Considering upgrade from i5 3330k (LGA 1155 socket): Options?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
H

hammer326

Distinguished
Nov 29, 2012
98
0
18,630
Hello,

Just threw some new parts into my gaming rig and the next one I'm examining is the CPU, as I'd like to stay somewhat current and notice that in some games it is at close to max load constantly according to my keyboard's LCD display.

I have an older intel DH77KC motherboard, an LGA 1155 socket per the title. I currently have an i5 3330 in there. I really haven't shopped for CPU's in years so really don't know what I'm looking at or if anything better than what I have would even be worth spending the money on, as opposed to, say, investing in some proper aftermarket cooling (I run the stock heatsink and have since '13) and OCing it all I can. That or finally dropping in a new mobo, as upon installing my first SSD today I saw that I'm out of SATA ports anyway..

Help appreciated, thank you.
 
Solution
D
kind of confusing since there is no CPU made by intel called a 3330k. do you mean an i5 3330 or 3570k? you can't overclock a 3330 and you can't overclock a 3570k with an intel H77 board.

aside from that, it all depends on the games you play. your CPU being at 0, 25, 50 or 100% load really means nothing in terms of if you need to upgrade or not. some games will use the CPU heavily, others won't.

Sort by date Sort by votes
D

dangus

Admirable
Oct 8, 2015
1,715
0
6,160
kind of confusing since there is no CPU made by intel called a 3330k. do you mean an i5 3330 or 3570k? you can't overclock a 3330 and you can't overclock a 3570k with an intel H77 board.

aside from that, it all depends on the games you play. your CPU being at 0, 25, 50 or 100% load really means nothing in terms of if you need to upgrade or not. some games will use the CPU heavily, others won't.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
S

sykozis

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2008
1,759
5
19,865
On a Z77 motherboard, the i5 3330 can be pushed to 3.6ghz maximum. On an H77 motherboard, I don't believe it's possible. Intel allowed non-K processors to be "overclocked" 4 bins above the turbo multiplier with Sandy and Ivy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dangus

Admirable
Oct 8, 2015
1,715
0
6,160


yeah thats true thanks. although he has an h77 board. a seemingly little known fact about locked sandy and ivy bridge i5s and i7s, though.

funny i actually knew this too cause i did it with an i7 3770. i misspoke....durrrr
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

sykozis

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2008
1,759
5
19,865
I did it with an i5 2400...lol

If he could find an i7 3770 or 3770K at a reasonable price, it would be a reasonable upgrade without requiring a new motherboard. Still not ideal though. Ideal would be holding off until February and upgrading motherboard/processor/ram as a set. I have no idea the OP's budget though.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dangus

Admirable
Oct 8, 2015
1,715
0
6,160
i did it with an i5 2400 as well hah. if you can find an ivy bridge i7 for a decent price (less than 100 bucks) it *may* be worth it but still not the most economical thing ever. the i5 3330 is still not a horrible setup though. i'd probably be happy with it for a couple more years. definitely not the best time to buy CPUs right now unless you have no PC at all. just like the rest of the world, im interested to see what kaby lake and zen do...things are going to HOPEFULLY get very interesting in january
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

hammer326

Distinguished
Nov 29, 2012
98
0
18,630



An i5 3330, my mistake, could've sworn that's what it was sold to me as (a 3330k) but I did confirm that no such thing ever existed :)

Good points otherwise, I had no idea that seeing my load max out like that wasn't necessarily indicative of my CPU approaching retirement. I'll hold off awhile and upgrade the mobo with it, probably drop some more faster RAM in there too.

Thanks everyone!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

hammer326

Distinguished
Nov 29, 2012
98
0
18,630
Could someone give me a crash course on these CPU terms? Links to articles summarizing them would be fine. As I said, haven't shopped for one in years so no idea what ivybridge, sandybridge, kaby or zen mean relative to a gamer. My knowledge terminates around where it was 8 years ago when it seemed like CPU shopping even for gamers was "Get the 3Ghz quad core."
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JQB45

JQB45

Splendid
Jun 23, 2006
3,606
51
24,040
Well Ivy Bridge is the 3000 series Intel CPU's like your i5-3330. Sandy Bridge is one generation older, in my case I own a Sandy Bridge i5-2500k. Skylake is the current, soon to be replaced Intel 6000 series CPU's such as the i5-6600k and i7-6700k. Skylake systems when configured well use DDR4 RAM. Kabylake is the 7000 series Intel CPU's and they will be out in the next month or so for desktop, the Ultra book models like the i5-7200U and i7-75000U have already been released.

AMD Zen is a new CPU architecture from AMD which hopefully will make AMD more competitive with Intel, its due to be released next month.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

hammer326

Distinguished
Nov 29, 2012
98
0
18,630



I see, thanks.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom