CPU Upgrade advice

[twpbknight]

Well I love reading and watching the reviews from Tom so im hoping that he can chime in on this. I am currently using a I7 970, nice cpu yes but its time to upgrade. I would love to get the i7 3930k but am not sure if its worth it over the i7 3770k so i wanted to get peoples opinion

here is my current sys:

Intel I7 970

6GB Kingston DDR3 PC 2000

Corsair 120GB SSD sata 2

Corsair H100

Gigabyte X58-UD3R

Gigabyte HD 7950

im looking for a cpu that good over all. I do not do much encoding maybe one a month maybe two. I do however use the adobe creative suite but im not talking 100 foot poster or 1gig files. Just modest 8.5x11 or 24x40 but no larger and do TONS of gaming like BF 3, Diablo 3, Metro 2033, Crysis 2, etc so any help would be appreciated.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

3770k

Reason is because you do a "TON" of gaming and little encoding and rendering and it does not sound like you are trying to get high bench scores.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Well the gaming side of this is irrelevant a 3750k will do that comfortably.

As for the encoding a 3930k is significantly more powerful than the 3770k but it sounds like you do it casually so I'd suggest the 3770k.

I'd also suggest you upgrade your RAM to at least 8gb (16 is ideal for photo/video editing). Just some standard 1600mhz 1.5v RAM will do like this:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...DDR3+SDRAM+CAS+9-9-9-24+1.5V+?productId=44336

Or get the corsair low profile if you are planning on using a large cpu cooler.

 

[Damien c]

I honestly don't think it would be worth upgrading your cpu, as the 970 is still a decent chip and won't be holding you back at all really.

Have you overclocked your chip?

If not you could always try overclocking it to give it abit more performance, and see what the temp's are like on the H100 and if they are not looking good to you then you could possibly change your case dependant on what you have already and do a custom loop.

While the 3770k is good and will give you full PCI-E 3.0 support with a Z77 board, I just don't think it's worth upgrading from a 970 to 3770k.

I had the money at the weekend to go for a Sandy Bridge E setup or Ivy Bridge setup, but after looking at benchmarks etc I didn't think spending £500+ was worth the extra 10% perfomance I would get.

I am now saving for a fresh new build next year around March time as I should get my bonus next year, currently have £200 saved and will be adding £50 or £100 each month and then in March next year I should have around the £2000 mark for a fresh build, as until next year I don't think there will be a worthy upgrade for me till then.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

3770 for gaming and 3750 for more budget gaming

 

[Lauralarry]

the 970 beats the 3570k.. and is right under the 3770k.. you still have a "i7" chill bro just upgrade your ram to a dual channel kit

 

[kilobravo]

the 970 beats the 3570k.. and is right under the 3770k.. you still have a "i7" chill bro just upgrade your ram to a dual channel kit

That would be a downgrade,he`s already running triple-channel ram.

But if you want a little upgrade,if you could find 12gb 1600mhz cas7 ram,you will easily get the 970 running 4.0-4.2ghz.

Then again,its not nessesary,your system is fine.

 

[Rastalovich]

Something along the lines of what Damien said.

If you have cash burning a hole in your pocket, trade up the 7950.

You're not going to see any other improvements.

SATA3 you could ~maybe~ look at.

 

[Damien c]

I think the Rampage III Extreme will let you use a Sata 6Gb SSD and other than that the graphic's card maybe a option but that would depend on what resolution you run at and what detail setting's you want to run the games at.

I think maybe a custom water loop, with a ssd or 2 and a 2nd 7950 and overclocking the chip to 4.0ghz + will show you more of a performance improvement than swapping to a 3770K or 3930k will.

 

[twpbknight]

well let me give a little more info for you all. First im not a overclocker, atleast as far as the cpu is concerned. My gpu is over clocked to match a 7970. Anyways, to the point the reason im looking at doing the cpu and motherboard is becuase im having a strange issue. The computer will lockup to the point a hard boot has to be done. More prominant in games sometimes 3-4 times a day on the same game and it happened once in windows. Now the only items i have NOT replaced are the CPU, Mobo, and ram. with that said I have ran diags on the computer and even let things like prime 95 runs for 3 hours and memtest run for 2 hours and yep you guessed it.....nothing failed..... You look at the windows event viewer and it gives that stupid kernal power error which is a joke since it tells you nothing. So again everything but the cpu, mobo, and ram have been replaced but all tests show they are fine. Which is why im looking to replace them. I would love to get the 6 core but not sure if its worth the extra money cause it looks like the ivy bridge matches the 6 core unless you do encoding. I guess i should have stated all this to begin with

 

[Master&Puppet]

Well if it is your platform then get the i5 for gaming. If not then keep it! Not sure how you are going to test which component is causing the issues with out some spare kit.

 

[Bullmecha]

Running the 950 myself.. dont plan on changing it for at least another year or so.

Video may get an upgrade though.. the faithful 4870x2 may need to go in the coming months but time will tell.

 

[Rastalovich]

Yeah the kernel power thing is very misleading imo. It can either mean that - well yeah you forced it to turn off - OR - some item lost power prior to the rig having to be powered down.

You run ok with the 7950 not being at 7970 speeds ?

 

[twpbknight]

Yeah the kernel power thing is very misleading imo. It can either mean that - well yeah you forced it to turn off - OR - some item lost power prior to the rig having to be powered down.

You run ok with the 7950 not being at 7970 speeds ?

ya the 7950 works fine with the factory settings but i had the same issues with my old 5870 too

But hey with windows 8 and the new " : ( " icon maybe that will be alot more descriptive.....

 

[Damien c]

Have you tried a fresh install of Window's?

Spare PSU incase it's failing randomly?

Try stressing the cpu/ram/board and graphic's all at the same time?

If that all comes back fine but still crashes when gaming then I am not sure really what else you can do.

I would say if you have to upgrade then I would just go for a 3770k with a decent Z77 board.

 

[kilobravo]

The ud3r need 1.5v+ qpi/vtt to run properly at 2000mhz ram,and vcore also need more volt.Had installed 3 different 2000mhz 6gb kits,and all was doing fine when stress testing,but had random idle crash.

Thats why i recommended 1600mhz C7 ram,they will run at very lower qpi/vtt and vcore.I had newer experienced idle crash,even at 4.2ghz+.

 

[twpbknight]

The ud3r need 1.5v+ qpi/vtt to run properly at 2000mhz ram,and vcore also need more volt.Had installed 3 different 2000mhz 6gb kits,and all was doing fine when stress testing,but had random idle crash.

Thats why i recommended 1600mhz C7 ram,they will run at very lower qpi/vtt and vcore.I had newer experienced idle crash,even at 4.2ghz+.

i have tried different speeds on my ram from 1600, 1866, 2000 never did anything with the voltage i just let the intel xmp do it. I did replace the power suplly like that last post stated as one of the first options.