first time Intel purchase

Looking to move to Intel, but i have always used AMD, i have a FX8350 now and am wanting something comparable or a bit better, looking to do the build in a month and need a starting point. I haven't followed any Intel Tech for years so I dont Know anything about the different cores or sockets. I dont have a budget as of yet, but looking at around $300 to $325 MAX for the CPU.

For what use mainly? Gaming, photo editing, video editing,...?
Do you want to overclock? (looking at your sig probably yes)
What is your budget for your mobo or what is your total budget?

it is a general all around PC, i do like to play some games, but not what i would consider a heavy duty gamer. yes i like to OC, but its more of a personal challenge to get a good OC, as far as budget, i am looking at no more than $175 for a motherboard and a total of about $700 for the CPU, motherboard and 16 gigs of Ram. I will reuse the Frio cooler i have now.

For what exact reason are you looking for an upgrade in this build? The extra performance you will gain compared to your current rig will be minimal compared to the cost. If gaming is the most intensive task on this rig I would recommend spending that money on a new GPU instead of CPU and mobo.

Indeed.

brian770 said:

it is a general all around PC, i do like to play some games, but not what i would consider a heavy duty gamer. yes i like to OC, but its more of a personal challenge to get a good OC, as far as budget, i am looking at no more than $175 for a motherboard and a total of about $700 for the CPU, motherboard and 16 gigs of Ram. I will reuse the Frio cooler i have now.

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What do you run besides games?

Do you do lots of video conversion?

Do you use any semi-professional apps regularly, like photo editors?

Do you use your machine to do professional content creation? Video editing? 3D modeling? Programming?

And please tell us why you want to get rid of the 8350? Is it because of poor performance in a particular game/app, did it die on you, or are you just bored and want to try something new?

i do a bit of video conversion, but the main reason i want to switch is AMD had pissed me off and there are no more upgrade paths on the AM3 platform. I have been a loyal AMD customer since my XP1800, i have bought each and every upgrade from them even if it wasnt the "worldbeater" that Intel has been, just to support the underdog. I am kinda tired of the lack of progress made by them and i havent been able to find a real new motherboard thats worth a hoot in a year. so even though it dosent make a whole lot of sense to make a "side-grade" when in reality what i have now is more than i need i feel the need to abandon ship and support Intel with my cash. as far as vid card, there is a 780 in the near future.

If you're going to overclock an Intel system you basically have two options without busting your budget or buying older parts, an i7-4770k or an i5-4670k. The main differences between the two are the i7 costs about $100 more and has hyperthreading enabled. Both are quad core "Haswell" chips.

The previous generation, "Ivy Bridge" might be worth looking at if you get a smoking hot deal on one, though the deals are probably over at this point. Microcenter was dumping i5-3570ks for $150 last Christmas. Now Newegg has then for a mere $10 less than the Haswell parts and Microcenter has them at the same price. The situation with the Ivy Bridge i7-3770k looks to be similar. Haswell isn't a lot faster and the next generation of Intel CPUs will use DDR4 ram and a new socket, so no need to plan for a CPU upgrade. Keep in mind that Haswell chipsets added some nice board features, so look at boards before jumping on a deal on an older CPU if you find one.

The main question IMHO is do you have a reason to get an i7 or would an i5 be good enough. For gaming the i5 is fine, but an i7 will give you a boost in some applications. It more or less boils down to whether you hyperthreading will do you any good. If you make significant use of apps that could use really use all 8 cores on your 8350 hyperthreading will probably help. If you don't have a Microcenter around an i7 might bust your $325 budget. Newegg lists the i7-4770k at $339. It's still easy to keep the build under $700 though. Just going by Newegg prices: $340 i7-4770k, $140 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 ram, $220 left for a board and faster ram if you want.

One thing to remember about the last several generation of Intel chips is they're rated for 1.5V memory. 1.35V will work too. A lot of the really fast ram is 1.65V. 1.65V sticks generally work, but Intel warns that they may damage the CPU. Ram speed doesn't usually have much effect on the last three generations of Intel CPUs, so I just stick with 1.5V.

Get a GPU. 780/780ti or 290/290X. Your CPU is more than capable enough, imo.

A mid range Z97 board, I5 and a 750ti would set you up very well and be within your budget.

Roughly $350 for board/cpu and $150 for the gpu leaving you $200 for memory and anything else.
Mushkin 1600 redline 1.5 2x8 with 8-8-8-24 is going for $160.

16 gigs is vast overkill unless you are doing heavy editing in p-shop or other video/picture editing.

ep0x73, I disagree with your recommendation for a 750ti, because Brian already has a GTX 660, which is more powerful.

The rest of your recommendations are spot-on.

What ram does he currently have because it should be ddr 3 on am3, if its 1600 1.5v, I would just resuse it to save some money.

defaultluser said:

ep0x73, I disagree with your recommendation for a 750ti, because Brian already has a GTX 660, which is more powerful.

The rest of your recommendations are spot-on.

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I looked back over this thread and did not see any mention of a GTX660 only that a 780 is in his near future.

A 780 would certainly blow past his budget at this point.

A 750Ti clocked is neck and neck with a 660 while sipping power and less heat.

