To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade

pitchingace88

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Oct 19, 2011
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That is the question...

Approximate Purchase Date: Within a month, no real rush but something I have been considering for a while

Budget Range: 300-500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Video Rendering (YouTube Partner), Internet

Are you buying a monitor: No
Do you need to buy OS: No
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Doesn't matter, live near Microcenter so if the website is good I can always go in for price matching
Location: Santa Ana, CA - Right next to Microcenter
Parts Preferences: None
Overclocking: Yes when recording, otherwise will keep it at defaults
SLI or Crossfire: No, maybe in a couple years, but see no need now with my current set-up
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Parts to Upgrade: Bold will be items after being on these forums that have been recommended

CASE Cooler Master Centurion 5 - Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports
POWER SUPPLY Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan, Lifetime Warranty
HDD Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB Hard Drive ST31500341AS - 7200RPM, 32MB Cache, SATA-3G
CPU CURRENT Intel Core i5 750 Processor - 2.66GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core
CPU SUGGESTED Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor
MB CURRENT Asus P7P55D LE Motherboard - Intel P55, Socket LGA1156, Core i5, 2133MHz, DDR3
MB SUGGESTED ASRock Z77 Extreme4 or ASUS Rampage III Gene or GA-Z77X-UD3H
RAM Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 XMS 8GB DDR3 RAM - PC10666, 1333MHz, 2x 4GB
HEATSINK Cooler Master Hyper N520 Copper Heatpipe CPU Cooler
GPU Sapphire DIRT 3 EDITION Radeon HD 6950 2 GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100312-3SR

Upgrades being suggested would run me 300 at Microcenter, leaving me 200 to play with or upgrade something else...



And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: This is not a mandatory upgrade, more of a fun upgrade so feel free to give me your advice or opinions
 
Solution
You might not get back as much as you originally paid for the parts (maybe not as much as the new parts either) but I'd guess you could get a reasonable amount back for them on ebay.

Yeah, "Haswell" codenamed CPUs come out next year on a new socket (1150). It's still a few months away and most of the headlining gains are in power efficiency (though there will still be some modest generational gains in raw performance).

If you take the view of upgrades over time, you can always keep the SSD around if/when you make further tweaks to the system... though you might also decide to wait for SSD prices to drop a bit more (they are still substantially higher per GB than HDD).

Heh, if you have the cash to spend you'll get a faster system. The raw clock speed difference is a bit over 27% (at stock) and there's an additional few percentage points due to Intel's continued architectural gains. If you're gaming and rendering video you are in the few percent of the overall population which could notice the difference.

You could technically upgrade the CPU on the same board (say to an i7, which would help the video rendering but not so much most games) but you might have decided by now to stay modern.

By the way, what will you do with the old parts (just out of curiosity)
 

pitchingace88

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Oct 19, 2011
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I believe Intel is coming out with another chipset, well they always are lol, but I could wait for that one, but the 1155 seems to be a great bargain. I do know that because of my unique needs for the computer that getting one that is a little faster would be beneficial. Another solution I have heard is getting an SSD and putting most of my main stuff on their and keeping the 1.5TB as backup.

Honestly don't know what to do with the old parts... I won't really have any use for them, but as being used I can't see me getting much money from them. Do you know of any place I could get something for them? (assuming I do decide to switch out my CPU/MB)
 
You might not get back as much as you originally paid for the parts (maybe not as much as the new parts either) but I'd guess you could get a reasonable amount back for them on ebay.

Yeah, "Haswell" codenamed CPUs come out next year on a new socket (1150). It's still a few months away and most of the headlining gains are in power efficiency (though there will still be some modest generational gains in raw performance).

If you take the view of upgrades over time, you can always keep the SSD around if/when you make further tweaks to the system... though you might also decide to wait for SSD prices to drop a bit more (they are still substantially higher per GB than HDD).

 
Solution

pitchingace88

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Oct 19, 2011
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It looks like I can get at a Micro Center near me if you buy the Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor you can get a compatible motherboard for 50 bucks off, thinking the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA.

That would mean the total is 190 for the CPU, but TigerDirect has it for 180 so maybe they price match, if they don't its not too bad, and I would get the ASRock minus 50 down to 85 bucks. Then because I am a rewards member, I have a coupon for 5% off the biggest item so 171... so looking at best case scenario 278 bucks for the CPU/Motherboard or worse case scenario where the coupons don't work just under 300. That would give me some money to invest in a sweet SSD.

Sound like a bargain? I believe the ASRock is the board I should go with, any further inputs before I head out this weekend?
 

pitchingace88

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Oct 19, 2011
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I am thinking of going with the 300 upgrade for the MB/CPU and since I work 5 minutes away, just wait till they have a great deal on SSD's. Plus black friday is coming up soon and although I wouldn't go there for the tech, they usually have good deals before and after