I have had this weighing on my mind for quite some time, preparing for the day I might need to start upgrading. Back in 2008 I was looking to build a new gaming PC but kept delaying and holding off until Black Friday. A few months before Black Friday I read about the new LGA 1366 socket and decided I'd hold off my build until its release. Summer of 09 I saw a deal I couldn't pass, a Dell Studio XPS 9000 435T which came with 12GB RAM, two 1TB HDDs, the i7 920 (2.66Ghz) and an ATI 4850 all for $680USD. I was extremely surprised but also hesitant considering the stupid wacky shit Dell pulled with their Pentium 4 Optiplex towers, but regardless, I went for it anyway.
Since the purchase, the only things I've upgraded were the heatsink (Coolermaster V8) and GPU (XFX AMD 6950 2GB unlocked to 6970, which I purchased two years ago.) This system has held up very well and has allowed me to play nearly everything. Then came RAGE, Crysis 3 and now Rome II: Total War. These games don't run so well. RAGE runs at a whopping 12FPS and has a lot of stuttering and feels like my CPU is throttling. SC2 HotS has also been difficult to run smoothly. I've been looking into possibly overclocking, but the Intel(Dell) mobo I have doesn't seem to allow that. After searching the web, no new affordable mobos for 1366. I found a few refurbished ASUS mobos on eBay but for $200+.
So, now that you know my life's story, what should I do? I don't have a large budget to upgrade all the time so I would like to get something that can provide solid performance in gaming and something that would last me as long as the 1366 i7 920. I plan to donate my current system to a friend who can't afford a new PC but is very interested in PC gaming and is addicted to Chivalry. I'm torn between the AMD 8350 (mostly due to Logans benchmarks) and the i7 4770k which is available at Microcenter for $280. I would like to save some money to put towards a GPU but don't know which to be cheap on. I'm sure this is very clear and easy for most of you smart guys out there, but I not only have a hard time making decisions, but don't know all the deep down technical benefits of each CPUs architecture.
Sorry for the very long post.
EDIT: I just saw this deal, not sure if the 9590 is worth getting considering the 220w compared to the 4770k's ~90w.
longer awnser because you asked about archetecture and i'm kinda a cpu guy:
amd piledriver/vishera (fx 8350 and family)
better multi-threading performance
better price/performance ratio
lower single core performace
great overclocking performance on decently binned chips
intel haswell (i7 4770k and family)
ok multi-threading performance
much worse price/performance ratio
stellar single core performace
can be much more tempermental overclocking than fx and ivy counterparts
if you're only going to be gaming either an 8350 or an i5 should be more than you'll ever need, but if you're doing more cpu demanding things the 4770k will beat the 8350 with a considerable margin, whether that margin is worth the $100 more is up to you, i generally think if you have to ask whether you need to spend that much more for the i7 you'll probably be fine with the 8350
You gentlemen are great. 8350 it is. I wanted to get one all along, but Linus posted a video doing a few benchmarks with the 8350 and it seemed less and less attractive compared to Logan's. But considering the prices out there and combo deals, it seems more worth it. Again, thanks for your help.
Also, do you guys know anything about Intel's Tick-tock release calendar? I was told that Intel's 'tick' is usually their new innovative tech like the Sandy Bridge and their 'tock' is just an improvement like their Ivy Bridge. Is there something similar with AMD?
If you're using it just for gaming and gaming only 920 is fine. I'd OC to 4GHZ, purchase SSD raid 0, and 7950 CF or GTX 760 SLI before spending $500 on a CPU/motherboard.
In less you're playing FSX or something along that nature 920 OCed is still decent.
The mobo in the XPS probably won't be able to OC to 4GHz, then there is also the issue of needing a good cooler at which point an upgrade looks like a better option. Also then the new processor will last a while too instead of spending money on something that will become inadequate soon
this will get the job done with half the money, and you can CF in a few years for more use. Pretty much pug in play, even can use the rest of your parts with np.
Personally I'd spend the money for EVGA, but this is a great money saver.
I planned on OCing but the current mobo I have doesn't allow. I looked into soft OC, but that didn't work out. It was very unstable and had far too many crashes.
Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Just wanted to update you all with what I ended up doing. I ended up getting a 4770K combo w/an ASUS Maximus VI Formula. I took advantage of MicroCenters huge sale on which was $200 for the 4770K then an additional $40 off if you combo it with a mobo. I was also lucky to meet up with an old friend from highschool that worked at the store who hooked me up with an additional 20% off. So after saving a nice amount, i went on with getting a Corsair HX750 for $100 ($0 out of my pocket because I was awarded a $100 Amazon gift card from work) and a Cooler Master CM Storm Trooper case for $120 on Amazon as well.
Upon completing the build and installation of Windows, i wanted to check temps and do some benchmarks and compare my 920. Discovered that there was one core that was heating up much higher than the rest of the cores(on the 4770k). Read a few forum posts about the cheap paste used and all the complaints. So i opened the 4770K up and cleaned it, applied new paste and resolved the temp issue.
A week prior to this sale, I helped a friend pick and build his system, which consisted of everything I was planning to get excluding the case, he got a Rosewill Thor, but the build was an 8350 combo w/an ASUS Sabertooth. We tested and benchmarked a few games and I was very impressed. King Arthur II was struggling on my 920 and on his Phenom II X6 1090T, but ran like butter on his 8350. Not sure if his Phenom was OC'd though. My 920 surely was not due to the mobo being locked. BF4 ran very smoothly, excluding all the crashes from, what I'll assume, poor development and EA being EA.
Sorry for the long post. Hope everyone has a peaceful rest of the year. If you bought anything or built something new, share it. Interested in seeing what everyone got.