New MB, CPU, Memory noob questions

[Lyca50]

I have a few noob questions and would appreciate some advise.

I’m going to be upgrading my PC’s Motherboard, CPU and memory this year. My specs right now are -

Gigabyte Z77P-D3 mb with i7-3770k ivy bridge stock 3.5ghz turbo 3.9ghz
16gb ddr3 crucial [email protected]
MSI 1070 gfx card
x2 SSD’s, x1 HD
Superflower 850 80+ gold PSU
Nzxt 450case with x3 120 fans in front x1 140 in rear and x4 140 fans in push pull on a x61 kraken
nzxt strip light in the case

I’ve been upgrading PC parts in the last year or so getting it ready for the most expensive ones and I mainly use my PC for gaming but I’m now hitting minimum required spec on games for my CPU and I can’t upgrade CPU or OC using my current board.

I’m running on 1080p monitor but am also thinking of upgrading to 1440p g-sync at some point in future and I also want an m.2 ssd at some point.

I’ve been looking at the Z270 MB and the i7-7700k, this chip runs at 4.2ghz I know I can overclock it and that this would be even more of a performance gain but I wanted to know how this works as a huge upgrade when you look at stock? as the speed difference between this and my old cpu at turbo is only a 0.3ghz gain, I realise my board and cpu are nearly 5 years old and newer normally = better, but I want to understand more about how this works and what makes it faster? I get that using a 14nm process is better than 22nm by being smaller and less hotter but gains
translated in ghz is still only a 0.3 gain in 5/6years? What am I looking at wrong?

I also wondered if anyone else was holding out to upgrade to coffee lake later this year? I read somewhere this will have a 15% gain pushing it closer to 5ghz at stock which seems more like a real upgrade to me.

Ideally I would like this machine to run for another 5 years until next upgrade and I would OC in-between that period to eke it out. Would it be a good idea to suck it up and buy 32gb ddr4 @3200mhz or get 16gb now and another 16gb later? I’m not sure why but I’ve got it in my head that if I fill up all the lanes i.e. 4 sticks of 8gb memory it will perform better and be the best bet for longevity, as it will be with paired memory?

The motherboard I have in mind is the asus hero z270 because I like the layout, but I keeps looking at cheaper options.

Other questions I have are - do Gigabyte still provide the best support for the U.K. or has this changed? And what is MSI and ASUS support like in UK?

[NickOmega]

Originally Posted by Lyca50

I’ve been looking at the Z270 MB and the i7-7700k, this chip runs at 4.2ghz I know I can overclock it and that this would be even more of a performance gain but I wanted to know how this works as a huge upgrade when you look at stock? as the speed difference between this and my old cpu at turbo is only a 0.3ghz gain, I realise my board and cpu are nearly 5 years old and newer normally = better, but I want to understand more about how this works and what makes it faster? I get that using a 14nm process is better than 22nm by being smaller and less hotter but gains
translated in ghz is still only a 0.3 gain in 5/6years? What am I looking at wrong?

Performance gains aren't only achieved through increasing clock speed, the IPC are improved as well as the architecture matures.

The smaller process also doesn't necessarily mean running cooler; if they shrink the die and pack everything in they're actually making it more dense and potentially hotter, as well as reducing the surface area in contact with an IHS.

I also wondered if anyone else was holding out to upgrade to coffee lake later this year? I read somewhere this will have a 15% gain pushing it closer to 5ghz at stock which seems more like a real upgrade to me.

The mooted 15% increase will be general performance rather than a 15% clock speed increase I'd have thought, and knowing Intel it will still be closer to 5%, but you're focusing too much on just clock speed.

[Lyca50]

Thanks for the info NickOmega I'm trying to get over the fact that ghz is not everything, but my brain likes to have one common denominator i.e. when overclocking people mainly seem report on their ghz score, so to my way of thinking that determines what's best for performance. Obviously I need to learn more before I make any decisions so back to reviews/forums.

[NickOmega]

Sorry I just realised what I should have said is:

Performance gains across generations aren't only achieved through increasing clock speed.

The problem with Intel is that they've operated without real competition for so long that they've been able to release successive generations of processors with only minor incremental improvements.

That being said, on paper the 7700K should be a decent upgrade in overall performance, combined with moving to faster DDR4 memory.
Your CPU is around 5 years old at this point, but I'd imagine it still does more than well enough in gaming.
It just depends if the performance and added features (m.2 etc) are worth the financial outlay to you.

It's probably also worth bearing in mind that LGA1151 will probably be superseded in less than a year.