Upgrade thoughts?

[noteworthynerd]

Hello everyone!

So, I think it's finally time for an upgrade... The other night I was minding my own business, watching a stream on each monitor (in Chrome), and noticed some sluggishness. I checked task manager and saw that my CPU was consistently sitting at 100% and Chrome was taking up ~60-70% of it. I've been contemplating an upgrade for quite some time, but my computer struggling to play two Twitch streams has finally convinced me.

First, I'm gonna list my current build (or the relevant parts anyway). Then, I'm gonna list what I'm planning to upgrade to. I want you folks to tell me what you think! However, there is one caveat: the parts have to be purchasable at Micro Center because I have the good fortune of having friends that work there! Without further ado:

Current build:

Color Key:
Green = Keeping
Blue = Considering keeping
Red = Upgrading

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.GHz
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M
Memory: 16GB Mushkin Blackline Enhanced
SSD1: 128GB OCZ Vertex 4
SSD2: 120GB OCZ Vertex 3
SSD3: 256GB OCZ Agility 4
SSD4: 256GB OCZ Agility 4
Video Card: MSI GTX 970
Case: SilverStone TJ08B-E
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750W
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Primary Monitor: 27" QNIX QX2710 (2560x1440)
Secondary Monitor: 23" Acer S231HL (1920x1080)

Upgraded build:

CPU: Intel i7-6700K ($289.99)
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-AR ($159.99)
Memory: 16GB Corsair Dominator DDR4 ($119.99)
SSD1: Crucial MX200 500GB ($149.99)
Case: Corsair 400C ($94.99)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55
Video Card: MSI GTX 970
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750W
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Primary Monitor: 27" QNIX QX2710
Secondary Monitor: 23" Acer S231HL

Upgrade total cost: $814.95 (before discounts) - PCPartPicker Link

Special notes:

• Case: I'm looking for as small a mid-tower ATX case as possible. I've actually got quite an extensive list of possible choices if you guys have recommendations over the 400C:

Corsair 400C
Corsair Carbide 330R
Corsair Carbide Quite 400Q
Fractal Design Define S
Lian Li PC-A05FN
NZXT H440
NZXT S340
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv

• Power Supply: My power supply is old, at least four years old, but it's a very highly rated power supply and the only issue I've got with it is a low coil whine; however, I'm not even sure that the coil whine is coming from the power supply because it only exists when I've got my CPU overclocked past 4GHz.

• Future Upgrades: I plan on replacing the GTX 970 with a 1080 sometime later in the year when manufacturers release their custom coolers.

• Additional storage: I will very likely recycle some of the SSDs from my current build, but I figured that was irrelevant in the lists above.

Thoughts? Thanks all!

[Uggorthaholy]

Why an i7? Do you do much rendering, or multi-threaded processes? If not, go with the i5 because you know why. Cooler on same speeds/usage, etc.

I personally hate ASUS motherboards and always suggest Gigabyte, but mobos are very much personal preference anymore, imo.

Case - i *REAL:Y* prefer Fractal over everything else after building in one. The 400C is a nice case, and again, personal preference.

Otherwise I like where you're at, and if you plan on doing any sort of recording while gaming, then of course I recommend a secondary HDD.

Coil whine could still be the PSU when it pumps over x watts out. At 4 years old, I would suggest replacing it to be on the safe side, especially with whine going on. Again, that is my personal view on it, and there will probably be 40 people arguing about PSU longevity in the thread below me now.

[Wries]

Going from Sandy Bridge to in my case Haswell was the greatest waste of money I have put into a PC upgrade ever (and I bought the GTX Titan :P). Outside benching it's hard to "feel" the difference.

Wondering if your CPU-usage issue can be caused by bad video decoding optimization in chrome or something and if it's really going to make a noticable difference for you to go Skylake. That'd be if HT in the i7 helps your scenarios, then.

[Uggorthaholy]

I disagree, I went from a 2500k to a 4690k and it is a world of difference on cpu load on identical tasks.

[noteworthynerd]

Why an i7? Do you do much rendering, or multi-threaded processes? If not, go with the i5 because you know why. Cooler on same speeds/usage, etc.

I honestly don't have a reason. I'm one of the biggest advocates of the whole "get an i5 for gaming" thing, and I still chose an i7 in my build. I'll likely switch to the i5 like you suggest.

I personally hate ASUS motherboards and always suggest Gigabyte, but mobos are very much personal preference anymore, imo.

Yeah, I typically use ASRock, but their boards this generation haven't gotten stellar reviews. I've only ever had one ASUS board, and it was way back in the first gen i-core days. I'll look into Gigabyte.

Case - i *REAL:Y* prefer Fractal over everything else after building in one. The 400C is a nice case, and again, personal preference.

Yeah, I loved my Arc Midi when I had it. I'll probably take a look at the Define S vs the 400C when I'm at the store and decide then.

