is it time to upgrade

[toasty84]

hi all my specs i5 2500k gtx 780 8gig ramm p8h61 rev 2.0 mobo..so should i upgrade now or should i wait untill the end of this year?im looking to buy oculus rift when it comes out and everyone keeps telling me i need to upgrade they say my cpu is to weak and so is my gpu..imo i think i5 2500 k is only a little bit slower than i5 4690k so surely an oc of the i5 2500k will be fast enough for oculus but again im not sure!!and recommended specs for oculus is gtx 970 but gtx 780 is again pretty much same speed as a 970 so what do you think should i upgrade or wait or just keep what i have..if my i5 2500k is ok for oculus and my gpu the only thing i would need is a new z77 mobo so i could overclock cpu..but what would you do?

 

[kwa-e]

Your rig is plenty and should still last you a long while, practically no need to upgrade unless you're planning to go 4K.

 

[toasty84]

thanks for your input but are you saying the i5 2500k will be ok for oculus...do you think its a good idea for me to buy a mobo that has over clock abilities?

 

[rhysiam]

No need to upgrade now, that's a solid rig. Shame you can't OC the CPU which would bring it on par with the 4690 recommended by Oculus VR. But it's still not far off, I would suspect you'd be okay.

A 780 is generally within 15% of a 970, which is achievable with an OC.

You'd have to spend an awful lot of money to get a PC which is perhaps 20% faster than what you currently have. Definitely wait and see. I suspect gen 1 VR is not going to be perfect and everyone will be scrambling to get it right. If it requires hardware tweaks, you're best holding on to what you have and upgrading Post-VR launch once everyone has a better idea of what you actually need for it to work well.

 

[kwa-e]

The i5 2500K at stock speeds is good enough for oculus, and buying a new motherboard just for OC would just cost too much to justify the performance games you're going to get.

 

[rhysiam]

thanks for your input but are you saying the i5 2500k will be ok for oculus...do you think its a good idea for me to buy a mobo that has over clock abilities?

If you're running Win7 OEM then a new mobo means new Windows license too, so bear that in mind. I believe Win8 OEM allows you to change a mobo on the same license, but don't take my word for that. Win7 definitely doesn't.

If you have Win8 and can upgrade without buying another licence, and you can pick up a cheap secondhand Z77 mobo, it might be worth it. If you need an aftermarket cooler, that can probably be reused on an upgraded rig. In the past Noctua has actually provided updated mounting brackets to their customers for free if you can provide proof of purchase for one their coolers and a newer mobo that isn't supported... which is pretty awesome.

Just bear in mind that you'd be maybe getting 15-25% extra out of your CPU, not a huge amount, for all the time, money and effort you have to spend on an upgrade and reinstall. While perhaps not a lot of money, it is a lot of time for a pretty small upgrade, but it might be worth it to you.

I still think a 2500K at stock will probably get the job done, but we won't really know until it launches.

 

[toasty84]

thanks for your advice guys i was just about to buy i5 4690k and a new mobo but now im going to wait...i have seen a z77 mobo on amazon that is 50 quid used its an ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M i may go for it and sell my current mobo at least then i can overclock.