Major upgrade. 2500k or 2600k?

[ibex333]

2500k if you don't encode. That and a good Z68 board plus 2 x 4gig.

Why Z68? Why not P67?

He is GAMING, which means he doesnt care for onboard graphics...

Get the 2600k. Games are moving increasingly towards being more threaded. A bigger cache also never hurt!

No offense, but I been hearing this BS for the last 6 years. There are very few games that take advantage of more than 2 cores and mostly games benefit from higher Hz as opposed to cores.

I am still using a C2D CPU and it runs every game out there. That's saying something about how games need more cache and more cores...

Go with 2500K over 2600K. Why waste more money?

 

[pantsaregood]

Do not put money towards the LGA 1366 platform. LGA 1366 is dead; i7 995X and 980 are going to be released for the platform over summer, then the socket is dead.

 

[TemjinGold]

Why Z68? Why not P67?

He is GAMING, which means he doesnt care for onboard graphics...

Yep, actually already picked out P8P67 Deluxe. I'm a sucker for that front USB 3.0 thingy and that sexy heatpipe.

 

[RyanGreener]

I am still using a C2D CPU and it runs every game out there. That's saying something about how games need more cache and more cores...

Go with 2500K over 2600K. Why waste more money?

Agreed totally. I had an E8400 @ 4.4 GHz and an AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.8 GHz before I sold both off, and they ran perfectly fine on the CPU end. I don't see how people can say they're going to be bottlenecked by the 2500k anytime soon seeing as it has monster IPC and can clock VERY high.

 

[bleucharm28]

I don't believe in future proof.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I have yet to see a game where the system requirements say you need 4 cores and at least 4.6 Ghz. :biggrin:

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Agreed totally. I had an E8400 @ 4.4 GHz and an AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.8 GHz before I sold both off, and they ran perfectly fine on the CPU end. I don't see how people can say they're going to be bottlenecked by the 2500k anytime soon seeing as it has monster IPC and can clock VERY high.

Its simple, if you say bottleneck enough then people start to believe it.

 

[RussianSensation]

In any case, the point stands that I will likely keep this new one for at least 6 years.

2500k definitely. In 5+ years, both systems will so slow that even if HT would make any difference, it won't amount to anything. Currently, 2500k will give you pretty much identical performance to the 2600k, esp. with your videocard.

Also, I suggest you buy cheaper processors and upgrade more often instead. This is why I'd get the 2500k, pocket $100 towards a future upgrade in 3 years (rather than wait 6 years), or perhaps you can upgrade your 5850 sooner. By the time 4 core SB @ 4.5ghz is not fast enough for games, we will probably be on GeForce GTX800 series. That's a long time away. Even now, a 3 year old i7 930 @ 4.0ghz can just about max out any single GPU card.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Hmm... strange... perhaps I had an interim upgrade I forgot about! Haha nice catch. In any case, the point stands that I will likely keep this new one for at least 6 years. If I made any changes, it was due to stuff not working, NOT due to an urge to upgrade for speed.

Your motherboard is also from 2008... so I guess it's not just the computer memory that is going

 

[Kevmanw430]

Get the 2500k. Z68, and LGA1155, for that matter, can be updated to Ivy Bridge, as it will be backward compatible.

 

[RobDickinson]

Games will be a long while before they make serious use of multicores.

Parallel tasks are already well understood and utilise more cores/threads. HT is only a benefit in some situations too (when unused parts of the pipeline can be reused etc)

And 'future proof' is an utter joke in the PC world. in 3+ years time we'll be onto new memory and sockets again so it will be a cpu/board/ram rebuild anyhow. And if today's top graphics cards arnt almost junk in 3 years time it will be the first time...

 

[exar333]

Anything in 2 years will look pretty dated. Socket 1366 is more dead-end then 1155 to me.

Not lately. I am still pretty happy with my 2008 i7; it is not the fastest CPU out there, but still better than almost anything you can buy. 6-cores are still reltively new and probably would not be a huge performance gain for what I do now. That could definitely change though...

 

[MustangSVT]

pointless to get something for 6 years in the future.

As history shows, you WILL upgrade well before 6 year mark and by that time, there will be better and better valued "mainstream" system you can purchase.

Unless you have so much money you don't know what to do with, 2500k is the best choice here, unless you can wait for bulldozer.

 

[TemjinGold]

Your motherboard is also from 2008... so I guess it's not just the computer memory that is going

Haha this one I can explain. I originally started on a P35 version of that board but it broke after some time. I got the P35 whenever that came out so not sure how long that was. Still have that P35 in my closet come to think of it...

 

[TemjinGold]

pointless to get something for 6 years in the future.

As history shows, you WILL upgrade well before 6 year mark and by that time, there will be better and better valued "mainstream" system you can purchase.

Unless you have so much money you don't know what to do with, 2500k is the best choice here, unless you can wait for bulldozer.

It's not so much thinking this system is "future-proof." It's that cpu tech is moving at a crawl. In 6 years, I think the machine I build today will still be "fast enough" for what I need. The system I'm using right now is fast enough for my needs still and if it weren't falling apart, I wouldn't upgrade.

 

[RyanGreener]

Not lately. I am still pretty happy with my 2008 i7; it is not the fastest CPU out there, but still better than almost anything you can buy. 6-cores are still reltively new and probably would not be a huge performance gain for what I do now. That could definitely change though...

I'm not saying it's bad or anything. I'm just saying that in 2 years, technology changes a decent bit IMO, and whether it will be dated due to actual speed, or dated due to power efficiency, it will be dated. I'm a fan of older hardware cause its cheap and does the job for me. (I used to run an E8400 and PII X 4 not too long ago and I was fine with it)