Need part advice for an upgrade

I have an i5-3570K with a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H motherboard inside of a regular sized case with an R9 270X GPU.

I also have an i7-990X CPU that I was given as part of a Shuttle SX58J3.

What I would like to do is sell the i7 and the i5 motherboard and purchase a Raven RVZ01 case, but I'm going to need a new motherboard for it.

My questions are:

1. Is there a CPU I can upgrade to that's faster than the 3570k that will make a noticeable difference? In looking around online it seems that the i7-4770k might be a good pick because this site says it's faster and from I see on eBay it's cheaper too.
   
2. Will the R9 270X that I have fit in that case?

You're better off staying with the i5-3570K. The Haswell processors are only 10% faster than it; you won't notice the difference in gaming. If gaming is your primary focus, you don't need a Core i7 processor or Hyper Threading support.

The Raven RVZ01 has a card riser that supports cards up to 13 inches in length. It will support your R9 270X.

One good motherboard to consider is the Gigabyte GA-Z97N-Gaming 5.

tiraides said:

You're better off staying with the i5-3570K. The Haswell processors are only 10% faster than it; you won't notice the difference in gaming. If gaming is your primary focus, you don't need a Core i7 processor or Hyper Threading support.

The Raven RVZ01 has a card riser that supports cards up to 13 inches in length. It will support your R9 270X.

One good motherboard to consider is the Gigabyte GA-Z97N-Gaming 5.

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Thanks for the response.

So what you're saying is that there would not be a big enough boost to move from a 3570K to any of the 4th generation i5 or i7 processors? Also, the 3rd generation ones have model numbers starting with 3XXX and the 4th generation ones have model numbers that start with 4XXX right?

Do you know why an i7-4770K sells for less than an i7-990X? Is the 990X used for special purposes or something?

blunt_eastwood said:

So what you're saying is that there would not be a big enough boost to move from a 3570K to any of the 4th generation i5 or i7 processors?

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Yes. At stock speeds, you would see a difference only with the Core i7-4790K, which starts at 4GHz versus the i5-3570K's stock speed of 3.4GHz. But you can overclock the i5-3570K to over 4GHz, which minimizes the difference.

The i7-4790K also has Hyper Threading, which the i5-3570K doesn't have. Most games can't take advantage of Hyper Threading and the few that can (IMO) don't justify the added cost of a Core i7 processor over a Core i5 processor.

What does the rest of the new build look like? There are other ways to improve the performance of your system besides buying a new processor.

blunt_eastwood said:

Also, the 3rd generation ones have model numbers starting with 3XXX and the 4th generation ones have model numbers that start with 4XXX right?

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Simply put, yes. The new i5-4690K and i7-4790K are called fifth-generation Core processors, but they're both variants of the existing Haswell platform.

blunt_eastwood said:

Do you know why an i7-4770K sells for less than an i7-990X? Is the 990X used for special purposes or something?

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The X in the i7-990X indicates that the processor is one of the Intel Extreme Edition processors that are designed (and completely unlocked) for high overclocking. For most users, they're a waste of money because there was at least one non-X processor that could overclock just as well. Plus, the newer generation processors oftentimes outperformed the Extreme Edition processors for a fraction of the cost.

blunt_eastwood said:

Do you know why an i7-4770K sells for less than an i7-990X? Is the 990X used for special purposes or something?

Click to expand...

In addition to what tiraides has said, two other factors explain why the i7 990X sells more on eBay:
1) Some people were indeed stupid enough to spend $1000 on a CPU, find out that they regret it, and are trying to recoup as much money from their stupid purchase as possible.
2) Some people don't want to spend a lot of extra money to switch from the X58 platform to a newer X79, Z97, or X99 platform. So while the i7 990X may cost more than the i7-4770K, on a whole, the higher cost for the i7 990X usually outweighs the costs of a platform change

If you are going for the RVZ01, I would make one suggestion. Don't go with Asus boards.

Though the boards are sick, and loaded with features there is one issue I find that one doesn't tend to think about. Being a SFF case, it's likely this will sit on the desktop.

With any cooler, the daughterboard of the Asus ITX mobos boxes the cooler in and creates for large backpressures on the intake fan of the RVZ01/ML01. This makes a helluva lotta low frequency noise, and for some reason reverbs through the whole chassis.

If you look closely, on one side, it's the riser card, the other side is the memory, the other side is the I/O pannel and lastly the one way hopefully for the air to escape is the daughterboard, you just created a box it blow into, just like blowing off the top of empty glass bottles.

I would highly suggest looking into the Gigabyte Z97N Gaming 5 as it still has a VRM heatsink but no daughterboard to block exiting air.

I own a P8Z77i and though I love the board, I hate the combination with the chassis. Not sure if I want to tough it out till Broadwell or skylake hits the stores.

I would agree with the comments about the 3570k vs haswell, but if you are buying a new itx board you might as well upgrade while you are doing it. Not that the 1150 socket will last with Broadwell right around the corner, but better to be in a current socket rather than 1155. If you have a Microcenter around you can get a 4790k and Gigabyte z97 Itx for $415 with tax and a 20MIR =395. Just my 2c would be to sell your stuff on the high and ride the next wave