Which Processor?

[JimBrown333]

Hi everyone,


I am undergoing a new build and my last part which I have not decided on is the CPU

first I will give the specs of my system which i plan to have finished in the next month or two

CASE-800D, (getting 900D whenever that is available day one)

CPU- currently i5-2300

Memory- currently 4 GB g.skill ripjaws (getting 8gb crucial ballistix elite for xmas)

Heatsink- Currently h60 in push/pull (will be getting h80i in the next couple of months)

Mobo- currently Msi p67a-gd65 (getting Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 for xmas)

PSU- thermaltake Black widow 850w (upgrading to seasonic X850 in the same time frame as other parts)

Storage-getting a G.Skill 120gb SSD for xmas for OS drive, currently have 2 750gb Hitachi HDD, 2 Seagate 300GB HDD and a 150gb seagate as OS drive (will be adding two more 1TB Hitachi in the next month or two and the only reason for that is my two 1 tb seagates fryed at the exact same time).

GPU-HD 6950 (Flashed to 6970) i do not plan on upgrading gpu currently as I do not see anything majorly better than what I have, if anything I will buy another 6950 and xfire before buying another series GPU.

fan controller- getting NZXT sentry Mesh for xmas

okay now to my question as you can see I am getting the top of the line gigabyte mobo for xmas and my current CPU is fine for now but in the next month or two i want something with more potential (i will prob just clock the i5-2300 to 3.5 or 3.6 if I am lucky and run it like that until I make the change) I am looking at the i7-2600k or the i7-3770k, price is not important to me and this has nothing to do with gaming or the purpose of my computer (which the focus is not gaming anyway just normal usage and slight adobe Photoshopping).

Which CPU would you guys reccomend

[frozentundra123456]

Originally Posted by JimBrown333

Hi everyone,


I am undergoing a new build and my last part which I have not decided on is the CPU

first I will give the specs of my system which i plan to have finished in the next month or two

CASE-800D, (getting 900D whenever that is available day one)

CPU- currently i5-2300

Memory- currently 4 GB g.skill ripjaws (getting 8gb crucial ballistix elite for xmas)

Heatsink- Currently h60 in push/pull (will be getting h80i in the next couple of months)

Mobo- currently Msi p67a-gd65 (getting Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 for xmas)

PSU- thermaltake Black widow 850w (upgrading to seasonic X850 in the same time frame as other parts)

Storage-getting a G.Skill 120gb SSD for xmas for OS drive, currently have 2 750gb Hitachi HDD, 2 Seagate 300GB HDD and a 150gb seagate as OS drive (will be adding two more 1TB Hitachi in the next month or two and the only reason for that is my two 1 tb seagates fryed at the exact same time).

GPU-HD 6950 (Flashed to 6970) i do not plan on upgrading gpu currently as I do not see anything majorly better than what I have, if anything I will buy another 6950 and xfire before buying another series GPU.

fan controller- getting NZXT sentry Mesh for xmas

okay now to my question as you can see I am getting the top of the line gigabyte mobo for xmas and my current CPU is fine for now but in the next month or two i want something with more potential (i will prob just clock the i5-2300 to 3.5 or 3.6 if I am lucky and run it like that until I make the change) I am looking at the i7-2600k or the i7-3770k, price is not important to me and this has nothing to do with gaming or the purpose of my computer (which the focus is not gaming anyway just normal usage and slight adobe Photoshopping).

Which CPU would you guys reccomend

The one you already have!!! Seriously, unless you just want the best for its own sake (and I have no problem with that if you can afford it) the cpu you have is more than adequate for normal usage and light photoshop. With apparently no driving need to upgrade at the moment, it might be best to wait till Haswell, which should bring about 10% improvement over IVY, although nobody knows what the improvements will be and how it will overclock. Unfortunately, I believe it will require a different motherboard though.

[JimBrown333]

Originally Posted by frozentundra123456

The one you already have!!! Seriously, unless you just want the best for its own sake (and I have no problem with that if you can afford it) the cpu you have is more than adequate for normal usage and light photoshop. With apparently no driving need to upgrade at the moment, it might be best to wait till Haswell, which should bring about 10% improvement over IVY, although nobody knows what the improvements will be and how it will overclock. Unfortunately, I believe it will require a different motherboard though.

Honestly I would, do you know if a 15-2300 is capable of OCing at least to 3.5-4.0 ghz? (which I hope is possible considering the mob i willbe getting). if so I will keep it, I think haswell will be LGA 1150 from what I heard could be wrong though,

[Puppies04]

Originally Posted by JimBrown333

Honestly I would, do you know if a 15-2300 is capable of OCing at least to 3.5-4.0 ghz? (which I hope is possible considering the mob i willbe getting). if so I will keep it, I think haswell will be LGA 1150 from what I heard could be wrong though,

You can OC non "K" chips as long as they have "turbo" which yours does but only by 4 bins (.4ghz) so you should be able to get to about 3.2ghz.

You are correct about haswell, it will require a mobo upgrade as it is a different socket.

[JimBrown333]

Originally Posted by Puppies04

You can OC non "K" chips as long as they have "turbo" which yours does but only by 4 bins (.4ghz) so you should be able to get to about 3.2ghz.

You are correct about haswell, it will require a mobo upgrade as it is a different socket.

Thank you for the feedback.

[Puppies04]

Originally Posted by JimBrown333

Thank you for the feedback.

Actually I may have written that slightly wrong, I believe you can OC 4 bins past your max turbo so it should hit...

1 core 3.5ghz
2 cores 3.4ghz
3 cores 3.3ghz
4 cores 3.3ghz

Assuming you have a mobo that allows you to adjust the multipliers.