# 2500k worth an upgrade?



## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

I'm still rocking a 2500k, hasn't even been out of the system since i bought it back in 2011

I'm wanting to put my PC from this NZXT M59 into a new case such as the Define R5 or something (open to suggestions)

I am wondering if it is worth me grabbing an i7 2600K on eBay and swap it out for a smoother multitasking experience.

I do play a lot of games however I use this computer for Firefox 50+tabs (Flash/several YouTube) & excel + Word + Visio and during this time my firefox will get incredibly slow. wondering if that'll make a difference?

OR just pocket the cash and upgrade when something new comes along?


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## Ahhzz (Mar 25, 2015)

/tag this since I'm in the same basic boat, and considering budgeting for the upgrade.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 25, 2015)

I went from a 2500k to a 4770k and haven't looked back. Nice little boost IMO. I wouldn't go from 2500k -> 2600k though.


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## qubit (Mar 25, 2015)

I think you should hang on for Skylake.

I've got a 2700K and while it's really powerful and the HT is handy, it's not such a night and day difference from yours. I've turned off HT before to see the impact on the desktop and can tell you that it's quite subtle. There would be a more obvious difference in certain apps such as video transcoding, but not general workloads. EDIT: my CPU has a bigger cache, but again it doesn't make a massive difference.

Mine's not even overclocked any more and it's plenty powerful at the stock 3.5GHz.

@MxPhenom 216 Can you feel the difference on the desktop in general use?


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 25, 2015)

qubit said:


> I think you should hang on for Skylake.
> 
> I've got a 2700K and while it's really powerful and the HT is handy, it's not such a night and day difference from yours. I've turned off HT before to see the impact on the desktop and can tell you that it's quite subtle. There would be a more obvious difference in certain apps such as video transcoding, but not general workloads.
> 
> ...



Not really no, but its definitely quicker in some games, and video encoding.


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## Ebo (Mar 25, 2015)

I would properly just turn up the juice for that CPU and see if that makes a difference for you in daily life and use. 
If it does you are happy and I would save my money and see how Skylake will preform once it comes out later this year.


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## st2000 (Mar 25, 2015)

i think bringing some more ram will make more comfortable user expirience, case is not in cpu(as i think)


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## Ahhzz (Mar 25, 2015)

Not sure about OP, but I wouldn't be changing boards, so I'm limited to the LGA1155 socket. How about the 3570k?


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 25, 2015)

I wouldn't do a damn thing and wait for Broadwell later this year or Skylake.


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## Nordic (Mar 25, 2015)

Just wait for skylake


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## peche (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> I am wondering if it is worth me grabbing an i7 2600K on eBay and swap it out for a smoother multitasking experience.



well you have pretty good specs, as I can see many advices are like "Wait for Skylake" wait like 6 months or more…

but as a personal review you can get pretty much more from that Z68x board, overclocking potential on an Ivy Bridge processor may give you at least 3 years more of pretty solid performance,  


take a look:
Your current specs, 
System Name:    Desktop 
Processor:    Intel i5 2500k @ 4GHZ
Motherboard:    Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 
Cooling:    GeLID Tranquilo 
Memory:        Corsair Vengence 2x4GB Red 1600MHZ
Video Card(s):    Gainward GTX 780 Phantom GLH 
Hard Disk(s):    Samsung 840EVO + 4TB WD Red 
Optical Drive:    22x Samsung DVD +/-RW/W 
LCD/CRT Model:    Asus VE276Q + LG W2243S 
Case:        NZXT M59 
Sound Card:    Asus Xonar D1 w/Otone Stilo 5.1 and Creative Fatal1ty headset
Power Supply:    ThermalTake Toughpower 850w 
Mouse:        Razer Imperator 2012
Keyboard:    Corsair K90
Software:    Windows 7 SP1 X64 

parts i would replace 
*Processor: *   3770K [delided for optimal temps, also 5.0GHZ OCed]
*Cooling:*    Some AIO or Custom Waterloop,  for lower temps with overclock


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 25, 2015)

Wait a year or 2


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## INSTG8R (Mar 25, 2015)

peche said:


> well you have pretty good specs, as I can see many advices are like "Wait for Skylake" wait like 6 months or more…
> 
> but as a personal review you can get pretty much more from that Z68x board, overclocking potential on an Ivy Bridge processor may give you at least 3 years more of pretty solid performance,
> 
> ...



Waste of money for little or no gains...


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## D007 (Mar 25, 2015)

One word.. No.


