At the same clock, HT off, how much does the extra 2MB of L3 cache differ?The 3770 is 100Mhz higher, 2MB extra cache and supports HT.
Without overclocking, the choice is quite obvious. But if the emphasis is mainly gaming, there isn't much merit in having HT. If you have a bottomless wallet, go with the latter.
You will only need as much CPU performance equivalent to the GPU performance(graphics settings) that you put in, except for rare cases. If he's a casual gamer and never gonna use Titan or Crossfire/SLI high end GPUs, I doubt he'll be dissatisfied with a Core i5 3570K.Not true, more and more games are using higher thread counts (and will continue to do so with 8 core consoles coming out). Hyperthreading is a good move at this point.
Excellent suggestion!:biggrin:Depends on the games you play, if you play older DX-9 games core i5 3570 will be fine. For new DX-11 games especially for BF3 MultiPlayer get the Core i7 3770.
Also, wait for a month and get the new Haswell CPUs.
Not an excellent suggestion... He makes it sound like a locked 3570 can only play DX9 games...Excellent suggestion!:biggrin:
will not be overclocking
For a non-overclocked gaming system with a discrete GPU, the E3-1230V2 will perform almost identically to the 3770 but for around $50 less, depending on where you buy. They work great in a Z77 motherboard with no requirement for ECC (check to ensure compatibility).