Casual gamers usually don't go for the top cards, more like mid-range.

This whole plan sounds like putting new money on 2y old tech.

I say skip this sidegrade, keep your money and save a few more months.

Next Holiday season X99 chipset will launch, with a promised 8-core 16 threads i7.

( Meanwhile i am planning quad socket Opteron 6180 home server under the same budget)

ep0x73 said:

I looked back over this thread and did not see any mention of a GTX660 only that a 780 is in his near future.

A 780 would certainly blow past his budget at this point.

A 750Ti clocked is neck and neck with a 660 while sipping power and less heat.

Casual gamers usually don't go for the top cards, more like mid-range.

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No no, look at his sig:

Biostar TA990FXE
AMD FX-8350 @ 4.6
Galaxy GTX 660
16 Gigs Mushkin Blackline
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800
Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra case.
Win 7 Pro

Unless that sig is wrong, he already has a $180 gaming card. Upgrading both that AND the processor is outside his budget today.

He should save up money for a GTX 780, but down the road. He wants to escape the AMD platform woes first, so for now, the 660 is adequate.

He can save whatever money he can by not buying more than a a Core i5, and then a few months later he can take that stash plus more and buy a 780.

The GTX 750 Ti just wouldn't be worth it. He's already going to be saving as ton of power going Haswell.

Brian, please confirm if you already own the GTX 660 shown in your sig.

geok1ng: I think waiting for x99 is a terrible suggestion. It's far more CPU power than Brian needs, while also featuring a premium price and higher power consumption. His needs are much simpler - single GPU gaming. I also caution against buying high-end platforms like that on a whim, just because they're notoriously buggy. They have all those extra features, only a tenth the users, and cost half as much as the equivalent Xeon motherboards (that money difference goes to test time, among other things). Expect to feel more like a beta tester when you own one of those things...ESPECIALLY shortly after the platform is released

I agree with previous posts, I cant foresee this upgrade being that much more beneficial to justify the cost, maybe at least wait until the fall/winter for POSSIBLE broadwell at least

I'm going to disagree with the majority here. Right now a 2600k OC'ed to a similar speed as you're running (4.6) will be faster than your current setup overall. Certain programs will run better with the 8350 but the majority will run better with the 2600k especially when they are running the same clock speed (both should top out around the 5ghz range on high end air cooling). I would try to sell the CPU/motherboard as a combo and pick up a 2600k and a p67/z68 board for around the same price.

ya, i have the 660. so from what i gather i need a i5. I can deal with that, any recomendations for a "upper mid" level motherboard? BTW, thanks for all the help.

The 660 can still hold it's own on older games at HD with moderate eye candy turned on.

If you are going to build new there is no sense in going with a 3 year old Ivy when you can get the Haswell refresh.

The GA-Z97X-SLI is going for $130, not loaded but has the essentials.
The GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 is $140
The GA-Z97X-UD3H is $147

All of those would work fine for your setup unless you want on-board Creative soundblaster, Marvell controllers and duel lan [Intel/Qualcomm]

ep0x73 said:

The 660 can still hold it's own on older games at HD with moderate eye candy turned on.

If you are going to build new there is no sense in going with a 3 year old Ivy when you can get the Haswell refresh.

The GA-Z97X-SLI is going for $130, not loaded but has the essentials.
The GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 is $140
The GA-Z97X-UD3H is $147

All of those would work fine for your setup unless you want on-board Creative soundblaster, Marvell controllers and duel lan [Intel/Qualcomm]

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Good suggestions all-around, you can get a lot for your money for the under $150 motherboard market.

And if you want to overclock Brian, the Haswell refresh has already begun, and the K unlocked chips with the improved thermal interface material are supposed to be out in a month or two. Those are DEFINITELY worth waiting for. If your needs don't change, you're going to have this platform for the next 4-6 years (nothing else in the price range will come close), so you should buy the right CPU.

brian770 said:

i do a bit of video conversion, but the main reason i want to switch is AMD had pissed me off and there are no more upgrade paths on the AM3 platform. I have been a loyal AMD customer since my XP1800, i have bought each and every upgrade from them even if it wasnt the "worldbeater" that Intel has been, just to support the underdog. I am kinda tired of the lack of progress made by them and i havent been able to find a real new motherboard thats worth a hoot in a year. so even though it dosent make a whole lot of sense to make a "side-grade" when in reality what i have now is more than i need i feel the need to abandon ship and support Intel with my cash. as far as vid card, there is a 780 in the near future.

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LOL... this has got to be one of the stupidest reasons ever to sidegrade and waste money. FYI, Intel's sockets only last two generations. The fact that AMD's AM3 has lasted something like 4 generations, then is now ending shouldn't be a surprise at all. In addition, Steamroller was supposed to exist for AM3+, but all hints online point to foundry problems causing its cancellation. AM3 is based on outdated AM2 technology, which is 8 years old at this point. AM3 simply needs to die and be given proper burial, not stuck on life support indefinitely. The reason why you don't see better AM3+ motherboards is simply because the tech is too outdated to try and keep alive.

Save your money. Blow it on GPU upgrades, or save it for a true CPU/platform upgrade. DDR4 is coming this year with Haswell-E, and next year with Skylake.