i7 upgrade considerations - is Quad Core enough?

[s4ndm4n2006]

Ok so in the next week I will be switching over to my first in years, Intel based system. After the overwhelming research showing that the Core family of Intel chips seem to run better and cooler than AMDs at this point, I am looking at builds on Newegg (probably bundled) to make the jump.

As it is, my system runs great with gaming and most of what I do and essentially I don't have any major problems. But that said my system does have limits. I have actually occasionally what I think is overheating with the gpu when I'm trying to do a lot. I like to stream my games, and stream to youtube, doing my artwork both using zbrush and Manga Studio 5. I can't recall exactly what I was doing at the time but IIRC I was trying to run Dragon Age Inquisition on Ultra settings which ran fine normally but I ran a mod that added a free cam and I was attempting to stream at the same time. I know, it's a lot to push a system and maybe I won't be able to build a system that will handle all of this, but I would like to raise the capabilities of my system.

I have narrowed down only that I want an i7 processor rather than an i5. I know that for gaming alone, an i5 would probably be sufficient from what I've read but that's where my question comes in. I was looking at the 4790k for a processor but came across the 5820k with 6 cores and I'm wondering, is it worth the extra cost or is a 4790k enough for what I do?

Planning on starting with 8 gb ram, but if it's feasible will go to 16gb for working on art and such.

Any suggestions, advice on good bundles (to keep the costs down) and brands? I have an MSI GTX 970 card that replaced the r9 already that is going into the new build (old one is being given to a friend). I am looking at an SSD for the OS. All advice would help a lot. Motherboards I am looking at are Asus & gigabyte as I've had good experiences with both.

Thanks and if I need to elaborate on this more please don't hesitate to ask Cost is a factor, looking at absolute max for build about $750.

 

[Witchdoctor]

to keep costs down z97 will be a better solution

Yes the 4790K is beastly 4ghz out of the box

For memory 8gb is plenty for gaming, you will need to make that determination depending on if the art software you use can utilze more than that

the 840 Evo is a solid cost effective SSD

As far as a board goes any decent board will do, cost effective the AsRock Ex 6 is solid

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

Thank you for the reply. And I'm positive more than 8 gb will help with what I do in the art software I use but it will work to start out with 8

I will look into the Asrock you mention but what are your opinions on say the Asus & Gigabyte boards? about the same as the ASRock? Is the ASRock just as good only more inexpensive or are there other reasons you recommend it?

I know nothing about SSDs up to this point so thank you about the Evo

 

[Theocnoob]

Thank you for the reply. And I'm positive more than 8 gb will help with what I do in the art software I use but it will work to start out with 8

I will look into the Asrock you mention but what are your opinions on say the Asus & Gigabyte boards? about the same as the ASRock? Is the ASRock just as good only more inexpensive or are there other reasons you recommend it?

I know nothing about SSDs up to this point so thank you about the Evo

ASRock Extreme 6 is the most feature packed motherboard in its price range. You can't beat it. You can get it for $145 right now. The featureset is unmatched for the price.
That may be outside your budget though if you only have $750. You didn't mention whether that $750 includes a copy of Windows, but at least it doesn't include a GPU, so let's see what we can do...
(runs off to PCPartpicker)
................
And I'm back.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/xxTV3C

Take a look at that. The Chip is a Xeon, which is essentially a locked i7. For an extra $70 or so you can get an i7 4790K with the ability to overclock it. Up to 4.4Ghz should be no problem (assuming you get a good chip) on the Hyper 212 (an extra 1GHZ versus the Xeon).
You also have the option to go with faster RAM, for a few bucks extra, but this shouldn't make much difference for what you're doing.

If you don't need Windows, the money saved there is enough to get you the i7 4790K. You could also cut back to a lower end 120GB SSD and shoulder some of the cost of the i7 that way. As it is though, the Xeon is a good deal on a good chip.

Other ways you could save money are going to a Hitachi Ultrastar hard drive, cutting the powersupply down to a Corsair CX500 or an EVGA 500B, removing the aftermarket CPU cooler. I would keep it though.

And if you want to double your budget and pimp the system out, you can get this

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/cgZj4D

(I posted the second link purely for entertainment purposes)

 

[Dlaw]

If you are a Newegg member, and get the promotional emails, check 'em now! The 4790K has a discount code valid until Monday. Are you buying this weekend?

Figures. I pulled the trigger last night, if I waited till today I would have had it. Oh well.

 

[jlnx]

Here's a build including that i7 you wanted that's close(ish) to your budget.

I'm assuming you already have hard drive. Also you should look into pulling the RAM from your old system, I don't know what it is but if it has DDR3 you can use it, that would keep you under your $750 mark. That or reusing the case or power supply or something from the old rig. Otherwise, it's tight to fit an i7, SSD, decent mobo, and case/ram/powersupply under $750 When the i7 takes a few bills under half of that already. That Xeon Theocnoob suggested is a good alternative if you must have i7 instead of i5. Once you overclock an i5 up to a GHz or more beyond what the Xeon is doing though, I'm not sure what the point of the added hyperthreading is, it can only do so small to such as large clock difference. Power savings would be better. That's about it.

