Is it worth the upgrade? (specs in thread)

C

cleathco

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Messages
214
I did a build this December where I admittedly skimped a little bit on the CPU and spent the extra money on a decent video card and extra RAM. Here's what I am running for now:

ASRock H-97 ITX board
Intel Pentium G3258 (overclocked to 3.8 ghz)
Geforce 750 ti
16 GB DDR3-1600 RAM

(other stuff includes a 120 gb SSD, 3 TB HDD, blu ray burner, 500 watt PSU, cooler master elite 130 case)

So far I am mostly happy with its performance, it plays most games I want at full speed. however I would like to get a speed boost in a few areas, specifically rendering video faster and maybe making it more responsive when running multiple apps. I understand (after I got the CPU I got) that Far Cry 4 actually requires a 4 core CPU to run (without a hack), and some other games will also have this requirement down the road. So I am considering a CPU upgrade this summer.

The chip I am looking at is the Intel Core i5-4690. It looks decent at 3.9 ghz, and is quad core. I am a little concerned about heat output, as I am in an ITX case and the CPU is directly under the PSU with not a lot of space in between, maybe half an inch or so between the stock cooler that came witn the G3258 and the PSU. Also I am not sure if this would require me to also get a PSU that can handle a higher wattage. Is this a chip I can drop in with no worries or will I need to change my cooling setup and/or PSU?
 
Let's break this down:

Performance: Big speed-up from the 3258 to 4690(K), especially minimums on multi-threaded games. It would certainly be the user experience upgrade you're aiming for. Also, i would go with the K version even if you don't intend on overclocking. The K chips tend to hold better resale value, and you never know - you may plop this chip into a setup where you can overclock. Lastly, the 4690K is only ~4w more TDP than the 4690.

Power: Definitely woudn't need to change the PSU. The 4690(k) is still only a ~84/88w chip.

Thermals: Here's where you could get into trouble (as you are imagining).

Stock cooler + not much clearance + 84/88w Haswell... yeah that could possibly induce throttling. You may need to go with one of the aftermarket ITX factor HSFs. There's some nice ones out there. I don't know any off the top of my head, but some good ones exist. I'd get more opinions on that one, especially those who know of good ITX HSFs.
 
If you're really worried about heat you might want to consider switching to a closed-loop watercooling solution. A 120MM radiator and fan or two should fit in the front of your case. I looked it up and this is an example of what one guy did to his. There looks like plenty of room for something like a Corsair H75, which would be more than enough.

900x900px-LL-2ee8f8ad_34600p5.jpeg


Source:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1476389/cooler-master-elite-130-maximus-vi-impact-is-a-mini-itx-build
 
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