To the OP:

As you stated you are pleased with your current motherboard, then I think in your situation you should hold out on upgrading anything (save maybe the SSD) realistically if gaming is your #1 priority on your current system...

Thanks velozzity, yeah max RAM speed of i5s = 1333, so i'd like an i7 so i can get 1600 from it, i had no idea a Sandy could run on my
1156 motherboard so i may look into them now.
Yeah the hyperthreading of the i7s, one of the main reasons for wanting an i7 is that somewhere in the future i can see me having another SLI setup of 2x 580s and i'd need a good CPU to run this so up until now i've been lookin' at the i7 970s.
Anyways great input thanks very much!

*Currently i5 760 OC @4.2

Well i upgraded most of my rig at the new year, i got an i5 760, gtx 580, + 8gb ddr3 RAM. I'd like an i7 before BF3 release but i'm very happy with what i got right now, playing C2 right now i got 800MB VRAM to spare and my GPU with slight overclock runs at 80%.
If I were you I wouldn't bother getting the i7 before BF3, seeing as it doesn't really have anything over the i5 2500k as far as gaming is concerned.

I'm liking the 8GB RAM though and GTX580

So i was looking at something like a gaming keyboard but didn't like them much so i dunno ..i'd sure like something to mark the occasion, ..an SSD would be sweet, 90-120GB about ￡150 still so they ain't cheap ...
Personally I'd take the gaming keyboard over an SSD although that's just personal preference, I know people who have the SSD though and say booting up in 10 seconds or so makes it totally worth it lol.


EDIT: just saw the post above. An i5 2500K will run RAM at 1600 no sweat; mine had it higher than that easily, but I was held back by my RAM rather than my CPU. IIRC the i5 2500k is also substantially cheaper than the i7.

..EDIT: just saw the post above. An i5 2500K will run RAM at 1600 no sweat; mine had it higher than that easily, but I was held back by my RAM rather than my CPU. IIRC the i5 2500k is also substantially cheaper than the i7.

My motherboard is a 1156, i thought most of the Sandy's needed 1155 motherboards?

Dude, dont waste money now. You can play all games now with that config.

IMO you should upgrade around September. Why?

1. Sandy Bridge E and Bulldozer would be launched, select the best
2. HD7000 28nm would be launched, next generation DX11
3. Battlefield 3 would launch in October/November, so your rig will be READY in time


Upgrading for Crysis 2? That would be a waste.

Dude, dont waste money now. You can play all games now with that config.

IMO you should upgrade around September. Why?

1. Sandy Bridge E and Bulldozer would be launched, select the best
2. HD7000 28nm would be launched, next generation DX11
3. Battlefield 3 would launch in October/November, so your rig will be READY in time


Upgrading for Crysis 2? That would be a waste.

^This

To the OP:

As you stated you are pleased with your current motherboard, then I think in your situation you should hold out on upgrading anything (save maybe the SSD) realistically if gaming is your #1 priority on your current system...

Thanks velozzity, yeah max RAM speed of i5s = 1333, so i'd like an i7 so i can get 1600 from it, i had no idea a Sandy could run on my
1156 motherboard so i may look into them now.
Yeah the hyperthreading of the i7s, one of the main reasons for wanting an i7 is that somewhere in the future i can see me having another SLI setup of 2x 580s and i'd need a good CPU to run this so up until now i've been lookin' at the i7 970s.
Anyways great input thanks very much!

