Upgrades ... Thoughts??

[ebfd11]

Well I am doing a couple of upgrades on my rig...

CPU upgrade http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Memory upgrade

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226274

And I know my mb can take the change but if anyone has any better ideas let me know.

CrazyLwn

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Well I am doing a couple of upgrades on my rig...

CPU upgrade http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Memory upgrade

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226274

And I know my mb can take the change but if anyone has any better ideas let me know.

CrazyLwn

You should list what you're upgrading from. If you're upgrading from i5 for example then the i7 may not give much benefit at all in single threaded and poorly multithreading programs - like many games are. If you already own an i3 or i5 you can take it quite easy to i7 levels and above by overclocking it. Early i3:s are unlocked and later only K models can be freely overclocked. And they clock huge amounts even on regular air cooling.

[ebfd11]

Ok I'm upgrading from an I-5 2300 to the i7 and I have single channel ram so I decided to go up from there. They were the 1300 speed and I upped to the higher speed ram.

Right now I feel my memory and CPU are my bottlenecks and I want to open them up. My vid cards are 570's by evga 2 gig . My next upgrade will be to an ssd, preferably a 128 gig.

CrazyLwn

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Ok I'm upgrading from an I-5 2300 to the i7 and I have single channel ram so I decided to go up from there. They were the 1300 speed and I upped to the higher speed ram.

Right now I feel my memory and CPU are my bottlenecks and I want to open them up. My vid cards are 570's by evga 2 gig . My next upgrade will be to an ssd, preferably a 128 gig.

CrazyLwn

Unless you're going to do some videoediting/rendering the i7 is not going to do much for you except a higher price compared to a K version (unlocked) i5.

But even before doing that I would try overclocking the current i5. If you have a P67 or Z68 motherboard you can overclock 400Mhz via the Turbo Boost.

[ebfd11]

I have the evga z77 FTW motherboard,

Ok better yet here are my specs

I5 2300
Evga z77 FTW MB
16 gig ripjaw memory @ 1366
Dual 570 hd vid cards

All air cooled

[Auger]

If you're not overclocking you might want to give it a shot before sinking money into upgrades.  You may not see much improvement in AH with those upgrades.  Overclocking might give you up to 30% or more clock boost.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I have the evga z77 FTW motherboard,

Ok better yet here are my specs

I5 2300
Evga z77 FTW MB
16 gig ripjaw memory @ 1366
Dual 570 hd vid cards

All air cooled

You have 2x8gb sticks and still single channel? That means your sticks are in the wrong slots. The slots are color coded - plug them to the same color ones.

The problem with the z77 is that afaik it doesn't let you overclock the non-K models. If I were you I would invest to a K marked i5 instead of an i7. The main difference is that the i7 has hyperthreading but that's not going to give you any benefit in most games. So by upgrading to a K model i5 and a quality aftermarket cooler for overclocking, you save a bunch of money and still get performance equal of an i7.

[Debrody]

The i5 3570K is pretty decent   
Actually with some OC it can catch the i7 in multi-threaded applications like converting or rendering, also become a bit quicker in gaming (games are unlikely to use 8 threads).

As for the RAM, im not sure that its the bottleneck. Was reading some tests, and they clearly stated that the difference between the ddr3-1600 and ddr3-2133 was no less than 1-2%, with an i7-2600K.

[Bizman]

As for the RAM, im not sure that its the bottleneck. Was reading some tests, and they clearly stated that the difference between the ddr3-1600 and ddr3-2133 was no less than 1-2%, with an i7-2600K.

+1, unless you can raise the bus speed on both the motherboard and CPU. AFAIK for optimal performance all the three should use the same bus speed. If you really want to invest in faster RAM, look for ones with lower latency.

[deadstikmac]

Be Warned!!!   OC WILL result in high Temps across the system. Your going too need to add cooling into anything you overclock, be more fans on the case and an actual cooler on the chip or a closed-loop system.

OC needs more volts to the board in order for it to work.... more volts to board means more Amps to the amp-rail means more pull from your PSU. More pull from your PSU means larger than stock PSU.

OverClocking is more than just going into BIOS and setting the settings for an OC. That is if you mobo even has an unlocked bios. NOTE: You can OC video cards and not the CPU. Or you can OC the CPU but not the cards......... Overclocking BOTH the GPU and CPU a small amount might work best as opposed to just OC one of the two.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Intel cpus overclock nicely with stock voltages and simply by raising the multiplier. The stock cooler is enough for moderate overclocks but an aftermarket cooler is necessary for higher oc, especially if voltage is modified. That's why I told to invest to a K model and an aftermarket cooler.

[Bizman]

Just for the record, my most succesful OC was done by diminishing the multiplier and raising the bus, the result specs being almost identical to those of the flagship CPU of the time. No extra cooling, no voltage tweaking, no high temperatures. After that I've rather bought some new iron than risked my hardware.

[cattb]

The i5 3570K is pretty decent   
Actually with some OC it can catch the i7 in multi-threaded applications like converting or rendering, also become a bit quicker in gaming (games are unlikely to use 8 threads).

As for the RAM, im not sure that its the bottleneck. Was reading some tests, and they clearly stated that the difference between the ddr3-1600 and ddr3-2133 was no less than 1-2%, with an i7-2600K.

I should have done some reading on RAM before I bought, I came up with similar information. I have 2133, but could of got 1600. In my case would not of made any diffrence. Save myself about 40 dollars.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Just for the record, my most succesful OC was done by diminishing the multiplier and raising the bus, the result specs being almost identical to those of the flagship CPU of the time. No extra cooling, no voltage tweaking, no high temperatures. After that I've rather bought some new iron than risked my hardware.

That's ancient history Bizman. The latest Intel chips will not tolerate even a modest FSB boost. The most people are getting is 10-15Mhz boost from the original 100Mhz bus. Overclocking is done for all intents and purposes through the multiplier.

[Bizman]

That's ancient history Bizman.

That's why I said was done.

Thanks for the update, though, didn't know that due to not OC'ing.