I am wanting to upgrade my CPU and wondering if I could get some input from you more knowledgeable ones to let me know if it would be necessary to upgrade all the other aspects on my PC.

Thinking of (or wanting) the i7 3770K.  Can I just swap this out with my existing motherboard, cooling system and GPU?  Or, do I have to upgrade everything else to benefit?

Here are my current specs.

 

INTEL I7-960 QC 3.2 8M

Gigabyte X58-UD3R SKT1366 INTEL X58+

EVGA GTXX480 1536MB
INTEL X250M 160G GEN2
VELOCIRAPTOR SATA II 10000RPM 600G
THERMALTAKE TRX 1000M MODULAR PSU
1TB CAVIAR SATA 6 GB/S
12G 6GB KIT 3X2GB 1333MHZ DDR3 (WHAT EVER THIS MEANS?)
MS WINDOWS 7 PRO 64 BIT
COOLMASTER CASE

 

I welcome your thoughts on an upgrade.  Or even if I can do it gradually.  One piece at a time...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

David Bell

Considering your at 3.2ghz i would honestly highly recommend the upgrade. Your ram is great, gpu is good, (480gtx the last two numbers really matter, 70's and 80's are good nvidia gpus for fsx) and i think you would see a nice boost since you don't seem to have any other bottlenecks. Ideally for fsx 4.5 ghz is great and i've heard 5.2 is achievable so i would go for it. Make sure you get a 3770k, not 3770 that is crucial to overclocking well and buy at least a hyper 212 $30 cooler to replace stock with it.

 

Oops!!! I just noticed the board you have is a socket 1366. Unfortunatly you will have to upgrade to a new board also. I use a asrock z77 extreme4 but the i7 3770k is a socket 1155 so your motherboard is not compatible with the newer cpu.

Thank you very much for your advice.  Are you saying that a cooler would only cost me $30.00??

The cooler master hypo evo costs 30 dollars, and is considered the all time best budget cooler. If you want to spend more, you could get a better cooler.

You would need new Memory with that new CPU and Motherboard as well. Budget about $100 for that as well

Wow i didn't catch the memory either.. Your looking at probably $229 for a i7 3770k, asrock z77 extreme4 ran me $97, hyper212 like he said is a great cooler. I am using it, good temps and im overclocked on a i5 3570k to 4.3 ghz.

I'm no expert but I have just built a new system but decided against the i7 3770K. When I bought my old system I bought an i7 860 CPU thinking that it was better then the I5, only to discover that no games, including FSX, make use of the extra ability of the hyperthreading. So when I overclocked it I turned off the hyperthreading effectively making it an i5 chip.

 

My new system is an i5 3570K chip but to be honest I wish I went with the i5 2500K because it overclocks further at lower temps.

 

Also I read an article in a magazine where they tested different memory sizes to see if more memory was better and found the sweet spot to be 8GB. They found no benefit in going higher then this because of the way that the memory is handled.

 

I would suggest that you buy the cheaper CPU and less memory and with the money you save go for a better GPU.

 

Whichever CPU you decide on you will need a new motherboard because the board you have now is 1366 and you will need a 1155 board. Although I would shy away from the new Gigabyte boards as they seem to have gone down in quality.

 

Then buy a new case and new power supply and sell your old PC complete to recoup your cost.

Yeah i didn't see the point in paying te extra $50 for an i7 when the i5 3570k is so overclockable. I didnt know about the 2500k good information. Im happy at my 4.3ghz, my next buy will be a new gpu, hoping maybe a 670-680

Awesome.  Thanks so much guys.  I appreciate all your input.

You should wait a month for Haswell to come out.  Kind of silly to be buying chips 30 days before the launch of the next generation IMHO...

You should wait a month for Haswell to come out.  Kind of silly to be buying chips 30 days before the launch of the next generation IMHO...

 

I agree, the Hasswell and the Z87 boards are set for a June release.

The cooler master hypo evo costs 30 dollars, and is considered the all time best budget cooler. If you want to spend more, you could get a better cooler.

I have the CM Hyper 212 EVO and would highly recommend it. Has outperformed another aftermarket cooler I have costing 3X as much. Its recommended to have 2 heatsink fans in a push-pull arrangement. The 212 EVO only comes with 1.

Like Adam said thats another good point on the 212 cooler, buy the extra fan and clip it to the other side. I still only have one, i need to get the second still. The only thing i see in regards to the next chip coming out is how deep are your pockets. Anyone remember the price of the i7's when they first came out?! lol

Like Adam said thats another good point on the 212 cooler, buy the extra fan and clip it to the other side. I still only have one, i need to get the second still. The only thing i see in regards to the next chip coming out is how deep are your pockets. Anyone remember the price of the i7's when they first came out?! lol

 

The pricing of the 4th generation Core series has already been leaked and it is identical to the current 3rd generation products.  

Hey guys! what are your opinion 'bout an i5 3570k versus an i7 3570k ?

Would like to hear it