Coil whine could still be the PSU when it pumps over x watts out. At 4 years old, I would suggest replacing it to be on the safe side, especially with whine going on. Again, that is my personal view on it, and there will probably be 40 people arguing about PSU longevity in the thread below me now.

Haha xD - I'm leaning towards agreeing with you, I might pick up a Seasonic 650W Platinum or a EVGA SuperNOVA 650W P2.

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Going from Sandy Bridge to in my case Haswell was the greatest waste of money I have put into a PC upgrade ever (and I bought the GTX Titan :P). Outside benching it's hard to "feel" the difference.

Hmm. I'm kind of in an "if not now, when?" situation though. Kaby Lake is going to be a very small improvement over Skylake I think, and Cannonlake has been delayed until Q4-2017. I've waited 4 years to upgrade my CPU, I think it's time.

Wondering if your CPU-usage issue can be caused by bad video decoding optimization in chrome or something and if it's really going to make a noticable difference for you to go Skylake. That'd be if HT in the i7 helps your scenarios, then.

I thought it might be Chrome as well, but I see similar CPU usage in IE and Edge (though not quite as high).

[Wries]

I disagree, I went from a 2500k to a 4690k and it is a world of difference on cpu load on identical tasks.

Maybe I'm coming from a heftier OC? I had my 2700K running at 4.8GHz and the 4790K is at 4.6. In Cinebench the 2700K scored 832 and my 4790K scores 940. There's a difference but nothing I've lived to really notice while either rendering nor playing a game.

- - - Updated - - -

I honestly don't have a reason. I'm one of the biggest advocates of the whole "get an i5 for gaming" thing, and I still chose an i7 in my build. I'll likely switch to the i5 like you suggest.

What to recommend to others and what to get as an enthusiast yourself is sort of different, IMO. Most reasonable advice to give in most threads is to give the price versus performance sweet spot. But then to personally follow it, again as an enthusiast, is a different matter. Of course it comes down to ones interests and budget in the end, but I'm just saying.

Again I get back to if there really is such a difference between your current i5 and the next one, while going i7 will make the upgrade a clearer one.

Hmm. I'm kind of in an "if not now, when?" situation though. Kaby Lake is going to be a very small improvement over Skylake I think, and Cannonlake has been delayed until Q4-2017. I've waited 4 years to upgrade my CPU, I think it's time.

I'd almost suggest to wait and see for AMD's Zen but on the other hand I don't want to take responsibility if it turns out to be a total dud

[noteworthynerd]

What to recommend to others and what to get as an enthusiast yourself is sort of different, IMO. Most reasonable advice to give in most threads is to give the price versus performance sweet spot. But then to personally follow it, again as an enthusiast, is a different matter. Of course it comes down to ones interests and budget in the end, but I'm just saying.

Again I get back to if there really is such a difference between your current i5 and the next one, while going i7 will make the upgrade a clearer one.

Those are some good points. And with my friend's discount I'm probably looking at ~$350 for the i7 + motherboard combo. I think I'll stick with the i7.

[Evildeffy]

@noteworthynerd:
Give me all your stuff that you're upgrading for free.
As a fellow Dr. Who fan it is your obligation to do so!

In all honesty with the system you have do you want to upgrade now?
If not ... wait a bit and give ZEN a shot, current rumours is that it matches Skylake MHz for MHz and will offer a 8c/16t CPU for the same price as Intel's 4c8t i7.
Your 2500K, whilst getting older in generation, is still a CPU capable of keeping up with current gen Skylake.
To pass the time I'd say grab a better cooler and push overclocks to your limits.

Also your CPU should not be having issues with 2 twitch streams at all so can I suggest you download FireFox and try watching Twitch through that?
Chrome is fast and all but it is a resource hog of epic proportions compared to most other browsers when dealing with HTML5/Flash videos etc.

[noteworthynerd]

Your 2500K, whilst getting older in generation, is still a CPU capable of keeping up with current gen Skylake.
To pass the time I'd say grab a better cooler and push overclocks to your limits.

My cooler isn't the issue. I upgraded my BIOS to fix a PCI issue a few months ago and ever since I've not been able to get my overclock up to 4.6GHz again. I just played around with it for an hour and I can only get it stable at 4.5GHz at 1.3V. I know I've still got ~.2V to play with, but I don't particularly want to use it.

I'll keep going and see what I can get.

[Evildeffy]

My cooler isn't the issue. I upgraded my BIOS to fix a PCI issue a few months ago and ever since I've not been able to get my overclock up to 4.6GHz again. I just played around with it for an hour and I can only get it stable at 4.5GHz at 1.3V. I know I've still got ~.2V to play with, but I don't particularly want to use it.

I'll keep going and see what I can get.

Well 4.5GHz is better than 4.0GHz like your OP states so that should alleviate it a bit.
Sucks that the BIOS change FUBARed your ability to OC a bit, PLL voltage maybe?

