Z77 Still Viable Platform?

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viKierannx

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Jul 8, 2012
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Hi guys;

I was planning upgrading to Haswell, as I have the upgrade itch. But just seen in Amazon that the Z77 mPower is £117. Is it still a viable motherboard to purchase? As I could keep my current 2550K, slap a H220 on it and go for a good overclock. It would save me some money not having to spend £250 on an i7 4770k, and an extra £30-£40 for an mPower Z87 SP.

Will purchase two Evo SSD's, 120GB and 250GB for OS, Programs and Most Played games; and two 1TB's Caviar Blue's. Along with a H220 and R9 290 Non-Reference; plus a bigger power supply. Will sell my current power supply and GPU aswell.

As my current mobo has an awful colour scheme and would like to spruce it up a bit! Plus I think it's limiting me on my overclocks.

Do you think I should do this? And then wait until, possibly Skylake? Or just wait with my current set-up until possible Broadwell-K? - Skylake?

I would then add all these components to the new build.

Have asked on another forum but always want to get people's opinions!

Thanks,

Kieran
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Mar 16, 2012
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Intel processors haven't gotten much faster since sandy bridge. Your 2550k is nearly as fast as a 4670k, and overclocks a bit better.

Adding an ssd (btw, why are you buying two?) or upgrading your video card is a good idea, but there's not much point in dumping your 2550k.

What is your motherboard make/model?
 
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viKierannx

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One for my OS, Drivers, Security etc. and the other for my Programs and Most Played Games (BF4, CS: GO, Bioshock Infinite, DayZ etc.)

Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 is my motherboard.
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Ok. SSD speed is directly affected by it's capacity. The larger drives are also faster. 2 120gb drives in Raid 0 are no faster than 1 240gb drive (and the 120gb's are slower in some cases). This will be the case for a while until the ssd begin to fully saturate SATA3.

I would suggest either sticking with a single 250 for everything, or if you can squeeze it into your budget, a single 500 (about $100 more than a 120 and 250).

Your motherboard has what looks like a 4+2 phase voltage regulator, which is decent for overclocking. It *could* be better, but the current fluctuation on you motherboard won't lower the max overclock much (~100mhz at a guess)
 
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viKierannx

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Okay thanks for clarifying. To help reduce the cost, I think I may just get a 120GB Evo, and stick with my 60GB Agility 3 for BF4 and DayZ. Get two 1TB mech's for Games/Programs/Storage etc.

Ah okay. So do you think I should just upgrade my PSU and GPU. Then just concerned whether a R9 290 will fit in my Z11+, was looking at getting a 750D. It's just I hate the colour of my motherboard :p

You think I should just stick with what I have and wait until Broadwell-K?

Thanks,

Kieran
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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Broadwell, skylake, cannonlake, if even then. I've a sneaking suspicion Broadwell isn't going to be a huge performance increase, either. Sandy bridge was the beginning of a semi-plateau in performance. Sandy bridge was a huge jump in power, but each successive generation after sought more to increase efficiency (reduced power) than performance.

I would have a 2500k instead of a 3570k right now if micocenter hadn't sold out in an hour after putting them on sale for $100 >.<

Your 2550k is going to be good for several more years, imho.
 
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viKierannx

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So you reckon I shouldn't get the mPower motherboard and just upgrade the GPU and PSU?
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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I'd suggest getting a cooler and seeing what you can get for overclock first. you can always replace the motherboard with a higher phase voltage regulator one later.

I've gotten big overclocks out of 4 cpu-phase regulator boards before (an x3 455 to stable 4.0ghz from stock 3.3 on an asrock 970 extreme 3, and that's a multiplier-locked CPU!)
 
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viKierannx

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I currently have a Gelid Tranquillo Rev. 2, and can get 4.5GHz before it crashes during OCCT and Prime 95. Problem is my case doesn't support a radiator so looking at the 750D
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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That's about normal for air cooling. if your 4.4ghz is stable, your motherboard isn't really limiting you.

Unless your temps are high, watercooling won't help you. Watercooling doesn't change how good your chip is (or how much voltage you need to reach a given clock)... only how high your temps go when you stress it. Every 2550k is different, they won't all reach the same overclock; even if they do, it might not be on the same voltage.

4.4ghz is the highest stable i get on my 3570k with a hefty air cooler on 1.325v - consensus says the max safe voltage for that chip is 1.4, but for longevity and higher stability I stay well under that.
 
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viKierannx

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I don't go above 1.25v, and that was the best I could get, didn't want to go higher than that. Though BIOS said 1.25v but CPU-Z was reading 1.302v for some reason...

So what do you think I should do? Was planning on doing some stuff to it for Christmas as planned it when Haswell was released in June/July. Leave it and get a new Case, PSU and GPU? Or do that and get a new mobo?

Thanks for your help by the way!
 
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quilciri

quilciri

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My pleasure.

You'll likely get a better OC out of a voltage bump, then. 1.5v is the max safe reported for the 2500/2550k, so you can easily bump to 1.4-1.425 for 24/7 usage.

Other than that, you've practically got the fastest 4-thread CPU you can get right now. What are you PSU and GPU?
 
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viKierannx

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I'll try and push harder, but I think my temps also limit me then. HX520W from Corsair and a HD6850 from XFX. I would like the R9 290 Non Reference but not sure if it will fit in my current case, and from looking at it, I don't think it does.
 
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