Opinions on upgrading from i7 870 (Lynnfield) to 4770k, or overclock.


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Hey everyone,

 

So I'm trying to figure out what kind of performance upgrade I want next. I just today ordered this RAM:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231585

 

Because my 4x 2gb mismatching sticks that I have are starting to fail. I actually bought this system from a previous owners, so I don't even know what kind of RAM is in there now, but hopefully the 2 sticks of DDR3-2400 will work a lot better.

 

Anyways, the rest of my current setup is:

 

Biostar TH55B-HD Motherboard

Intel i7 870 (Lynnfield)

Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 HSF (Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste)

Gigabyte Radeon 7950 Windforce 3gb 384-bit Video Card

1x 256GB 7200RPM HD + 1x 500gb 7200 RPM HD (not sure what brands)

Corsair 750W PSU

 

I currently have my CPU overclocked to 3.4ghz on stock voltage (155x22). I am getting max temps under Prime95 blend mode of 75C, and idle temps of 35C. I know the HSF is not the best I can get, but it's what came with the computer when I bought it from the previous owner.

 

I am contemplating an upgrade, but am not sure I actually need a LOT more CPU power to justify dropping $500+ on a new CPU/MB combo. I realize the i7 870 is a first generation i7 chip is a really old processor by now, but for 99% of the stuff I do it holds up just fine..except for emulation. I do some Gamecube/Wii emulation, and for certain Wii games the CPU is just a bottleneck. I have heard of people overclocking this particular CPU to 4.2-4.4Ghz, but don't think I have any room to do that since I am already getting load temps of 75C at 3.4ghz during load.

 

So my first question is, given my current HSF, would I see a huge cooling performance upgrade by investing in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo? Are there other, better coolers out that that might allow me to go to 4ghz+ without water cooling? And if I do decide to go water cooling, would a Corsair H80i be a good idea?

 

Alternatively, how much more of a performance boost would I see in processing power going from an overclocked i7 870 to a stock i7 4770k?

 

Lastly, one of my biggest gripes with my current system is the lack of features on the motherboard I have. Are there any <$150 LGA1156 motherboards that I can still buy that would offer good overclocking along with USB3 and SATA3-6gbps?

 

Thanks, any additional input/advice is always welcome!

 

 

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well to my knowledge the first gen i7 boards only came with 2 sata 6gb ports and cpl of usb 3's. youd have to upgrade to get more 6gb ports and usb 3's. also the main advantage over the first gen i processors from when sandybridge was released is that the memory controller was significantly faster. i got a 1366 (i think) triple channel MB, and the dual channel memory controller of the sandybridge blew it away. so going from a first gen i processor to a haswell will be quite a big boost tbh.

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Going from the I7 870 to a 4770K will feel like a world of change, your not likely to notice much difference in top FPS but it will increase the minimum making games feel a lot more responsive (not to mention the overall feel of your system).  And with a H80i installed you should easily get a 4.5GHz OC on the CPU if you choose.  I currently run a Corsair H60 on my 3770K at stock speeds which under max load (turbo at 3.9GHz) sits around 55c and is whisper quiet with the fan dialled down to around 60%.  + you get the advantages of the newer mother boards with the additional SATA3/USB3 ports etc.

 

You could also consider saving a little money on the CPU going for the I5-4670K, most games don't use the additional threads available in the 4770K.  I presume the emulators follow that pattern.  You could also sell the old CPU/MB on ebay to recoup some of the outlay on the new components.

 

A comparison between the 870 and 4770K (unfortunately not in games); http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/107?vs=836

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well to my knowledge the first gen i7 boards only came with 2 sata 6gb ports and cpl of usb 3's. youd have to upgrade to get more 6gb ports and usb 3's. also the main advantage over the first gen i processors from when sandybridge was released is that the memory controller was significantly faster. i got a 1366 (i think) triple channel MB, and the dual channel memory controller of the sandybridge blew it away. so going from a first gen i processor to a haswell will be quite a big boost tbh.

 

Thanks, and yah, from what I've seen, the higher-end LGA1156 motherboards at best come with 2 SATA/6gbs and a couple of USB3 ports. The worst part is they are still pretty pricey, if you can find one. Not very encouraging to make an investment and stick with old tech..