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## Axaion (Mar 25, 2015)

Wouldent upgrade at all unless youre doing heavy video encoding or picture editing which also requires a ton of RAM

Just oc that 2500k, whoever is saying upgrade to 3770k is nuts, theres, being generous, a 5-7% performance increase, if even that at the same clocks

And the 2500k overclocks like a beast, easy 4.5ghz+ 

Pocket the money and wait for a worthwhile upgrade


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## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

Thanks everyone!

I would not be changing the motherboard - saves me reinstalling windows

I think it'd only cost me like £50-80 to swap CPU (even for a 2600k or 3770k), since i'd be able to resell mine. so still not worth the bother?

As for overclocking I am sitting stable at 4.2GHZ, any higher and I get a crash (it might be the Beta UEFI bios I upgraded to). 

I do have a watercooling loop sitting but my current case can't fit the radiators.


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## Sasqui (Mar 25, 2015)

I'm on board with all the suggestions, do nothing.  The biggest probable gain you'll get is from DDR4 on Skylake, but the interesting thing is Skylake is supposed to support both DDR3 and DDR4!


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## Kursah (Mar 25, 2015)

Increase RAM to 16GB, if you're slowing down because of everything running...odds are it's hitting your page file. A faster, more efficient processor won't necessarily fix that, but more RAM will.

Your system is quite solid, honestly unless the 2600K is priced to steal, keep your 2500K, OC it a touch, and enjoy until it can't keep up.

I went from an OC'd i5 760 to a 4770K (then got an amazing deal on this 4790K) and that was a nice and noticeable difference. You might notice more performance and lower power consumption, but I think you'd notice more from more RAM now. If you're happy with the build overall and the main concern in the OP is just that you feel bogged down when you have a lot going on...again...MOAR RAM!!!! 

If you want a snappier system overall on that SSD, consider Windows 8.1 x64. That will also better manage memory and other system resources, allows for Hyper-V virtualization, and takes all the good from Windows 7 and generally improves...aside from the major oops labeled "Metro"...just install Classic Shell for free from Ninite.com and enjoy.

Unless you feel the system upgrade itch, the performance increase you seek can be had from more RAM and overclocking a little further in all honesty, that series of CPUs was and still is amazing. I have had an excellent experience with Haswell thus far, both in my main rig and laptop. But I can't suggest you should jump now...not unless you get some great prices or have another reason to justify.


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## peche (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> Thanks everyone!
> 
> I would not be changing the motherboard - saves me reinstalling windows
> 
> ...


no you can keeo your board, since Z68 chipset supports Sandies and Ivy's ...
If the 3770k is affordable go for it, 

Regards,


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## SirKeldon (Mar 25, 2015)

I'm on the same boat as the OP and @Ahhzz and I think i'm gonna wait still a little bit before upgrading.

Almost same system as you @Bo$$ ... if you're able to downgrade the BIOS and get a little bit more juice out of that 2500K it would be nice, i've been able to stabilize it at 4.4GHz with the F6 one ... and still no point to me to upgrade as all I'm doing is running pretty fast and I don't really need the HT boost.

IMHO, for the tasks you're performing I think having more threads would be not that noticeable unless you're playing and doing all you mention at the same time. However if you find a very good price for a 2600K/3770K that you know is gonna OC as good as the one you have, I'd go for it to hold the rig maybe another 1-2 years, in any other case, i'd save money for the next big upgrade.

Good luck for whatever you decide


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## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open




 

when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets


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## SirKeldon (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open
> 
> View attachment 63660
> 
> when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets



Nope, really I don't, and not trying to sound rude, just my experience. I'm currently with chrome (14 tabs open, 1 facebook, 1 youtube HD 1080p video playing) + Steam + CS:GO opened and playing + Skype + iPhoto browsing an album and i'm experiencing no hangups/stuttering/lag at all.

Here's a shot of it:






First segment is while on youtube, then with the video still playing, I went to CS:GO to active play for some seconds, then back again on youtube, exitting CS:GO active game, and the final segment is while all the rest was going on, but nothing "active" on screen.

Maybe getting some more RAM as they suggested it would help too.


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## st2000 (Mar 25, 2015)

that people with kaspersky...
better go for win 8.1 with standard defender and dont install kaspersky(installing adblock will get you more profit than paranoidal antivirus that overload system)
just and opinion, i have no antivirus for 3 years(from 8.1 beta) and got no viruses, may be i'm too safe with internet?


