Upgrade time again!

[XanderJS]

Hi all,
I've managed to save up abit of spare cash so was looking at putting some of it back into my PC as I haven't really done anything to it in a few years.

My current setup is as follows

Mobo: GA-890FXA-UD7
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor, 3200 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 6 Logical Processor(s)
Ram 12gb
GPU: HD 7970 OC Windforce
SSD for windows, standard high RPM drives for storage.

I currently use this for gaming, recording and video editing but have been finding it to be pretty sluggish as of late. I play BF4, ESO, Titanfall and a heavily modded version of Skyrim mostly and I would like a system that can maintain good performance while gaming and recording aswell as being able to render high quality videos with After effects and Sony Vegas.

I think i'm ready to move away from AMD and into Intel CPU's and mobo's so these are the 2 components I'd like to upgrade.

I'm looking at a budget of £300-£400 but i'm obviously looking at the most value for money setup within that budget.

I've always had great success with the recommendations from everyone on these forums so I'm back again to heed your advice. I'd appreciate you recommendations.

Thanks in advance.
Xan

 

[dacads]

Hi Xan, I think a 4770k and Z97 motherboard would be the way to go Although I would wait till next month as two new CPUs are being released including the 4790k.

 

[EndlessWaves]

There's no point in spending extra on the i7-4770K unless you're interested in overclocking, the i7-4770 is identical except that it's not overclockable and cheaper. Z97 shouldn't be an automatic buy either, although I haven't really looked into what features it offers.

For gaming you generally don't see much benefit from anything faster than an i5, although and i7 may help during recording - especially if you encode on the fly. Hyperthreading should speed up rendering though.

Apart from the Socket 1150 option if you're not in any great hurry then we're due to see more Socket 2011 processors this year. The current model within your budget (i7-4820) is a rather a dud but we may well see six core processors move back down into your price range, either an entry level Haswell-E or discounts on the current i7-4930K.

Although we don't know whether Haswell-E will exclusively use DDR4, which could considerably push the price up initially.

 

[dacads]

4770k is only a bit more than the 4770 and considerably worth it, a cooler can easily be fitted into the OP's budget. With motherboard features these days it's not difficult at all to overclock. Of course it's not necessary to do it straight away but it can help offer better peformance. Again I don't see why you wouldn't go with a Z97 motherboard as it will support Broadwell CPUs.

 

[XanderJS]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses. My rigs usually last 2-3 years before I get the urge to upgrade again so do you thing it would be safer to wait for the 2011 sockets to become abit more affordable or would the 1150 option be okay for a few years?
I generally assume that I'll be replacing mobo and processor each time as sockets change so bloody often!
Basically some kind of future proofing over the next few years would be nice.

 

[pandemic]

What are you finding particularly sluggish? In terms of gaming the new CPU will considerably boost Skyrim frame rate due to it being very CPU intensive, but I would think it's the GPU that will be the bottleneck on most games. I'm not familiar with the video and rendering side of things, but I would expect that modern software does most of this using the graphics card.
I'm just wondering if you'd be better off buying a core i5, save the cash so down the line you can buy a better GPU. You can probably sell the AMD/motherboard for a few quid too.
I think some new core i5 just came out. The Intel Core i5-4690 looks likes it going to be pretty good buy for those who don't overclock, for single threaded performance I think it'll beat the Core i7 4770K. Which will be great for Skyrim, I'm waiting on the reviews for it.

 

[DrWang]

I think with the little difference between 4770 and 4770k you might as well go for the K version just for resale value alone if the choice was between the 2. I myself am looking to upgrade as well from an even older machine than you, the Z97 boards look very nice and not much of a difference in price from the 87's well the Asus ones at least anyway and seem pretty reasonable.