Hardware Thinking of upgrading my PC within the next few months

[DiscostewSM]

For years I have been replacing components in my PC as they began malfunctioning from use, so now I am down to the CPU/MB/RAM as the remaining pieces of my once-proud system which I put together back in 2007. This is my current PC's configuration.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz (OC'ed to 3.0Ghz)
Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L (rev 1.0)
4GB PC6400 RAM
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler
EVGA Geforce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked
1TB WD Blue HDD, SATA III, 64MB Cache
Corsair TX750 PSU

Used to have a DVD reader, followed by an ext DVD writer, but those went out of commission (the latter on the brink) and I haven't felt a need for replacements with having ext HDDs and flash drive readily available.

My budget is looking to be about $400-$500, but I'm not looking for immediate parts now. Just within the next few months. What would you all recommend with that kind of budget? The CPU/MB/RAM are the most important.

 

[gman666]

Are you planning on sticking with intel? AMD does pack some punch for your buck, but it all comes down to use. What will you be doing with your PC?

 

[moerik]

It would be a good idea to wait a few months to see what Intels newest up-coming processor line; Broadwell will be capable of. What is known is that it will require an entirely different socket on the motherboard then Haswell, Sandy and Ivy Bridge series, if it would use DDR3 or DDR4 (According to a rumor I read a while back, no link though time will tell instead). They are expecting to release it sometime in Q2 2014.
Just my ¢0.02

 

[gman666]

It would be a good idea to wait a few months to see what Intels newest up-coming processor line; Broadwell will be capable of. What is known is that it will require an entirely different socket on the motherboard then Haswell, Sandy and Ivy Bridge series, if it would use DDR3 or DDR4 (According to a rumor I read a while back, no link though time will tell instead). They are expecting to release it sometime in Q2 2014.
Just my ¢0.02

I think it would be good to wait as well, but it is rumored that intel may or may not be releasing Broadwell (Desktop Version) until Q4. Overall, Broadwell will see a size reduction to about 14nm, and DDR4 seems like the only reason to switch over.

 

[the_randomizer]

Broadwell? Interesting, I thought they wouldn't release a new line since Haswell was more or less recently released, huh.... I personally would stick with Intel due to reliability and bang for the buck, been using them since 2003, never had an issue with them

 

[gman666]

Broadwell? Interesting, I thought they wouldn't release a new line since Haswell was more or less recently released, huh.... I personally would stick with Intel due to reliability and bang for the buck, been using them since 2003, never had an issue with them

This ^ Plus Haswell's performance gains were minuscule and also terrible Overclockers. Intel saw no real reason to release Broadwell in quick fashion because there was no demand.

 

[the_randomizer]

This ^ Plus Haswell's performance gains were minuscule and also terrible Overclockers. Intel saw no real reason to release Broadwell in quick fashion because there was no demand.

I currently have an Ivy Bridge Core i5 3570 (non K version since I don't need to OC) and it's been quite the faithful CPU, nice balance of power and stability

 

[FAST6191]

If you want games and performance I would consider dropping things back down to stock, giving the CPU+RAM+MB combo to someone that needs it and moving on, other than maybe something like http://gbatemp.net/threads/a-small-mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus.360987/ there is precious little worth doing in the LGA775/DDR2 world unless you have a reason. Not to mention vendors know you will pay that little bit more for that sort of vintage and it is actually cheaper to buy better stuff in newer form factors.

If you reckon the power will hold then CPU+MB+RAM, maybe another hard drive (when drives are this big I am inclined to be paranoid and replace them every so often). I am not quite sure of the specs-price divide right now but AMD could well be competitive for that money. However 500 when you only need CPU+MB+RAM (and maybe a cooler, I am not inclined to overclock these days and stock fans mostly do what I want though I do not care about noise) is enough to start getting into good machine territory.

$80 for 8 gigs of nice 1600MHz DDR3. Call it 140 if you want 2x8 gig sticks of similar quality.
$230 for a i5-4670K. I will have to do the price-cache-performance check at some point but that works. I like the i7 but I would not say they are always worth the money over a properly picked i5.

This then leaves you with between $100 and $200 for the motherboard. An entry level LGA 1150 board is below that so you could even find something nice. That said an entry level board will have a slot for the graphics, support the RAM, have enough SATA ports to do something until you decide to do a crazy RAID setup or something and have USB3.0.

Buying an entry level board might even leave you with enough to buy a speedy but slightly smaller (60 gigs, more than enough for windows 7 and a few games) SSD drive. Combined that will definitely represent a nice speed boost. Alternatively that should be enough for a several terabyte drive.

 

[Originality]

The upgrade path really depends on what you need it for. Q6600 + 560 is more than enough to play current gen games at medium settings, and if you want high settings you might only need to upgrade the graphics.

Also, it is often said that the best upgrade to make a computer faster is simply getting a SSD, and you might not even need to upgrade the core components (CPU, MoBo, RAM). Of course, it depends on your needs.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I've been doing a little reading on Broadwell, and from what I gather, it was first delayed to 2015 and then rumored to come out late 2014. As far as performance is concerned, Intel hasn't given any data about it but people are implying that it's likely going to be a small increase over Haswell (much like from Sandy to Ivy and then to Haswell). The last big performance boost was from 1st gen i3/5/7 to Sandy Bridge, and Skylake is likely to be the big performance booster.

Of course even if the jump from Haswell to Broadwell is small, I'd be jumping from Core 2 Quad to Broadwell (should I choose to wait for that). Guess it's a matter of whether my current CPU/MB/RAM (when OC'ed to 3.0Ghz) is enough till when Broadwell comes out.

 

[trumpet-205]

Intel has been focusing on energy efficiency and iGPU for some time now. In terms of CPU performance mobile enjoys greater jump than desktop.

I don't expect Skylake to be a big performance booster either. The only thing interesting from Intel for enthusiast would be Haswell-E (LGA2011-3), since it is rumored to introduce unlocked 6 & 8 cores. Of course that's only if you really need that much performance.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

It would be a good idea to wait a few months to see what Intels newest up-coming processor line; Broadwell will be capable of. What is known is that it will require an entirely different socket on the motherboard then Haswell, Sandy and Ivy Bridge series, if it would use DDR3 or DDR4 (According to a rumor I read a while back, no link though time will tell instead). They are expecting to release it sometime in Q2 2014.
Just my ¢0.02

Broadwell's already confirmed to be the same socket from Intel's product map. The same map shows that consumer support for DDR4 is due for Skylake.