Upgrade from fx 8320e to i5 4690k worth it?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

Jirehboy

Reputable
Mar 5, 2015
49
0
4,530
Hey guys! This is quite long so please bear with me.

So i recently built my rig (a month ago) with fx 8320e + msi 970 gaming mobo. Both items cost me P13,000 (about $294).

Now there's this I think a great deal on our local shop here in the Philippines where if you buy an i5 4690k for P11,000 (about $248), you basically get a free ECS z87h3-a2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135357.

Now here's the catch. I can sell my 8320e + msi 970 gaming mobo for about P8,000 ($180 cheapskate buyers!) and add P3,000 ($67.87) so that I can buy that i5 + ECS combo.

Now to the question, is it worth that additional $67.87 for my move from amd to intel?
And is the ECS mobo any good? I don't have any experience with ECS brand. Note that I intend to OC to at least 4.2ghz if not 4.5ghz. Also note that I can sell the free ECS board if it isn't any good. Therefore I can even make money out of this deal and buy a better mobo.

My gut tells me that I should make the change since this kind of deal happens only once in a while, but I could be wrong and I should just stick with my current CPU and mobo. What do you guys think?

Sorry for the long post guys! Hope I can get some good insights from you exprerts. :)

Thank you!

NOTE: MY RIG WILL BE USED SOLELY FOR GAMING. NO VIDEO EDITING, RENDERING, ETC.

My specs: FX 8320e @ 4.2ghz --- i5 4690k
MSI 970 gaming mobo --- ECS Z87h3-a2x
CM Seidon 120v
MSI GTX 970
CORSAIR CX 750m
CORSAIR VENGEANCE 8gb 1866
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

Technically, that's a 2-tier upgrade, & whether upgrading your CPU or GPU it's usually best to at least go for a 2-tier upgrade.

That being said, there are some downsides to the upgrade:

1. Having to reinstall Windows. Swapping out for a new motherboard means you will have to do a clean reinstall of Windows...which means backing up your critical/personal files to a 2nd hard drive. That also means having to reinstall all of your programs & apps afterwards, so make sure you still have the physical disks or exe files to install from.

2. The Haswell chips are very nice, & will stay near the top for probably a few years...but Skylake (the next step after Broadwell, which superceded Haswell) is coming out this year, & Intel is not releasing Skylake for LGA 1150 socketed boards; they won't be backwards-compatible with the LGA 1150 boards (as Intel is using a new LGA 1151 socket), & the Haswell LGA 1150 chips won't work in the LGA 1151 boards that Skylake will need. So while going to the i5 gives you a handful of i7s as possible upgrades, you're already at the top-tier Haswell i5, combined with a board that won't get newer CPUs in the future. So while "future-proofing" is always a shot in the dark, LGA 1150-based Intel builds are now seeing the same end-of-the-line that has been claimed for AMD's AM3+ line for the past year or so.

3. There's nothing wrong with your current build. While it may not perform quite as well as an i5-based build, it's nothing to sneer at. Especially with a good GPU like your GTX 970, you can expect to keep up with new games for another couple of years. Not to mention that your system is brand-new, it'd be kind of a waste to immediately replace it now. Especially since AMD may be coming out with a new CPU line by next year as well, saving the cash now would allow you more time to see how Skylake shakes out & see if AMD has anything to compete with (either directly competing against Intel, or at least able to maintain the "good enough performance but able to save you much more money" position).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Problem 1) ECS is a complete pile of crap motherboard, there is a reason they are giving it away for free.

Problem 2) Z87 boards require a bios update for you to be able to support the 4690k. So you would then have to buy a supported Celeron or Pentium to flash the bios.


So the short answer is NO, not worth it.
If you are maxed on the 8320 and need more then upgrading to an i5 is inevitable, but the free ECS motherboard route is not worth it at all since you will be having to spend more money on a supported CPU, and then buy a better motherboard shortly after the warranty is expired.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Problem 1) ECS is a complete pile of crap motherboard, there is a reason they are giving it away for free.

Problem 2) Z87 boards require a bios update for you to be able to support the 4690k. So you would then have to buy a supported Celeron or Pentium to flash the bios.


So the short answer is NO, not worth it.
If you are maxed on the 8320 and need more then upgrading to an i5 is inevitable, but the free ECS motherboard route is not worth it at all since you will be having to spend more money on a supported CPU, and then buy a better motherboard shortly after the warranty is expired.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
@Shadowr34per: Well the only reason I'm considering it is because of the promo (CPU+free mobo). If not for the promo then I wouldn't even think of buying another CPU let alone a new mobo.

