Advise for motherboard + CPU upgrade

[RdeFuijk]

Hi, like the title says, I'm looking to upgrade my PC by replacing my current motherboard, as well as a new CPU.
My current PC:

Motherboard: Asus P8H61-M
CPU: Intel Core i5 2300 @2.8Ghz (quad core)
Ram: 8GB DDR3 @1333Mhz
PSU: Corsair tx650w (650 Watt)
GPU: MSI GTX 760 2GB

Since most high demanding games today ask more and more of your PC CPU wise, I feel like it's time for me to upgrade.

Does anyone have some advice for me for a new motherboard and CPU? My budget is around €250-300 (I think that would be realistic). I have to wait at least a few weeks for my next paycheck, so I have time to look at my options.

I guess my question is, can anyone help me with this, and maybe know something about if I should wait for a new generation of chipsets?

 

[Alex Kelly]

What country are you in? Great new intel chips and chipsets just came out.

 

[RdeFuijk]

I live in the Netherlands. And would 250-300 euro's be enough? And any advice on the difference between i5's and i7's? I mean I only game on the PC, no other kind of heavy programs. Would a i5 be enough for the upcoming years?

 

[Bluemoon_9]

i5 4670k + Z97. Around 325 euro I see. Best combo you can get for gaming now. If you want below 300, or you do not overclock, get i5 4670 + MSI H97, around 265 euro.

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/330322/intel-core-i5-4670k-boxed.html

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/385033/msi-z97-gaming-5.html

 

[Alex Kelly]

^^ Beat me to it!
Great advice. The 4690K is a much better choice than the 4670K, though.

 

[RedJaron]

You're running a Sandy Bridge i5, and that should provide plenty of power for gaming, even today. I don't know that you'd see that big of a jump going from SB to Haswell to really warrant upgrading those parts. Yes, demanding games want a powerful CPU, but the i5 already meets that requirement and so the rest of the power has to come from the GPU. I'm still running a SB i7 and have no problem with my CPU in games. If you're only running a GTX 720, that's not a very powerful card, so if you feel you can't play games well, I'd start looking to replace that first.

What kind of games do you play ( or want to play in the near future, ) and what resolution is your monitor?

 

[RdeFuijk]

Thanks! I was looking for MSI motherboards anyway, since I'm very happy with my MSI graphics card. this does seem like the best combination, and (sorta) fits with my budget. Just one question though, is this motherboard gonna be compatible with all of my current hardware (besides my current CPU ofcourse)? And will I see a significant performace boost, or will it just make my PC more up-to-date? I'm upgrading either way, but I'm just curious.

 

[Bluemoon_9]

MB is compatible with only intel 4th gen Proc (1150 socket). Everything else is compatible, but your GPU is too underpowered. I recommend at least a 760

 

[RdeFuijk]

You're running a Sandy Bridge i5, and that should provide plenty of power for gaming, even today. I don't know that you'd see that big of a jump going from SB to Haswell to really warrant upgrading those parts. Yes, demanding games want a powerful CPU, but the i5 already meets that requirement and so the rest of the power has to come from the GPU. I'm still running a SB i7 and have no problem with my CPU in games. If you're only running a GTX 720, that's not a very powerful card, so if you feel you can't play games well, I'd start looking to replace that first.

What kind of games do you play ( or want to play in the near future, ) and what resolution is your monitor?

I'm sorry, I made a mistake with my GPU, it's a GTX 760, not a 720. Besides that, I'm using a 1920x1080 monitor, and play all of my games in that resolution.

And I know that my SB i5 still runs fine, but I have been looking for a new motherboard for quite a while now, mainly because i bought this one 3 years ago, and I didn't have much money back than, so I had to save money on some parts. I made the mistake of going cheap on the MB and have been regretting it ever since. Only 2 PCI slots (it's a uATX MB), no USB 3.0, no surround sound, Ram only up to 16GB at max 1333Mhz and only SATA 2.0.

And when I'm replacing my MB, I might as well get a new CPU, one that's ready for the upcoming future, so I don't have to worry about not being able to play games optimally.

 

[RdeFuijk]

MB is compatible with only intel 4th gen Proc (1150 socket). Everything is compatible, but your GPU is too underpowered. I recomment at least a 760

Like I said in the previous reply, I made a mistake in my post, it is a GTX 760, not 720

 

[Bluemoon_9]

Go ahead you will enjoy your build

 

[RedJaron]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the Hx1 boards either. They seem to be very stripped down on features. And yep, if you're replacing the mboard it is hard not to want a new CPU to go with it. Me being the practical guy, I'd say live with what you've got for as long as you can because next year hopefully sees some nice changes. Skylake comes out and with it some fun new options like DDR4, DMI 3, and more PCIe lanes. If you absolutely need a new mboard as a stop-gap, I'd pick up a decent H77 board like ASRock H77 Pro4 and save the rest for upgrading December next year.

And if you've already got the 760, then yep, you're fine there ( BTW, I'd edit your original post to reflect the 760 so new-comers aren't confused. )

 

[RdeFuijk]

I have been doing some research, and right now the combination I have found is:
MSI B85-G43 Gaming + Intel i5-4690

The only "problem" I have, is that the MSI B85-G43 only supports Crossfire, not SLI. Now, I'm not using SLI at the moment, nor am I planning to in the future, but I do have a NVidia card, not a AMD. The thing is though that Motherboards that do support SLI seem to be much more expensive. So is it something worth considering to pay the extra money for a MB that does support SLI? And the MSI B85-G43 still supports nvidia right? just to be save.

