Ivy Bridge CPU on sale now, buy it or buy Haswell

trihuynh1995

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Oct 13, 2012
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Hello Tomshardware,
The i7 3770k is on sale at Micro Center for $265 now. I would have bought it already together with the asus z77 v pro for $165, but the problem is that it's an old version cpu and lga1155 are death now. I have read that the new Haswell Asus motherboard has some new features and updated bios, but it comes to mind that if I even need those new features or not. So what do you think I should buy for my new build, Ivy Bridge for cheaper or save some more money and go with a Haswell build?
I'll crossfire, overclock and use 1 SSD + 2 HDD.
I will buy which based on what you tell me, so help me please!

 
the haswell cpu will run hotter then ib and dont over clock as well. the x87 chipset has more 6g sata and usb ports over the z77 chipset. in the first quarter of next year is the haswell refresh from reading the info it may have a new chipset and ddr-4 ram. myself i would wait if your going from an older rig to a newer one.
 

trihuynh1995

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Oct 13, 2012
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Well, I have been waiting for 4 months to saved money for this build. DDR4 Ram sounds to tempting, but the thought of waiting again for couple more months is terrible, I can't wait anymore.
So, you think I should buy the Ivy Bridge?
 
DDR4 RAM will initially be rather expensive because they will be produced in low quantities at first. Prices of DDR4 RAM will decrease as the emphasis shifts from manufacturing DDR3 to DDR4 RAM. It would likely take around 18 months after the initial production of DDR4 RAM for that RAM to be about equal to DDR3 RAM today. Early adopters always pay a premium for new technologies.


Regarding the i7-3770k I would say it is worth it as long as the programs you use can make use of Hyper Threading (HT). With the exception of Battlefield 4... and only for multiplayer mode... games do not really use HT at all. The average performance increase from an Ivy Bridge to Haswell CPUs is 6% - 9% depending on which review site's set of benchmarks show.

If you are not using any programs that uses Hyper Threading and if you are not going be to addicted exclusively to BF4 multiplayer like a crackhead, then I think you are better off simply buying a Core i5-4670k combo from Microcenter.
 

Powerbolt

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Oct 21, 2013
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Go with the Haswell i7 4770K. Yes it runs hot if not properly controlled, but that's the key to overclocking it. If you have room in your budget for a nice water cooler, then you can overclock the 4770K all you want. I purchased the 4770K a couple months ago, along with it a Corsair H80i water cooler, and started overclocking. Doing so I've achieved a stable overclock @ 4.5GHz, drawing 1.35V, with temperatures in the range of ~35c to ~70c under varying loads. Gaming with maximum graphics on BF3 temperatures run approximately ~60c.

Given the 4770K clocks about 10% more efficient than the 3770K, you'd need an overclock of just under 5GHz to match a 4770K @ 4.5GHz.

Haswell chips overclock just fine, however they're limited by heat. To say that they don't OC well doesn't say much to the actual capabilities of the chip itself. Given this limitation, better cooling equals more potential, and more potential equals more power.

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