Upgrade time!

[Gyroshark]

So I've been looking to upgrade my rig a tad with a new mobo and CPU. I have my eyes set on the i7-4790k since I get it cheap at the intel edge thing. Now I kinda know my way around a CPU but as for motherboards I'm extremely uneducated. The upgrade I'm performing is going from an ASrock Z77 Extreme6/TB4 with a nice little i5-3570k, to a new mobo and obviously the i7 core mentioned previously. I'd like any and all recommendations including if you think I don't need an upgrade. I'm looking to do more streaming and video recording so I figured the i7 would help with that as well. I'm also a huge fan of overclocking so I'll definitely be doing that to my new CPU. I'm just stuck on choosing a new mobo, preferably an Asus since Linus seems to rave about them being the highest quality, best with overclocking, and many other things. 

 

Just some other details you may wanna know so you dont have to Google much.

Socket for the 4790k is 1150

Motherboard price limit, around ~200 USD. 

 

Heres the rest of my build in case you need any more details

 

Mobo: above

CPU: above

GPU: GTX 770 4gb

Ram: 16gb DDR3 1600 (2x8)

PSU: 1200 watts (I know I went overboard with this, I guess I'll have enough wattage for whatever I plan to do in the future.)

Storage: 2tb HDD, 120gb SSD, and 240gb SSD (all sata III)

Cooler: Corsair H100i (Compatible with 1150 afaik)

 

Thanks for any and all help!

 

EDIT: Huge detail I missed! I run a triple monitor 3D setup with the shutter glasses and all that fun stuff. So I'm not sure if the upgrade would help it run better or not, I'm thinking it would but not to a huge extent. Just in case you needed to now what monitors they are, they're Acer GD235hz monitors, two are running at 120hz via DVI and one at 60 via HDMI. Sadly they dont have a Displayport

[HeathCliff]

That CPU should be more than adequate for gaming, streaming and day to day tasks. Put your money into a new GPU. a 970/980 would be a nice improvement.

[rambi36]

Any particular color scheme you're aiming for?

[EarthboundHero]

Any particular color scheme you're aiming for?

This would help, I'd recommend a workstation board personally. Not sure the price on those though.

[Gyroshark]

Any particular color scheme you're aiming for?

Not really, kinda blue and black but honestly it doesn't matter too much.

 

That CPU should be more than adequate for gaming, streaming and day to day tasks. Put your money into a new GPU. a 970/980 would be a nice improvement.

I havent really had any problems with it truly, but this CPU is going for extremely cheap this holiday. I suppose I could wait another year. And yea the 770 has started to lag behind tho. I'll have to put a little more thought into it. Thanks!

[Scarymonkeys]

That CPU should be more than adequate for gaming, streaming and day to day tasks. Put your money into a new GPU. a 970/980 would be a nice improvement.

Honestly, nothing needs upgraded. The GTX 770 will max out everything you throw at it for a bit. I would use it until it runs out.

OP, if you really feel the need to upgrade, even though it's not needed at all, then get the i7 4790k or the i5 4690k and an Asus Z97-A motherboard.

(I have never tested any of these parts, and can therefore never guarantee no faults.)

[rambi36]

Not really, kinda blue and black but honestly it doesn't matter too much.

 

I havent really had any problems with it truly, but this CPU is going for extremely cheap this holiday. I suppose I could wait another year. And yea the 770 has started to lag behind tho. I'll have to put a little more thought into it. Thanks!

The Asrock Z97 Extreme4 is pretty good and nice looking. If you want you could step up to the extreme6 but obviously that would cost more money. If you have extra money to spare maybe upgrade the GPU to an r9 290x or GTX 970

[Scarymonkeys]

The Asrock Z97 Extreme4 is pretty good and nice looking. If you want you could step up to the extreme6 but obviously that would cost more money. If you have extra money to spare maybe upgrade the GPU to an r9 290x or GTX 970

I think 290x's have horrible cooling problems..

[rambi36]

I think 290x's have horrible cooling problems..

Only the reference ones and asus direct cuii models have issues AFAIK

[runit3]

-snip-

Not that the i7 > i5 is not a worthy upgrade, but are you running into any performance issues on your current platform? Have you OC'd the 3570? Are you currently running into CPU load issue's where it's got all 4 cores capped ~90% and you're dropping frames?

