Advice of intel cpu sandy or ivy bridge!

[razer121]

As some may have seen my other threads i am currently stuck on which new cpu to get, so here goes!

I am after something that i can game with, and do some light editing in Photoshop nothing intense mind! so pretty sure i dont need a i7 so dont think there is point to suggest..unless it applies

Ive looked at 2 cpus but the price and speed of each stumps me! these cpus..


the i5 3550k and the i5 2500k i cannot seem to get my head round which one to get as both are good but the older one is faster o.O

and to note! i do NOT and will not ever use the onboard gpu XD so any advice?

Help

[Bonebreaker777]

I think you mean i5 3550 and i5 2500k.

i5-3550 Newer architecture (Ivy Bridge), more optimized and slightly more energy efficient.

i5-2500K Older architecture (Sandy Bridge), more compatible (supported by both old and new 1155 socket chipsets) and OVERCLOCKABLE with the right motherboard.

Will depend on you what motherboard you have (unlikely but possible that your current motherboard doesn't support Ivy Bridge) and if you plan to overclock (In that case you will need a motherboard with P67, Z68, Z75 or Z77 chipset -> 1155 Socket Chipset Details) ?

[technodean]

If i remember, the biggest difference between the 2 is the Ivy has better graphics built in and supports the latest PCIe 3.0 graphics cards. The 2500k can run the latest cards but only run at PCIe 2.0 but, nobody really has noticed any difference.

[KeyboardDemon]

I think the 3550 would be the better performing CPU of the two, I looked on Anandtech to see if I could bring up a comparison but they have no results for the 3550 only for the 3570K which was better than the 2500K, if your budget can stretch to it I would suggest the 3570K and not the 3550 but agree that there's little point in an i7 unless you want the bragging rights (like me!).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What do you have now??

[razer121]

Well i use to have a z77 msi motherboard (cannot remember which one) i will get another z77 motherboard by msi no questions asked there!

Cpu i use to have a i7 2600K which was amazing! but currently im sat on this rubbish i3 cpu first gen...i mean it does the job okay but so damn slowly....i game more on my ps3 now but the pc is mainly used to play games when it is switched on, or use photoshop so as i said nothing special! im currently leaning toward the i5 2500K due to being able to OC it and the experience with the i7 i owned..

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is it a Core i3 2100 or a Core i3 530?? If it is the latter,overclock it.

What graphics card do you have??

[razer121]

I believe it's actually the core i3 540 and i've already OC'd it to 4.2ghz lol! Even then i still struggle with it, i think it is down to the fact that i was used to the i7 2600k speeds when OC'd to 4ghz.....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I believe it's actually the core i3 540 and i've already OC'd it to 4.2ghz lol! Even then i still struggle with it, i think it is down to the fact that i was used to the i7 2600k speeds when OC'd to 4ghz.....

What grapics card do you have??

[razer121]

its an msi gtx 580

[Biscuit]

Then something definitely isnt right!

Even a dual core shouldn't be that sluggish at those clock speeds, are you sure its properly stable? Perhaps run a few benchmarks and give us the results?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I can see a Core i3 at stock clockspeeds being a bottleneck in certain games,as a FX6300 can beat it in BF3 MP by a decent margin.

However,you have a decent overclock and moreover for general purposes,your system should be snappy anyway.

[Biscuit]

Then something definitely isnt right!

Even a dual core shouldn't be that sluggish at those clock speeds, are you sure its properly stable? Perhaps run a few benchmarks and give us the results?

Edit: what the hell, why/how did i manage to double post 15 minutes after the first post?! I just hit subscribed posts, saw i was the most recent poster and... eh?!

[razer121]

I think it may be because i multitasks alot i like to have music running in the background along with god knows how many tabs in my browser and possible a fair few programs running in the background ha! im pretty sure its stable i did run prime 95 for this reason along with a few game benchmarks and so forth, in general it is a very fast pc but for me...im use to the speeds and snappiness of a i7 2600k with a high OC hench why i want faster and better, i think the only time i noticed it fell behind was when i used sony vegas , now that made an impact on it!

But as im at it these are my choice of boards, im not high up on the chipsets and what they bring anymore i will go have a look now at some reviews but anyway which is better suited for my needs and what is the actual difference in regards to the two chipsets?

MSI H77MA-G43

MSI Z77MA-G45

I'm pretty sure they both can take ivy bridge.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would just wait a few months and get a Haswell system. TBH,I run loads of applications at the same time,and my Core i3 2100,A6 3670K and Xeon E3 1220 were fine,but I was using an SSD in all the systems at the time.

[Bonebreaker777]

Well, Intel Haswell going to be released in June so it is a tad more that just a couple of months

On the other hand, waiting for a Haswell is probably worth it. You can always try to speed up your system with some SSD (if you don't have any yet).

MSI H77MA-G43 Can't take advantage of the unlocked k CPUs from Intel, no HDMI port

MSI Z77MA-G43 Can take advantage of the unlocked K CPUs from Intel and overclock them easily, HDMI port

If the price difference is diminishable for you, I would say go for the Z77 board with a K CPU, or wait for Haswell.