Looking to upgrade CPU
- Thread starter Trippey
- Start date
I have crossfire 6870.
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon 3.5GHz $239.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 $124.99
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 RAM $72.99
Total Price: $437.97 + S/H
You have some options, but I would look at an Intel i5 CPU(or its equivalent), but that's a great price for the new DC line. And you can always opt for a slightly cheaper mobo to price more RAM, but I think this is a fair balance without giving up too much in the way of features on the motherboard with the power of the CPU/RAM.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 $124.99
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 RAM $72.99
Total Price: $437.97 + S/H
You have some options, but I would look at an Intel i5 CPU(or its equivalent), but that's a great price for the new DC line. And you can always opt for a slightly cheaper mobo to price more RAM, but I think this is a fair balance without giving up too much in the way of features on the motherboard with the power of the CPU/RAM.
You can pair an x16 with an x8 for Crossfire/SLI. The performance difference is honestly minimal still at this stage. Here's a slightly old article talking about the various fps scaling for different PCI x- speeds
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/
Edit: I'll look for another mobo that has dual x16 slots for you since it sounds like you really want that.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/
Edit: I'll look for another mobo that has dual x16 slots for you since it sounds like you really want that.
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- Jul 27, 2010
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- 2,574
ASRock has some sturdy boards. I have their Z87 which I bought from Newegg during a sale for $85 lol. Their Z97 motherboard is a beast and has two PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots as well as a PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot. Prices range from $130-$170 depending on site. I believe Newegg has the Extreme4 edition for $133. That leaves a decent $317 for a processor and memory. If you stuck with that i5 mentioned above, you have almost $80 leftover for memory. Ripjaws and Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 series memory (I have both) work fine and are both within that price range.
My build is an ASRock Z87, i7-4770k, 12GB DDR3 Memory (kingston and ripjaws both running at the same clock rate), and an old 7870 GHz OC Edition. Had the PC since 2013 and haven't seen any issues yet!
My build is an ASRock Z87, i7-4770k, 12GB DDR3 Memory (kingston and ripjaws both running at the same clock rate), and an old 7870 GHz OC Edition. Had the PC since 2013 and haven't seen any issues yet!
Flamelauncher, was it this board? Did some digging on this specific model and it only runs at dual x8, not dual x16 unfortunately.
Trippey, there's a number of options under AMD, but I'm not putting a recommendation for that because 1) I don't know what's the best CPU for the budget and motherboard, and 2) there's honestly no real performance gain from running dual x16.
Almost all the intel motherboards that I looked at said x16+x8 or dual x8. I only found one refurb motherboard that offered dual x16 in the PCI express slot. There were other boards that had dual x16, but they're either discontinued, out of stock, or too expensive for your budget ($300 or higher).
Trippey, there's a number of options under AMD, but I'm not putting a recommendation for that because 1) I don't know what's the best CPU for the budget and motherboard, and 2) there's honestly no real performance gain from running dual x16.
Almost all the intel motherboards that I looked at said x16+x8 or dual x8. I only found one refurb motherboard that offered dual x16 in the PCI express slot. There were other boards that had dual x16, but they're either discontinued, out of stock, or too expensive for your budget ($300 or higher).
