Should I get a new CPU, and what CPU would it be

[Rozzokjames]

My current machine :

RAM : DDR3 8Gb Ram 1333 MHz ( 2 Slots, 4GB Ram a slot. same exact ram bought from Adata )

GPU : Geforce GTX 650 2GB Vram

CPU : Intel I3 @ 550k Dual-Core 3.2GHz ( My pc lists it as quad core but im not so sure )

Motherboard : GA-H55M-S2V

And my hard drive is a 7200 Rpm 1TB

Thermaltake 600W Power supply

My question is if I should upgrade my cpu and if I should.. What CPU should I get?

My tower has a ton of room in it, and I mean alot but Im not a computer guy and I have no idea what would be the best cpu that wont break my motherboard/any other parts.



I run all high end games at medium/high settings at around 30fps. but im focusing on Dayz(full game ) As it just came out and looks rape worthy to my pc. Ive heard I should get a I5 3570K, I think it was but I dont know if it would work with my mobo. Currently I plan on video editing for youtube and such. I mean a 45 minute render for a 10 minute video isnt bad either I guess its ok. Mainly focused on recording games with a maintainable framerate of 30 fps while on medium.


If I should maybe ill upgrade my motherboard aswell.. I heard bad things about the one I have and its discontinued, mainly breaking within a year or two. If I would need to get another motheboard one with 7.1 surround sound would be nice and atleast 8GB of ram maximum

 

[Francisco Costa]

My current machine :

RAM : DDR3 8Gb Ram 1333 MHz ( 2 Slots, 4GB Ram a slot. same exact ram bought from Adata )

GPU : Geforce GTX 650 2GB Vram

CPU : Intel I3 @ 550k Dual-Core 3.2GHz ( My pc lists it as quad core but im not so sure )

Motherboard : GA-H55M-S2V

And my hard drive is a 7200 Rpm 1TB

Thermaltake 600W Power supply

My question is if I should upgrade my cpu and if I should.. What CPU should I get?

My tower has a ton of room in it, and I mean alot but Im not a computer guy and I have no idea what would be the best cpu that wont break my motherboard/any other parts.



I run all high end games at medium/high settings at around 30fps. but im focusing on Dayz(full game ) As it just came out and looks rape worthy to my pc. Ive heard I should get a I5 3570K, I think it was but I dont know if it would work with my mobo. Currently I plan on video editing for youtube and such. I mean a 45 minute render for a 10 minute video isnt bad either I guess its ok. Mainly focused on recording games with a maintainable framerate of 30 fps while on medium.


If I should maybe ill upgrade my motherboard aswell.. I heard bad things about the one I have and its discontinued, mainly breaking within a year or two. If I would need to get another motheboard one with 7.1 surround sound would be nice and atleast 8GB of ram maximum

Yeah, you're better off buying a new mobo aswell.
May I suggest you this:
i5 4670k: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54670k
ASRock Z87 Extreme4: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z87extreme4

Total: $330

 

[GalibTheGamer]

Since you are not a computer guy, I guess you know nothing about overclocking. First of all, you motherboard sucks. Sorry! It does not even support the Ivy series, so, i5-3570K is out of the question. So, for you, the best thing to do is to sell your i3-550K and GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, and buy the intel i5-4570 along with a B85 series motherboard (Gigabyte provides good motherboards at a cheaper price than other manufacturers). You don't need any advanced motherboard for i5-4570 since you can't overclock it. It will be good for both gaming and video editing and the best upgrade for you.

 

[Francisco Costa]

Since you are not a computer guy, I guess you know nothing about overclocking. First of all, you motherboard sucks. Sorry! It does not even support the Ivy series, so, i5-3570K is out of the question. So, for you, the best thing to do is to sell your i3-550K and GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, and buy the intel i5-4570 along with a B85 series motherboard (Gigabyte provides good motherboards at a cheaper price than other manufacturers). You don't need any advanced motherboard for i5-4570 since you can't overclock it. It will be good for both gaming and video editing and the best upgrade for you.

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with having a better and overclockable CPU and a motherboard to go with it. That way, your CPU/mobo combo will last much more time. I think it really compensates the extra $45-50.

