1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Build Advice Should i ditch the trusty Q6600 and go for haswell/broadwell or wait for next gen?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by mstrchf, 5 May 2015.

  1. mstrchf

    mstrchf What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Apr 2008
    Posts:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    As the title, i'm thinking of upgrading to a Z97 Haswell/broadwell rig but unsure if its worth waiting another year or so.

    My budget is £400-600.

    Would like a new system to last me 5 years or so, with a decent upgrade path for cpu, graphics card and ram and Windows 10 Directx 12.

    I am re-using power supply and drives form my current rig detailed in my signature.

    The one upgrade i'm sure of is getting a Fractal R5.

    Current rig runs all recent games I've played for example - Alien Isolation, Elite Dangerous and Metalgear Revengeance. All run nicely at medium/high settings without running benchmarks i'd guess 45-60fps @1080p.

    Future games i would like to play are mostly all Direct X 11 games i.e. Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight.

    Option 1 - Upgrading the Ram and Graphics card.
    8gb ddr2 (£60 ebay) and getting a R9 280x (£170) , Fractal R5 (£80). Total - £310


    Option 2 - Upgrade to a Z97 with overclocked G3258 and upgrading to a i5 K Broadwell when released.

    CPU..................Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor.............£50.88
    Motherboard....Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard............£107.01
    Memory............Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400.............£61.44
    Video Card ......MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card..........£169.55
    Case................Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case.........£80.45
    ......................................................................................................Total: £469.33


    Option 3 - Upgrade to
    Same as above with an i5-4690K instead for £184.66 Total £603.11

    1. Will the overclocked G3258 outperform an oveclocked Q6600 in all aspects ? Should i just wait til Broadwell chips are released?

    2. If i go with option 1, will the q6600 bottle neck the 280x?

    3. Is now a bad time to buy a mid range gpu seeing as there are announcements happening next month at computex? Will it mainly concern the high end gear and not effect mid range prices?

    Cheers
     
    Last edited: 5 May 2015
  2. Plastic_Manc

    Plastic_Manc Minimodder

    Joined:
    25 Apr 2009
    Posts:
    336
    Likes Received:
    30
    I'm certainly not the best to advise on hardware but went from a very similar system a couple of months back so can relate. The hardest bit was getting rid of that lovely RAM (I had the 4x2GB kit).

    I did it in two drops, first replacing the CPU, motherboard and RAM whilst keeping my GTX 460. It largely came down to the fact that I couldn't maintain the overclock I had on the E6400 so was going backwards. Then came the 970 and to be honest, that felt like the bigger upgrade, making the rest seem like it was merely facilitating the gfx card.

    I don't plan to upgrade the main chipset for a few years so leapt for the best I could afford at the time with the i7. So in short, I'm saying it might be best to stagger your upgrade to get the best CPU you can afford now as you'll most likely go through 3 or so GPU's in the time the cpu stays in your build.
     
  3. javaman

    javaman May irritate Eyes

    Joined:
    10 May 2009
    Posts:
    3,984
    Likes Received:
    186
    intel pentium isn't great for games. Anandtech had a thread on witcher 3 struggling on anything less than core i3.
    I wouldn't spend any money on ddr2 memory. Its a complete dead end.
    Assuming your sig is correct I would look at doing a rolling upgrade by replacing the motherboard memory and processor now and as money becomes available then upgrading the GPU and replacing hard disks. I would also look at replacing the PSU. The urgency of the GPU upgrade is entirely up to you but it might be worth holding off till AMD release their new GPU's.
     
  4. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

    Joined:
    3 May 2012
    Posts:
    5,284
    Likes Received:
    183
    Any i5 or i7 will do from Haswell broadwell devils canyon or skylake. It just doesn't matter that much for gaming. I wouldn't bother going with an interim cpu. Either wait for some new CPU's to land in the summer or upgrade now.
     
