i5-3470s or i7-3770s

[fwtong]

I'm going to be upgrading the i3 in my current motherboard, MSI P67A-G45 (B3), which is a socket 1155. At Microcenter, I'm looking at either the i5-3470s or i7-3770s. Since the socket 1155 CPUs are getting harder to find, this is most likely going to be the last time I'm going to be able to upgrade this motherboard. I'd really like to try and ride this motherboard out as long as possible. Since the most CPU intensive task is going to be gaming, I know that the i5 is sufficient for now. But, seeing as I want to try and squeeze out this setup for as long as possible, I'm a little tempted to spend the extra $100 to get the i7. I know that the biggest benefit with the i7 is hyperthreading, so my questions are really:
Are there any games that are in development now which are really going to take advantage of hyperthreading?
Or, will it be years before hyperthreading becomes commonplace in games and by then, CPU technology will have advanced so much that I'll have to buy a whole new setup anyways?

Obviously, if games in the next couple of years starts to take advantage of hyperthreading, it'll probably be a good idea to get the i7 now instead of having to buy a whole new setup in 2 years just because I can't get a socket 1155 i7 anymore.

 

[Rakehellion]

There aren't a lot of games that take advantage of Hyperthreading, or even four cores that well. Though there may be some multithreaded games coming up that are written for consoles. Get a 3570k and you can hit 4GHz out of the box which is plenty.

I'd say save the $100 and buy a GPU. Then you'll be able to use it on your next system down the line.

 

[Yuriman]

There are already games that take advantage of hyperthreading (not many), but generally speaking, an i5 will provide you with a very adequate experience for some years yet.

Any reason why you're going with the "S" models, which have power limits that prevent them from running full speed?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Why the S models? I would just get an i5 3570(K).

 

[fwtong]

Thanks for the input. If I can squeeze 3-5 years out of the i5, I'll be happy. I think by then, CPU technology would have advanced far enough past the Ivy Bridge days and I'll have to get something newer. As for why I'm getting the S models, that's all MicroCenter has in stock. In fact, all they have left are the i5 and i7 I'm picking from, an i3, a Celeron, a Pentium and 2 Xeons. As I said, getting these socket 1155 CPUs are becoming scarce. Tigerdirect doesn't even have anymore 1155 i7 CPUs left and only 1 i5.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Dont buy the S model. Wait for stock then.

The S models are slower with their limited TDP. And specially on the long run you will feel it.

Else alternatively a 4590 plus a cheap ~50$ board:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/432161/Core_i5-4590_37GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor

 

[fwtong]

I'm not going to hold my breath to restock socket 1155 CPUs since Intel has already discontinued Ivy Bridge CPUs last year.

 

[fwtong]

Looks like i can still get a 3570k from newegg for about $55 more. I suppose that's worth it?

 

[Ken g6]

For non-K Intel CPUs, I wouldn't be afraid to buy used. They don't have pins to get bent, and you can't overclock them much, so about the only thing to worry about is static shock. And in that case I imagine you could detect that a CPU wasn't working pretty quickly.

 

[Denithor]

Um. In the case of the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge non-K models, you CAN overclock them assuming you are on a Z chipset motherboard. Limited to 4 speed bins (400MHz) over maximum turbo speed but still overclocking. For example, my i7 3770 runs with a maximum turbo speed of 3.9GHz and I can clock it up as high as 4.3GHz running on all four cores.

This apparently changed with the Haswell chips, now only the K models can be overclocked at all.

But, as mentioned above, you should look for a used chip on eBay. i5 3570 starts around $160 shipped, i5 3570K around $200, i7 3770 around $230 and i7 3770K around $290.

 

[fwtong]

In the end, it's a moot point because when I was flashing the motherboard to the latest firmware so it would be compatible with ivy bridge CPUs, my motherboard bricked. Apparently, it's very common with MSI motherboards. Thanks to some car repairs that I have to pay for (guy backs into me, and I'm still stuck with the deductible), I'd rather not pay $300+ for a new cpu and motherboard right now. Instead, I'll probably just get another socket 1155 motherboard and try to squeeze another year of gaming out of my sandy bridge i3. Later on, when I need to move up to an i5 or i7, I'll just go the eBay route if I can't find anymore retail ones. I'm sure the ivy bridge i5 and i7 CPUs will be viable for a while.