Some Upgrading Advice

suiken_2mieu

suiken_2mieu

2[H]4U
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Apr 7, 2010
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So I'm currently running a Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.6Ghz and I'm still bottle necking my GPU (5870 2GB).

I'm kind of strapped for cash and am wondering if there is any point in "Upgrading" to a Core2Quad or should I go for my original plan and get a whole new board, ram and 2500k?

I Primarily Web Browse and Game on my PC. I game at 7680x1600 or 4800x2560 so I need some extra grunt.
 
Go straight to a 2500k. No sense in updating your current platform. Sell off your current CPU, RAM and motherboard to offset the cost of the new one.

Edit: Or if you don't mind used, 1366 parts can be had for fairly cheap.
 
i5 2500K
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
16GB of DDR3

Win.

EDIT: Also, GET A BETTER STORAGE SETUP. Nab a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD & 128GB SSD. Your rig will be bottlenecked with those ancient-as-hell hard disks.
 
suiken_2mieu said:
So I'm currently running a Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.6Ghz and I'm still bottle necking my GPU (5870 2GB).

I'm kind of strapped for cash and am wondering if there is any point in "Upgrading" to a Core2Quad or should I go for my original plan and get a whole new board, ram and 2500k?

I Primarily Web Browse and Game on my PC. I game at 7680x1600 or 4800x2560 so I need some extra grunt.
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Even with a faster CPU, your GPU could still be bottlenecking performance (based on your monitor resolution). A single HD 5800 series GPU might still not be enough for your extremely high resolution unless you crank the quality settings all the way down to Very Low or Extremely Low. Such a high resolution, therefore, requires two current-generation high-end AMD or Nvidia GPUs (e.g. two HD 6950s or two GTX 570+'s) in Crossfire or SLI - and at no higher than Medium settings, even at that. As it stands now, a single HD 5870 is just adequate for 1920x1080 gaming at High (but not Ultra) settings. Your desired resolution is nearly six times higher than 1920x1080 (in total pixel count), so even dual-Crossifre or dual-SLI isn't anywhere near enough for your resolution.

In addition, you may need a new motherboard to accommodate more than one GPU (and this often means that you'll need a new CPU and new DDR3 RAM, as well): The P5Q Pro Turbo supports Crossfire but not SLI. Plus, you will need to replace all of your hard drives if you change motherboards: Most new motherboards have no IDE ports at all; they have only SATA ports. (You could try a SATA-to-IDE converter designed to adapt IDE hard drives to SATA-only motherboards, but then you'd still be stuck with old-generation performance that's typical of your old drives, which can barely deliver a sequential transfer speed of 50 to 60 MB/s -- less than half as fast as what current-generation SATA hard drives can achieve.)
 
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Nexus6 said:
I'm not sure what you'd need 16GB of RAM for right now. He'd be better off getting 8GB of relatively fast CAS 7 for the same price.
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Actually, that's poor advice: In the Sandy Bridge platforms, it has been shown that CAS 7 is barely any faster than CAS 11 for the same amount of RAM (and the same speed) - but CAS 7 RAM costs twice as much money as CAS 9 RAM for the same quantity. So why spend double the price per GB just for (relatively speaking) a less than 2 percent increase in real-world performance? This is exactly why upgrading from CAS 9 to CAS 7 is rarely worth the extra $40 per 8GB unless that person is building an entire new system and the total cost of the new build greatly exceeds $2,500 even with standard CAS 9 RAM.

However, it is true that very few people need 16GB of RAM at this point. In that case, 8GB of CAS 9 DDR3-1333 RAM would be plenty adequate.
 
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EuphoricRage470 said:
i5 2500K
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
16GB of DDR3

Win.

EDIT: Also, GET A BETTER STORAGE SETUP. Nab a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD & 128GB SSD. Your rig will be bottlenecked with those ancient-as-hell hard disks.
Click to expand...

8gb RAM. No need to get 16gb.

Also, no need to get a 128gb SSD. A single 1tb 7200 RPM drive should suffice if he has a limited budget. Although, with the recent surge in hard drive prices, I would get a 128gb SSD if that's enough storage space, and wait for hard drive prices to come down. With a SSD, I would get a 5400-5900 RPM 2tb drive instead of a 1tb 7200 RPM drive.
 
E4g1e said:
However, it is true that very few people need 16GB of RAM at this point. In that case, 8GB of CAS 9 DDR3-1333 RAM would be plenty adequate.
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Fair enough; I just meant for the same price I'd rather have the faster RAM.

But yeah, 8GB of CAS 9 1333 or 1600 is fine for SB.
 
Nexus6 said:
Fair enough; I just meant for the same price I'd rather have the faster RAM.

But yeah, 8GB of CAS 9 1333 or 1600 is fine for SB.
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I'd rather have DOUBLE the amount of memory AND use it as a cache.

Any DDR3 system memory with timings different from 9-9-9-24 and speed higher than 1600 MT/s, requiring more than 1.5V can go fuck itself, to put it politely.
 
I would have to agree with everyone else, go with the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K. This processor is outstanding at stock and gets even better when you overclock it. Matched up with a good Z68 board and about 8GB of DDR 3 1333 or 1600 and you are good to go. Just make sure that the memory is running at 1.5v ±5%.
 
I have a 2600k and love it. the 2500k is also a great chip and OC's well, good bang for your buck.
 
Really happy with my 2500k as well, OC'd to 4.5 easily and it rocks. Paired it with a solid Z68 board, a bunch of inexpensive 1.5v RAM and an SSD and my system chews up anything I throw at it.

My rig is also mostly for gaming, so as others have said the extra money for the 2600k wouldn't have bought me any noticeable performance over the 2500k.
 
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