 

[GalibTheGamer]

Since you are not a computer guy, I guess you know nothing about overclocking. First of all, you motherboard sucks. Sorry! It does not even support the Ivy series, so, i5-3570K is out of the question. So, for you, the best thing to do is to sell your i3-550K and GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, and buy the intel i5-4570 along with a B85 series motherboard (Gigabyte provides good motherboards at a cheaper price than other manufacturers). You don't need any advanced motherboard for i5-4570 since you can't overclock it. It will be good for both gaming and video editing and the best upgrade for you.

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with having a better and overclockable CPU and a motherboard to go with it. That way, your CPU/mobo combo will last much more time. I think it really compensates the extra $45-50.

Of course it's better but for that you need a good motherboard since you will overclock it in the future and the guy doesn't know computers that well. So, for his safety, I advised him an i5-4570 and a B85 motherboard. That's all. And it's cheap

 

[Francisco Costa]

Yeah, if you don't want to overclock, save $35 and get the i5 4670 and the B85 Pro4. Still, I think the overclockability is worth the $35, and the Z87 Extreme4 has much more feature, for example you can't SLI in the B85. But the choice is yours, get the ones you think are the ones most worth of your money.

 

[Francisco Costa]

I do not know where your numbers are coming from, but according to pcpartpicker your Z87 mobo is $109.99 minimum while the B85 I suggested is $59.99. That alone is a greater price difference, and the cost of the more expensive K processor comes on top of that.

Sorry bro but the B85 Pro4 is $81,98 and the i5 4670 is $214,99
The Z87 Extreme4 is $109,99 and the i5 4670k is $219,99
81,98+214,99=296,97
109,99+219,99=329,98
329,98-296,97=$33,01
The difference is $33,01

The B85M Pro4 costs $59,99, but that's a micro-ATX, and never buy a micro-ATX unless you're building a small form factor PC or are in a very strict budget.

 

[GalibTheGamer]

First of all, how come a person suggest the i5-4670(non-k). It's one of the worst advices ever because you can just increase your money a bit and buy the awesome i5-4670k whether you overclock it or not. Secondly, there's no difference in performance between an ATX and a Micro-ATX motherboard(even if there is, it is very hard to notice and only between overclocked chips) and it's true, how many guys uses all of their additional slots. Most of my additional slots of my ATX motherboard are lying empty. If I have to advice, I will suggest him:
i5-4570 - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54570 - 194.99$
ASRock B85M Pro4 - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-b85mpro4 - 59.99$
Total = 254.98$
This is the best and cheapest deal for you which has got support for your 7.1 surround sound and also 32GB RAM support

 

[Rozzokjames]

Since you are not a computer guy, I guess you know nothing about overclocking. First of all, you motherboard sucks. Sorry! It does not even support the Ivy series, so, i5-3570K is out of the question. So, for you, the best thing to do is to sell your i3-550K and GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, and buy the intel i5-4570 along with a B85 series motherboard (Gigabyte provides good motherboards at a cheaper price than other manufacturers). You don't need any advanced motherboard for i5-4570 since you can't overclock it. It will be good for both gaming and video editing and the best upgrade for you.

I know how to overclock GPUS. and this was a budget build so the motherboard was a great choice. I run games amazingly well ( bf3 high 60+ Fps ) I just need to record / Be able to edit well.


Also not screwing with overclocking a cpu. way too complicated, and what is it going to give me... 1-4 fps change? so Id stick to just stock Ghz

My pc only costed me 510$ And I gotta say im pleased with thee. but not being able to record dark souls with 30+ fps like most games is a bit of a hinder. So ill just be grabbing a new cpu and motherboard ( I WANT SURROUND SOUND C: ) To the list of things needed


Also cost is a problem.

My next GPU upgrade is going to be a GTX 660 Twin FROZR if that makes any difference for a new mobo/cpu. And I will be playing : Dark souls 2 Battlefield 4 Dayz on this pc.

 

[Francisco Costa]

Yes, I made that mistake, but why not buy micro ATX when it saves a whopping $30? He will never notice any difference and will never need the additional slots.

Since you are not a computer guy, I guess you know nothing about overclocking. First of all, you motherboard sucks. Sorry! It does not even support the Ivy series, so, i5-3570K is out of the question. So, for you, the best thing to do is to sell your i3-550K and GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, and buy the intel i5-4570 along with a B85 series motherboard (Gigabyte provides good motherboards at a cheaper price than other manufacturers). You don't need any advanced motherboard for i5-4570 since you can't overclock it. It will be good for both gaming and video editing and the best upgrade for you.

