Upgrade from first build; what to get?

[The_Freeman]

Built my first PC back in 09' and its been great. Have had it running almost 24/7 the whole time except for about a total of 15 months when I had to leave the country for work. Not sure if I should keep using the same PSU or get a new one [simply because its been running for so long.] Here's my system and the questions answered...

i7 920 stock @ 2.6ghtz
6GB DDR3 1333
Foxconn Bloodrage X58 MB
WD velociraptor 300GB HDD
WD caviar black 1TB HDD x2
Gigabyte 7950 GPU (upgraded from a 4890.)
Corsair 850HX modular PSU
Antec 1200 case (first gen w/ USB 2.0)
Plexor DVD drive
Samsung 24" 1080p monitor.
Vista 64 OS
All stock, no OC'ing yet.

1. Mostly all in one HTPC for gaming (mmo's, fps, rpg, all types,) movies in 5.1 surround (stored on HD mostly,) web browsing, music.
2. Around $1000 - less is definitely preferred unless this includes pricing for a monitor, then I'm sure $1000, or roughly over, will be about right.
3. United States
4. Not a fanboy of anything but hear Intel still reigns supreme for gaming.
5. Would like to use the case, maybe some of the HDD's, PSU, and GPU (probably will wait for the 800 series nvidia to come out as I don't think I'll get much of an upgrade if I get 770 right now.)
6. I'd like to OC but never did it before...don't want to mess anything up .
7. Want a bigger display for movies but don't want gaming to suffer...maybe 1440p? Movie watching is 8' away.
8. Will go to either Windows 7 or 8.1. Not sure what's better. I'll probably eventually get a cheap case and PSU to run all my old parts for a second PC to give to my GF.

Not sure when the new Maxwell chips come out but the i5 4670k seems to be the CPU to get right now. I'm not sure what I need on the motherboard but would like to keep it basic and cheap [no need for SLI or crossfire right now.] Sound will be processed via HDMI to an AVR and 5.1 surround sound for movies and games. I would like to try OC'ing but am not going to get crazy with it so not sure what clock speeds I should aim for without getting to technical or advanced. Probably just 8GB of RAM for now. An SSD for the OS and a few games [can use the WD velociraptor 300GB too for games I guess and pick up some 3-4TB HDD's for my movie/music collection. And a blue-ray player me thinks...

I've been out of the loop for a few years so not so sure what all to look at right now. The cheaper the better since I'll be dropping some coin on audio gear too. Appreciate any help given .

 

[mfenn]

Maxwell is an Nvidia GPU architecture, not a CPU architecture, so it really has no bearing on whether or not you should get a Haswell.

What is the PC currently not doing that you'd like it to? The i7 920 is still competent, especially if you overclock. In your shoes, I'd probably grab an SSD like the M500 240GB ($120), a copy of Windows 8.1 ($120) to install onto it, and call it a day.

 

[The_Freeman]

I'm still getting some low FPS at certain times with games like Metro 2033 and BioShock Infinite. Plus, (I know it's not hardware related,) I'm getting some weird performance issues when streaming video and I've been all over the place looking for help but can't find anything. Was thinking since i most likely need to format my HD and reinstall windows, I'll just do some upgrades while I'm at it.

While I might be able to get 4ghz on my i7, the i5 4670 already starts out at 3.4 so it will give me faster speed right out of the box.

I'm also running out of storage space, hence a larger HD.

 

[mvbighead]

If you're getting performance issues while streaming video with that equipment, you possibly have something that is getting hot and clocking down to prevent complete failure. That would explain why you are getting poor framerates in some other titles as well.

Honestly, I was thinking similarly to mfenn. An upgrade at this time (aside from those he mentioned) shouldn't be necessary unless you simply feel the itch.

I'd do a good thorough cleaning of your existing hardware. Check fans for proper operation, check temps where you can. Update drivers for all equipment. If performance is still an issue, I open the case and prop a desk fan or whatever into the case and see if you start seeing better performance. Hover your hand over certain devices and touch the metal heat sinks briefly to see if something feels hot (not warm, but hot).

Sounds to me like you have a problem somewhere, not a need to upgrade.

 

[The_Freeman]

I'm pretty certain it's not a heating issue. My temps are fine, and just to be specific what the problem is, [even though this isn't the proper section of the forum,] I have to run my mouse over the video in Firefox and chrome (but not IE,) when I stream video or it will freeze. Movie my mouse constantly over the video keeps this from happening. I've uninstalled drivers, updated them, same thing with flash player, ran malware scans, defraged, system restore, etc. Clearing the cache and restarting the PC offers a very temporary solution. Mozilla forums were no help even though I've read others with similar problems. Would love to know what the bug is but honestly I'm tired of coming to dead ends.
As far as playing games, I'm pretty sure that its my stock CPU that's holding me back. The fps only dip when there's a lot going on.
Not trying to turn this thread around but I feel I just have to wipe the HD clean, and reinstall windows to fix this. Since I need to update my windows and get an SSD anyway, (could probably use more ram too,) might as well get some new parts and keep the old stuff around for a second build later on. Pretty sure what CPU and ram to get...but not the motherboard :/.