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## peche (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> this is me sitting with about 10 tabs + 1 youtube open
> 
> View attachment 63660
> 
> when i start getting the PDFs and stuff open you can imagine how slow it gets





SirKeldon said:


> Nope, really I don't, and not trying to sound rude, just my experience. I'm currently with chrome (14 tabs open, 1 facebook, 1 youtube HD 1080p video playing) + Steam + CS:GO opened and playing + Skype + iPhoto browsing an album and i'm experiencing no hangups/stuttering/lag at all.
> 
> Here's a shot of it:
> 
> ...




awwwww  that’s cute,

Boinc manager  8tasks runing,
16 google chrome tabs open,
3 IE 11 tabs open,
2Firefox Tabs open,
Itunes open,
Logmen in Rescue app open,
HWinfo runnig,
Dream weaver 8 from macromedia open [pretty old I know, ]
1 oracle WinXP virtual machine open, with another logmein rescue console,
bit torrent with 2 dowloads,


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## SirKeldon (Mar 25, 2015)

I could try to run WCG and CS:GO at the same time with all the rest, that will be the last test @peche  And btw, what's cute? It's just the MacOS X default Activity Monitor app 

Back to topic and jokes apart, I was tryin' to illustrate just a lighter multi-task scenario as the OP mentions and to show that my 2500K can do it smoothly, with no lags whatsoever, neither in Windows 7. Maybe as some others pointed and to repeat myself, adding RAM could benefit its system since browsers full of tabs nowadays eat tons of it, among other things.


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## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

SirKeldon said:


> I could try to run WCG and CS:GO at the same time with all the rest, that will be the last test @peche  And btw, what's cute? It's just the MacOS X default Activity Monitor app
> 
> Back to topic and jokes apart, I was tryin' to illustrate just a lighter multi-task scenario as the OP mentions and to show that my 2500K can do it smoothly, with no lags whatsoever, neither in Windows 7. Maybe as some others pointed and to repeat myself, adding RAM could benefit its system since browsers full of tabs nowadays eat tons of it, among other things.



thank you everyone!

More ram is the order of the day!

probably should also consider chrome XD firefox is using 1.8GB atm


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## xorbe (Mar 25, 2015)

I am upgrading my 2500k to 4790k this week, as either my cpu or motherboard is failing from extreme overclocking most likely.  It's been like 3-1/2 years, nothing lasts forever especially electrical components.


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## SirKeldon (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> thank you everyone!
> 
> More ram is the order of the day!
> 
> probably should also consider chrome XD firefox is using 1.8GB atm



You're more than welcome, and it's just a suggestion, I could be wrong but you could see in my monitor that Chrome was eating more than 1,5-2GB just by itself (so no big diff from your Firefox) ... if you add a huge spreadsheet and a huge Word document while playing music with Spotify or iTunes, and knowing how Windows manages its memory, 8GB could be easily fulfilled and having to use swap frequently, maybe that's why you experience that lag after you open so many applications that are using the memory in an intense way, once memory starts swapping overall performance it's terribly degraded.


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## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

can get some 2400mhz ram for cheap, gonna mix 8gb of that with my current stuff


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## INSTG8R (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> can get some 2400mhz ram for cheap, gonna mix 8gb of that with my current stuff



It will default to the 1600 your other RAM runs at.


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## Kursah (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> can get some 2400mhz ram for cheap, gonna mix 8gb of that with my current stuff



Honestly you're better off with more RAM than faster RAM in most situations you'll ever run into. 1600-1866 is a good sweet spot, even 2133, really beyond that, the return on investment goes WAAAAAY DOWN.


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## AsRock (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> Thanks everyone!
> 
> I would not be changing the motherboard - saves me reinstalling windows
> 
> ...



I use a 2500k and a 3770 and i would say it's not worth worth it. Firefox 50+ tabs ?, how much ram is that soaking up.  Maybe consider cutting that down some, advertisers must love you.


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## FreedomEclipse (Mar 25, 2015)

Would not upgrade, If you have a half decent board, id just overclock. my 2500k reached 4.9Ghz Ez im sure with more tweaking i could of hit 5Ghz but i couldnt be bothered. at 4.8-Ghz it will just chew through anything you throw at it


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## Bo$$ (Mar 25, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Would not upgrade, If you have a half decent board, id just overclock. my 2500k reached 4.9Ghz Ez im sure with more tweaking i could of hit 5Ghz but i couldnt be bothered. at 4.8-Ghz it will just chew through anything you throw at it



I don't, this board is trash if you ask me.


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## peche (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> I don't, this board is trash if you ask me.


your own board is trash?


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## Schmuckley (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> I don't, this board is trash if you ask me.



That is an A #1 Boot-Loop machine!


