help on choice of CPU for Workstation/Gamer rig in one

#1

What CPU should I base a new workstation build on … Core i7 I7-4770K or Core i7 I7-3770K ?

I understand that Haswell has overheating issues when overclocking, but is there any downsides to Haswell in regards of modelling / rendering with 3ds Max?

#2

The Haswell overheating issues are something grossly overstated.
Yes, they moved voltage regulation on die, shortened some lines, and went for shitty paste instead of a metal bath/solder, which all increase heat, but the problems are something cropping up in sports level overclocking more so than the free shot at some extra performance average Joe goes for when they buy a K.

Mine runs on a cheap-arse liquid (H50) at 4.7 and spare change without a hitch and has never seen 70 degrees. That’s with 100:125 and a base of 108 and the mult cranked up.

Performance wise they are more or less equivalent, most components will be the same (RAM, videocard etc.), and neither the current, retarded new socket (totally unnecessary to change it) or the previous one look like they will be as long lived from here on as some predecessors.

Personally I like my Haswell, the ridiculously low power draw, the z87 is a good chipset in its second batch and the issues were borderline irrelevant in the first, so I can recommend it. I also play with bleeding edge compilers and dev though, most of that is irrelevant to mainstream apps and will probably remain so for another year or two.

A 3770k won’t be wasted money either.

Go for whichever, there isn’t a huge gap, but don’t base your decision on presumed overheating issues unless you plan on some serious numbers for the sake of it (in which case Haswell is a lot more pain to get up there as you have to delid it and bathe it if you really want to push it).

#3

Thanks a lot for explaining. This was very helpful.
I only plan to OC it slightly and find a stable clock - I’ll go with Haswell.
Again, TY!

#4

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