@spdragoo: Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

@boosted1g: If ever I bought the i5, the free ECS mb will be used only temporarily until I can afford a better one. And actually a friend of mine already bought this promo and he had no issues running the 4690k with the ECS board. He is currently gaming with it as we speak.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I forgot to mention that regardles of CPU (8320e or 4690k) I plan on using the CPU for at least 3-4 years so I don't really plan on upgrading to skylake immediately it hits the market. The only upgrade I'm thinking after this is another gtx 970 after a couple of months even a year maybe.

Thanks for all the replies guys I really appreciate it! Slowly I think I'm getting my answer to my question thanks to your insights. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Even though the MSI 970 gaming is not the best overclocking board for fx Cpus, it IS much better than anything ECS has to offer. Chances are very good that your AMD system will long outlast your friends Intel system without further need for drastic changes like a complete motherboard/Windows swap which is needed when changing brands, not to mention all the headache of game re-installs etc.

Dx12 is supposed to give AMD cpus a large boost in performance, more so than Intel, so it may turn out that your fx is more capable than current usage when tested up against an i5/i7 k
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It is a roll of the dice in regards to BIOS versions. If you got a newer board you get the newer firmware, if you got one that sat at a warehouse for a while you have an old firmware. No way to really know until you get it home.

Your friend lucked out and got one with a newer bios version.

As Karadjgne said though, im sure your MSI 970 mobo will long outlast his ECS Extremely Cheap Sh** board.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
@karadjgne & @boosted1g: What if I were to sell my ecs mobo to buy a better one. Would that make the switch to intel any sweeter? Cause that's what I have in mind, use the free ECS temporarily until I can sell it or afford a better one, preferably asus, gigabyte, or msi.

That is my next question though, how will things turn out with the 8 core fx 8320e once dx12 launches? Wouldn't that be a game changer or would 4 core haswell still beat 8 core vishera?

PS: Don't really plan on buying skylake once it hits the market, cant afford it (unless they make a deal here like in the i5 where you get a free mobo, which I doubt :) )

Whether I make the switch to Intel or just stick with AMD, I plan on using either CPU for a couple of years.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I would not recommend doing that mostly because you only recently built your PC and the fact that ECS is not reliable. i would recommend that you save up the money that you would spend on this then upgrade to something much better. If you want to upgrade to an intel i5 lga 1150 socket then i would recommend a z97 motherboard rather than a z87, and a motherboard from msi or asus. Save a little then upgrade. Patience is the key my friend.
BTW some CPU comparison http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4690K-vs-AMD-FX-8320E
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
No, this is not a good deal at all dude.

The FX-8320E is fine as it is. You have 8 Cores, and your Overclock of 4.2GHz. should be fine, as you will be able to handle most tasks like Video Editing and Streaming no problem.

Upgrading to a i5 4690K will yield Little to No benefit Because you will be downgrading from 8 Cores that can handle 8 Threads of work on the FX-8320E, to a 4690K that has only 4 Cores and NO Hyperthreading. (Basically, 4 Cores/ 4 Threads on the 4690K VS. 8 Cores and 8 Threads on the FX-8320E)

Secondly, ECS Has a Horrible Reputation when it comes to Motherboards. I have seen nothing but negative reviews concerning their motherboards and RMA's.

Third, The Motherboard you are looking at is a Z87 Motherboard. You need a Z97 to run the 4690K, meaning, you would need to update the BIOS before using the 4690K.

So the answer to the question here is:

No! It's a Trap!

You will be wasting $70 on a Quad-Core processor that will yield Little to No Benefit, and a Motherboard from a Horrible Company.

Your Build right now is fine as is. The FX-8320E will do just fine for gaming, video editing, and streaming. And not to mention, that GTX 970 will run Any game at Ultra at 1080p without breaking a sweat.

My suggestion is that you try and Overclock your 8320E to 4.5Ghz if you can. If not, I would say you are perfectly fine with your current Build. This Upgrade deal is a Total Trap. Nothing More.

Hope this helps, dude.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Thanks for the advice! :)

Although I mentioned before that the ECS board was free, so I could probably sell it and use the money for a better board. Again I wouldn't be able to buy a new i5 if it weren't for the promo. So this might be my only chance to get on the intel train.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Thanks for the advice!

Now that you mentioned it, I have to ask. Do I really need hyperthreading for gaming today and for games in the future? Because that is the sole purpose of my rig. I don't do video editing, rendering, all that kind of stuff that requires multi threaded workloads. (That's why I think it was a mistake to buy an 8 core processor in the first place.)

About the ECS board. Yep I know it is not like ASUS, MSI, etc, and that it is z87 chipset, but it is free and I can probably sell it and buy a better mobo.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hyper-Threading won't do much for game performance, unfortunately. That's why you see a lot of people opting for Core i5's over i7's.

