Guild Wars 2

So I finally made my configuration for new computer and I can’t decide between processors. Is it worth spending money for 3770 over 3550? And how big of a difference does it make if I overclock i5 or i7? I don’t want to spend extra money on cooling and stuff. Is it possible to overclock without extra cooling and just a good PSU?

Here’s my current configuration (not sure about CPU as I said):

Mainboard S-1155 ASUS P8Z77-V LX, ATX
Procesor INTEL Core i5 – 3570K, 3,40GHz, LGA1155, Quad-Core, Boxed
DDR3-RAM KIT 16 GB, 1600 MHz, CL9, CORSAIR Vengeance
Gfx PCI-E 3.0 ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2, Retail, 2048MB
HDD 1 Solid State Drive (SSD) 2,5’’ SATA 6Gb/s SAMSUNG 830 Series, 128 GB
HDD 2 WD Green 1TB SATA3 64MB WD10EZRX
Case Midi THERMALTAKE V3 Black Edition
PSU ATX 650 Watt, CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2, 80Plus-Bronze

For gaming you won’t see much difference between a i7-3770 and i5-3550/3570. Probably not worth going i7 unless you have specific applications that use hyperthreading like video editing etc and use it a extensively.

Get a Coolmaster Hyper212+/Evo. Best low cost cooler you can get, cheap at $15-25 it will let you overclock 4.4-4.6 very well.

That i5 should be fine for gw2. I would get an aftermarket cooler for that cpu though and overclock it.
The i7 ht is not viable(currently) for gw2, although it would come in handy for newer gaming. Crysis 3 comes to mind.

kirito.4138:

For gaming you won’t see much difference between a i7-3770 and i5-3550/3570. Probably not worth going i7 unless you have applications that use hyperthreading like video editing etc.

Get a Hyper212+/Evo. Cheap 15-25 cooler that will let you overclock 4.4-4.6 very well.

Evo?

matjazmuhic.1649:

Evo?

Hyper212 Evo is the improved version of Hyper212+
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx132/rpisano01/DSCF1461.jpg
Only difference is the heatpipes are closer together for better cooling.

I’m using a Hyper212 Evo with 3570K @4.2 OC. Runs prime95 at 59C, but playing GW2 i get 42C since GW2 doesn’t fully use all cores.

Ivybridge CPU’s run hoter than Sandybridge so which ever you choose you will need a good aftermarket cooler to OC.

A Safe and guaranteed OC for the 3570k would be 4.3ghz on the Evo 212 cooler.
If you spent more money on the cooler and got the top air cooler available, The Noctua NH-D14, you would likely be able to hit 4.5ghz guaranteed.
(Do note however if u get th Noctua NH-D14 you would have to switch to G.Skill RAM as Corsair vengence RAM has tall heatsinks which would get in the way..this cooler is huge.)

Anything above those numbers will depend on the individual CPU, as each CPU is ever so slightly different due to the way they are manufactured. One may run on a lower voltage thus giving of less heat alowing for a higher clock speed.

The choice between the 3550 and 3570k is easy. The K indicates it can be OC, and with GW2 you need to OC for WvW to stay above 30fps.

Since its an Ivybridge also it wont draw as much power as a sandybridge so you could get away wiht a smaller PSU than those who run Sandybridge, your 650W would be fine.

Finaly the other choice of the 3770k:
It is only worth getting it for extra future proofing. Since as it stands nearly all games only run on 4 Threads..so a 4 core 4 thread like the 3570k is perfectly fine.. the 3770k with 8 threads would be great for programs that use those threads ..but for gaming atm its not realy worth it.
If you can afford it i would say get the 3770k just incase ..you never know how long it will be before games start using more threads.

How about the MoBo? Is it good enough? The other one I was considering was: GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H

Any Gigabyte or Asus motherboard that is ATX (not Micro ATX) would be great.

The higher models just have extra support for OC’ing, more PCIE slots & more Sata ports. etc but all models have enough support for the type of OC’s you will be looking at.

as long as its a Z77 chipset to do overclocking it should be good.

Thank you all. You guys are great. Gave me some clarity.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-cooler-charts-2010/compare,2146.html?prod%5B4870%5D=on&prod%5B4041%5D=on&prod%5B4043%5D=on

Nice link Zerk.

However i can safely say that its incorrect.

The full load fan speed of the NH-D14 is around 1254 RPM +/- 5% ..not 862 RPM. So the Load temps would be alot lower than what that chart says

EDIT:
The following link is a bunch of coolers tested on a Sandybridge E 3960X processor OC’d to 4.6ghz at 1.4v. Its a LGA 2011 socket but these coolers are all compatable with 1155 chipsets.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/LGA-2011-i7-3960X-Air-Overclocking,3130-17.html

Price for perfomance the 212 Evo is the clear winner but for pure performance the Noctua wins.