Should I upgrade anything right now or hold off?

[Tzalix]

CPU: i7-3770 3.40GHz
RAM: 16GB
GPU: GTX 970
Motherboard: P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3

So these are my current specs. Right now, I don't really have much need for increased performance per se. However, I believe my CPU is starting to show signs of wear. I've had it for almost 4 years and it has been overclocked a lot during that whole time. A few months back, I started getting bluescreens and crashes, and so I seized all overclocking and since then everything has been running smoothly. The motherboard is the same age as the CPU. I suppose my main question is, would it be a good idea to invest in a new motherboard and CPU right now, or am I better off riding out these current parts? Is there anything new coming up on the CPU horizon that I should wait for?

EDIT: So I've found an upgrade kit that looks pretty neat from a local place. ASUS Z170-E, i7-6700k and 16GB DDR4 RAM for 650$. Is there a big difference between the various Z170 motherboards? Would a Z170 Pro Gaming make a notable difference over Z170-E?

[Deleted]

Graphics card is fine. Upgrading the cpu+mobo+ram would be a good idea. Or you could save up for next generation.

[Tzalix]

Graphics card is fine. Upgrading the cpu+mobo+ram would be a good idea. Or you could save up for next generation.

So I've found an upgrade kit that looks pretty neat from a local place. ASUS Z170-E, i7-6700k and 16GB DDR4 RAM for 650$. Is there a big difference between the various Z170 motherboards? Would a Z170 Pro Gaming make a notable difference over Z170-E?

[the boar]

what kinda overclock did you have? it's possible that turning the multiplier down 1 or the voltage up a bit (if not too high already) could stabilise it.
also worth considering, what thermal paste did you use? that stuff can need replacing

unless you were feeding your cpu too much voltage, it really shouldn't be dying after 4 years.. bad luck exists i guess, but if it is running fine at stock speeds i'd imagine it isn't dying and was just unstable?

[Ghâzh]

I suppose my main question is, would it be a good idea to invest in a new motherboard and CPU right now, or am I better off riding out these current parts?

No it wouldn't. If you don't need any more performance you're just wasting money (there isn't much performance to be gained either from the newest generation). Either loosen the overclock a bit or bump up the voltage to stabilize it. If it craps out you can think about upgrading at that point. It's a win-win situation.

[Tzalix]

what kinda overclock did you have? it's possible that turning the multiplier down 1 or the voltage up a bit (if not too high already) could stabilise it.
also worth considering, what thermal paste did you use? that stuff can need replacing

unless you were feeding your cpu too much voltage, it really shouldn't be dying after 4 years.. bad luck exists i guess, but if it is running fine at stock speeds i'd imagine it isn't dying and was just unstable?

It's a a regular i7-3770, that is, it's not unlocked. So it could very well be that there's nothing wrong with it and I just don't know my overclocking. I could get the CPU frequency as high as 4.3GHz without any issues for a while, but decided ultimately to pull it down to 4.0. I kept it there for probably 6 months or so before things started going bad. I've never messed with the voltages.

I got a CPU cooling system from Fractal Design a few months back, that's when the thermal paste was last replaced, so I don't think that's it.

No it wouldn't. If you don't need any more performance you're just wasting money (there isn't much performance to be gained either from the newest generation). Either loosen the overclock a bit or bump up the voltage to stabilize it. If it craps out you can think about upgrading at that point. It's a win-win situation.

Yeah, it's not that I need performance right now, I was honestly just feeling like upgrading because it's been a good while since I did. I also kinda miss the overclocking a bit. As I mentioned, nothing is overclocked right now and it's all running just fine. This would be an upgrade for fun, not for performance.

How much performance increase do you think I would see from an i7-6700k and a Z170 motherboard compared to my current setup?

[Denpepe]

around 10-15 % at most.

Would be strange that you got your cpu overclocked if it is not unlocked by that much, you could only raise the blck frequency then, might be your ram holding you back in that case.

I think AMD will launch their new CPU's in Q4 this year and intel also has kaby lake coming up so I would advise you wait at least till those are out to see if you could make a more substantial upgrade

[the boar]

oh wow, i didn't realise they made a non-k 3770. my mistake! but this leads well into what denpepe has said

[Tzalix]

Yeah, I guess I'll probably hold off for a while and wait for Kaby Lake. Thanks guys.