Any advantage going from OC SB i5 to IB i5?

[GalaxyWide]

I'm building a gaming rig for a friend, and they already have an nice 1155 board (sans CPU). I also have an 1155 board in my machine, and I'm wondering if I would see any speed increase (games, windows, CPU folding, etc.) if I buy myself an i5-3570k and sell them my 2500k (to save them some $$ and get a cheap upgrade for myself)? I'm currently running 4.4 GHz @ 1.34v, and I only game at 1200p on a single 7950.

Thanks!

Edit: I see that the i5-3570 is currently going for $195 on newegg, is there enough to be gained by overclocking to warrant spending $25 for the -k?

 

[ElFenix]

SB is usually considered the better overclocker between the two.

 

[Termie]

The K version of the 3570 is probably worth an extra $25 if you're willing to overclock, but I'm not sure you'll hit 4.4GHz with it. Honestly, it's probably simplest to keep your system intact and build your friend a new system, unless he's really stretched for cash.

 

[Techhog]

Not worth it imo. Either save up for a 3770K if you want a difference in performance, or just keep what you have and build your friend a new system from scratch.

 

[Essence_of_War]

IVB is usually 5-10% faster than SB clock-for-clock, so you'd need to be able to hit between 4.0 and 4.2 just to stay even with your SB OC, and if you manage to get to 4.4 you'll be about 5-10% faster depending on work load. My guess is that you wouldn't notice a qualitative difference from a user perspective, but with the right gaming/handbrake/folding benchmarks you might be able to quanitfy the difference.

I agree w/ Termie, it sounds like sort of a hassle for the potential of a marginal improvement, Unless you're itching for a chance to take apart your system and re-build it for the pleasure that that itself will give you, I'd just put the IVB in your friend's build.

 

[mfenn]

I agree with the others. There's not a huge speed difference between the two, especially when you take into account that Ivy Bridge generally doesn't overclock as well as Sandy Bridge.

 

[GalaxyWide]

Thanks for the replies, I was sorta guessing that it wouldn't be much of an upgrade. I can however, think of one other reason to swap with my friend: they will be using an older board (z68) and I think those boards need a BIOS update to use IB, right? They will not have access to an SB processor to update with, while I do (I'm on z77 anyhow, which I believe is good to go).

Maybe I really ought to be looking for a SB i5, though I'm not sure who might have some (barring ebay, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am buying a CPU there).

 

[mfenn]

The Z68 board is a concern, but I don't understand how your friend ended up with one without the CPU. There's certainly no reason to buy one new. If it came from a running computer, the BIOS could be updated there.

 

[GalaxyWide]

The Z68 board is a concern, but I don't understand how your friend ended up with one without the CPU. There's certainly no reason to buy one new. If it came from a running computer, the BIOS could be updated there.

I'm actually building it for my brother, and giving him my old board (I've since moved to m-ITX, this board is full ATX). I'm at school, about 12 hours away, so I can't really loan him my CPU to update the bios, and we don't have any other 1155 systems.

 

[Techhog]

Thanks for the replies, I was sorta guessing that it wouldn't be much of an upgrade. I can however, think of one other reason to swap with my friend: they will be using an older board (z68) and I think those boards need a BIOS update to use IB, right? They will not have access to an SB processor to update with, while I do (I'm on z77 anyhow, which I believe is good to go).

Maybe I really ought to be looking for a SB i5, though I'm not sure who might have some (barring ebay, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am buying a CPU there).

I'm actually building it for my brother, and giving him my old board (I've since moved to m-ITX, this board is full ATX). I'm at school, about 12 hours away, so I can't really loan him my CPU to update the bios, and we don't have any other 1155 systems.

That changes the situation quite a bit, but you do have to keep in mind that IB doesn't OC as well as SB. Given that fact, I'd either tell them to buy an SB i5, or I'd sell them the 2500K and use the money help pay for a 3770K, since it seems like heavy multithreading for games will be the standard within a year or two.

 

[mfenn]

I'm actually building it for my brother, and giving him my old board (I've since moved to m-ITX, this board is full ATX). I'm at school, about 12 hours away, so I can't really loan him my CPU to update the bios, and we don't have any other 1155 systems.

Did you happen to update the BIOS on the Z68 motherboard at some point before you upgraded? If so, it's possible that an Ivy Bridge compatible BIOS is already on there.

Somewhat related, I did an eBay search and found that i5 2500K's can be had for $140-170. At those prices it might make sense to just pick up another 2500K.