*Currently i5 760 OC @4.2

Maybe my first reply was a bit ambiguous but I never stated that Sandy Bridge would work on your mother board which is a socket 1156 board, I was referring to the fact that the only worthwhile upgrade would be moving to a sandy bridge processor and that would require a socket 1155 motherboard. Also no current I7 900 series will work on your board (those are lga 1366 socket), you are limited to a I7 800 series with I believe the I7 880 being the max at the time or you could pick up a I7 875k with unlocked multi for easier overclocking if there are some still floating around out there. I'm not trying to discourage you from moving up to the I7 from the I5, just in real life scenarios you are not going to see any discernible differences between the 2 unless you do alot of encoding/video editing or stuff which benefits greatly from Hyperthreading. Your money is best kept in your pocket or a bank and waiting to skip a generation, or at least till the true successor to I7 900 series and Ivy Bridge are released. Also my upgrade path to my current I7 875k was from a Phenom II 965 at 4.0ghz. My current setup at stock (2.93ghz with 3.6 on 1 core at highest with Turbo enabled) meets or exceeds almost every benchmark I ran while using my AMD system. AMD is good value for the money but in the $200 and above sector they just don't compete really and unless Bulldozer is a miracle cant/wont meet or exceed Intel in the Instructions Per Cycle metric which really gives Intel the lead. The one outlier for this rule is Thuban (6 core AMD based off the Phenom II architechure) which if your main goal is running programs that utilize more than 4 cores does a fine enough job, but until gaming devs get their act together and make more games which scale properly with cores, your best sticking with a good Quad and letting clock speed be king. Also as previously stated the memory speed issue is a non-issue, you will see no appreciable gains in Frames per second unless benchmarking is your priority and not actual gaming.

To anyone else who reads this and says Intel fanboy, all other computers in my household save the one I typed this on are AMD Phenom II based, 1 being a Phenom II 720be tri core and the other being a Phenom II 965.

Also about the ram speed the speeds stated are OFFICIAL suggested Intel specs, not what will really work on your system. Have you tried visiting the memory manufacturers forums to see how you might go about setting up your current memory to work at a faster speed by loosening timings, etc.

..Also about the ram speed the speeds stated are OFFICIAL suggested Intel specs, not what will really work on your system. Have you tried visiting the memory manufacturers forums to see how you might go about setting up your current memory to work at a faster speed by loosening timings, etc.

Thanks friend i Changed my RAM from cas 9 to cas 8 ( 8 8 8 21) and if i up the speed anymore my comp. crashes, i must check out the 875k though ...

Ooohh those 875k CPUs are sweet!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=i7+875K&x=0&y=0

Get a 560TI. its a beast.

A good PC for the upcoming Crysis 2 DX11 and BF3 would certainly cost you a good $1500 or so, while a PS3 costs around $300 and Xbox for $200, so you could use that PC money to buy both consoles THREE TIMES! But our PC version of Crysis 2 certainly isn't THREE TIMES better than its console counterparts...I hate consoles...

I'm almost to the point where "if you can't beat'em, join'em."

wow.. reading this i feel terribly outdated with the pc upgrade scene...

i last upgraded my pc a few years back and was satisfied with it being able to play all the games at the highest resolution without lag..

im only using a GTX 480 (no SLI)...and i love MSI and Gigabyte brands of graphics card cos of their OC programs..

Don't worry, I have a single GTX260 and I think anything else is expensive overkill for no-lifers

wow.. reading this i feel terribly outdated with the pc upgrade scene...

i last upgraded my pc a few years back and was satisfied with it being able to play all the games at the highest resolution without lag..

im only using a GTX 480 (no SLI)...and i love MSI and Gigabyte brands of graphics card cos of their OC programs..

Don't worry, I have a single GTX260 and I think anything else is expensive overkill for no-lifers

No lifer; hmmm: Should I upgrade then?

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If you got a 460, 470 or 480 make sure you have good case cooling. The GPU can hit 70c and that's where the fan on the GPU really starts to kick in and get loud. I got a new Coolermaster case and 3 120mm fans with a Corsair A50 HS/F. I cannot hear my GTX460 GPU fan kick in nowhere near as bad as it was.

Want a GTX 560 Ti next or at least a GTX560.

I been OCing for a few hours now, from the bios :

Before After
CPU 4.2 / CPU 4.3
RAM 9 9 9 24 / RAM 9 9 9 23

I was near tearing my hair out so i stopped, still seems stable but haven't gamed yet.
(i5 760)

A good PC for the upcoming Crysis 2 DX11 and BF3 would certainly cost you a good $1500 or so, while a PS3 costs around $300 and Xbox for $200, so you could use that PC money to buy both consoles THREE TIMES! But our PC version of Crysis 2 certainly isn't THREE TIMES better than its console counterparts...I hate consoles...

