Windows 7: I feel a little bit dirty but need your help !

Its really going to come down to how much the Hyperthreading will benefit you quite honestly. Only you can really determine if it would be beneficial for your build.

In my case, I do alot of Video encoding, most 720 and 1080P material. In that scenario, the HT indeed provides a nice little boost.
Folding at Home can take advantage of it as well, if using the CPU based app.
It may also help slightly for heavy multi-tasking.

In gaming, it doesn't really help or hurt. Theres a couple games where it can help a bit, but they are very few and if not mistaken, mostly RTS games. (Total War, Civ5 etc)
Generally speaking, for a gaming rig, your better off to save the $100 on the HT CPU, and put it towards a more powerful graphics card.


I would look at the intended use, and then determine if HT will help you.


For me, it was worth the investment becuase I do a ton of video encoding, some F @ H, and play alot of Civ5, Total War, Anno 2070 etc, all of which take advantage of HT.
But that certainly will not be the case for everyone.

Completely agree with this^^

The 3570K has only 4 cores/threads, but they are really powerful cores...I am still in shock at how much it takes to actually put a load on this CPU. The applications mentioned above can certainly benefit from HT though. Once you overclock them, the 3570K and the 3770K will run damn near the same, and the only time you will get the benefits from HT is when the program is designed to utilize it. If you feel you don't need HT, save the $100 and put it towards something else......graphics card, SSD, closed loop water cooler, etc. If you think you need or will need HT, splurge on the 3770K.....either one is beastly!

Kelly

I agree with both the comments above. I have owned a 3570K and now have a 3770K. In most game situations there is no difference, and they will both overclock quite well. I do F@H and very little else that will benefit from HT. I mainly paid the extra $100 for the folding and because I'm trying to quit upgrading every release. I wanted something that would last a few years and we never know what is coming out next. I hate the words 'future proofing' because I don't believe in it, but that was my main intent when going with the 3770K. Programs and games are becoming more demanding on GPU and CPU all the time. Personally, I would rather have more than I need than not enough.

I see a 2700k on sale for 289.99usd which sounds like a good deal but with shipping vs a 3770k @ 329.98 w/o shipping, both carry a zero tax advantage. But if I'm inclined towards the 3770k then time is truly on my side.
Question would I benefit with HT'g while doing audio editing and conversion? I'm thinking it's almost as intensive as video.

I don't know enough about audio editing/conversion to say yes or no on that. I can tell you that it is one of those cases where "I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it." If you have ruled out the 3570K in favor of something that has HT, then definitely go with the 3770K.....money well spent. You may not need HT now, but a year from now, you may move into video editing/converting and HT would definitely benefit you there.

With this new information, I can say this: I've seen the 3770K go for $319.99 on sale, if you see that again, snatch one up. Fin

Great tip as time is totally on my side with this build and that's a good thing.

It's for sale right now on Newegg and Amazon for $319.99 with free shipping.

OK I bit the bullet and bought the 3770k chip yikes I'm a sick bas_ard ! Thanks all for your help and guidance. I'm sure I will be over the moon when I get the rest of my gear and it all changed out. Then I will recycle my killer current gear to my brother and he's going to get one kick ass rig !

It looks like you will have one "awesome" build when all is said and done! My congrats and have a blast putting it all together.

Take pics when you are done!