2500 K or nay?

[CosmicMight]

Relevant background info:

System I am building will be with DDR3-1333, 620W Seasonic, and an A70. 19x12. NZXT Phantom.

I play RTS games mostly; SC2 performance is what I'm after first and foremost. I'll be sticking with my dusty old 285 for at least a few more months. Will not be going SLI.

I'm obviously not opposed to oc'ing, but reliability and stability are paramount - I keep my mobo and CPU for a minimum of 2-3 years and do not want to have to worry about my proc dying, ever. I won't be going past 4.0 unless you can prove to me I'm being too conservative.

Question:
Where I'm only shooting for a 15-20% oc, would I really notice a big difference? Or would I be just as happy with a 2500 (maybe even a 2600) and Turbo Boost?

 

[khon]

The i5-2500K seems like a good choice for your purpose. It should be able to hit 4GHz with ease, and the price premium over the i5-2500 is small enough to be worth it, even if you are only doing ~20%.

Found this screenshot of a 2500K on air:

Obviously that's not the sort of overclock you'd want to run for years (or days for that matter), but it should give you some idea of what the chip can do.

 

[CosmicMight]

Nice, thanks. And what about 4.0? Would that be fine with an A70 day-in, day out?

 

[nyker96]

if you are doing rts then cpu is somewhat important although blizzard did a poor job in optimize for multicore in this game (uses just 2 cores). if you are buying new, I'd say definitely wait for 2500k instead of current stuff because the socket also is different plus 2500k's got AVX etc features missing from current cpus.

 

[StinkyPinky]

A 2500K should do 4 without even breaking a sweat.

I'm interested to see what the stock cooler is like.

 

[ilkhan]

I'd get the K. Its not much more money and you'll never hit 4.0 without the "K"'s ability to adjust the multi.

 

[CosmicMight]

if you are doing rts then cpu is somewhat important although blizzard did a poor job in optimize for multicore in this game (uses just 2 cores). if you are buying new, I'd say definitely wait for 2500k instead of current stuff because the socket also is different plus 2500k's got AVX etc features missing from current cpus.

Yeah I was aware of that, but it still seems like the faster the better for this game. Trying to overcompensate for the fact that my vc is old. I still expect nice gains as I'm coming from an E6600 w/ 2 gig ram.

A 2500K should do 4 without even breaking a sweat.

I'm interested to see what the stock cooler is like.

I could care less about the cooler
The main reason I ask is Turbo Boost - if I'm not even going to see a difference of a few frames between a TB'd chip and a 2500k with a mild oc, I'll just save the extra 20 bucks....

I'd get the K. Its not much more money and you'll never hit 4.0 without the "K"'s ability to adjust the multi.

....but come to think of it, this is true too. I've cut plenty of corners with this system. Really wanted a SSD boot drive but that's not going to make a difference in game and $130 makes a difference at this point, so I'll stick with my 150 gig VR for now. Wanted 8 gig of RAM but that doesn't make a huge diff either. Wanted an 850W ps for 560 (660, really) sli way down the road but I'll never really need it. An oc'd 570 should be fine (or a 670 if I can wait that long!).

Sigh...money. I will be treating myself to some sexy-ass ups in 2013 though just because I can :twisted:

 

[Gillbot]

The i5-2500K seems like a good choice for your purpose. It should be able to hit 4GHz with ease, and the price premium over the i5-2500 is small enough to be worth it, even if you are only doing ~20%.

Found this screenshot of a 2500K on air:

[]http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7240/2500k.png[/IMG]

Obviously that's not the sort of overclock you'd want to run for years (or days for that matter), but it should give you some idea of what the chip can do.

take these random online screenshots with a grain of salt. Many expected more from the q6600 go and 920 do after the "hype" online.

 

[Edrick]

Nay to the 2500K

Yay to the 2600K

 

[Hogan773]

Nay to the 2500K

Yay to the 2600K

This is how I'm leaning too, although not sure if 50% higher price is worth it to get hyperthreading.

 

[smakme7757]

This is how I'm leaning too, although not sure if 50% higher price is worth it to get hyperthreading.

Oh it is! I mean why not, spoil yourself! :twisted:

 

[Rifter]

take these random online screenshots with a grain of salt. Many expected more from the q6600 go and 920 do after the "hype" online.

Yeah i agree. Wait till its been out for a few months and we have a large user base to base the overclocking results on.