 

[mfenn]

I can't stop you from spending money (it is your money after all), but I don't think that a CPU upgrade is necessary. Get the SSD and a fresh Windows install and see how it goes. If it still feels slow, you can transfer it over to a new build.

 

[The_Freeman]

So my five year old processor still competes with what's on the market today huh? I guess I can see how much of an OC I can get off of it and go from there. I definitely want to add an SSD and maybe just another 3-4 TB HD for more storage. Will games get better performance on the SSD besides load times? Right now I think my GPU is in the way but I might be able to squeeze the ssd and another HD in my antec 1200. That'll be five HD's lol.

Thanks for the help too. Don't want to waste money if there's no point. Is there a relevant CPU comparison I can look at btw?

 

[lehtv]

As soon as I upgraded to a 7950, I decided to leave the i7 920 in the past. It was seriously bottlenecking in several games, I mean I got about 20 fps more in Alan Wake (dual thread game) and BF3 minimums. It wasn't heavily overclocked, only 3.33.

I certainly don't think a CPU/platform upgrade would be a waste at all, in fact holding on to a CPU and mobo for even 5 years is a bit of a waste since it will have lost so much value. In addition, newer Intel CPUs are so much more power efficient that the sooner you upgrade, the sooner you will start piling up savings in electricity costs. While it won't repay your investment (that would be kinda unrealistic for a CPU that also performs a lot better), it will make a new CPU considerably better value than it would seem based on the cost.

Is there a relevant CPU comparison I can look at btw?

i7 920 vs i7 4770K stock vs stock: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/47?vs=836

The i5-4670K would be an equally good upgrade in up to quad threaded apps, and roughly as fast in 8-threaded apps, again stock vs stock. Obviously, the i7-920 has a lot more OC headroom, but a Haswell will still be far faster OC vs OC.

Another option is Xeon E3 1230 V3. It's a slightly downclocked i7-4770 with no IGP, locked multiplier and $60 lower price tag.

 

[Ketchup]

I tend to agree that your CPU is fine, in that it is probably not bottlenecking you here. This review is featuring the Ivy-Bridge E, and should give you a relative idea on how your CPU is holding up.

I might suggest you get an SSD, get to 7 or 8 for a fresh install, and see how the system behaves. Even if you decide to upgrade the rest, you won't be out anything.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the help too. Don't want to waste money if there's no point. Is there a relevant CPU comparison I can look at btw?

Here's a good article that goes over a lot of different CPUs in the context of gaming. Obviously the newer CPUs are faster, but the delta between your 920 and the top-end is quite small.

 

[lehtv]

Here's a good article that goes over a lot of different CPUs in the context of gaming. Obviously the newer CPUs are faster, but the delta between your 920 and the top-end is quite small.

You don't pick a good CPU to have good average framerates - yes it will also contribute to that, but that's not the point. A fast CPU minimizes framerate valleys, but will have comparably little impact on average framerates, a point which that article completely misses. The key to a good gaming experience is framerate consistency. We all know this, it's why microstutter is like a curseword in the context of dual GPU configurations. Minimizing framerate drops is another important aspect of that consistent experience, and the performance of different CPUs in that regard is not something you can gather from a comparison that focuses on average framerates.

Here's Anandtech's testing methodology per game:

Metro 2033: Benchmark Mode, two runs of four scenes of Frontline at 1440p, max settings. First run of four is discarded, average of second run is taken (minus outliers).
Dirt3: Benchmark Mode, four runs of the first scene with 8 cars at 1440p, max settings. Average is taken.
Civilization V: One five minute run of the benchmark mode accessible at the command line, at 1440p and max settings. Results produced are total frames in sets of 60 seconds, average taken.
Sleeping Dogs: Using the Adrenaline benchmark software, four scenes at 1440p in Ultra settings. Average is taken.

AT uses ready made benches, not real in-game framerate recording in CPU heavy scenarios. Even if minimum framerates were shown in this article, it would be difficult to trust them to mirror actual in-game performance.

Even better would be to show framerate over time. Perhaps that would be splitting hairs... But back when I upgraded to i7-3770K, I tested a specific sequence in Max Payne 3 and created framerate over time graphs from FRAPS data. You can check out my original tests which show what I think is a pretty striking difference in framerate consistency between i7-920 @ 3.36 and i7-3770K @ 4.2. And that's in a GPU-heavy, quad core single player game.

 

[MongGrel]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636&page=52&highlight=l5639