Help! Finding a new CPU

[lars4909]

I have a "ASUS P6T SE" motherboard with a "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80GHz 2.80GHz" and 6,00 GB of RAM which i have long waited to upgrade with something better to mach my Geforce GTX 970 graphics card, however finding a new CPU is what troubles me, i honestly don't know how to find one that would fit my needs.

 

I need a better CPU because i find that it, and the amount of RAM i have cant keep up with the games i am playing.

 

When i go out looking for upgrades to my PC i try to find parts which is better than average like the GTX 970 graphics card is so that years has to pass before i have to go and look for new parts, however i don't want to buy overkill parts as i probably wont need their extra capabilities.

 

I have seen Linus "CPU Shopping Tips as Fast As Possible" and that is what brought me here to this forum to ask: Can you please help me find a suitable CPU

If you need more information or the information in my post is inadequate then please tell me because it is the one of the first posts i am making.

[Mr.Meerkat]

How much power do you want? 

I mean the 930 when overclocked isn't that bad...

[minibois]

Is your PC primarily/only for playing games or do you also do stuff like streaming, recording, video or photo editing, 3D modeling, etc. etc.? Also, would you overclock or not?

If you're only going to game, an i5 CPU would be just fine, since most games still don't use more than 4 cores. If you're going to do streaming while gaming, the streaming tool will also use some more cores and an i7 might be very helpful

 

It really just depends on what you are going to do. If you're gonna overclock, a CPU and motherboard that can OC might help you, if not just go for a cheaper locked CPU and motherboard with the features you want.

Speaking of the motherboard, do you want mATX? ATX? etc. How many hard drives, SSD's, DVD players, etc. will you connect? And do you want to be able to use M.2 SSD's?

 

Current i5's are way better in single core performance than your i7, but they 'only' have 4 threads and if you do content creation work, so that might make it more of a 'sidegrade'.

[dizmo]

I'd try and find a newer board/CPU combo on sale on Reddit. You could find a great deal.

[Herman Mcpootis]

i'd say try to look for one of those 6-core xeons on ebay for cheap and overclock it, should be less than $100 in price. then add in 2x4gb ddr3 ram.

[Morgan MLGman]

I'd wait a month or two until AMD's Ryzen CPUs release, then either get this or hope for a price dop for their Intel counterparts.

[lars4909]

My PC is primarily for playing games but i do also use it for different things like recording, video or photo editing and 3D modeling, although at the moment that is quite rare.

 

I have no experience with overclocking

 

I believe that i will be capable of finding a new motherboard and new Ram on my own, i just wanted to find the CPU first as it will be easier to find a motherboard that supports that CPU and lastly find the RAM.

 

One more question, am i to understand that if i want a CPU that can be used for what i do, then do i need an i7 as the current i5's doesn't have more than 4 threads?

Edited January 23, 2017 by lars4909

[lars4909]

I have done a bit of research and found out that the new games seem to be needing a minimum of 3.20 GHz and recommend having 3.60 GHz

[Sreno1]

39 minutes ago, lars4909 said:

I have done a bit of research and found out that the new games seem to be needing a minimum of 3.20 GHz and recommend having 3.60 GHz

Clock speed isn't everything, what's more important is number of cores and IPC. 

[lars4909]

Is buying a Intel Core i7-7700K overkill?