A, B or C. Please help me choose!

[PaulC1]

Boy am I in a dilema! So basically I'm buying a new mobo and CPU, but I can see 3 options I can go about doing this;

A - I cheap out a bit on the motherboard and get an i7 (maxes out budget)

B - I cheap out a bit on the CPU and get an i5 with a nice motherboard, probably ROG (almost maxes out budget)

C - I cheap out on both and get an i5 with a cheaper motherboard (gives me a very good amount left over to spend elsewhere)

Those are my 3 options and I'm just wondering what you guys think I should do. I'm not going to sit and tell yous I need an i7, I don't. I game and once in a blue moon will render a video, but I just feel even although games don't really take advantage of it at the moment, I'm probably going to be keeping this setup for multiple years and maybe by then games will be taking advantage of the i7's 8 threads. I feel that it would last me longer is what I'm trying to say (plus bragging rights of course, I mean no one's exactly disappointed when they buy an i7). The main reason I'm buying this is because my GPU is being severely bottlenecked by my current CPU and I know that the i5 will solve that problem with no issues. The last thing I wanted to ask is if motherboards are that important? It will be an ASUS board I buy so they all basically have the same overclocking experience and I don't really see why I would need an expensive board apart from the sexiness of ROG. So what do you guys think?

Thanks, Paul

[DarrenP]

[Tro]

I would choose C, but with a decent motherboard. 

[Clyne]

C is your best option, you can use the money to spend on a better graphics card.

[rmac52]

You can buy the cheapest asus mobo that has the features you need. They are all quite good. So either option a or c. I would go with option c the I5 is a great cpu

[PaulC1]

I would choose C, but with a decent motherboard.

The board would probably be around £100ish and will most likely be an ASUS Z97-K/C/A. So I'd say they're pretty decent

[PaulC1]

Haha! Well I can't say I've ever had a question answered by Shrek but I suppose he's never wrong. After all, Shrek is love, Shrek is life.

[elecxonica]

Go with C. The i7 is complete overkill on a gaming machine. Also, the ROG motherboard is probably also pretty overkill.

[DarrenP]

Haha! Well I can't say I've ever had a question answered by Shrek but I suppose he's never wrong. After all, Shrek is love, Shrek is life.

People really need to get ogre that meme. 

[Yoann Craniumz]

Depends on what GPU you add. If you already have like a 290x or 780ti then B would be good. Otherwise C and get a better CPU.

[PaulC1]

C is your best option, you can use the money to spend on a better graphics card.

I recently bought a 770 so there'd be no need for that. The extra cash would go towards games (which are kinda important in a gaming PC)...and McDonald's

[Clyne]

I recently bought a 770 so there'd be no need for that. The extra cash would go towards games (which are kinda important in a gaming PC)...and McDonald's

then spend your extra cash on a good motherboard.

[PaulC1]

Go with C. The i7 is complete overkill on a gaming machine. Also, the ROG motherboard is probably also pretty overkill.

Yeah I was dead set on buying one then I sat and thought about it, when I helped build my friend's PC we just put some £60 ASRock board in it and it works perfectly so that's why I don't think the board is that big of a deal

[Roddy189]

You won't be disappointed with the i5, but don't cheap out on the motherboard if you don't have to. what CPU do you have now? I'd choose C though.  

[seiny]

But first what's your budget?

[PaulC1]

You won't be disappointed with the i5, but don't cheap out on the motherboard if you don't have to. what CPU do you have now? I'd choose C though.

The cheap out motherboard option is like £55 cheaper than the more expensive one, so they're not super far apart and I have a Phenom II X6 1035T (don't laugh, it was out of a pre-built HP which I bought in my n00b days )

[PaulC1]

But first what's your budget?

£350/$584 But obviously I'd like to have some left over to "par-tay" etc.

[LarsReviews]

Get a i5 now and in a few years you can get the i7 for really cheap. 

[Enderman]

i5 4690k with an asus Z97 motherboard around $100-150

[TheRetiredSlave]

Either A or C, preferably C.. Generally i5s are considered to be the best balance of price/performance, because like you said, games don't really take advantage of 8 threads.

 

The issue with B is that the motherboard doesn't really improve the performance of the system, so there's really not much reason to spend more on a motherboard unless you happen to have extra money laying around..

[PaulC1]

i5 4690k with an asus Z97 motherboard around $100-150

That is literally the exact combination I'm going for haha!

[PaulC1]

Either A or C, preferably C.. Generally i5s are considered to be the best balance of price/performance, because like you said, games don't really take advantage of 8 threads.

The issue with B is that the motherboard doesn't really improve the performance of the system, so there's really not much reason to spend more on a motherboard unless you happen to have extra money laying around..

Yeah, the vast majority seems to be C so I think I'll probably be going for that

[runit3]

C. But I wouldn't really call a Z97-A a "cheap out" board...damn things are amazing (I've bought 2 in the last 4 months -all i5 builds )

[PhantomChevron]

C

[SpyRosL]

I'd go with the i7 aka option A just because you already got a gpu and you have the budget. Sue me.

 

I know it's not fully utilized now but it will be. Basically, every new title utilizes 4 or more cores now and i also hate that my CPU is hitting constant 95% load on games(i5).

 

Edit* 350 pounds buys you that i7 and a very good motherboard as well.4790k is 225 pounds + MSi z97 gaming 5 is a pretty solid bundle for a total of ~325 pounds.