Still though might wanna wait a bit as to when more of ZEN information gets released, it'd be the only "real" upgrade since Windows and most assorted browsers are multi-thread capable.
That should substantially be able to boost your multi-tasking rather than going i7. (unless you find a cheap X79/X99 kit worth it somewhere)

If not well then... I really do suggest the Fractal Design Define R5.
It should dampen the low coil whine from your PSU perfectly fine if not eliminate it entirely.
Since the original plan was a 400C and it's the same price class as the R5 ... I wouldn't quite pick the S.

I would also replace your cooler if I'm entirely honest... go with a proper air cooler.
Balls-to-the-wall I recommend the Cryorig R1 Ultimate, but H5 Ultimate/Universal is still good.
The Corsair Hydro H55 and H60... NEVER been friends with it.. too many issues, most of them being a DOA or soon-to-die pump.

[Mythbredor]

Honeslty I love my 6700k I do alot of multitasking and I haven't ever seen a noticeable slowdown with it. The 2500k is definitely showing it's age but the 6600k woun't really give you a huge perfomance increase. Now your slowdown could be caused by Mmo-C(assuming you have it open) if you have flashed enabled, there's an ad I'm trying to track down that's causing flash to use 4GB of ram and then crash chrome only issue Firefox did away with flash already. Haven't tested IE or edge or whatever it's called now. In terms of cases all the cases you listed are good it's pretty much just aesthetics.

The only other thing is why the H55? It's a pretty nice cooler but it's a pretty big price increase from a air cooler for not much benefit. Personally I use a H100i and I've gotten up to 4.6GHz with a 6700k didn't really try either. But I think it's a bit overkill. But yeah it definitely looks cooler hehe.

[noteworthynerd]

Still though might wanna wait a bit as to when more of ZEN information gets released

Probably worth doing I suppose. Although if the benchmarks are disappointing I won't be able to upgrade until October (that's the next discount time at Micro Center).

I would also replace your cooler if I'm entirely honest... go with a proper air cooler.
Balls-to-the-wall I recommend the Cryorig R1 Ultimate, but H5 Ultimate/Universal is still good.
The Corsair Hydro H55 and H60... NEVER been friends with it.. too many issues, most of them being a DOA or soon-to-die pump.

I've been very happy with my H55 so far, the temps are very good (after an hour of P95 at 4.5GHz, my max temps were mid-70s).

I've done custom loops and I've done big ass air coolers (the NH-D14) and honestly, I've been the happiest with this H55.

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Honeslty I love my 6700k I do alot of multitasking and I haven't ever seen a noticeable slowdown with it. The 2500k is definitely showing it's age but the 6600k woun't really give you a huge perfomance increase.

Yeah I agree.

Now your slowdown could be caused by Mmo-C(assuming you have it open) if you have flashed enabled, there's an ad I'm trying to track down that's causing flash to use 4GB of ram and then crash chrome only issue Firefox did away with flash already. Haven't tested IE or edge or whatever it's called now. In terms of cases all the cases you listed are good it's pretty much just aesthetics.

Nope, just Twitch. I eliminated all other variables (no other programs open, just Twitch, etc).

The only other thing is why the H55? It's a pretty nice cooler but it's a pretty big price increase from a air cooler for not much benefit. Personally I use a H100i and I've gotten up to 4.6GHz with a 6700k didn't really try either. But I think it's a bit overkill. But yeah it definitely looks cooler hehe.

I liked the smaller footprint of the H55, I switched to this from a Noctua NH-D14. Like I said above, I've been very happy with my H55.

[Remilia]

I've been using Livestreamer for twitch streams the past few years. Bypasses flash and streams directly to a video player of your choice. Most likely able to alleviate some of the CPU issues.

[Evildeffy]

Probably worth doing I suppose. Although if the benchmarks are disappointing I won't be able to upgrade until October (that's the next discount time at Micro Center).

We won't know anything of Zen before October anyway, it's release is set Q4-2016.
But if AMD can hold true to what they are stating they WILL be challenging the 8-core Haswell-E/Broadwell-E CPUs with their consumer first ZEN CPU release for a price of an i7-6700K.
This is a disruptive product for all intents and purposes and should alleviate your CPU issues.
Also .. have you disabled Hardware Acceleration for Twitch videos?
Ever since they used the HTML5 foreground (I know the video itself is still FLASH in the background) I can keep Hardware Acceleration on without any issues.

I've been very happy with my H55 so far, the temps are very good (after an hour of P95 at 4.5GHz, my max temps were mid-70s).

I've done custom loops and I've done big ass air coolers (the NH-D14) and honestly, I've been the happiest with this H55.

Well ... cool beans to you I suppose, I've always had shit happen with those smaller footprint ones but if it serves you well then by all means keep at it!