Upgrading my System

[k3wlit]

Hello,

My current build is
Intel i5-750 (not OC'd)
ASUS P7P55 PRO Motherboard
2 x HD 5770 1gb DDR5
8gb Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz
128gb Crucial M4 SSD
2 x 1 TB Western Digital Green Caviar (raid)
750 watts Corsair TX750

I plan to upgrade the following components and keep the memory, HDD's, and PSU

Intel i7-2700k
ASUS P8Z68 V PRO/GEN 3 PCIe 3.0 ready (sandy/ivy bridge compatible for upgrade)
2 x 560ti 448 cores or 1 x HD 7970 (need your thoughts ^^, same price)

My questions...
Is my current PSU enough to hold SLI'd 560ti 448 cores if i do decide to get it?
Should I get a P67 motherboard instead?

Thanks.

 

[CaedenV]

2700K is a more expensive 2600K. They are both unlocked so the 100MHz difference really makes no difference at all after OCing; but then again it is your money

There is NO advantage to the i7 over the i5 for gaming as games do not support HT, and the extra heat and complexity actually makes the i7 harder to OC as high as the i5 can go. i7 is still suggested for productivity work and massive multitasking (read more than 15 programs open), but in general you will get better results with an OC'd i5 2500K. Again, if doing productivity work then the i7 is the way to go.

Ivy bridge comes out in a month or so... So do you really want to upgrade now, only to upgrade again in a few months? Also, there will be new chipsets with the new CPUs that will better support things like PCIe3, so I would wait until then.

Similarly, the GTX600 cards come out in a month or so... the whole game may change with the new release, and there may be a little bit of a price war which could let you xFire/SLi 2 higher end GPUs, or get an even better single GPU. Personally I would get the fastest single GPU you can get as xFire is glitchey, and SLi is not supported by all games (or all parts of all games). Having a single fast card guarantees solid performance where the 2 card option will have differing levels of awesome depending on the game used. Later, (when your card dips below 120fps for the first time lol), you can always get a 2nd high end GPU to keep things moving. Personally I like nVidia for their drivers and for CUDA, but quite honestly AMD is coming out with the better cards right now on a per-$ and per-Wattage basis.

Most people will tell you to jump on the z68 train, but keep in mind that the chipset gives you features, not speed. If you find a p67 with the features you want and you do not need SSD caching or things like Virtu for crappy (but insanely fast) video rendering, then the p67 will do fine. As stated above I would wait for Ivy bridge as it is coming out very soon, and will come with it's own chipsets which will be better suited to the new chips. The current p67/z68 chips will support Ivy... but until it is released there is no way of knowing just how well they will support it.

Yes, 750W is enough for SLi GTX570s (and supposedly 580s), and will do the 448's just fine.

 

[randomkid]

In answer to your question:
"Is my current PSU enough to hold SLI'd 560ti 448 cores if i do decide to get it?"
The answer is yes. Calculation using this: http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine yields only 520W. I already added provisions for other parts of your computer.

If I may voice my opinion, you already got a good rig. I do not see any urgency for you to upgrade both in terms of processor or the GPU. But if you are itching for one, wait a bit for the ivy bridge & the amd7xxx or nVidia 6xx so you jump further...

 

[k3wlit]

Thanks for your inputs. I'm not into gaming that much, i'm more on the multi-tasking and video encoding programs. that's why i elected i7's and z68 for their HT and Virtu crap, respectively. I don't like to overclock, i'm more of a plug n play person. I guess a few months waiting won't hurt. I just hope the new chips isn't too pricey, for example, the 3960/30 processors. and 6990/590 cards

 

[randomkid]

^No, not the 3960/30... I mean the i7 3770 (because you dont like to OC anyway). Check this out:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/3
It is cheaper than the i7 2700K, have better graphics & lower TPD too...

But I myself am looking to buy at the i7 3930K & the Asrock X79 Extreme 4 just for the heck of it. Will use it to play Zuma in Facebook with my good old nVidia 9500GT.

 

[k3wlit]

^No, not the 3960/30... I mean the i7 3770 (because you dont like to OC anyway). Check this out:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/3
It is cheaper than the i7 2700K, have better graphics & lower TPD too...

But I myself am looking to buy at the i7 3930K & the Asrock X79 Extreme 4 just for the heck of it. Will use it to play Zuma in Facebook with my good old nVidia 9500GT.

What i meant by 3960/30 chips, when they came out, the prices are just high. i hope they don't increase the prices of ivy bridge when it comes out. Well, 3960/30's are 6 cores, btw.

 

[randomkid]

Well, 3960/30's are 6 cores, btw.

That's what I loke about them. But seeing these processors have tpd of 130W versus only 77W for Ivy Bridge with not much performance difference, it somehow turns me off... But I really like to be able to have task manager displays 12 threads just for the heck of it.