2500k worth an upgrade?

[Bo$$]

I'm still rocking a 2500k, hasn't even been out of the system since i bought it back in 2011

I'm wanting to put my PC from this NZXT M59 into a new case such as the Define R5 or something (open to suggestions)

I am wondering if it is worth me grabbing an i7 2600K on eBay and swap it out for a smoother multitasking experience.

I do play a lot of games however I use this computer for Firefox 50+tabs (Flash/several YouTube) & excel + Word + Visio and during this time my firefox will get incredibly slow. wondering if that'll make a difference?

OR just pocket the cash and upgrade when something new comes along?

 

[Ahhzz]

/tag this since I'm in the same basic boat, and considering budgeting for the upgrade.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I went from a 2500k to a 4770k and haven't looked back. Nice little boost IMO. I wouldn't go from 2500k -> 2600k though.

 

[qubit]

I think you should hang on for Skylake.

I've got a 2700K and while it's really powerful and the HT is handy, it's not such a night and day difference from yours. I've turned off HT before to see the impact on the desktop and can tell you that it's quite subtle. There would be a more obvious difference in certain apps such as video transcoding, but not general workloads. EDIT: my CPU has a bigger cache, but again it doesn't make a massive difference.

Mine's not even overclocked any more and it's plenty powerful at the stock 3.5GHz.

@MxPhenom 216 Can you feel the difference on the desktop in general use?

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I think you should hang on for Skylake.

I've got a 2700K and while it's really powerful and the HT is handy, it's not such a night and day difference from yours. I've turned off HT before to see the impact on the desktop and can tell you that it's quite subtle. There would be a more obvious difference in certain apps such as video transcoding, but not general workloads.

Mine's not even overclocked any more and it's plenty powerful at the stock 3.5GHz.

@MxPhenom 216 Can you feel the difference on the desktop in general use?

Not really no, but its definitely quicker in some games, and video encoding.

 

[Ebo]

I would properly just turn up the juice for that CPU and see if that makes a difference for you in daily life and use.
If it does you are happy and I would save my money and see how Skylake will preform once it comes out later this year.

 

[st2000]

i think bringing some more ram will make more comfortable user expirience, case is not in cpu(as i think)

 

[Ahhzz]

Not sure about OP, but I wouldn't be changing boards, so I'm limited to the LGA1155 socket. How about the 3570k?

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I wouldn't do a damn thing and wait for Broadwell later this year or Skylake.

 

[Nordic]

Just wait for skylake

 

[peche]

I am wondering if it is worth me grabbing an i7 2600K on eBay and swap it out for a smoother multitasking experience.

well you have pretty good specs, as I can see many advices are like "Wait for Skylake" wait like 6 months or more…

but as a personal review you can get pretty much more from that Z68x board, overclocking potential on an Ivy Bridge processor may give you at least 3 years more of pretty solid performance,


take a look:
Your current specs,
System Name: Desktop
Processor: Intel i5 2500k @ 4GHZ
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4
Cooling: GeLID Tranquilo
Memory: Corsair Vengence 2x4GB Red 1600MHZ
Video Card(s): Gainward GTX 780 Phantom GLH
Hard Disk(s): Samsung 840EVO + 4TB WD Red
Optical Drive: 22x Samsung DVD +/-RW/W
LCD/CRT Model: Asus VE276Q + LG W2243S
Case: NZXT M59
Sound Card: Asus Xonar D1 w/Otone Stilo 5.1 and Creative Fatal1ty headset
Power Supply: ThermalTake Toughpower 850w
Mouse: Razer Imperator 2012
Keyboard: Corsair K90
Software: Windows 7 SP1 X64

parts i would replace
Processor: 3770K [delided for optimal temps, also 5.0GHZ OCed]
Cooling: Some AIO or Custom Waterloop, for lower temps with overclock

 

[eidairaman1]

Wait a year or 2

 

[INSTG8R]

well you have pretty good specs, as I can see many advices are like "Wait for Skylake" wait like 6 months or more…

but as a personal review you can get pretty much more from that Z68x board, overclocking potential on an Ivy Bridge processor may give you at least 3 years more of pretty solid performance,


take a look:
Your current specs,
System Name: Desktop
Processor: Intel i5 2500k @ 4GHZ
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4
Cooling: GeLID Tranquilo
Memory: Corsair Vengence 2x4GB Red 1600MHZ
Video Card(s): Gainward GTX 780 Phantom GLH
Hard Disk(s): Samsung 840EVO + 4TB WD Red
Optical Drive: 22x Samsung DVD +/-RW/W
LCD/CRT Model: Asus VE276Q + LG W2243S
Case: NZXT M59
Sound Card: Asus Xonar D1 w/Otone Stilo 5.1 and Creative Fatal1ty headset
Power Supply: ThermalTake Toughpower 850w
Mouse: Razer Imperator 2012
Keyboard: Corsair K90
Software: Windows 7 SP1 X64

parts i would replace
Processor: 3770K [delided for optimal temps, also 5.0GHZ OCed]
Cooling: Some AIO or Custom Waterloop, for lower temps with overclock

Waste of money for little or no gains...

 

[D007]

One word.. No.

 

[Axaion]

Wouldent upgrade at all unless youre doing heavy video encoding or picture editing which also requires a ton of RAM

Just oc that 2500k, whoever is saying upgrade to 3770k is nuts, theres, being generous, a 5-7% performance increase, if even that at the same clocks

And the 2500k overclocks like a beast, easy 4.5ghz+

Pocket the money and wait for a worthwhile upgrade

 

[Bo$$]

Thanks everyone!

