Upgrade on an i7-3770k machine

[dannyslag]

Hi there, i've seen a lot of good advice around these forums, so figured i'd join to get some advice on my next upgrade. Over the past few years i've upgrades pieces here and there until my mobo and processor are the only old hardware in it, but from initial looking around, it almost sounds like there's been practically no advancement in processors and mine is better than most new ones I could buy, or at best is only a side-grade. But I am wanting a new mobo because it would be nice to have faster lan, some m.2 slots, and possibly faster ram. I'm not sure if there even are more up to date mobos for this socket, so that's my first major question, or if i'm stuck getting a new processor in order to get a more up to date mobo.

Here's what I'm running right now,

i7-3770k (OCed to 4.1GHZ)
MSI Z77 Extreme 4 Mobo
16 GB corsair vengance 1600 DDR 3
2 samsung 850 evo SSDs (250gb and 500gb)
MSI R9 290x gaming 4gb (OCed to 1080mhz) (will be replaced with a 580 if/when the damn bitcoin miners and price gougers stop destroying the prices on them. Were $219 when i first looked, now $700)

1. is there a newer mobo out there with this cpu socket?

2. RAM. I swore that board and chip could only run ddr 3 1600, but now i'm seeing listed DDR3 2800+(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066, would this be a wortwhile upgrade. (i'm not very knowledgable on ram being more of a dabbler than a hardcore builder)

3. Is the RAM speed i'd have access to if i upgraded to a newer cpu/mobo worth a newer processor that is going to probably perform about the same as the current

4. If this was your system what would you upgrade? (other than the obvious GPU that i have to wait for prices to normalize on)

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Like I said i'm a dabbler so not nearly as knowledgeable as most of the folks around here, every time i upgrade i feel like I have to relearn everything about hardware.

 

[Daleon]

Yeah I had the same issue. I really wanted new DDR4 ram, M2 NVMe, and newer MB features. I was also just tired of waiting to buy new parts. Always something new 6+ months down the line.

For gaming, especially anything over 1080p@60hz you likely won't see much improvement since your not really CPU bound and even low-midrange cpu's like a R5 1600X can pretty much max a GPU at high settings these days. If doing workstation type work there can be quite a bit of improvement.

Not really anything you can do with your MB.
Not worth buying faster DDR3 at this point.

I would keep your cpu\mb for now and look towards either monitor or gpu. Is there a reason you want to stick to AMD gpu? Could wait for Vega if there is. Consider selling your 290x now while you can get a good price for it then buy something nice.
Can always invest in stuff like case, cooler, fans, etc ahead of time.

 

[dannyslag]

Yeah I had the same issue. I really wanted new DDR4 ram, M2 NVMe, and newer MB features. I was also just tired of waiting to buy new parts. Always something new 6+ months down the line.

For gaming, especially anything over 1080p@60hz you likely won't see much improvement since your not really CPU bound and even low-midrange cpu's like a R5 1600X can pretty much max a GPU at high settings these days. If doing workstation type work there can be quite a bit of improvement.

Not really anything you can do with your MB.
Not worth buying faster DDR3 at this point.

I would keep your cpu\mb for now and look towards either monitor or gpu. Is there a reason you want to stick to AMD gpu? Could wait for Vega if there is. Consider selling your 290x now while you can get a good price for it then buy something nice.
Can always invest in stuff like case, cooler, fans, etc ahead of time.

Thank you,
Isn't it an odd problem to have, "my computer is too good to be worth upgrading!" lol

I already have 4k 144hz monitor, though I only game at 1440 because in my opinion 4k gaming is only worth it if you've got a 1080ti, anything less and i prefer smooth 1440 to choppy 4k.
I'm planning on getting a GPU, rx 580, once I can find one that isn't being price gouged, then if/when vega ever actually happens i'll eventually get that, but i usually stick to one generation back because the price to performance ratio seems to be way better than always getting the most new hardware release. Though even that is only a marginal upgrade from my r9 290, mostly i'll be getting twice the V-ram from it.

I would jump on a 1060 or 1080 if my monitor wasn't freesync, that locks me into amd GPUs unless i want to give up that feature.

Sounds like the old 3770k is going to be sticking with me for a bit longer.

 

[trents]

Did you mean to say, "MSI Z77 Extreme 4 mobo" or "ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 mobo"? The Extreme series is an ASRock moniker.

Your CPU is very relevant still but I'm wondering why you don't have it overclocked higher. Is the board holding you back? Is cooling holding you back? You don't mention how you are cooling the CPU. And many people were delidding the IB i5 and i7 CPUs because of how the poor quality TIM Intel used under the lid was making them run so hot.

My recommendation would be to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your CPU you can through higher overclocking which might require better cooling and even delidding. Don't spend more money on old technology by buying another motherboard unless the one you have is failing.

Also, do some testing and determine whether or not the CPU is the bottleneck or the GPU is. I'm assuming you are talking about wanting to improve gaming performance but you don't really specify. The newer generation CPUs and DDR4 will not give you much real world performance increase. It would be marginal.

 

[dannyslag]

Did you mean to say, "MSI Z77 Extreme 4 mobo" or "ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 mobo"? The Extreme series is an ASRock moniker.

Your CPU is very relevant still but I'm wondering why you don't have it overclocked higher. Is the board holding you back? Is cooling holding you back? You don't mention how you are cooling the CPU. And many people were delidding the IB i5 and i7 CPUs because of how the poor quality TIM Intel used under the lid was making them run so hot.

My recommendation would be to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your CPU you can through higher overclocking which might require better cooling and even delidding. Don't spend more money on old technology by buying another motherboard unless the one you have is failing.

