Should I upgrade motherboard to z68 or z77

willi924

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2011
12
0
18,510
I am upgrading cpus 2500k to 2600k for $40.
But Microcenter has a trade in deal.
$50off motherboard and cpu together. So I want to trade motherboard and cpu in for the 2600k for only $199. Yeah!!!
So I have to decide on a new mobo and I was thinking between these 4 mobos and I need help deciding. Please.
Also, I would like to crossfire but I worry about the micro-stuttering that is common to cross-firing video cards. :(

the Z68's
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364085

Asus P8Z68-V LX LGA 1155 Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0371775

or these z77's

Asrock Z77 Pro3 1155 ATX Intel Motherboard:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0387627

Asrock Z77 Pro4 LGA 1155 ATX Intel Motherboard:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0387555
I like the new onboard intergratedV-sync on the z77 chipset as I believe this will help my 5870 gpu.
If not either of the z68 boards is fine.
which one would be the most effective way to setting up for ivy bridge cpu and going forward.

Here are my system specs currently:

Motherboard: Asus p8p67 pro rev3.0
Cpu: intel 2500k
gpu: HIS 5870 turbo v o.c. to 900/1288
Boot drive: 240 ocz agility 3
storage drive: 1tb samsung hdd
blu ray drive: Lg
ram : 8gb ddr3 1600 ocz gold 1.65v running at 1333 7-8-7 20 1.5v
sound: pciexpress X-fi titanium
windows 7 64bit

I would appreciate constructive feedback and suggestions.
Thanks Tom's Hardware community. :)

William
 
Solution
The main differences between the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K and the Intel Core i7-2600K is hyper-threading, 2mb of cache and 100MHz in clock speed. Now since most applications won't use hyper-threading (things like video editing or other heavily multi-threaded application may use it) and being an unlocked procesor means that clock speed really isnt much of a difference. In the end the 2mb of cache is really the may differenece unless you are doing something that is heavily multi-threaded.

For gamers the Intel Core i5-2500k is just about the perfect processor. So look carefully at what you are doing and see if moving up to the Intel Core i7-2600K will give you some advantage or if you might get better performance by using the $100 on...
Unless you are changing to one of the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors there isn't an advantage to the Z77 chipset based board over the Z68. So I wouldn't advise that you upgrade to the Z77 from the Z68. The problem is that PCI-E 3.0 isnt supported with the 2nd generation Intel Core processors so even if you change the board you couldnt tap into PCI-E 3.0 unless you also changed the processor out.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 
The only relevant plus to Z77 is Virtu MVP if the Games are supported then yeah sure you'll have decent acceleration, and you're not limited by i-Mode and d-Mode Quick Sync.

Frankly, as far as the IB CPU I don't like the OC temps nor the change from 77W to 95W TDP so I'd stick with your i5-2500K.
 

willi924

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2011
12
0
18,510



Thanks for the quick response. I have 2500k that I paid $179. Local store has 2600k for $199 special only today.
Would it be advantageous to exchange my 2500k for the 2600k? 2600k usually retails $319 on newegg.

I know ivy bridge will be out 2-3 weeks but will not have the cash until upgrade to Xmas. Rumors are they will be close to high-end sandybridge-E.

That why I was leaning towards the z68 and z77 lines.
I overclock but not extreme. 4.7 on the 2500k 33degrees idle, prime 95load 78degrees load.

William
 
The main differences between the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K and the Intel Core i7-2600K is hyper-threading, 2mb of cache and 100MHz in clock speed. Now since most applications won't use hyper-threading (things like video editing or other heavily multi-threaded application may use it) and being an unlocked procesor means that clock speed really isnt much of a difference. In the end the 2mb of cache is really the may differenece unless you are doing something that is heavily multi-threaded.

For gamers the Intel Core i5-2500k is just about the perfect processor. So look carefully at what you are doing and see if moving up to the Intel Core i7-2600K will give you some advantage or if you might get better performance by using the $100 on something else like a SSD would give you better overall system performance.


Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 
Solution

willi924

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2011
12
0
18,510
A big thanks Jacquith for the advice. I will save for a gpu and retire the 5870.Thank for all the help. I will just save up and see what new "tock" aka Ivybridge computes like. :)