Is it Worth it

[Alein]

Ok looking at a new system but first here is my current rig:
Asus P5Q pro
Q6600@3600
4gig Kingston 1066 ram
AMD xfire 6870
SDD OCZ Vortex2 120
WD black 500gig
PSU - Coolmaster silent power 1000
Watercooled dual loop setup.

I am looking at going to
I5 2500 or I7 2600 unlocked
Asus Maximus Extreme z67 or z68
G.skills 16gig Ripjaw 2133
Keeping the rest of the rig the same

I will be overclocking the processor. This rig is mostly for gaming, photoshop, and some video encoding.
My current system isn't bad and can still hold it's own but would it be worth the upgrade.


Regards,
Alein

 

[Lieutenant Awesome]

i7

z77 mobo?

 

[neon neophyte]

depending how serious you are about photoshop the 2600k could server you better. 100 dollars better? debatable. hyperthreading does help with photoshop though.

your new system will rock the pants off your old one, though you could slide by on that q6600 for a bit longer if u wanted. its a semi decent quadcore.

one thing to note, is, you said video encoding. nothing encodes faster than quicksync, and in order to take advantage of quicksync, you would need a z68 mobo, not a p67

 

[J_E_D_70]

What he ^ said. 3570K and a Z77.

 

[kajabla]

You don't need RAM faster than 1600mhz. You'll hardly see a difference, and then only in synthetic benchmarks.
That's the 2500K you're looking for.
Z77's probably a good idea, actually, for Photoshop stuff. I'm not an expert, though. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-virtu-mvp-benchmark,3174-2.html
Go for the ASRock Z77 Extreme4.

There's no reason to go 3570K, JED. The 2500K is much cheaper and runs cooler.

 

[Lieutenant Awesome]

If you're doing video then defo i7

 

[J_E_D_70]

Agree with Kaj about the ram and the extreme4 rocks - installed one yesterday and went super smooth.

But, would say the same thing about crazy overclocked 2500K vs a moderately clocked 3570K (only $30 more)--you'll only see it in synthetics. However, you do get real PCI 3.0 which will be important in video cards a few years down the road. You get a much better integrated GPU that works in pseudo-sli with any video card (still needs some work in some games, tho).

It's up to you, but here is the input from a few sites I trust regarding upgrades from a core 2 or older system:
Anandtech
"While it's not enough to tempt existing Sandy Bridge owners, if you missed the upgrade last year then Ivy Bridge is solid ground to walk on. It's still the best performing client x86 architecture on the planet and a little to a lot better than its predecessor depending on how much you use the on-die GPU."

Tom's Hardware
"What if you’re still stuck on an old Core 2- or Phenom-based platform and need something new? In that case, of course a desktop Ivy Bridge-based chip makes more sense than buying what is now last-generation hardware."

HardOCP
"I recently built a new system for my personal usage. I was aware of what was coming down the pike from Intel, and instead of wait for Ivy Bridge, I made the choice to build a Sandy Bridge system. If I was building today, I would go with an Ivy Bridge processor. I guess that really says it all for most [H] users."

HardwareCanucks
"The asterisk is obviously that overclocking hobbyists with air coolers won’t find Ivy Bridge particularly compelling, it simply runs too hot when you reach a certain level. A level which most Sandy Bridge chips have no problems achieving. But then again, we are talking about above 4.5GHz, which in the grand scheme of things is a realm that few users venture into anyways."