Advice on how much more money to put into this system

jasoneduke

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2011
70
0
18,630
Hey All-

About 4-5 years ago I spent a decent amount of cash to build a nice computer. It has served its purpose well and I have been pretty happy with it. Lately, since Legacy of the Void (Starcraft 2) it seems to be lagging a bit more than it used and I was considering upgrading some of the components. My question is should I keep the current motherboard and processor and just upgrade the GPU and Ram? Or should I just make the jump to a newer chipset completely?

Currently Running

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UDR3
i7 950 3.07
CoolMaster Hyper 212
8GB GSKILL Ripjaws DDR31600
EVGA GTX 560ti
Regular hard drive (Not solid state) Cant seem to get a solid state to work on this system
XFX Black Edition 850 power supply

Will I see significant performance boost moving to say a i5 6600k w/ new board and new ram? Is it really worth the cash I would drop?

I use the computer for StarCraft 2 and other than that just normal browsing and work.

Any advice would be welcome. I appreciate it in advance.

There used to be a new build section of this forum but I can't seem to find it anymore?

Thanks

Jay



 
A gpu upgrade would get you the most performance for your dollar, a ram upgrade would do nothing, cpu upgrade might help a bit considering strategy games are very cpu heavy but I still think a gpu upgrade would make the biggest difference. Maybe a gtx 950 if you want to keep it cheap.
 
Starcraft 2 is CPU dependent, the 6600k is def. better but I personally dont think its worth all that money for the upgrade yet (at least $500 for a 20-35% improvement depending on what youre running)... If I were you Id try overclocking the chip you have for starcraft 2 to run better. Check the temps you have now with the hyper 212 if theyre low while stress testing keep everything you own and try to overclock, if theyre not great get a good air cooler then try to overclock (the heatsink will be reusable on future builds so its not like an investment on an old system exclusively) .
If im not mistaken the I7 950 is multiplier locked but you should be able to hit 4ghz on air if not much more...

(a GTX 950 is not much of an improvement over a 560ti, if you upgrade the GPU got for a 960 or better, but I dont think the 560 ti is too bad just yet)


I personally think what you have is fine for another year, overclock your cpu and gpu upgrade next year.
 


A 950 is quite a bit better than a 560 ti, it has twice the VRAM and 1080p gaming benchmarks are a whole lot better. If anything I would say the 960 isn't that much better than the 950. After looking at the requirements for legacy of the void I would agree a new cpu or an overclock may be more beneficial if we are talking specifically starcraft 2.

On a side note it may be a bit complicated to overclock that cpu if you are new to overclocking, I believe that cpu is locked so you would have to overclock using the base clock which is more complicated as it changes the speed of more than just the cpu like memory and bus speeds, it can be hard to get stable.
 
ok i am mistaken GTX 950 isnt much worse than the 960 i just looked up some benchmarks. Either case, the 560 TI is not obsolete quite yet, specially if all you play is starcraft 2.

If you do want to try a bclk overclock, there are a lot of sites that will walk you through specifically overclocking the I7 950.

 
Gentleman- I really appreciate your advice and direction. I spent some time last night reading up on overclocking and watching some videos. This morning I overclocked my system from 3.02 to 3.70. Using CPU-Z I can see that it is achieving this speeds sometimes but it fluctuates a lot. Is that normal? Mainly the core speed and the multiplier changes a lot. Is that simply due to how much stress is on the system at one time? Also- I ran prime95 for about 10 minutes but my temps slowly ran into the 70's on the processor. I read that anything over 68 is bad so I stopped. Can you gentleman possibly guide me on this information? I appreciate it. Thanks in advance!
 


Does the core speed change when under load using prime 95? It shouldn't. If it fluctuates at idle that is perfectly normal most cpu's will lower their clock speed dynamically to save power when having full cpu performance is unnecessary. From what I have raed most people seem to think the 70s are perfectly acceptable even the low to mid 80s, it will likely start to throttle at 90c and thermal shutdown occurs at 100c. And you will likely never see the temps prime95 can cause in the real world I doubt gaming will get it nearly as hot as prime95 will.

http://www.overclock.net/t/843863/intel-i7-950-max-safe-tempurature

EDIT: Intel does say that 68c is the max "safe" temp for extended use but I doubt pushing past that is going to harm anything as long as it isn't in the 80s for hours. This is just my opinion but if it were me I would just run that cpu into the ground and get as much as I could possibly get out of it if it dies then at least I would have an excuse to upgrade.
 
Thanks for your continued education 🙂

I am constantly reading and researching on my end as well. When I ran Prime95 the core speed did NOT change. While I had CPU utilization maxed out it stayed constant @ 3719.. So I think the overclock worked and the system is stable. From research it looks like these specific chips ran hotter @ stock than some other intel chips. Some are even saying that the 80's are ok. I play starcraft for no more than 2 hours at a time and even during that its NEVER at full cpu utilization the entire time.. I think I am ok so far. Going to play with getting some more juice outta this puppy. I completely agree with your last statement. If I am going down, better to go out with a bang 🙂

Thanks for all your help. Much appreciated...
 
Dunlop has a good handle on this. The muliplier should not throttle when you are stress testing but otherwise auto downclocking is perfectly normal. (be sure to use the small fft for the test). Also try using intel burn test 10 passes on very high to further check for stability.

Both prime95 and IBT very rough on your system, your temps will be much higher using those than in real world scenarios its find to run the CPU into the low 80's for a few hours to stress test you wont damage the chip (I personally let it go to 90° in a stress test before stopping).

Aida64 has a stress testing function I find the max temps it gives are much closer to the max I ever got while gaming (I have a different CPU than you so I dont know if the I7 950 reacts the same to AIDA 64 but if it does its better to experiment your overclock with that and just run prime 95 and IBT as the final step).

Lastly if you dont have a second fan on your hyper 212, adding one for $3 (or $1 if you order on ebay from china) will drop your temps another 3°
 
Great Additional advice wicked_sticky. Love the pic btw.. !

Will def look into Aida64 going forward. I appreciate it.

Would you mind shooting me a link tot hat fan from China? Would happily buy it for a little added TLC.

Thank You

Jay

 
Looks like its that time of year the very cheap 3pin fans are sold out. Search ebay for "120mm fan" there are plenty for cheap ones left but 1200rpm and molex fans (you want 1600rpm minimum and a 3pin is better for speeding up/slowing down with temperature) - make sure you have a free fan pinout (your motherboard has 6. Three are for the case anyone of those is fine)

Make sure you have another pin out on your motherboard for extra fans

you can get this for $3 (its not as good as the fan you have but will still help)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Pin-120mm-25mm-Cooler-Fan-Heatsink-Cooling-Radiator-For-Computer-PC-CPU-12V-/262173263790?hash=item3d0abe87ae:g:r0gAAOSw7FRWYBVH

$5 on newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200048

for $5.50 you can get this fan, its much better than the fan you have on the 212 now (95cfm vs 70cfm):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Case-Fan-120mm-x-120mm-x-25mm-12V-0-20A-95-CFM-2800-RPM-3-Pin-Hydraulic-Bearing-/161893179066?hash=item25b195deba:g:87QAAOSwQoFWQgRP


p.s. your 212 came with extra pair of fins to connect the 2nd fan, you will need those, its a pain in the butt but you can use zip ties if you lost yours.