 

Going from the I7 870 to a 4770K will feel like a world of change, your not likely to notice much difference in top FPS but it will increase the minimum making games feel a lot more responsive (not to mention the overall feel of your system).  And with a H80i installed you should easily get a 4.5GHz OC on the CPU if you choose.  I currently run a Corsair H60 on my 3770K at stock speeds which under max load (turbo at 3.9GHz) sits around 55c and is whisper quiet with the fan dialled down to around 60%.  + you get the advantages of the newer mother boards with the additional SATA3/USB3 ports etc.

 

You could also consider saving a little money on the CPU going for the I5-4670K, most games don't use the additional threads available in the 4770K.  I presume the emulators follow that pattern.  You could also sell the old CPU/MB on ebay to recoup some of the outlay on the new components.

 

A comparison between the 870 and 4770K (unfortunately not in games); http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/107?vs=836

 

Thanks for the great feedback. I honestly thought I was at the point where any upgrade in CPU would show negligible performance in day-to-day activities, much less in gaming (since I figured the CPU wouldn't bottleneck the 7950). But your assessment of seeing an increase in the minimum FPS makes sense, since a faster CPU would better be able to compensate for any shortcomings of the GPU where FPS might dip (I'm assuming here..). But really, I am mostly worried about emulation performance, and that is highly cpu-intensive.

 

Here is what I am planning on:

 

Processor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CO8TBOW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157369

 

And eventually an upgrade to SSD. Seem like a solid upgrade from the 870?

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yeah looks good. unless the emulators support multithreading going to an i7 wont make any difference tbh which i doubt it. ive got a i7 950 and tried dolphin emulator and tried out cod: black ops and mario galaxies and ran on my system no problem so a haswell chip should be fine

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CPU looks good to me.  I've never used an ASRock motherboard but they do seem to be highly rated, another good option would be Asus.  Love my Asus V Gene, best board I have owned and it does look awesome.

 

Couple of reviews on the ASRock; http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z87_extreme4_review,1.html and http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ASRock-Z87-Extreme4-Motherboard/1788/1

 

My personal preference if I was going Haswell would be; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131989  A little more expensive but a very good board.  Review; http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_maximus_hero_vi_review,1.html

 

An SSD upgrade later would be a good option, it's hard to say how much of a difference it makes.  My home PC is a 3770K with 16GB RAM and an SSD, my work PC is also a 3770 with 32GB RAM and RAID0 both running Win8.  My home PC feels a lot quicker when going about normal day to day activities like simple web browsing checking emails etc.

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SSD for your windows install is prolly the best upgrade youll ever make cus its lightning fast. There pretty cheap now so you could pick up a 256GB ssd cheapish now. As soon as you hit the desktop you can launch whatever you want straight away whereas on mechanical after a while of usage used to take minutes to load to be able to use anything. SSD literally takes seconds. When looking at SSD's loko at the IOPS, the higher it is the faster itll operate

 

Its faster for games during load times but doesnt make any difference whilst your actually playing them

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Don't buy i7 for games. Buy it if you are wealthy and/or need more threads for video/audio/picture encoding/transforming at larger scale.

Stick with i5-4670K, buy MB with Z chipset, buy 8GB ram 1866CL9 (mayb be better or equal to 2400 because of latency and price), and finally - cash spared on CPU spend on SSD! I saw benchmarks, MSI Z87-43 is fastest. Asrock have cfosspeed OEM, legal version (http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm). Asrock also has (claim to have) "Purity Sound" - better, shielded audio chip (http://www.asrock.com/news/?cat=News&id=1263)

 

You guys in USA have quite different products on market, but here best SSDs are ADATA. Quite cheap, 0% RMA (I build >30 computers with them), fastest firmware propagation (5.0.7a or b or c), good speeds.

 

For starndard computer use i3+SSD is better than i7 w/o SSD. On Windows 8 computer boots <=10sec, when in online game, you wait for other players, because you have game already loaded ;)

 

If HDD, then wchich one? Best price/warranty time/quality IMO - WD RED 2 or 3 TB.

 

Cooling solution - best and most expensive is NOCTUNA NH-D14.

 

(Most?) H87 motherboards CAN overclock CPU, but none can use >1600MHz memory.

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