 

Unless all of those answers are yes I don't see this making much sense as an upgrade path that's going to net you some measurable results. IPC between sandy/ivy/haswell is so close, and real world benchmarks show such little difference, that the only real benefit you're going to gain is from hyper threading and having the extra "cores" for workloads. If you were doing encoding/x264 on top of just streaming and recording I would say it's a no brainer to move to i7, but if all you're doing is streaming and recording, barring any performance issues that can be identified as a lack of cores, it seems like you already have a pretty damn good setup. That money might be better spent on extra SSD's/HDD's, capture devices/software, etc.

 

my .02

[rambi36]

@OP MSI r9 290x lightning is only $320 on newegg with a rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127787 I would hit dat. If you would like to know more about it, @Lays has one in his system and it's a beast

[Scarymonkeys]

@OP MSI r9 290x lightning is only $320 on newegg with a rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127787 I would hit dat. If you would like to know more about it, @Lays has one in his system and it's a beast

The GTX 970 from Zotac can sell for $10 more if I remember correctly. The 290X's are really good though.

[rambi36]

The GTX 970 from Zotac can sell for $10 more if I remember correctly. The 290X's are really good though.

Especially this one because it can overclock like crazy. Gotta love that Tri Frozr cooler

[Scarymonkeys]

Especially this one because it can overclock like crazy. Gotta love that Tri Frozr cooler

Yeah, Tri Frozr is pretty awesome.

[Gyroshark]

Not that the i7 > i5 is not a worthy upgrade, but are you running into any performance issues on your current platform? Have you OC'd the 3570? Are you currently running into CPU load issue's where it's got all 4 cores capped ~90% and you're dropping frames?

 

Unless all of those answers are yes I don't see this making much sense as an upgrade path that's going to net you some measurable results. IPC between sandy/ivy/haswell is so close, and real world benchmarks show such little difference, that the only real benefit you're going to gain is from hyper threading and having the extra "cores" for workloads. If you were doing encoding/x264 on top of just streaming and recording I would say it's a no brainer to move to i7, but if all you're doing is streaming and recording, barring any performance issues that can be identified as a lack of cores, it seems like you already have a pretty damn good setup. That money might be better spent on extra SSD's/HDD's, capture devices/software, etc.

 

my .02

Well I can definitely say that I dont have too many performance issues and my 3570k is OC'ed to 4.3ghz at the moment. Sometimes it just feels like its lagging but I just realized that may be because its a tad unstable at 4.3 even though I used to OC it to 4.4, thanks for your input, definitely thinking I may spend this money on another system part.

 

Honestly, nothing needs upgraded. The GTX 770 will max out everything you throw at it for a bit. I would use it until it runs out.

OP, if you really feel the need to upgrade, even though it's not needed at all, then get the i7 4790k or the i5 4690k and an Asus Z97-A motherboard.

(I have never tested any of these parts, and can therefore never guarantee no faults.)

I should mention that I run a three monitor setup to help me with multitasking, doing code, doing stuff in blender, all that fun stuff. SO the Vram on that card can be pretty strapped at times whilst running all three. I'm not entirely sure if a core upgrade would help with that. Would a CPU upgrade help with tri monitor support?

[Scarymonkeys]

Well I can definitely say that I dont have too many performance issues and my 3570k is OC'ed to 4.3ghz at the moment. Sometimes it just feels like its lagging but I just realized that may be because its a tad unstable at 4.3 even though I used to OC it to 4.4, thanks for your input, definitely thinking I may spend this money on another system part.

 

I should mention that I run a three monitor setup to help me with multitasking, doing code, doing stuff in blender, all that fun stuff. SO the Vram on that card can be pretty strapped at times whilst running all three. I'm not entirely sure if a core upgrade would help with that. Would a CPU upgrade help with tri monitor support?

An SSD may help with that. I'm not too knowledgable on monitors, so I'll do some research before I answer.

[jakjakattack]

I should mention that I run a three monitor setup to help me with multitasking, doing code, doing stuff in blender, all that fun stuff. SO the Vram on that card can be pretty strapped at times whilst running all three. I'm not entirely sure if a core upgrade would help with that. Would a CPU upgrade help with tri monitor support?

 

With the cpu you have right now the benefits will be minimal, but with a new graphics card like the 970 you should notice a difference. Unless your gaming on all 3 of your monitors at the same time in a surround setup, then I would encourage a 970 upgrade as its faster and has more vram.

 

An SSD may help with that. I'm not too knowledgable on monitors, so I'll do some research before I answer.

 

An ssd wont help the vram problems, but it might help a little with the multitasking.