I know how to overclock GPUS. and this was a budget build so the motherboard was a great choice. I run games amazingly well ( bf3 high 60+ Fps ) I just need to record / Be able to edit well.


Also not screwing with overclocking a cpu. way too complicated, and what is it going to give me... 1-4 fps change? so Id stick to just stock Ghz

My pc only costed me 510$ And I gotta say im pleased with thee. but not being able to record dark souls with 30+ fps like most games is a bit of a hinder. So ill just be grabbing a new cpu and motherboard ( I WANT SURROUND SOUND C: ) To the list of things needed


Also cost is a problem.

My next GPU upgrade is going to be a GTX 660 Twin FROZR if that makes any difference for a new mobo/cpu. And I will be playing : Dark souls 2 Battlefield 4 Dayz on this pc.

If you are on a budget, the yes, buy the B85M Pro4 and the i5 4570, but don't complaint in a few years that you're needing to upgrade your CPU/motherboard. But don't get me wrong, that combo is really good for the price.

 

[Francisco Costa]

Now if you could add a plausible reason why this need for a upgrade might occur rather than just spreading fear... Most likely he will never need any slot other than the one for his graphcis card, but the B85M even does have another fullsize PCI-E slot so he could even SLI/Crossfire with that board. Name one realistic (!) scenario in which this will not suffice for him.

No RAID possibility, if he wants faster RAM, mobo will downclock it to 1600 Mhz, no SLI (but he can Xfire), not overclockable, if he wants to have Xfire cards and a sound card, because the audio codec in the B85M is worse than the one in the Z87 so that wouldn't be off the possibilities, if he wants to have a sound card and a wireless adapter, no DisplayPort, 4xUSB3.0 vs 9xUSB3.0, and a few more.

 

[Francisco Costa]

Now you are the one who is messing up things, seeing that the board with the higher price that you named was the B85 Pro4 (without "M"), which would not offer any of these features either.

As for the other options, B85 does offer RAID (read footnote 3 on this page). RAM clock speed influences overall system performance like what? 2%? Too ridiculous to care anyway; you will never actually feel the difference from clocking your RAM beyond 1600MHz (especially since 1600MHz are what the CPU was designed for, so any higher speed leads to asynchronous access).

No SLI ok, I would not do that anyway. Rather get a new card when outdated, preferably a Radeon one so he can Xfire in the future.

and a sound card, because the audio codec in the B85M is worse than the one in the Z87

That is complete bull, because neither chipset contains any audio codec. The audio codec chips are always soldered upon the mainboard independently (usually Realtek).

if he wants to have a sound card and a wireless adapter, no DisplayPort

Yes, he will suddenly want to have a sound card and a wireless adapter, that sure is likely (besides he could always get an external wireless adapter if need be).

4xUSB3.0 vs 9xUSB3.0

How many USB 3.0 devices will he likely run? How many of those are you running? Particularly simultaneously?

The only devices for which USB 3.0 makes any sense are external HDDs and perhaps an expensive USB 3.0 stick. If you connect both, that makes 2 USB 3.0 ports. Anything beyond that is not to be expected, especially on a gamer PC.

Any other devices will benefit absolutely zero from USB 3.0 and will run just as nicely on the plentiful (8 IIRC) USB 2.0 ports that B85 offers.

Paying $50+ for all these improbable eventualities, possibly accepting a crappier CPU in the process because of budget shortage, would just be a silly decision.

First of all, I never suggested the B85 Pro4, but the Z87 Extreme4

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1748777/downside-b85-chipset-gamer.html See the best answer.

http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/bf4-loves-high-speed-memory I don't think the difference is 2%

Oh, you wouldn't SLI, but you would Xfire... You should know that SLI is lightyears ahead of Xfire in terms of stability... SLI is a plausible idea, but Xfire? Please...

Yes, you're right, audio codec is soldered upon the mainboard, and both use Realtek, but the B85M uses the ALC892, and the Z87 uses the 1150, which is better (not by much, but it is).

Is it really out of this world to have a GPU, a sound card and a wireless adapter at the same time?

About the USB, you're right, he'll hardly ever use 4 USB 3.0.

However, there is other stuff that I didn't mention like SRT (Smart Response Technology).

