The age old question... is it worth an upgrade yet

[coerce86]

Looking at upgrading my cpu/motherboard/ram from an i7-2600k on a z77 board to something newer- possibly a 6700k or possibly a 5820k as the price I can pick them both up for seems fairly similar.

Obviously along with this comes the upgrade to ddr4.

I mainly use my pc for gaming/browsing with a bit of photoshop.

Anyone have any opinions? worth the jump now or should I wait another year or two?

[kalniel]

Wait.

[EndlessWaves]

Intel are currently focused on low power and performance per watt so CPUs have shrunk and kept the same performance rather than stayed the same size and gotten faster. Until that changes there's not a lot of point changing your CPU unless you want to shrink your system.

[ltron]

I'd say that the exciting stuff is coming in the second half of next year with AMD's zen provided it's a good product and there are no further delays. So I'd wait if you can. I am considering a new system since mine is broken, although I wouldn't have bothered otherwise and I have a core i7 940 which is much slower than what you've got.

[pastymuncher]

I Would stay put as well. Is your 2600K overclocked at all? Should you decide to change then for a i7 the 5820k on X99 seems the best value for money. It can be had cheaper than the 6700k plus it has a pair of extra cores.

[shaithis]

Looking at upgrading my cpu/motherboard/ram from an i7-2600k on a z77 board to something newer- possibly a 6700k or possibly a 5820k as the price I can pick them both up for seems fairly similar.

I normally look for reasons to upgrade and get called a "serial upgrader"........I have yet to see a single reason to upgrade from a Z77 platform. Of course, if you are finding that 4 cores aren't enough for you (which means you have specialist requirements) then you may find a reason to.

The way things are heading, I think I have at least another 2 years from my Z77 boards.

[kalniel]

Of course, if you are finding that 4 cores aren't enough for you (which means you have specialist requirements) then you may find a reason to.

Or 'downgrade' to a Xeon on an X58

[Lee H]

gaming use?

I'd have a look at this chart to help decide ;

http://ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsect...id=1185#charts

I'm still on a 2500K myself, clocked in at 5 GHz

[shaithis]

Or 'downgrade' to a Xeon on an X58

I wouldn't be happy doing that due to the age of many x58 boards now and the xeon clockspeeds aren't particularly gamer-friendly.

[jeromesm3]

I recommend that you wait! Im still using my X58 set up and it still works great! Waiting for my EVGA GTX980ti Hybrid to arrive so I should be set for a couple more years.

[MSIC]

I personally upgraded from a SandyBridge i5 2400 (2.8Ghz, no overclocking) to a Skylake i5 6500 (3.2Ghz).
Simultaneously, i also upgraded my aging Radeon 6850 to an Nvidia 750 Ti.
Same SSD.

Games are quicker to run, but in Civ V the menu's respond quicker, the game opens and closes faster, which i think is CPU etc.
Handbrake encodes full BD 1080p -> HEVC quicker, going from 1.0fps (with very demanding settings) to now 1.4fps (same settings). Whilst these are slow (!), its a 40% improvement. Some of this is architecture, some is change from DDR3 to DDR4, some is the clock speed increase.

I've also benefited in both CPU and GPU change from less thermal output, which was a major factor for me - i have had a significant change in where my PC is kept (basically in a cupboard with some ventilation). This was a big deal for me, so i'm happy.

I wouldnt say however that the experience of Windows is any better (naturally), music, internet... all that stuff that actually occupies 95% of the time my PC is turned on is in fact no better subjectively.
As such, i cannot advise an upgrade unless you are really unhappy with some aspect.

[Arthoin]

You should probably switch to X99 only if you really need the two more cores. If not, just stay with what you've got.