Also, do some testing and determine whether or not the CPU is the bottleneck or the GPU is. I'm assuming you are talking about wanting to improve gaming performance but you don't really specify. The newer generation CPUs and DDR4 will not give you much real world performance increase. It would be marginal.

yeah sorry, good catch, it is an asrock z77 extreme4.
The application is gaming, and nerd D measuring contest too if i'm honest.

I had trouble getting it to OC further without uncomfortable temps, like over 95 degrees. I rebuilt it in a new case with better air flow and much better cable management to keep the air flow clear, and i'm cooling it with a coolmaster evo 212. It is odd though, i've seen people regularly hitting 4.6Ghz and sometimes even higher on just fan cooling, but mine spikes in temp at anything over 4.1Ghz.

I think i'll looking into this de-lidding? that's not something i've ever heard of, but a quick google showed a bunch of how to videos, so thank you for pointing me in that direction. I'm wondering if that's why my overclock results are so middling.

 

[trents]

Overclocking can be temp limited or voltage limited. If you're overclocking level is already limited by voltage then cooling the CPU down won't allow you a higher overclock. If, however your core voltage is modest and temps are getting in the way then delidding and using liquid metial TIM under the lid typically will shave off 10-18c. What kind of vcore are you running?

 

[Pinky]

I'm in the same boat, my processor (i7 4770) is still good enough. Like Trents has said, conservative OC'ing is really the best course until you actually need to replace everything because it stops doing what you need it to.

 

[trents]

dannyslag, when you overclocked your CPU, did you use the auto overclock wizard in bios or did you employ individual manual settings?

It would be helpful in helping you if you would download and install CPU-z and then attach pics of these three tabs: "CPU," "Memory" and "SPD". That would give us an idea of what your CPU core voltage is currently set to as well as some other valuable information about your memory. Use the "Go Advanced" button at the lower right hand corner of any new post window to attach pics. You can use Windows Snipping Tool to crop and save the images first.

 

[wingman99]

You should be able to overclock higher with a Hyper 212. With my i5 2500k I could overclock to 4.5GHz with Hyper 212 I have now.

 

[Mjolnir]

The 2500k is a very different cpu to a 3770k heat machine. I'd expect a solid 4.2ghz - 4.4ghz on a 212 evo for this CPU, but any higher I would personally have a beefier cooler.

OP, your CPU is fine TBH, so I would consider perhaps a new/better CPU cooler, get some more life out of that platform, and then move the new CPU cooler over when you do upgrade in 1-2 years or whenever that is. I think a 4.5ghz+ 3770k would keep up with today's CPU's no problems for gaming, especially at higher res where the CPU matters far less.

I personally would not upgrade from a 290X to a R9 580. The jump really isn't there IMO. The 290X aged well. An upgrade would, at this point, be a GTX 1070 or higher on the green team, or perhaps wait for Vega.

 

[dannyslag]

dannyslag, when you overclocked your CPU, did you use the auto overclock wizard in bios or did you employ individual manual settings?

It would be helpful in helping you if you would download and install CPU-z and then attach pics of these three tabs: "CPU," "Memory" and "SPD". That would give us an idea of what your CPU core voltage is currently set to as well as some other valuable information about your memory. Use the "Go Advanced" button at the lower right hand corner of any new post window to attach pics. You can use Windows Snipping Tool to crop and save the images first.

Awesome thank you, I will try that tonight when I get home. I manually overclocked, followed a few guides I found online specific to z77 boards and 3770k processors. My main reason for stopping at 4.0 is because my CPU was running insanely hot when doing a prime 95 stress test, we're talking 100 degrees C if i went above 4.0 GHz. I'll get some actual numbers and pictures late tonight.

- - - Updated - - -

The 2500k is a very different cpu to a 3770k heat machine. I'd expect a solid 4.2ghz - 4.4ghz on a 212 evo for this CPU, but any higher I would personally have a beefier cooler.

OP, your CPU is fine TBH, so I would consider perhaps a new/better CPU cooler, get some more life out of that platform, and then move the new CPU cooler over when you do upgrade in 1-2 years or whenever that is. I think a 4.5ghz+ 3770k would keep up with today's CPU's no problems for gaming, especially at higher res where the CPU matters far less.

I personally would not upgrade from a 290X to a R9 580. The jump really isn't there IMO. The 290X aged well. An upgrade would, at this point, be a GTX 1070 or higher on the green team, or perhaps wait for Vega.

Oops, found 1 580 in the backroom of a microcenter that hadn't been marked up and snagged it. I've been waiting for vega for a year and honestly at this point feel like it'll be another 487 years until it actually comes out. lol


I think you guys are totally right though that my processor would be a waste to upgrade. So I'm going to see about overclocking it further, hopefully with the advice from this forum I can bump it up.

 

[Nebulous]

Nothing wrong with overclocking that 3770K to 4.5-4.7Ghz. Z77 boards are pretty much EOL, but still a formidable socket. No upgrade in that socket.

 

[dannyslag]

@trents,
Thank you for offering to look at what i've got goinng on here. I snagged a screenshot of the pieces you suggested here, this is while under load with intel's burn test. Temps are a slight bit lower than what I get with Prime95, but i've heard prime95 can give oddly high temps. That 93 degrees is what gave me pause to go any higher though. Browsing around, I kept reading posts from people talking about how with an evo 212 they max out at 60-70 degrees, even getting concerned with anything over 70 at full load with 4.5GHz overclock. So mine seems insanely high in comparison.

 

[wingman99]

I would check your cooler mount. That is very high for 4.0gHz and Hyper 212.

 

[trents]

I would also try lowering the vcore. You're pulling 1.32 at 4.0 ghz. Do you actually need that much vcore to keep it stable at that low level overclock? I would try 1.25 to start with.