Looking to upgrade - Ivy Bridge or Haswell?

[olender]

I'll start off by listing my current computer specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 (black edition I think) w/ Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB
GPU: XFX Radeon HD5850 1GB
PSU: CORSAIR HX Series 750W

That should cover most of the major/important components. Currently, I don't feel "that behind" performance-wise, as I mostly play games such as SC2, Diablo 3, and the like and haven't had any issues. But I enjoy building computers and since this build is roughly 4 years old (and probably on it's way out soon anyway) I thought I'd build something new within the next few months (after some research of course) that would be solid enough to last another 3-4 years and have no issues with new and emerging games. I prefer to keep my builds roughly under $1500, but am under no particular budget constraints.

As I've been "out of the game" for the last couple years, I had to brush up on what's current and what's not. I've always built AMD, but I will be going Intel this time around. I know Haswell has just come out, however, I was thinking of possibly going with an Ivy Bridge build. My reasoning is that Ivy Bridge will be slightly cheaper (not by much) than Haswell, tends to overclock better, runs cooler, and whatever else I missed. The ~10% performance increase Haswell has doesn't seem to warrant the slightly higher price tag (except in the case of 3770K being more expensive than 4770K?). This has been my thought process so far, let me know if I'm thinking anything through incorrectly.

If I were to go with Haswell I would choose either: i5-4670K ($240) or i7-4770K ($300)
If I were to go with Ivy Bridge I would choose either: i5-3570K ($199) or i7-3770K ($329)

I think I would lean more towards an i7. Even though I don't do any intense video editing, mostly just gaming, web-browsing, watching movies/tv shows on a 47" TV hooked up via HDMI cable. I figure the hyperthreading couldn't hurt even if I'm not fully utilizing it. I feel it gives me some possible "future-proofing" once newer games start coming out that take advantage of hyper threading and the like. I've read the i5 is sufficient for gaming, but I likely won't upgrade for another 3-4 years, so am I right in assuming the i7 will have some more future proofing than an i5. Also I'm a little torn between Haswell and Ivy Bridge, but my assumption is that Ivy Bridge would be the better choice. The only possible downside would be that I'd be left on a "dead" chipset 1155 vs the newer 1150, on which I could maybe upgrade later (broadwell?) if Intel doesn't decide to introduce yet another chipset like it seems to do anyway.

I was also hoping to get some input on a motherboard. I was leaning toward the ASRock Extreme4 in either Z77 or Z87 depending on which CPU I decide on. The price difference between chipsets is about 15 dollars ($130 vs $145). On the whole I know 1150 chipset boards are slightly more expensive than 1155, but if the Haswell is the better option then I don't really mind, as long as I know I have a solid motherboard that isn't crazy expensive. There's so many boards to choose from it's a little hard to decide but the Extreme4 seems to be a fairly praised board and I don't think I'd gain much of anything I could possibly use from the Extreme6. If there are other boards I should consider, please let me know.

 

[Extremehotdog]

Well I always suggest taking the newest technologies but between Ivy Bridge and Haswell there isnt much difference. Also, the i5 4670k overclocked performs the same as the i7 4770k in gaming so you could save some money there. As for the motherboard I will take that or the MSI Z87-G45 Gaming; I personally prefer the MSI because of all the features it has, but you couldnt go wrong with either one.

 

[olender]

Well I always suggest taking the newest technologies but between Ivy Bridge and Haswell there isnt much difference. Also, the i5 4670k overclocked performs the same as the i7 4770k in gaming so you could save some money there. As for the motherboard I will take that or the MSI Z87-G45 Gaming; I personally prefer the MSI because of all the features it has, but you couldnt go wrong with either one.

As of right now, I don't plan on overclocking, but I do in the future once I feel I need more from the system. Then again, looking at some of these motherboards, overclocking seems to be as simple as pressing a button on the motherboard (oc genie?). So I guess, yes I might take a stab at overclocking once I feel comfortable. Though, does my argument for the i7 make sense in terms of future-proofability if/when more games/apps/programs start utilizing hyperthreading?

I did look at the MSI and it did appeal to me, however, I've heard MSI support is bad? Though, hopefully I wouldn't have to RMA anything because of a DOA or failure few months down the line. That would probably be my only caution in terms of MSI, though I could have that all wrong. In either case, I would definitely consider (and maybe go with) the MSI board as it does seem to have some nicer features overall. In general, I don't have enough background on the newer boards to have an educated opinion, I'm just looking for something that will be reliable with some nice features, and some future-proofability.

 

[Extremehotdog]

Well I always suggest taking the newest technologies but between Ivy Bridge and Haswell there isnt much difference. Also, the i5 4670k overclocked performs the same as the i7 4770k in gaming so you could save some money there. As for the motherboard I will take that or the MSI Z87-G45 Gaming; I personally prefer the MSI because of all the features it has, but you couldnt go wrong with either one.

As of right now, I don't plan on overclocking, but I do in the future once I feel I need more from the system. Then again, looking at some of these motherboards, overclocking seems to be as simple as pressing a button on the motherboard (oc genie?). So I guess, yes I might take a stab at overclocking once I feel comfortable. Though, does my argument for the i7 make sense in terms of future-proofability if/when more games/apps/programs start utilizing hyperthreading?

I did look at the MSI and it did appeal to me, however, I've heard MSI support is bad? Though, hopefully I wouldn't have to RMA anything because of a DOA or failure few months down the line. That would probably be my only caution in terms of MSI, though I could have that all wrong. In either case, I would definitely consider (and maybe go with) the MSI board as it does seem to have some nicer features overall. In general, I don't have enough background on the newer boards to have an educated opinion, I'm just looking for something that will be reliable with some nice features, and some future-proofability.

Well Ive never bought an MSI board but since they have the Millitary Class components I wouldnt doubt that it is a very strong motherboard. About the i7, I dont think it is still worth the extra money; in the future there will be more games that support hyperthreading but that wouldnt really affect performance that much, performace in gaming is still mostly linked to the graphics card.

 

[farhan92]

Go with IB with a solid board for now, Haswell will likely die soon cause there'll be a new chipset for broadwell and haswell-E.
Plus there arent many reasons to consider haswell anyways besides the 10% clock advantage which isnt much to start with, also considering the diminished OCing capability. So your next upgrade will be when DDR4 arrives
My 2 cents