Wanting to upgrade. Yet another help me choose thread.

[Nemesis13]

My current CPU is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115215 for the lazy a Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156. I have been out of the upgrade constantly the newest greatest for a few years , so im asking What would be a good upgrade. MOBO will come next suggestions are welcome, I play dayz and civ 5, and stream to twitch. What is something in the 200-300 range that could help for the next wave of games coming for pc.

 

[Yuriman]

I assume you have DDR3 you can reuse? $2-300 has to cover what, motherboard + CPU?

If that's the case, either an i5 4670K + Z87 chipset motherboard, or this Xeon which is basically a locked i7 with the iGPU disabled paired with a cheaper motherboard (with something like a B85 or H87 chipset). Both will run you a little over $300.

Intel's two overclocking-capable CPUs are the i5 4670K and the i7 4770K, and to overclock them you must pair them with a Z87 chipset motherboard. If you really don't want to break $300 you can get a locked i5 (4xxx = Haswell) and pair it with one of the cheaper B85 or H87 boards, but I don't think it would be all that much of an upgrade if your current chip is overclocked.

 

[Nemesis13]

Yes i will be reusing my DDR3, So i was looking for 300 on Cpu and 500 for mobo and Cpu together. I will be upgrading video cards later as im still rocking 2 5850 XFX reference cards, and wanting to keep the collective upgrade under 1000.

 

[escrow4]

i7 4771 + B85 on the cheap, i7 4770K + Z87 if you want to splurge. I wouldn't buy into an i5 now - both Watch Dogs and Mordor actually recommend i7's. Those threads will come in handy.

 

[Yuriman]

I'm willing to bet an i5 will handle those games perfectly, but you have the budget for an i7.

There's no real reason to spend more than about $130 on a motherboard these days, the power circuitry on a $100 Z chipset board will be plenty enough for any overclock you can achieve without extreme cooling and you can get just about every feature you could want on a $130 board. If you don't want to overclock, go with a 4771 or that Xeon and a B85/H87 to save some cash. If you get a K chip, you'll want an aftermarket heat sink, you may be able to reuse the one you have though.

 

[tweakboy]

A 4670k is best bang for the buck. 760 Ti

 

[Midgetguy]

I'd say that an i5 is plenty since devs seem to overshoot recommended specs anyway, especially with processors. You're usually limited by your GPU before your CPU. But pick up an i7 if you want the overhead from the extra threads for the future. As for the motherboard, think about what you need. The boards with more I/O ports and PCI/PCIE slots will cost more, but just think if you need all of it. Yuriman's got it right I think; $130-150 will get you all the features you could possibly want and then some on a motherboard these days.

And definitely spring for a K-series chip. It doesn't cost much more than the non-K and at the rate at which processors improve these days (progressively less increase in performance compared to last-gen) a Z-series board and K-series CPU will last you a few generations of CPU architectures. The search for raw processing power has given way to the search for power efficiency through die shrinkage so I don't expect the next few generations of CPUs to before much more powerful and probably will perform at the stock the same or a little worse than a last-gen overclocked.

Sorry, this post was pretty long, but here's the combo I've got in my system right now for reference. I think it'll serve me well for many years to come.
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116899
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130727