 

[Theocnoob]

View attachment 159652

Here's a build including that i7 you wanted that's close(ish) to your budget.

I'm assuming you already have hard drive. Also you should look into pulling the RAM from your old system, I don't know what it is but if it has DDR3 you can use it, that would keep you under your $750 mark. That or reusing the case or power supply or something from the old rig. Otherwise, it's tight to fit an i7, SSD, decent mobo, and case/ram/powersupply under $750 When the i7 takes a few bills under half of that already. That Xeon Theocnoob suggested is a good alternative if you must have i7 instead of i5. Once you overclock an i5 up to a GHz or more beyond what the Xeon is doing though, I'm not sure what the point of the added hyperthreading is, it can only do so small to such as large clock difference. Power savings would be better. That's about it.

Refurb TX? TX are known for crapping out. A refurb TX would be a no no in my books. Rest of your suggestions I can get on board with.

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

Here's a build including that i7 you wanted that's close(ish) to your budget.

I'm assuming you already have hard drive. Also you should look into pulling the RAM from your old system, I don't know what it is but if it has DDR3 you can use it, that would keep you under your $750 mark. That or reusing the case or power supply or something from the old rig. Otherwise, it's tight to fit an i7, SSD, decent mobo, and case/ram/powersupply under $750 When the i7 takes a few bills under half of that already. That Xeon Theocnoob suggested is a good alternative if you must have i7 instead of i5. Once you overclock an i5 up to a GHz or more beyond what the Xeon is doing though, I'm not sure what the point of the added hyperthreading is, it can only do so small to such as large clock difference. Power savings would be better. That's about it.

On this build, it seems good except for the corsair. I've read a lot of issues related to Corsair and seen many advise against them. The problem is that I am going to give the system I have now to someone else. I am keeping the xfx 750w psu I have, Video card (MSI 970 GTX) and the hard drives, although the main drive I have is an older 5400 rpm drive... if I install the OS on the SSD that would help, is what I'm thinking. I do need a hard drive still, so I can give it to the other person with a drive for him to use. Thanks for this.

$750 is a ballpark figure. I'm sure I can go above that if I need to. I'm flexible, to a point. I will research more about ASRock for motherboards because I have not used them and have not read as much about them, so I need to feel confident in this purchase

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

No not this weekend, it will be next weekend actually but good idea to check the promos

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

ASRock Extreme 6 is the most feature packed motherboard in its price range. You can't beat it. You can get it for $145 right now. The featureset is unmatched for the price.
That may be outside your budget though if you only have $750. You didn't mention whether that $750 includes a copy of Windows, but at least it doesn't include a GPU, so let's see what we can do...
(runs off to PCPartpicker)
................
And I'm back.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/xxTV3C

Take a look at that. The Chip is a Xeon, which is essentially a locked i7. For an extra $70 or so you can get an i7 4790K with the ability to overclock it. Up to 4.4Ghz should be no problem (assuming you get a good chip) on the Hyper 212 (an extra 1GHZ versus the Xeon).
You also have the option to go with faster RAM, for a few bucks extra, but this shouldn't make much difference for what you're doing.

If you don't need Windows, the money saved there is enough to get you the i7 4790K. You could also cut back to a lower end 120GB SSD and shoulder some of the cost of the i7 that way. As it is though, the Xeon is a good deal on a good chip.

Other ways you could save money are going to a Hitachi Ultrastar hard drive, cutting the powersupply down to a Corsair CX500 or an EVGA 500B, removing the aftermarket CPU cooler. I would keep it though.

And if you want to double your budget and pimp the system out, you can get this

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/cgZj4D

(I posted the second link purely for entertainment purposes)

I like the second one aside from the 1tb SSD which I have no use for really. I don't want to put that many files on an SSD really just the OS, perhaps 3d Software if it helps and maybe the few games that might suffer from hard drive slowness. (not many really would be that affected by it, afaik) So I could shave off at least $200 by going with a smaller version of an ssd I suppose. HDD probably doesn't need to be Black edition. So could save there. The rest looks pretty awesome aside from not knowing enough about ASRock yet. But will look into it.

Thank you, this is very helpful.

 

[jlnx]

On this build, it seems good except for the corsair. I've read a lot of issues related to Corsair and seen many advise against them. The problem is that I am going to give the system I have now to someone else. I am keeping the xfx 750w psu I have, Video card (MSI 970 GTX) and the hard drives, although the main drive I have is an older 5400 rpm drive... if I install the OS on the SSD that would help, is what I'm thinking. I do need a hard drive still, so I can give it to the other person with a drive for him to use. Thanks for this.