Take a look: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/#BusinessChipsets%28Q87,Q85,B85%29

 

[Francisco Costa]

First of all, I never suggested the B85 Pro4, but the Z87 Extreme4

Ok, now let's get this straight. We discussed price differences, and you quoted my suggestion of B85 Pro4 and pointed out that the price difference is not that great. You were right with that; The B85M Pro4 is the cheap mainboard, costing another $30 less than the B85 Pro4 with only minimally less functionality. The price difference between a B85 Pro4 and the Z87 Extreme4 that you suggested is a whopping $50. $50 for esoteric functionalities that perhaps one day if an unlikely case comes true he may someday need. $50 to cut from his CPU, accepting crappier performance for a gain that he will not feel now and that he will most likely never ever feel. Does not make sense to me.

Oh, you wouldn't SLI, but you would Xfire...

Personally I would do neither, because IMHO it is always the better deal to sell the old card on Ebay and get a new single-GPU one that offers the desired performance.

Yes, you're right, audio codec is soldered upon the mainboard, and both use Realtek, but the B85M uses the ALC892, and the Z87 uses the 1150, which is better (not by much, but it is).

Question is whether he will ever notice. For starters, all Realtek sound chips have become so good lately that you need really good speakers to be able to tell a difference (unlike older Realtek sound chips which were really poor).

And if he does have the money for good speakers and a good amplifier and wants the good sound, IMHO the sounder decision is a good sound card that he can probably keep for a decade, rather than paying for the sound anew every 3 years (for a gamer, a new mainboard every 3 years is a conservative estimation).

In my life, I have basically owned only 3 sound cards: A Soundblaster 16 (ISA), and Soundblaster Live! Player 1024 (PCI), and now a Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-E. You do the math how long every of these cards lasted and how long I enjoyed excellent sound from these for a one-time two-digit investment! In fact I could still be using the Live!Player 1024, but I wanted to ditch obsolete PCI for reasons of freakishness (and also because I wanted EAX 5.0). PCI-E is pretty new, and I bet 10 years from now PCs will still have PCI-E slots, even though there will probably be newer slots besides them. A sound card is never a bad investment. But that is only a side aspect. Right now he is not looking for a sound card, he is on a budget, and this is nowhere near being urgent.

Is it really out of this world to have a GPU, a sound card and a wireless adapter at the same time?

If he needed a wireless adapter in his PC in the near future, he would probably already be aware of it. And if as the consequence of surprising events he ends up needing one in the future, he could simply get something like this. Here in Europe this device costs a one-digit amount of cash!

However, there is other stuff that I didn't mention like SRT (Smart Response Technology).

Intel SRT is pretty much the only feature (besides arguable overclocking) that could be interesting about the higher chipsets (although even that does not require the expensive Z87, for H87 can do it as well). However, giving it a closer look I find that one of the following two possibilities apply to practically all people I know or can imagine:

• 
  ■ Either one is a computer freak like you and me, so he knows about this feature, along with lots of other stuff. In that case, however, he wants maximum performance, so he is both willing and able to manually install Windows and his most-frequently-used applications to the SSD and the mass data to the HDD. This will outclass any SRT solution performance-wise, and as a side effect, the storage capacity of the SSD is not lost.
  ■ Or one is a user or gamer type. His knowledge about computers is very limited, even though he may know that he wants a fast machine. Such a guy has a hard time installing Windows on his own. Yes he can boot up the DVD and run the setup dialogue, but has hardly any idea what is technically happening during setup and may also have difficulties locating and installing all the right drivers for his system (unless he resorts to installing all the obsolete drivers from the CD that came with his mainboard, graphics card, and other hardware). Such a guy may succeed in plugging some hardware together, but he will probably be hard pressed properly setting up Intel RST, which requires RAID to be active in BIOS, the RST driver installed, and Windows being installed up front without RST already being active (because you cannot install the RST driver before you have installed Windows for obvious reasons). Then in the RST driver you need to configure everything properly so that the SSD caches the HDD. Do you think such a user will be able to do this? Hell, most likely he will not even know that RST exists!

So for whom should RST-based SSD caching be interesting? I find it a technically-nice feature, but I fail to see the type of user to whom it typically applies. Including the thread creator.

Not to mention that having RST enabled does not allow you to dual-boot any OS for which no RST driver exists, including XP and Linux, because no changes to the HDD may be made without keepign the SSD cache updated.

Well, I think we both made some good points, and now it's up to Rozzokjames to make a decision based on the support and information we gave him.