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View Full Version : [HARDWARE] 3930K or 2500K - Question for rigbuilding geeks



Ragingclue
12-02-2011, 18:38
Well I finally got around to finishing up my build sheet with a 2500K and then along comes the 3930K.

The reason why I am feeling forced to upgrade at this point is that I feel into the "gamers don't and won't need all those extra cores" 3+ years ago when I got my E8400 dual core processor. I held off on the quad core options because the need simply wasn't there for them for what I do (gaming mostly and some coding), so the higher clockability offered by the dual core won me over.

Fast forward to now. BF3 has kinda sucked a bit with the dual core. Even OC'd. I'd like to avoid that situation for a bit longer this time. The 2500K is a quad core Sandy Bridge that can hit 5GHz, but does not offer hyperthreading so it's four cores and that's it. The 3930K is six cores, with hyperthreading, and can still hit 4.8GHz, so it would ensure a much longer time before hitting a wall due to number of core limitations.

The difference right now in price is pretty big (between the mobo and CPU differences, about $400-500). However, I'm still thinking it might be worth it if games keep progressing to use more cores. Four+ is the norm from here on out, so I'm afraid that will be the bare minimum at a point in the future that isn't far enough away.

Also, siderant, WTF is up with Intel changing sockets every few months now? How long was 775 around? Now with the new i* platforms, how many do they have? Fucking assholes, making future upgradeablility even harder.

Any opinions from the other nerds around here?

smoke
12-03-2011, 16:42
IMHO - number of cores > Speed of the processor.

to elaborate. a 2.9Ghz Hexacore > a 3.5Ghz Quad.

Don't worry so much about the number(I have a 2.4Ghz Quad, and I don't have any issues with BF3 compared to your faster dual core.). Anything 2.4Ghz+ is FAST enough for right now. FAST Enough, to say to yourself, "okay, lets put more into Video, and HDD Speed, before I need another 1Ghz".


I would go with a (2.8ish - 3.5ish Ghz), then go with an SSD and a top notch Vid card, throw some memory in, then when you meet those items, come back and determine if you wanna splurge on more on a faster processor.

Games are not just processor intensive -> in my experience, Disk and Video are just as important.

Ragingclue
12-03-2011, 17:43
Well one thing that's really frosting my ass right now is that Intel has decided to change freakin sockets on us all the damn time. So, CPU upgrade-ability isn't what it once was.

I ended up getting the 3930K today, but I almost went back to AMD because of Intel's socket shenanigans which are aimed solely at milking the customer for all he/she is worth. I also went ahead and returned to nVidia.

Stuff should arrive throughout the week, already have the 3930K and H100 cooler. The rest:

mobo: Gigabyte G1.Assassin2 X79
GPU: GTX580 (Gigabyte non-reference with 3 fans)
RAM: Some quad channel G-Skill Ripjaws 4x4GB which are supposed to run at 2133-2400
PSU: CM 1kW Gold
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB (I had the 240 in my cart, but 120 is enough for now, and hard drives are easy to "upgrade" in space by simply running parallel)
HDD: WD 500GB Black
Case: CM Storm Series Trooper (Was going to be the HAF X but decided to be different)
Primary monitor: 23" ViewSonic IPS 1920x1080

For I/O, I'm just keeping my G13, G9x (or Naga depending on the situation), and Lycosa (which I actually am not too fond of but it doesn't matter because of the fact that I just use the G13 in games anyway).

I really hate myself for how much I paid for the mobo/CPU combo, but I'm gambling on the premise that those core components will not have to be upgraded while I can modularly upgrade all the other things. I get buyer's remorse over a lot of petty things, so this is weighing on me pretty hard, hopefully once I put it together and clock it up, I'll forget about that.