  5. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

    Joined:
    3 May 2012
    Posts:
    5,284
    Likes Received:
    183
    Bloody tapatalk
     
  6. silk186

    silk186 Derp

    Joined:
    1 Dec 2014
    Posts:
    1,935
    Likes Received:
    150
    It woudn't make a lot of sense to move from a quad to a dual core. You can also look at the second hand market and get more bang for your buck.
     
  7. mstrchf

    mstrchf What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Apr 2008
    Posts:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    double post
     
    Last edited: 6 May 2015
  8. mstrchf

    mstrchf What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Apr 2008
    Posts:
    49
    Likes Received:
    0
    Hey guys, thanks for the reply's.

    The general consensus is, don't bother with the g3258. I had watched a few comparison videos from this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27UaEq7jyMQ and it looked competent so thought it might suffice for a while.

    I guess i5 k series is the way to go, £185 for a cpu makes me cringe though. Having to pay the intel premium to be able to overclock sucks.

    Plastic_Manc - Nice to hear from someone with a similar rig. Thats kinda what i had in mind, originally this rig was windows xp e4400 core2duo with 2gb and a BFG 6800 GT. Gradually upgraded to 8800gt then q6600, hd 6850, 4gb and windows 7 64.
    I was hoping one more graphics upgrade would be ok but the bottleneck seems too large now unless i get something cheaper than the 280x but still significantly better than the 6850.
    Know what you mean about the Reaper, very pretty! How do you like your Asus Ranger mobo? Its £20 more than the pro gamer, reckon its worth it?

    javaman - Yeah, i looked at benchmarks of GTA V this evening and it was the same story of inconsistent fps.
    I know ddr2 is a dead end, but you can buy and sell it second hand on ebay for reasonable prices. The requirements for witcher and arkham are 6gb minimum, 8gb recommended so i thought it would help eliminate another weakness.
    As for the drives and psu, i think they're OK. I've only had the 850 evo since Jan as a windows/boot drive. The F3 is fine for game and file storage, game load times don't bother me. The psu may be low wattage but its a decent enough single rail unit, i'm not going to be running more than one gpu so it'll do the job, had it 2-3 years and its been great so far (touch wood).

    theshadow2001 - Its not long to wait so i think i might do that and keep a close eye on i5-4690K prices which will presumably drop when its successor is released.

    silk186 - Yeah, i've been watching alot of stuff on ebay. In the last few days i've seen r9 280 and 280x go for between £90-130 so that might be an option or something lesser as i mentioned above. Not very many i5-4690K going for good prices but i guess that'll change in the summer.
    Are you pleased with your 280x?
     
    Last edited: 6 May 2015
  9. Plastic_Manc

    Plastic_Manc Minimodder

    Joined:
    25 Apr 2009
    Posts:
    336
    Likes Received:
    30
    The Ranger is a very nice board although I haven't overclocked the CPU yet so couldn't really comment in that regard. I chose it due to a nice price point and the great experience I'd had with my previous Asus motherboard which was the Rampage Formula (775).
     
  10. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

    Joined:
    20 May 2008
    Posts:
    2,909
    Likes Received:
    50
    As stated any cpu from the last few cycles will do you. Maybe look for a second hand 2500/2600k bundles. Graphics wise a 970 will last you years at 1080p, maybe a better investment than a mid range GPU that you'll be upgrading in a year.
     
  11. mrbungle

    mrbungle Undercooked chicken giver

    Joined:
    20 Sep 2004
    Posts:
    5,307
    Likes Received:
    165
    Id wait.

    HAswell is a nice platform but most of the chips are so stupidly hot.

    Maybe a cheap SB or IB would be a good move.
     
  12. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

    Joined:
    20 May 2008
    Posts:
    2,909
    Likes Received:
    50
    True. You could always buy the card, deal with the bottleneck for now and upgrade when the new gear comes out.
     
  13. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2011
    Posts:
    7,653
    Likes Received:
    3,909
    I'd get a 970 and case new, leaving you about 240. You should be able to pick up a mobo cpu and ram bundle second hand easily. Either a i5 2500k or 3570k would do you very well and should last you a long while.

