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Author Topic: New CPU and Board Advice?  (Read 5048 times)

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Marvey

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New CPU and Board Advice?
« on: December 07, 2013, 08:53:36 PM »
I have an Intel i7-860 OC'd to 3.5 (stable) and a GTX670. I have not been keeping up with PC gear for several years. AnandTech and Tomshardware are no longer decipherable or readable to me. They have sold out like everyone else.


Is it finally a good idea to get a new CPU/mobo? Any good recommendations for the sweet spot of the curve?
Also should I get another vid card or go SLI?
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Maxvla

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2013, 09:02:54 PM »
Are you experiencing power shortages? I don't think you need to change anything. I am using a I7 860 also and have considered an upgrade, but there just isn't any need. Also a GTX670 is still pretty potent. There is room to upgrade if you feel you need it, but it should be good enough for max settings on a single 1080p monitor.
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ader

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2013, 09:14:04 PM »
Yeah, I don't see any need for a new CPU or board if you're just gaming and doing normal things that people do.  My roommate is still gaming on the Q6600 based PC I handed down to him and his biggest bottleneck is still the video card (HD4850).
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Anathallo

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2013, 09:59:18 PM »
Unless you're into cutting edge gaming on 1440p+, your rig is more than fine and you won't see noticeable improvements with a new GPU OR CPU in the majority of applications and games.  SLI a second 670 if you want to game on higher resolutions.

The new-ish intel Haswells are mobile-focused chips, if anything - their only redeeming features are power savings and the decent integrated graphics on certain SKUs.  The thermal solution on Haswell chips is embarrassing and the new enthusiast/2011 socket class chips (Ivy Bridge-E) are overpriced unless you need the PCI lanes for SLI, the extra memory channels or the extra cores on your CPU.

If you're desperate to upgrade, I would suggest an E3 Xeon on a consumer Haswell (1150 socket/Z87 chipset) board and add a second 670 you can find on sale.

But unless you have money to burn, upgrading seems mostly pointless with your current rig.
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briskly

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2013, 10:27:49 PM »
CPU performance hasn't budged much since Sandy Bridge, and performance per core probably won't go much further given Intel's mobile bent. You would mostly be getting it for the new board and features.

The 670 is still a fine card for 1080, at 1440p you'd have to turn down AA and some other stuff from max. I don't quite see the value in a rig upgrade.
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Marvey

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2013, 10:31:11 PM »
Yeah maybe another graphics card considering that that my case already begs for it. I have a 2560x1600 screen, and I know I could use more GPU power for sure. I can't seem to find my SLI connector. Can I even buy these things? I got an EVGA card.
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briskly

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2013, 11:38:58 PM »
Easy enough to get a new one, they go for about ten bucks. An SLI bridge is an SLI bridge,  it'll work fine.
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jerg

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2013, 11:40:49 PM »
Quote from: purrin on December 07, 2013, 10:31:11 PM
Yeah maybe another graphics card considering that that my case already begs for it. I have a 2560x1600 screen, and I know I could use more GPU power for sure. I can't seem to find my SLI connector. Can I even buy these things? I got an EVGA card.

If you buy another GTX 670, that should come with an SLI bridge. No need to buy one separately.
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zerodeefex

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2013, 12:35:35 AM »
Sandy and Ivy Bridge are pretty much as far as you'd need to go for your CPU.

With regard to GPU power, I wait for Dell to do their 20/25% accessories coupon every year, buy the highest end card they have, then sell it the next year for what I paid and buy the next one. Sometimes I'll SLI/Crossfire, but I never end up down much of anything. The higher end GPUs don't plummet until the next generation is launching and with the 20/25% coupon, I have always been able to recoup my cost on GPU sales.

If you're running 2560x1600 and you're playing anything serious, I'd seriously look at upgrading your GPU. I use three of the Korean 1440p monitors and the crazy taxes takes my overvolted/overclocked 780ti even on a single monitor. Tried BF4, I was dipping under 60fps quite often.
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zerodeefex

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Re: New CPU and Board Advice?
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2013, 12:39:36 AM »
Wait, you still have microcenter locally? Fuck all the other advice, go there, get a 4770k for like $200 when it goes on sale and get the $50 off a motherboard while you're there.

When Microcenter closed down in Santa Clara, baby Jesus cried. At least I made out with a 3770k before then.

Now you guys are making me think of abandoning my hacked up ITX case so I can run two 780Tis in something, keep buying games, looking at them for 4 minutes to benchmark, then never play them.
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