I don't upgrade very often. I always used to buy the best motherboard of the latest generation, then slap the cheapest compatible processor in there to allow me to spread the budget for everything else. The idea was, when the last processor for that socket went EOL, I could get a bargain and stave off a motherboard upgrade for another couple of years. Does/did anybody else do this? I now find myself in the situation where Ivy Bridge seems to have gone EOL whilst I've been in Italy working a ski season and my Z77 board (with a Sandy Bridge pentium in it) will be obsolete any minute now. Scan have 1 i3 and 1 i5 left in stock in 1155. I can't afford £180 odd for an upgrade as I'm still in Italy and will remain until April, but when I get back to the UK, I want to play Elite Dangerous and generally get back into gaming a bit. Also, I'm worried that if I don't upgrade now, when I'm forced to due to performance or when I want to game - I'll have to buy a motherboard as well. Should I order the £86 i3 3240 whilst it's still in stock and just leave it in the UK in the box until April, or am I better waiting and upgrading the motherboard as well over the summer?
IMO "obsolete" doesn't exist as far as hardware is concerned - hardware has a purpose, and if it serves that purpose then it's worth using, even if it's not considered "current". My upgrade cycle is riskier but a lot cheaper: I always buy preowned stuff, and if I find something I like I generally keep it for a long time (I was on socket 775 for 4 years, and now socket 1366 for 5 years and counting). My advice would be to consider getting something second hand. Something like an i5 2500 would be perfect for gaming, and not too expensive on ebay, under £100.
Honestly if it were me I'd spend my £86 on a second hand 3570K, you can overclock it since you're already using a Z77 board. I don't know what GPU you're running but spend the rest of your budget on bringing that up to scratch if you need to.
Interesting thoughts guys, thanks. I'm currently running a passive 5000 series for HTPC duties and silence. It plays Far Cry 1, Ground Control II and the original GRAW really well Will definitely need to do something there. Looking to play Elite Dangerous if poss. Running a 24" Dell IPS from 2 years ago @1920x1080.
Likelihood is the marketplace will be filling up with ivy bridge rigs in summer as people move over to I believe skylake and ddr4 becomes more common so waiting a couple of months after you're back might be worth it.
must say I don't get the point.... last year went from i3 3225 to G3420 on an Asus H81 and performance was almost equal... with G3258 overclocked on the same £40 MB I'm sure it would be much faster... all that at the same price of an used K series Ivy Bridge