I would not be changing the motherboard - saves me reinstalling windows

I think it'd only cost me like £50-80 to swap CPU (even for a 2600k or 3770k), since i'd be able to resell mine. so still not worth the bother?

As for overclocking I am sitting stable at 4.2GHZ, any higher and I get a crash (it might be the Beta UEFI bios I upgraded to).

I do have a watercooling loop sitting but my current case can't fit the radiators.

 

[Sasqui]

I'm on board with all the suggestions, do nothing. The biggest probable gain you'll get is from DDR4 on Skylake, but the interesting thing is Skylake is supposed to support both DDR3 and DDR4!

 

[Kursah]

Increase RAM to 16GB, if you're slowing down because of everything running...odds are it's hitting your page file. A faster, more efficient processor won't necessarily fix that, but more RAM will.

Your system is quite solid, honestly unless the 2600K is priced to steal, keep your 2500K, OC it a touch, and enjoy until it can't keep up.

I went from an OC'd i5 760 to a 4770K (then got an amazing deal on this 4790K) and that was a nice and noticeable difference. You might notice more performance and lower power consumption, but I think you'd notice more from more RAM now. If you're happy with the build overall and the main concern in the OP is just that you feel bogged down when you have a lot going on...again...MOAR RAM!!!!

If you want a snappier system overall on that SSD, consider Windows 8.1 x64. That will also better manage memory and other system resources, allows for Hyper-V virtualization, and takes all the good from Windows 7 and generally improves...aside from the major oops labeled "Metro"...just install Classic Shell for free from Ninite.com and enjoy.

Unless you feel the system upgrade itch, the performance increase you seek can be had from more RAM and overclocking a little further in all honesty, that series of CPUs was and still is amazing. I have had an excellent experience with Haswell thus far, both in my main rig and laptop. But I can't suggest you should jump now...not unless you get some great prices or have another reason to justify.

 

[peche]

Thanks everyone!

I would not be changing the motherboard - saves me reinstalling windows

I think it'd only cost me like £50-80 to swap CPU (even for a 2600k or 3770k), since i'd be able to resell mine. so still not worth the bother?

As for overclocking I am sitting stable at 4.2GHZ, any higher and I get a crash (it might be the Beta UEFI bios I upgraded to).

I do have a watercooling loop sitting but my current case can't fit the radiators.

no you can keeo your board, since Z68 chipset supports Sandies and Ivy's ...
If the 3770k is affordable go for it,

Regards,

 

[SirKeldon]

I'm on the same boat as the OP and @Ahhzz and I think i'm gonna wait still a little bit before upgrading.

Almost same system as you @Bo$$ ... if you're able to downgrade the BIOS and get a little bit more juice out of that 2500K it would be nice, i've been able to stabilize it at 4.4GHz with the F6 one ... and still no point to me to upgrade as all I'm doing is running pretty fast and I don't really need the HT boost.

IMHO, for the tasks you're performing I think having more threads would be not that noticeable unless you're playing and doing all you mention at the same time. However if you find a very good price for a 2600K/3770K that you know is gonna OC as good as the one you have, I'd go for it to hold the rig maybe another 1-2 years, in any other case, i'd save money for the next big upgrade.

Good luck for whatever you decide

 

[Bo$$]

this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open

when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets

 

[SirKeldon]

this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open

View attachment 63660

when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets

Nope, really I don't, and not trying to sound rude, just my experience. I'm currently with chrome (14 tabs open, 1 facebook, 1 youtube HD 1080p video playing) + Steam + CS:GO opened and playing + Skype + iPhoto browsing an album and i'm experiencing no hangups/stuttering/lag at all.

Here's a shot of it:

First segment is while on youtube, then with the video still playing, I went to CS:GO to active play for some seconds, then back again on youtube, exitting CS:GO active game, and the final segment is while all the rest was going on, but nothing "active" on screen.

Maybe getting some more RAM as they suggested it would help too.

 

[st2000]

that people with kaspersky...
better go for win 8.1 with standard defender and dont install kaspersky(installing adblock will get you more profit than paranoidal antivirus that overload system)
just and opinion, i have no antivirus for 3 years(from 8.1 beta) and got no viruses, may be i'm too safe with internet?

 

[peche]

this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open

View attachment 63660

when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets

Nope, really I don't, and not trying to sound rude, just my experience. I'm currently with chrome (14 tabs open, 1 facebook, 1 youtube HD 1080p video playing) + Steam + CS:GO opened and playing + Skype + iPhoto browsing an album and i'm experiencing no hangups/stuttering/lag at all.

Here's a shot of it:

First segment is while on youtube, then with the video still playing, I went to CS:GO to active play for some seconds, then back again on youtube, exitting CS:GO active game, and the final segment is while all the rest was going on, but nothing "active" on screen.

Maybe getting some more RAM as they suggested it would help too.

awwwww that’s cute,

Boinc manager 8tasks runing,
16 google chrome tabs open,
3 IE 11 tabs open,
2Firefox Tabs open,
Itunes open,
Logmen in Rescue app open,
HWinfo runnig,
Dream weaver 8 from macromedia open [pretty old I know, ]
1 oracle WinXP virtual machine open, with another logmein rescue console,
bit torrent with 2 dowloads,

 

[SirKeldon]

I could try to run WCG and CS:GO at the same time with all the rest, that will be the last test @peche And btw, what's cute? It's just the MacOS X default Activity Monitor app

Back to topic and jokes apart, I was tryin' to illustrate just a lighter multi-task scenario as the OP mentions and to show that my 2500K can do it smoothly, with no lags whatsoever, neither in Windows 7. Maybe as some others pointed and to repeat myself, adding RAM could benefit its system since browsers full of tabs nowadays eat tons of it, among other things.