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## FreedomEclipse (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> I don't, this board is trash if you ask me.



Money would be better spent trying to source a secondhand Z68 or Z77 motherboard IMO. Once you got a decent board, that CPU will *FLY*


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## SirKeldon (Mar 25, 2015)

Schmuckley said:


> That is an A #1 Boot-Loop machine!



Yeah, old BIOS versions were a fucking nightmare due to that, luckily with the F6 one I never experienced any unless it was really a true OC problem not being able to boot with that settings, and nothing more than the 2 usual boot-ups after a failed overclock.



Bo$$ said:


> I don't, this board is trash if you ask me.





peche said:


> your own board is trash?



I wouldn't consider it as trash 100% (cause it served loyally to me all those years ) but definitely not the best board to get a stable OC beyond 4.5 due to the LLC circuit design. I'd rate it as "stuff that doesn't suck that hard"


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## peche (Mar 25, 2015)

SirKeldon said:


> I wouldn't consider it as trash 100% (cause it served loyally to me all those years ) but definitely not the best board to get a stable OC beyond 4.5 due to the LLC circuit design. I'd rate it as "stuff that doesn't suck that hard"


i was asking 
but also i can told that my board GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Rev. 1.1 has been mantain a stable overclock with a 2500K to 5.0ghz .... like a year ago, also on a 3770K too ... i an remamber voltage but it could !
thats why i love gigabyte 

Regards,


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## vega22 (Mar 25, 2015)

my ud4 was cool as long as i left xmp off.

turn that on and it was boot loop city too xD

never had any trouble getting my 25 or 26k to 5ghz


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## Axaion (Mar 25, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> thank you everyone!
> 
> More ram is the order of the day!
> 
> probably should also consider chrome XD firefox is using 1.8GB atm




Actually, Firefox is MUCH better when you start to use more tabs than 8 as far as i recall.

The 75 processes tells me you have some other stuff going on in the background that messes with your system

my own 2500k hits 4.5ghz on 1.303v (if i leave it on stock voltage it derps to 1.298v, so meh)

However, my case has crap airflow, so it still hits 67c under prime95/ Intel burn test

75 is a lot of processes though..


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## SirKeldon (Mar 26, 2015)

peche said:


> i was asking
> but also i can told that my board GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Rev. 1.1 has been mantain a stable overclock with a 2500K to 5.0ghz .... like a year ago, also on a 3770K too ... i an remamber voltage but it could !
> thats why i love gigabyte
> 
> Regards,



Yup, I love Gigabyte as well since EP45-Extreme, and I know you were asking, but I had to quote you both, peace bro 



marsey99 said:


> my ud4 was cool as long as i left xmp off.
> 
> turn that on and it was boot loop city too xD
> 
> never had any trouble getting my 25 or 26k to 5ghz



Maybe it's my chip cause i didn't tried to get all the juice from it yet (currently stable at 4.4GHz at 1.308V) but I read a lot of people having troubles with this board and LLC levels in newer BIOS versions (happened to me as well) that didn't happen with previous ones, unfortunately, I always had XMP off and I had the issue with boot loop frequently, that's why I decided to stick into the last stable non-UEFI one, despite I knew they were "worst" for higher stable OC's precisely due to that. Just my experience though


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## Bo$$ (Mar 26, 2015)

SirKeldon said:


> Yup, I love Gigabyte as well since EP45-Extreme, and I know you were asking, but I had to quote you both, peace bro
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe it's my chip cause i didn't tried to get all the juice from it yet (currently stable at 4.4GHz at 1.308V) but I read a lot of people having troubles with this board and LLC levels in newer BIOS versions (happened to me as well) that didn't happen with previous ones, unfortunately, I always had XMP off and I had the issue with boot loop frequently, that's why I decided to stick into the last stable non-UEFI one, despite I knew they were "worst" for higher stable OC's precisely due to that. Just my experience though



i have the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4 not the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4
very slightly different, good board, but the UEFI has ruined it IMO, i should have got the equivalent Asus (stock UEFI) at the time


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## SirKeldon (Mar 26, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> i have the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4 not the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4
> very slightly different, good board, but the UEFI has ruined it IMO, i should have got the equivalent Asus (stock UEFI) at the time



Never tried the UEFI version since it wasn't fully stable, claiming it as a BETA. Do you know what differences are? Never searched them, thought they were just minor


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## Bo$$ (Mar 26, 2015)

SirKeldon said:


> Never tried the UEFI version since it wasn't fully stable, claiming it as a BETA. Do you know what differences are? Never searched them, thought they were just minor


They are pretty much the same, but the XP (yours) has the onboard video connections, enabling the onboard GPU and Virtu, whereas i don't have these luxuries.

other than that, they are the same. its not so bad as a board overall. Just atrocious on the UEFI bios.


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## Msquare (Apr 4, 2015)

Even i own a 2500k and considering upgrading to skylake rather than something else currently available.


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## AsRock (Apr 4, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> They are pretty much the same, but the XP (yours) has the onboard video connections, enabling the onboard GPU and *Virtu, whereas i don't have these luxuries.*
> 
> other than that, they are the same. its not so bad as a board overall. Just atrocious on the UEFI bios.



Luxuries ?, i tried it a few times and every time my PC has ended up either using more power at idle or just the same but crap performance so you aint missing any thing except when ya bored and end up trying it out lol.


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## mrthanhnguyen (Apr 4, 2015)

In your case, more ram sounds better. In my case, 2500k keeps 100% usage during playing bf4, so I asked if 3770k is worth the upgrade. 95% respond is "No". I still upgraded and 3770k solved the 100% usage. But I still wonder wtf u doing with 50+ tabs in firefox?


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## Schmuckley (Apr 4, 2015)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> In your case, more ram sounds better. In my case, 2500k keeps 100% usage during playing bf4, so I asked if 3770k is worth the upgrade. 95% respond is "No". I still upgraded and 3770k solved the 100% usage. But I still wonder wtf u doing with 50+ tabs in firefox?



I'm just wondering what percentage is pr0n.


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## peche (Apr 4, 2015)

Schmuckley said:


> I'm just wondering what percentage is pr0n.




A hard question, but all we thought about it already...


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 4, 2015)

peche said:


> A hard question, but all we thought about it already...



_*hard*_ question indeed....


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## peche (Apr 4, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> _*hard*_ question indeed....


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 4, 2015)

peche said:


>


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## Bo$$ (Apr 4, 2015)

Its usually 60MB PDFs + Scientific papers... It really isn't ideal to shut the tabs after 5+ hours of searching.

I bought 16gb ram everyone, thank you


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## peche (Apr 4, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> I bought 16gb ram everyone, thank you


ram specs?


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 4, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> Its usually 60MB PDFs + Scientific papers... It really isn't ideal to shut the tabs after 5+ hours of searching.
> 
> I bought 16gb ram everyone, thank you



how much for the ram? I can get 16GB DDR3 2400mhz for £95 (not inc shipping) atm


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## Bo$$ (Apr 4, 2015)

peche said:


> ram specs?



CORSAIR VENGEANCE PRO BLUE 16GB KIT (2X8GB) DDR3 1866MHz 1.5V CL9



FreedomEclipse said:


> how much for the ram? I can get 16GB DDR3 2400mhz for £95 (not inc shipping) atm



Paid £90 shipped

Hate OCUK so i didn't get those


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 4, 2015)

Bo$$ said:


> CORSAIR VENGEANCE PRO BLUE 16GB KIT (2X8GB) DDR3 1866MHz 1.5V CL9
> 
> 
> 
> ...



yeah OCUK are definitely a love hate thing, when they get it right they are awesome but when they are wrong then its like getting dragged underneath a car for a mile or two. For a time they did get better when CaseKing bought them out but they seemed to have regressed back to their shitty ways not long after.

They definitely stock a lot of good loot though.


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## Ahhzz (Apr 5, 2015)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> In your case, more ram sounds better. In my case, 2500k keeps 100% usage during playing bf4, so I asked if 3770k is worth the upgrade. 95% respond is "No". I still upgraded and 3770k solved the 100% usage. But I still wonder wtf u doing with 50+ tabs in firefox?


Was it $300 worth of an upgrade? that's a lot of cash....


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## mrthanhnguyen (Apr 5, 2015)

I bought my 3770k $245 and sold my 2500k for $125 after all expenses.


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## xorbe (Apr 5, 2015)

Still messing with my 4790k setup after upgrading from my 2500k last week.  The 4x8GB DDR3-2400 (10-12-12-31) seems to cause crashes after 0.25 - 2 hours of gaming, but seems to work fine at 2133 (9-11-11-28).  I suppose I could remove half the ram and probably get 2400 stable, meh.


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## johnspack (Apr 5, 2015)

I7 upgrade,  yes.  10x yes.  I will never go back to 4 threads.  But if you don't optimize your os to use it,  ie,  unpark all cores,  then no point.  Learn to use your ht,  it's your friend!


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## bihboy23 (Apr 14, 2015)

Seems like ppl are eager to upgrade to skylake


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