Hi all, I'm getting close to upgrading the hardware in my desktop PC, which was cobbled together from my bits bin and the BT MP last December and consists of an Q6600 B3, HD4870 512MB and 6GB of DDR2. The main game I play is Starcraft 2 on a single 1080p display. I've already sourced a 1GB 7850 to replace the 4870, but I'm unsure if I absolutely 'need' to go for a Haswell CPU or if I can save some pennies and grab a second-hand Ivy Bridge or even Sandy Bridge? Should also mention that efficiency is also a consideration, but only if the power saving is worth the cost of the newer CPU (the cynic in me is saying that the differences are negligible)? I'm hilariously out of touch with the hardware market these days, so any help would be appreciated
2500k or 2600k will be a tough find unless your going second hand for a sandybridge rig. Ivy chips are still in retail in places. Only reason to take a Ivy chip over a haswell chip is overclock purposes on the K series. If your not planning on overclocking then its not worth the considering. 3570k is £166 4670k is £170 not talking huge savings between the 2 chips here. 4670k is faster at stock than the 3570k it replaces. The Ivy chip will overclock further by 200mhz or so give or take your luck with chip. Really does depend on your budget though if your not buying a mid range chip. No sandy chip you would buy exists in retail at any price point though. Ivy Still has alot of selection but they are priced the same so you may as well take the latest chips in haswell. No Intel I3 chip can overclock be it Sandy Ivy or Haswell and the Haswell chips at stock are still quicker than there older siblings and are the exact same cost.
Thanks, much appreciated! I'm not looking to overclock at all, so a non-K CPU would be fine. The spec-head in me is wanting an i7 for the HT capabilities, but I'd rarely use the extra cores, so I'd guess a 4670 non-K is the sweet-spot
I wouldn't have thought you'd need such a decent cpu for just playing SC2? Most games aren't very cpu-bound.
I do run a few VMs and multi-task a fair amount (Outlook, Thunderbird, Google Drive, DropBox and Box Sync are all running in the background all the time) so CPU grunt isn't just for gaming.
Fair enough, even then I'd still probably go for something weaker but I guess if you've got the money and don't need to upgrade anything else then it'll add to the longevity.
And if you like other RTS like supcom 1 & 2, its good to have as much CPU grunt as possible. I hear total war is quite abuse of the CPU as well.