 

[Hogan773]

Oh it is! I mean why not, spoil yourself! :twisted:

You know I will.....its just moving to the different way of looking at it. Its not "50% more" its "only $100 more and $100 over the next 4 years is peanuts"

 

[Edrick]

You know I will.....its just moving to the different way of looking at it. Its not "50% more" its "only $100 more and $100 over the next 4 years is peanuts"

In my opinion: Hyperthreading + 2 more MB L3 > $100

 

[smakme7757]

You know I will.....its just moving to the different way of looking at it. Its not "50% more" its "only $100 more and $100 over the next 4 years is peanuts"

My thoughts exactly

 

[RaistlinZ]

Anyone know how much heat those things put out? 1.632v seems like an awful lot.

 

[SickBeast]

Are all of the new i5's going to be quad core?

I say go "K" if you need something fast. If you can live with the CPU at stock speeds, you could always undervolt a regular one and save money on your hydro bill.

 

[khon]

take these random online screenshots with a grain of salt. Many expected more from the q6600 go and 920 do after the "hype" online.

Obviously I'm not expecting to reach that kind of speed myself, I just posted it to show that 4GHz should be easy, and 4.5GHz is probably a reasonable goal with a good aftermarket cooler.

 

[Gillbot]

Obviously I'm not expecting to reach that kind of speed myself, I just posted it to show that 4GHz should be easy, and 4.5GHz is probably a reasonable goal with a good aftermarket cooler.

nut these are the SAME assumptions people had with the Q66 and 920's. Everyone thought they could walk into 3.6GHz on a Q66 and 4GHz with a 920 and many found out that was not the case.

 

[CosmicMight]

In my opinion: Hyperthreading + 2 more MB L3 > $100

You're right, and the point about $100 over the next 2-3 years is also correct. However, $100 is not a small amount for me at the moment. Would it really make that much of a difference? If that Inpai review is anything to go buy, looks like another 13 frames on SC2 - then again that was only 16x10. Paying another $100 to go from 90 fps to 105 fps is pointless when all you need is 60 with all the candy turned on.

What do you all think? I guess the only answer is "wait for the reviews"....

 

[Gillbot]

Yeah i agree. Wait till its been out for a few months and we have a large user base to base the overclocking results on.

Dont know how I missed this, but this is EXACTLY what i was referring to. So many people got caught up in the initial Q66/920 early screen shots that they went nuts over them and many (including myself) were disappointed.

If you MUST overclock and desire a certain speed, wait until more results are out before you make an assumption and get your hopes too high.

 

[CosmicMight]

For maximum SC2 performance I'd say the 2600K would be the ultimate chip. SC2 doesn't really take advantage of >2 threads so HT is next to useless, but the larger L3 cache will come in handy as it seems to respond really well to larger caches.

2500K:
http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7947&pageid=7718

2600K:
http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7944&pageid=7689

The 2600K is ~10% faster clock for clock, but the 2500K is the better bang for buck.

Heh I just quoted you with a SC2 ref in another thread. I've seen those slides about 9000 times now, I keep going back and forth.

Yeah as I said there, I might just pony up the extra cash and go with the 2600k. I need all the compensation I can get for my 285 (which oddly enough is still fine for most games like ME2, 60 fps @ 19x12), prob another year of future-proofing, etc etc.

What apps is HT good for? Curious.

 

[Acanthus]

The i5-2500K seems like a good choice for your purpose. It should be able to hit 4GHz with ease, and the price premium over the i5-2500 is small enough to be worth it, even if you are only doing ~20%.

Found this screenshot of a 2500K on air:

Obviously that's not the sort of overclock you'd want to run for years (or days for that matter), but it should give you some idea of what the chip can do.

LMAO 1.63v.

You wouldn't want to run that OC for minutes.

Also that is likely not air.

 

[CosmicMight]

Heh...no, I wouldn't dream of an oc like that.

Is one of the guides already up going to be sufficient when it comes to overclocking, or should I ask again when they hit. I have no idea what I'm doing. I know how it works in principle (slight multi + voltage bump) but don't know the numbers or which utility (straight thru cmos?).

Joined this site in 2004-5 under a diff name and was going to oc my E6600 but I never did...heh good thing, it's running hot now and it prob would have fried itself already.

 

[ilkhan]

If anything, it will become much easier to overclock, with less trial and error. Pretty much just keep increasing that multi until you hit instability, then back it off by 1x and you're good to go.

Could try extra voltage to get one more multi, but OCing a "K" will be very simple.