I'm almost to the point where "if you can't beat'em, join'em."
Uh a PC capable of playing BF3 at max setting will cost you about as much as a high end PS3 or 360 did at the time they launched.

this is my system

Asus M4785-M M/B
AMD athlon II 640 2.8 GHz quad core
XFX radeon 5770
4 GB of G. skill 1066 Mgz RAM
Western digital caviar green 500 GB harddrive
corsair 650 watt PSU

cooling:
1 120 mm intake fan
1 120mm fan on the side panel
1 120mm fan in the rear of the case
1 140mm fan on the top
1 120mm fan on the top (im going to switch it out for another 140

how much FPS can i expect to get? right now with fraps on without it running it was around 70 maxed out

this is my system

Asus M4785-M M/B
AMD athlon II 640 2.8 GHz quad core
XFX radeon 5770
4 GB of G. skill 1066 Mgz RAM
Western digital caviar green 500 GB harddrive
corsair 650 watt PSU

cooling:
1 120 mm intake fan
1 120mm fan on the side panel
1 120mm fan in the rear of the case
1 140mm fan on the top
1 120mm fan on the top (im going to switch it out for another 140

how much FPS can i expect to get? right now with fraps on without it running it was around 70 maxed out

How the hell do you get 70FPS??? I have AMD Athlon x6 2.8GHz Six cores and ATI Radeon HD 5770 and I only get a MAX of 40FPS.

this is my system

Asus M4785-M M/B
AMD athlon II 640 2.8 GHz quad core
XFX radeon 5770
4 GB of G. skill 1066 Mgz RAM
Western digital caviar green 500 GB harddrive
corsair 650 watt PSU

cooling:
1 120 mm intake fan
1 120mm fan on the side panel
1 120mm fan in the rear of the case
1 140mm fan on the top
1 120mm fan on the top (im going to switch it out for another 140

how much FPS can i expect to get? right now with fraps on without it running it was around 70 maxed out

How the hell do you get 70FPS??? I have AMD Athlon x6 2.8GHz Six cores and ATI Radeon HD 5770 and I only get a MAX of 40FPS.


oh sorry that was fraps for a proper benchmark disregard that

edit:and im also pretty sure it was during a cutscene i wont be able to go back and check until sunday evening

Also my upgrade path to my current I7 875k was from a Phenom II 965 at 4.0ghz. My current setup at stock (2.93ghz with 3.6 on 1 core at highest with Turbo enabled) meets or exceeds almost every benchmark I ran while using my AMD system. AMD is good value for the money but in the $200 and above sector they just don't compete really and unless Bulldozer is a miracle cant/wont meet or exceed Intel in the Instructions Per Cycle metric which really gives Intel the lead. The one outlier for this rule is Thuban (6 core AMD based off the Phenom II architechure) which if your main goal is running programs that utilize more than 4 cores does a fine enough job, but until gaming devs get their act together and make more games which scale properly with cores, your best sticking with a good Quad and letting clock speed be king.

The I7 875K at stock 2.93GHz will not outperform a Phenom II 965 at 4.0GHz in most high-end gaming, and when it does, it's only by an unnoticeable framerate margin. I used to run that processor and I pit it against friends running the 875K, and in almost every single case, my system performed better or on par with theirs in real world gaming results. The 875K can pull ahead under a good overclock, but even then, the increase in gaming performance is not impressive.

The 875K may be Hyperthreaded to 8 threads, but games run far better on cores than virtual threads. Hyperthreading or multi-threading is not very effective when we are talking about gaming.

Anyway, just had to drop my 2 cents. I have put this to the test more times than I can count, all the hype over Intel vs AMD is just that, hype. They strive for better and better synthetic benchmarks. Do we play benchmarks? Not me, I play video games. When they guy who spend hundreds more on his processor and gets 10 more FPS than me, and I am already pushing out three digits. Lets just say that 20 years as a system builder and tester have tainted my opinions somewhat. haha

I don't buy benchmarks. 99 times out of 100, my results are well above the so called benchmarks people take as gospel more often than not. Then again, a lot can be said for hardware configurations and experience. Like I said, I have been doing this for about 20 years.

I do agree, more and more developers need to get on the 4+ core bandwagon. I am running the 1090T OC @ 4.1GHz at the moment, I will be trying out the AMD Bulldozer FX-Zambezi FX-8130P octo-core, when and if they get it released, but as it is now I am not able to use the full potential of this hexa-core all that often.