$750 is a ballpark figure. I'm sure I can go above that if I need to. I'm flexible, to a point. I will research more about ASRock for motherboards because I have not used them and have not read as much about them, so I need to feel confident in this purchase

Well if you have a power supply then you're good to go! Funny, I always heard good things about Corsair, I hope quality control isn't going down

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

Well if you have a power supply then you're good to go! Funny, I always heard good things about Corsair, I hope quality control isn't going down

It's interesting at one point I thought I did too but last time I was looking up information on PSUs I found post after post of people really trashing Corsair brand for PSUs at least. I don't know if it's changed or something but just telling what I've found I like the Corsair H60 I have on my cpu right now keeps my 8350 nice and chilly.

Well again, I do need to get another PSU. I only have a spare Ultra LSP 750 that the XFX replaced and I did so in fear of all the bad reviews I read after the fact. (my old psu died and it was the only one I could find locally >.> ) But even so I think I will save those configurations and make more comparisons.

Thanks for all the advice, it gives me a better idea of options available.

 

[Theocnoob]

Corsair CX, TX, and RM power supplies like to die on people. A lot of their other PSUs are good. Their AX1500i is one of the most respected PSUs you can get. In the "you can actually afford this" bracket though, Seasonic and EVGA make better stuff.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

You can see here on Tom's Hardware, the Z97 Extreme 6 from ASRock is their highest ranked Z97 board. That should convince you.

 

[jlnx]

Corsair CX, TX, and RM power supplies like to die on people. A lot of their other PSUs are good. Their AX1500i is one of the most respected PSUs you can get. In the "you can actually afford this" bracket though, Seasonic and EVGA make better stuff.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

You can see here on Tom's Hardware, the Z97 Extreme 6 from ASRock is their highest ranked Z97 board. That should convince you.

Jeeze, when I was building my computer ~3 years ago if it was always the most recommended to me. Oh well

 

[Theocnoob]

Jeeze, when I was building my computer ~3 years ago if it was always the most recommended to me. Oh well

A lot of power supplies have died since 3 years ago .

 

[jlnx]

and yet my ULTRA power supply oddly keeps on, 24/7, year after year. Just luck sometimes I guess

 

[Theocnoob]

Here's one option with a case I put together. Don't build the second build I gave you in my earlier post. I forgot about the tall RAM conflict with the NHD14. It won't work. Sorry. Brain fart.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/ydM2FT
^This would be a very nice machine

If you don't need a powersupply or a case, here's something for $800 including the cost of Windows 8.1
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/gjvv6h

You get the overclockable i7, good heatsink, decent RAM, 16GB worth, 250GB quality SSD, highly rated motherboard with great sound.

What case will you be putting this system in?
How old is the powersupply you are going to re-use for this system?

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

Here's one option with a case I put together. Don't build the second build I gave you in my earlier post. I forgot about the tall RAM conflict with the NHD14. It won't work. Sorry. Brain fart.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/ydM2FT
^This would be a very nice machine

If you don't need a powersupply or a case, here's something for $800 including the cost of Windows 8.1
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/gjvv6h

You get the overclockable i7, good heatsink, decent RAM, 16GB worth, 250GB quality SSD, highly rated motherboard with great sound.

What case will you be putting this system in?
How old is the powersupply you are going to re-use for this system?

Well tbh I won't be buying windows 8.1. I'll stick with 7 until 10 comes out actually. I've passed on it all this time and with 10 right around the corner almost, why have 8 for a short time only to switch to the new one once again?

Well the psu I have is maybe 3 months old. It's new pretty much. I don't need to replace it, just need a PSU to put in the old system I am giving away. Looks like it was purchased on Dec. 5 so just over 2 months actually. this is the psu: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045L4BJ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

haven't decided on a case if I go this route. i do like the existing one Rosewill Armour. It has good airflow looks relatively nice.

i think although i could go over 750, 1200, is probably pushing it for my budget... but I can tweak that a bit to figure out within the right amount. Like 16 gb will be great for the 3d work I do but not totally critical. 8 would suffice. I'm gonna play with the parts picker and see what I can do with that. thanks. I'll post what I find here too to bounce it off you all.

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

and yet my ULTRA power supply oddly keeps on, 24/7, year after year. Just luck sometimes I guess

I believe that, but I just didnt' want to take the chance after seeing what I read about it. Mine didn't fail. I just replaced it with a new one right away.

 

[s4ndm4n2006]

Corsair CX, TX, and RM power supplies like to die on people. A lot of their other PSUs are good. Their AX1500i is one of the most respected PSUs you can get. In the "you can actually afford this" bracket though, Seasonic and EVGA make better stuff.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

You can see here on Tom's Hardware, the Z97 Extreme 6 from ASRock is their highest ranked Z97 board. That should convince you.

Thanks I see that now.