid. I had a 2500K and the only reason I have a 3570 now is because I swapped with my girlfriend due to her having a compatibility issue. Intel has gone nowhere on performance since Sandy Bridge. You should be able to take advantage of overclocking but Ivy Bridge CPUs aren't very good overclockers anyway. You should be able to overclock that 2400 (even though it's a non-K) on your current mobo btw, just not very far - maybe to say 3.9 or 4 GHz so you might want to check that out first.

Really it comes down to whether or not you feel it's worth splashing out £160 or so on a minor upgrade. If you're really hell-bent on overclocking then consider a 2500K. I'd have mine back in a heartbeat. :p

Don't bother with more RAM, it won't make the blindest bit of difference.
 
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NaySayer

NaySayer
Jaeger said:
SSD main drive is an awesome upgrade
Click to expand...

Most definitely, forgot to mention it. Gonna grab a 512GB Crucial MX100 when I can.

Zieman said:
Adding another Mushkin Silverline 2x 4GB 1333MHz sounds good, as does the GTX970.

Put an i5 3570K in and you're good to go.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/motherboards/50508/msi-p67a-gd55-review
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Nice! Thanks for the info.

T.j said:
Moved to hardware. :)
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Thanks! I didn't even look at the sub forums, I just threw it in off-topic, sorry :eek:.

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adoredtv said:
You're not going to get any decent value for money upgrade on that i5 still I'm afraid. I had a 2500K and the only reason I have a 3570 now is because I swapped with my girlfriend due to her having a compatibility issue. Intel has gone nowhere on performance since Sandy Bridge. You should be able to take advantage of overclocking but Ivy Bridge CPUs aren't very good overclockers anyway. You should be able to overclock that 2400 (even though it's a non-K) on your current mobo btw, just not very far - maybe to say 3.9 or 4 GHz so you might want to check that out first.

Really it comes down to whether or not you feel it's worth splashing out £160 or so on a minor upgrade. If you're really hell-bent on overclocking then consider a 2500K. I'd have mine back in a heartbeat. :p

Don't bother with more RAM, it won't make the blindest bit of difference.
Click to expand...

I thought of getting a better cpu since my current one will bottleneck (correct me if I'm wrong) the gtx970 I'm planning on getting. I wasn't planning on overclocking this setup.
 

Zieman

Zieman
adoredtv said:
Nah the difference between an i5 2400 and i5 3570K is pretty minimal at best, or non-existent in many cases while gaming. The last big jump was from the Nehalem to Sandy Bridge and since then it's gone nowhere. Neither Haswell currently (4670K) nor next years Broadwell will change anything.

http://www.ocaholic.co.uk/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1158
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Depends on what you mean by minimal.

This benchmark
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/493/Intel_Core_i5_i5-2400_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-3570K.html
for example claims that stock 3570K runs 20% faster than 2400.

Another one
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-2400/1316vs803
claims 26% speed increase.

And the OP specifically asked if the mobo would be any good with an unlocked CPU - the answer is yes. Put some OC and decent aftermarket cooler on that 3570K - it really rocks. :)
 

adoredtv

adoredtv
Sure the 3570K is marginally faster than the 2400, but the difference while gaming is tiny. The reason for that is the CPU is barely worth 10% in gaming compared to over 90% graphics card. If a CPU is 10-15% faster than another, yet only 10% of that matters while gaming, you end up with the results that I linked - ie a 3570K is basically low single-digits faster while gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review/7

In order to see any difference worth noting, the reviewers have to lower the resolution and settings to medium or low (favouring CPU performance over GPU). If you game at 1080p on maximum settings (which you should be with a GTX 970) the difference is basically nothing. Certainly not worth spending another £150 on just for gaming at least.
 
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Zieman

Zieman
adoredtv said:
Sure the 3570K is marginally faster than the 2400, but the difference while gaming is tiny. The reason for that is the CPU is barely worth 10% in gaming compared to over 90% graphics card. If a CPU is 10-15% faster than another, yet only 10% of that matters while gaming, you end up with the results that I linked - ie a 3570K is basically low single-digits faster while gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review/7

In order to see any difference worth noting, the reviewers have to lower the resolution and settings to medium or low (favouring CPU performance over GPU). If you game at 1080p on maximum settings (which you should be with a GTX 970) the difference is basically nothing. Certainly not worth spending another £150 on just for gaming at least.
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Can't really argue against the £150 vs 10% performance gain on gaming - pretty expensive percents. :)
I would justify (to myself, and of course vehemently to everyone ;)) the need to upgrade, if that difference means getting from some stutters to smooth play. But as you said, the 970 will probably account for 90% of those occurrences.

About the anantech review, closest to the difference between i5 2400 & i5 3570K in that comes i5 2500K vs i7 2770K, which in other benchmarks have smaller difference (like 12% here: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3770K/619vs1317, vs. 26% here: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-2400-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3570K/803vs1316). But funny enough, Tom's Hardware rates all four in same tier: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

My opinion still is that the upgrade to 3570K should be worth it, at least if you overclock (which is the point of getting a 'K' version after all).
Only way to be sure is to try it, and to not expect too much - boils down to personal views again, some see the gains as minuscule and irrelevant, some see great improvement.
 
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NaySayer

NaySayer
Weirdly, I have no idea why, the 3570k costs the same as (if not cheaper) than the 2500k. I'm in New Jersey USA, is it a regional thing? I've checked on amazon and ebay, the 3570k is always either the same price or cheaper than the 2500k.
 

Zieman

Zieman
NaySayer said:
Weirdly, I have no idea why, the 3570k costs the same as (if not cheaper) than the 2500k. I'm in New Jersey USA, is it a regional thing? I've checked on amazon and ebay, the 3570k is always either the same price or cheaper than the 2500k.
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2500K is a helluva overclocker. 3570K is one generation newer, so it's a bit more power efficient and a bit more powerful clok-by-clock, and is also good overclocker.

Car analogy might work here - 2500K is Porsche Carrera, 3570K is newer Carrera, 4670K newer still - each and every one relatively just as highly valued among others in their generation. And each a beast, especially for the price. :)

I think that availability plays some part too, the newer one is bound to be more abundant..
 
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