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Will I notice a difference coming from Ivy Bridge

B

bimbs

Member
Howdy all -- I'm finally upgrading to a mini-itx build. I have an Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155.

I need to buy a new MOBO to fit into the mini-tix case, so I was also thinking of upgrading my CPU. I like my CPU but the mini-itx LGA 1155 MOBO are outrageously expensive because they seem to be out of stock.

Question: Will I notice a big improvement if I go to a 1150 i7 (i.e. worth the new mobo and cpu cost) or shall I hang onto mine until Skylake comes out and buy a used mobo on ebay if I can find one?

Thank ye kindly...
 
Why not wait until Skylake and get Skylake? Most Skylake processors are 65W, so that should help in a small case.
 
I picked up a used Zotac Z77-ITX board with a case and power supply on eBay for ~$60. After selling the case and power supply, the board was nearly free. After selling my old full sized board and case, I actually made a profit moving to ITX.

In terms of system responsiveness in day to day tasks, I doubt the i7 will feel much different. You'd probably notice it in encoding times and other very CPU-intensive tasks, but overall Haswell has not tempted me.
 
You can test it yourself with a very simple batch file:

Code: 
powercfg.exe -setacvalueindex SCHEME_BALANCED SUB_PROCESSOR PROCTHROTTLEMAX [B]93[/B]
powercfg.exe -setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

Set your power plan to balanced before executing this script. This script will force your cpu to run at up to 93% of its normal max clock speed. Chances are you wont even notice the performance cut. But if you can feel the difference between that and 100%, then you will benefit from an upgrade. When skylake launches, change the 93% to a 87% to get a sense of the difference.
 
Thanks, sm625! Neat script.

The other problem is that those mini-itx motherboards for LGA 1155 seem to be 1) out of order 2) horribly reviewed.
 
My 3570K was indistinguishable from the 4690K I built for a friend.

Even an expensive Z77 ITX board is going to be cheaper than a whole new rig - you could also buy used.
 
bimbs said:
Howdy all -- I'm finally upgrading to a mini-itx build. I have an Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155.

I need to buy a new MOBO to fit into the mini-tix case, so I was also thinking of upgrading my CPU. I like my CPU but the mini-itx LGA 1155 MOBO are outrageously expensive because they seem to be out of stock.

Question: Will I notice a big improvement if I go to a 1150 i7 (i.e. worth the new mobo and cpu cost) or shall I hang onto mine until Skylake comes out and buy a used mobo on ebay if I can find one?
Click to expand...
no, you will not detect any improvement in your internet surfing, email and office apps.
...so wait
 
I went from an old Core 2 Quad Q6600 to a 4790k. Day to day tasks are indistinguishable. However, I do a lot of heavy video editing and encoding. In those situations, the 4790k is easily 5 times faster.
 
Thanks, Dave_The_Nerd. Have you found a good used PC shop?

I was specifically looking for the ASRock Z77E-itx which I can't seem to find ANYWHERE. I emailed ASROCK and they said they don't sell used or refurbished either.
 
bimbs said:
Thanks, Dave_The_Nerd. Have you found a good used PC shop?

I was specifically looking for the ASRock Z77E-itx which I can't seem to find ANYWHERE. I emailed ASROCK and they said they don't sell used or refurbished either.
Click to expand...

eBay, mostly. If you expand your net to any Z77 ITX motherboard, you'll find a fairly large number of them, although I don't see any asrock ones at the moment.
 
I like the Zotac board just fine. The feature-set is actually top-notch and the layout is fine. My only real beef with it is that the bios is rather primitive compared with bigger brands, and the fan profile control is rather limited.
 
Update for everyone that helped: I ended up just buying a small MICRO-ATX case that could fit my motherboard - the new Silverstone KL06B. http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=454

I'm hoping it's small enough to give the illusion of mini-itx while I wait to redo the entire system when skylake or zen comes out.

In the end, all the Z77 reviews seemed pretty bad and I couldn't find a good one used (with wifi and bluetooth, etc).

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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