    EDIT: Here's one for 250 or best offer. Might be able to get 20-30 knocked off
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171767149107?redirect=mobile
     
    Last edited: 6 May 2015
  14. TheMadDutchDude

    TheMadDutchDude The Flying Dutchman

    Joined:
    23 Aug 2013
    Posts:
    4,739
    Likes Received:
    523
    That bundle is expensive. It shouldn't be more than £170 in my mind.

    I'd also stagger the upgrade.

    Haswell running stupidly hot is not always the case. My chip happily runs at 4.6 on a good air cooler and doesn't suffer thermal issues. It's not delidded either. You get lucky, or you don't. It really is that simple. Broadwell is due very soon so I'd hold off for that. Thermals should be better and it will perform a little better too.

    I'm with the others too; don't get a 3258 and upgrade. It will just cost you more in the long run.
     
  15. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

    Joined:
    23 Apr 2009
    Posts:
    7,666
    Likes Received:
    208
    My i3 4160 with new mobo and double the RAM is no slower than my old OC'd Q6600, in games I think I've got a bit of improvement and I think benchies showed some improvement too, I'll get the numbers out later.

    Best thing is the system is more up to date, with better future options (SLI, potential upgrade to i7, SATA3 etc).


    3DMark Firestrike Performance:

    Q6600 @ Stock : 4243
    i3 4160 @ Stock : 4523
    Q6600 @ 3.2GHz : 4597

    Q6600 had 4GiB RAM and i3 has 8GiB.
    Same graphics across both tests.


    Real-world performance is better than the benchmarks would indicate though IMO, games seem to be running better/smoother, and I've been able to up the settings on some and still retain a decent FPS. An i5 k series I would presume would give an even bigger advantage over the Q6600.
     
    Last edited: 6 May 2015
  16. silk186

    silk186 Derp

    Joined:
    1 Dec 2014
    Posts:
    1,935
    Likes Received:
    150
    I'm happy with the performance of my 280x at 1080p and I'm glad it has 3GB of memory. I would peronally wait for Skylake and 380x to release and see how prices are.
     
  17. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

    Joined:
    20 May 2008
    Posts:
    2,909
    Likes Received:
    50
    In short, you have plenty of options sir!
     
  18. Digerati

    Digerati Minimodder

    Joined:
    19 Feb 2011
    Posts:
    265
    Likes Received:
    4
    Something better will ALWAYS be another year or so out. So why wait? You will be waiting forever.

    If you are unhappy with what you have now, buy now.

    If you are happy, wait.
     
  19. jinq-sea

    jinq-sea 'write that down in your copy book' Super Moderator

    Joined:
    15 Oct 2012
    Posts:
    8,823
    Likes Received:
    721

    Whilst this is true to a point, we are very near launch of something new, so that's not especially helpful advice, is it?
     
  20. Digerati

    Digerati Minimodder

    Joined:
    19 Feb 2011
    Posts:
    265
    Likes Received:
    4
    Why not?

    If someone comes to you seeking advice and they are happy with what they have now, is it good advice to tell them to spend their good, hard earned money on something they don't need right now?

    By the same token, it is absolutely true that something new is always around the corner - if not from Intel, then from AMD. Or perhaps some new USB, HDMI, or SATA interface. So maybe a new CPU is not worth waiting for, but the perhaps the next generation SSD interface is. Or the next generation GPU.

    Or maybe the current hardware does NOT support what they need to do now. But note the OP said (my bold underline added),
    Why recommend plunking down a bunch of $$$ for a new motherboard and CPU when it sounds like he is satisfied now. At most, a new graphics card will support his needs for several years to come. And perhaps the new card today will work fine in 2 years when a new board and CPU makes sense.

    So I stand by my advice and say again to the OP, if you are unhappy with what you have now, buy now. If you are happy, wait.
     

Share This Page