SHould i upgrade my CPU?

[phenom01]

I currently have an Athlon x4 435 processor and was thinking about going the intel route and get a core i5 3570K. Should i upgrade even though i only play starcraft 2?

P.S. I already know that i will need a new motherboard.

 

[rolli59]

If you are not happy the I5 is a much faster CPU. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/starcraft-ii-radeon-geforce,2728-8.html

 

[payturr]

If you only play Starcraft 2 & don't have much of a demand to overclock, you probably should just buy a Core i3 3220.

 

[kajunchicken]

You might as well upgrade to the i5. They have proved to be pretty future-proof and with a good cooler you can get them up to 4.5 Ghz. At this point though, CPUs aren't the bottleneck for much, it's usually the harddrive or the GPU.

 

[phenom01]

How can a HDD bottleneck a cpu? Also, i have a geforce gts 450. Is that good?

 

[kajunchicken]

GTS 450 is still a half-decent graphics card. It's certainly better than your CPU.

HDD's can bottleneck your entire computer because they are the slowest thing in your computer. Think about it, the only way the CPU can figure out what to do is by getting instructions from the hard drive. There is no way that your hard drive can keep up with how fast your CPU processes information.
(RAM is also a factor but it's not really important for the point I'm trying to make.)

 

[payturr]

I'd trade in the GT 450 for a Radeon 7770 - performs world's better, much more power efficient. As for hard drives, I'd probably replace your hard drive with a Crucial M4 for a boot drive, and a WD Black drive for your games & what not.

 

[phenom01]

I thought Nvidia GPU are better than AMD GPU for Starcraft, no? Also, if i get an SSD do i set it for my OS and the other HDD for Data? Or do i put my most commonly used programs on the SSD?

 

[kajunchicken]

I'd trade in the GT 450 for a Radeon 7770 - performs world's better, much more power efficient. As for hard drives, I'd probably replace your hard drive with a Crucial M4 for a boot drive, and a WD Black drive for your games & what not.

IF you feel like spending that much money lol.

 

[payturr]

I thought Nvidia GPU are better than AMD GPU for Starcraft, no? Also, if i get an SSD do i set it for my OS and the other HDD for Data? Or do i put my most commonly used programs on the SSD?

I never played Starcraft, I really wouldn't know, but a newer Radeon card probably will do better than your current one - the one you have right now is very old. Yes, you can just install the OS onto the SSD & when you install applications, like games, put them on the hard drive - games like Starcraft eat up SSDs quickly. Just keep light weight, frequently used things on the SSD, like Google Chrome.

 

[cbrunnem]

dont listen to that, in no way is your hard drive bottlenecking you. it will only slow down your load times for levels. literally i have never heard of someone being bottlenecked by a hard drive if it was modern. thats crazy.

 

[payturr]

dont listen to that, in no way is your hard drive bottlenecking you. it will only slow down your load times for levels. literally i have never heard of someone being bottlenecked by a hard drive if it was modern. thats crazy.

I've heard things like hard drives bottlenecking things - it's kinda true because it does make certain things slower. I was just telling him an option he can opt for with an SSD, for they do help a lot.

 

[kajunchicken]

I'm just saying, since he doesn't really game, that an SSD would provide a lot more responsiveness then buying a new processor and motherboard.

 

[cbrunnem]

I've heard things like hard drives bottlenecking things - it's kinda true because it does make certain things slower. I was just telling him an option he can opt for with an SSD, for they do help a lot.

an ssd would only help load times not fps. most hard drives can read 50-100 mb/s so if the hard drive where to be the bottleneck the game would be needing to use 3-6 gigabytes per minute. thats just not the case.

 

[payturr]

an ssd would only help load times not fps. most hard drives can read 50-100 mb/s so if the hard drive where to be the bottleneck the game would be needing to use 3-6 gigabytes per minute. thats just not the case.

Of course - I already advised him regarding the processor & graphics card, I was just bringing up the SSD because he seemed interested in the set up. I'm no chump. :3

 

[phenom01]

an ssd would only help load times not fps. most hard drives can read 50-100 mb/s so if the hard drive where to be the bottleneck the game would be needing to use 3-6 gigabytes per minute. thats just not the case.

Can you recommend me a good motherboard for the core i5 3570K

 

[kajunchicken]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837

Has a good price and I'm a fan of Asus personally.

 

[payturr]

Can you recommend me a good motherboard for the core i5 3570K

Anything from MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte with a Z77 & the ports you need will do. I still don't think you need a 3570K cause its not really necessary to get good frames in Starcraft, but if that's what you want!

 

[Guest]

I currently have an Athlon x4 435 processor and was thinking about going the intel route and get a core i5 3570K. Should i upgrade even though i only play starcraft 2?

P.S. I already know that i will need a new motherboard.

are you sure that not a athlon x3 435?

even a pentium G840 will give that a bit of a spanking for gaming. however getting a i5-3570K for ONLY playing starcarftII is unnecessary since SC2 only needs a dual core cpu. (older review but very relevant)
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty GPU & CPU Performance

here $133 bucks:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-G43 (G3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $132.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-01 19:15 EST-0500)

now fine sir, though that GTS 450 is good enough for SC2 would you care to consider a GTX 650ti? a bit pricey but it will rock your socks off:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-G43 (G3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($134.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $267.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-01 19:18 EST-0500)

seriously, go to pcpartpicker and look at all the combo deals it has listed for newegg in the cpu and motherboard selections!


hope this helped. cheers!

 

[payturr]

I agree with looniam 100%. You really shouldn't put so much for a processor to play 1 game.

 

[kajunchicken]

I agree with looniam 100%. You really shouldn't put so much for a processor to play 1 game.

I also agree. If you really want to upgrade your processor buy a cheap one. Buy an SSD with the extra money.

 

[phenom01]

Sorry i actually have an Athlon x4 640

 

[payturr]

Sorry i actually have an Athlon x4 640

Don't be, just heed the advice above.