 

[RedJaron]

I have been doing some research, and right now the combination I have found is:
MSI B85-G43 Gaming + Intel i5-4690

The only "problem" I have, is that the MSI B85-G43 only supports Crossfire, not SLI. Now, I'm not using SLI at the moment, nor am I planning to in the future, but I do have a NVidia card, not a AMD. The thing is though that Motherboards that do support SLI seem to be much more expensive. So is it something worth considering to pay the extra money for a MB that does support SLI? And the MSI B85-G43 still supports nvidia right? just to be save.

The problem is that the mboard chipset doesn't support splitting the PCIe lanes to run two GPUs. The B and H chipsets only have a single GPU slot with x16 lanes. Any secondary slots are limited to x4 and are possibly only PCIe 2.0. AMD allows Crossfire to operate over four lanes ( even though doing so doesn't work very well, ) but nVidia requires at least eight for the SLI spec. Officially only the Z boards support the x8/x8 split needed for proper multi-GPU support. Some premium H boards add in the PCIe switches to enable that split, but those are the exception.

Personally I'm not a fan of planning a future SLI/XFire upgrade. Usually by the time you're ready to add the second card, you're a generation or two behind. It requires a bigger PSU with more power cables and it will generate a lot more noise and heat. Instead I think it's simpler and cleaner to just upgrade to a new, stronger GPU. If you plan to game across multiple screens, then SLI makes sense, but you should plan on that from the get go. A single strong GPU is just fine for a single screen.

 

[Alex Kelly]

^ Agreed. SLI/Crossfire isn't really a good option anymore. Ends up costing a lot more than you thought it would, and has plenty of complications.

 

[RdeFuijk]

I have been doing some research, and right now the combination I have found is:
MSI B85-G43 Gaming + Intel i5-4690

The only "problem" I have, is that the MSI B85-G43 only supports Crossfire, not SLI. Now, I'm not using SLI at the moment, nor am I planning to in the future, but I do have a NVidia card, not a AMD. The thing is though that Motherboards that do support SLI seem to be much more expensive. So is it something worth considering to pay the extra money for a MB that does support SLI? And the MSI B85-G43 still supports nvidia right? just to be save.

The problem is that the mboard chipset doesn't support splitting the PCIe lanes to run two GPUs. The B and H chipsets only have a single GPU slot with x16 lanes. Any secondary slots are limited to x4 and are possibly only PCIe 2.0. AMD allows Crossfire to operate over four lanes ( even though doing so doesn't work very well, ) but nVidia requires at least eight for the SLI spec. Officially only the Z boards support the x8/x8 split needed for proper multi-GPU support. Some premium H boards add in the PCIe switches to enable that split, but those are the exception.

Personally I'm not a fan of planning a future SLI/XFire upgrade. Usually by the time you're ready to add the second card, you're a generation or two behind. It requires a bigger PSU with more power cables and it will generate a lot more noise and heat. Instead I think it's simpler and cleaner to just upgrade to a new, stronger GPU. If you plan to game across multiple screens, then SLI makes sense, but you should plan on that from the get go. A single strong GPU is just fine for a single screen.

So this MB should be fine right? Just because it doesn't support SLI doesn't mean that my single NVIDIA card won't work right? I completely agree with you btw that SLI is not really a good option for me. I'd rather buy a new single GPU of the latest generation than to buy another GTX 760. That would indeed also require a new PSU, and I heard it's not optimal performace wise.

But it kind of worried me that it did support crossfire, but not SLI, and I was worried that this wouldn't be a good choice as a NVIDIA owner.

Btw, my current CPU heatsink is a Arctic Freezer Xtream Rev. 2, which supports intel sockets 1366, 1156, 1155 and 775. I read on this same website that a 1155 socket CPU heatsink also works on a 1150. The motherboard I want to buy (MSI B85-G43) has a 1150 socket. So I was wondering if you know anything about that?

and could you give a bit of feedback on this combination I chose? Is it a choice for me, and if not, why?

 

[RedJaron]

So this MB should be fine right? Just because it doesn't support SLI doesn't mean that my single NVIDIA card won't work right? I completely agree with you btw that SLI is not really a good option for me. I'd rather buy a new single GPU of the latest generation than to buy another GTX 760. That would indeed also require a new PSU, and I heard it's not optimal performace wise.

But it kind of worried me that it did support crossfire, but not SLI, and I was worried that this wouldn't be a good choice as a NVIDIA owner.

Btw, my current CPU heatsink is a Arctic Freezer Xtream Rev. 2, which supports intel sockets 1366, 1156, 1155 and 775. I read on this same website that a 1155 socket CPU heatsink also works on a 1150. The motherboard I want to buy (MSI B85-G43) has a 1150 socket. So I was wondering if you know anything about that?

and could you give a bit of feedback on this combination I chose? Is it a choice for me, and if not, why?

It will work fine. Lack of SLI doesn't mean lack of all nVidia support, just multiple nVidia cards together. Any single GPU will work.

Yes, the LGA 1150 mounting dimensions are the exact same as LGA 1155, so no worries getting your cooler to mount.

As for if it will work for you, well that's lots of processing power, so I don't think you'll be disappointed there. You might look at similar H boards as you'll get more SATA3 and USB3 ports, but I don't think it will be a big deal. But the B chipset is not intended for overclocking, so getting the 4690K may be a little wasteful. If you're talking about the non-K 4690, I would rather save some money with the 4590 or 4460. A few hundred MHz aren't worth the extra money, but you'll still get the Haswell refresh CPU and improvements.

And I still think you ought to consider only upgrading your mboard to an H77. I know it's not flashy to do, but it will be much cheaper since you're really not lacking for power and performance right now. Doing this will get you the new features you want, like USB3, and save money right now. Then you can bank the rest of the money toward an upgrade to Broadwell or even Skylake.