Also, even if you would be able to sell the ECS Motherboard, you would only gain little profit from selling it, if any.

Also, Even though the FX-8320E's 8-Cores aren't as strong as Intel's, They still will get the job done when it comes to gaming performance.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hyperthreading usage depends on the game engine. Some games like watchdogs, bf4 multi-player, gta v use multiple thread, multiple core engines and as such excel. The only cpus that beat an 8350 in bf4 multi-player are the i7s with hyperthreading enabled, just because 8 threads vrs 8 threads with stronger single core performance. Even i5s with its stronger single core performance won't keep up with an 8350, its a matter of core count there.

In other game engines, like those used by skyrim etc, they are heavy on single core performance and use less than 4 cores, so hyperthreading is about useless there, as is 8 cores on an 8350, and an i3 will keep up with the 8350, just due to Intel single core performance.

It's a dance, all cpus must dance too, some are better than others in some games, and worse in others, but any of the stronger cpus will be better in the big picture than the weaker ones.

The 8320e is a strong overall performer, and it's best stable OC is 4.2GHz, anything higher raises the heat significantly for very little return.

Keep what you have, for almost all imagined loss in performance vrs the 4690k is only really applicable in a benchmark or excessive frames beyond the 60 that your monitor tops out at.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
As most people here advise you... the upgrade is not worth it, I have always been on the intel side and my brother is on amd side, but to be honest most of the time in real life applications you cant tell the difference specially while gaming.

My wife has an i5 4690k i built for her and my brother has an old phenom x4 955 BE, while the i5 will be great on benchmarks the difference between them gaming on 1080p @ 60fps is none... the GTX 970 will be your forte here, and that FX 8320 you picked here will last you for the whole 4 to 5 years you plan on using the machine.

My advice: for the hassle, the money you'll spend, the false expectations (they can't sell that mobo that's why they are giving it away, what makes you think you can sell it?), the performance boost that you will notice only in benchmarks (braggin rights) you are better off with your current cpu and if you want to sli it would be better to save the money for that and get the second GTX earlier.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Oh shoot I didn't think I'd still get many replies. Yeah I did go with the intel deal. Sadly though my liquid cooler is failing (or just mounted incorrectly) so I am currently using the Intel stock air cooler with no problems, although I can't OC right now cause of the crappy cooler.

Personally I have mixed feelings regarding this deal (mainly cause of the hassle) but hey I've already crossed the bridge and I don't like having any regrets. I do like to point out that I did have an increase in performance while gaming (no more stutter, fps drops, etc, that I would normally get with the fx chip) and that was just with the stock speed + turbo of the 4690k. I could be just convincing myself but it is my unbiased observation with the 4690k vs 8320e.

With regards to the board I haven't really tried it yet cause I can't OC but so far so good. Although I do plan on replacing it later. I know the board is not that good compared to the leading brands but this was my only chance of getting an i5 so I went for it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Agree that ECS mobos are crap! Best to keep it between Asus, Gigabyte, MSI or Asrock.

You can always just OC your cpu and gpu to get better performance. Only thing that's keeping me back from keeping an AMD is the TDP of the cpu. Man that thing sucks juice! I switched from a fx-6300 to an i5-4690k and total system draw was much lower by ~50w on average. Happy with the result. =)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote



Well as I said i just bought the 4690k even with the ecs mobo.

And yeah TDP and HEAT were one of my considerations in going with intel. My room felt close to a sauna with the fx chip.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I would see if you can swap out your FX-8320E for an FX-8350 which should give you a performance boost. Maybe AMD will take back the CPU if you threaten to go intel or maybe not. The E versions have neutered performance over the non-E versions and you only save heat by going from 125w to 95w ceiling at the expense of processing power. You pay the same price though which is why they aren't worth it.

I have the MSI 970 Gaming Mobo and am quite happy with it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Lol I don't think they allow that kind of thing here in my country. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anyways since I'm here again I'd like to update that the cpu temps problem that I had with the new 4690k is now fixed. Turns out my liquid cooler was fine, just replaced the thermal paste with a better one and voila, temps were back to normal. Even OC'ed to 4.4 ghz with no problems whatsoever.

Honestly when the whole thing with the temps happened I kinda wished I didn't go with the intel deal. And now that it's fixed I couldn't be any happier going to Intel from AMD, even if it was with this OK BUT NOT GREAT mobo. Benefits were not just for gaming performance alone (although it was one of my main considerations), lower power consumption, less heat in my room were greatly appreciated too. :)

Thanks for all your suggestions guys!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The important part is that you are happy right? I mean no benchmark or benefit beats that I say.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom