upgrade suggestions

[batchie]

Hi
my son has a Q9550 with 4 gig of memory at the moment, graphics card is new so no need for that.
we our looking at either a i7 set up with 8 gig of ram or i5 with 16 gig, should comprise of cpu, mobo and ram only with a £400 budget, used for gaming primarily.
unsure what the best combinations are at the moment so any suggestion will be very welcome.
Cheers

 

[ED209]

what GPU do you have out of interest also what case will it be going in to?

 

[Idleman]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £188.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £119.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
Total : £414.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).




YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
Total : £425.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Why do you need 16GB ram with the i5?

 

[batchie]

Hello the son here,

Current GPU - Geforce EVGA 660ti superclocked

I am an avid gamer who is looking for a powerful upgrade to my processor and mere 4gb of Ram. I am a very indecisive of whether to go for an i5 processor or an i7 as i am rather uneducated about the difference it would have with running new games at maximum settings. I am willing to spend at most £450, and primarily want to get the most performance from the upgrade.

Thanks

 

[Danny75]

If main task is gaming then i5 + 8GB RAM. You will hardly get better performance with an i7 or with 16GB RAM. Given that 16GB RAM prices are around double what 8GB are, you won't have wasted money if you ever feel the need to add on another 8GB.

The graphics card will make the biggest difference. Your 660Ti will no longer cope with maxed settings on some new games.

i7 and 16GB for a lot of streaming, video editing etc which make use of all cores/threads and a lot of memory.

 

[batchie]

many thx