First time poster looking for some advice on PC upgrade

[Spectrre]

Hey guys. This is the first time I've posted on this site but I'm a long time viewer and sub of Linus's. I'm not completely clueless about pc's either. I've built the one i'm using over time.

I got it to the point where it was the idea I started out with. And it's a nice system. After you've read the specs you might even disagree with my idea to upgrade. 

So I'll list them real quick;

+CPU: AMD Fx-6200 6-core @3.8(4.1)Ghz
-CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 All-in-one watercooler

*Ram: 16Gb Corsair Vengeance Black @1600mhz

+Mobo: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3

- GPU: MSI GTX-660 OC version
*Storage: 256GB Samsung 840 PRO SSD/2 500Gb WD caviar blue's (these are both semi broken)/3TB WD USB 3.0 External HD(This has my steam on it and most media)/1TB Medion external HD

+Case: Generic CaseCom case(forgot the model) 

-Case fans: Front case fan (red LED, intake fan)/Top case fan (red LED, exhaust fan)
*PSU: Old 750 watt PSU that needs replacing
That's the important bits. Peripherals aren't an issue, I have great gear. The only thing worth mentioning are the monitors I suppose. 
I have two Iiyama 24" 1ms monitors. (1920x1080/60hz) Normal use for me is the one right in front of my is my game screen. The other panel is for music, skype, chat, twitch (I stream), PC temperatures and fan speeds, date.

Now looking at this set up, it's good right? It's a nice system, does what I ask of it. I can play most of the games I play maxed out. Do I really need to upgrade? 

But the newer stuff coming out I can't run maxed or even on higher settings in most cases. And with GTA 5 coming soon, a game I intend to spend a lot of time on, I want it to look as good as it can. And like a true pc fan the upgrade quest never ends, right? 

Now I have some idea of what I want to upgrade and which parts I'm looking to buy. But I'm unsure about a few things. 

I'll quickly list the upgrade or overhaul I had in mind. Bear with me, you're hanging in there ;p

The only things I intend to keep are the H80, the Ram, the case fans and the storage (for now)

Now what I was thinking of getting is the following:

SLI 780's / Asus Crosshair 5 Formula-Z 990fx / Corsair 760T (Arctic White) / AMD Fx-8350 8-core @4.0(4.3)Ghz / Corsair AX760 

(You may notice I'm a bit of a fan of Corsair ;p)

Now here's the whole point to this thread. (YOU MADE IT!)  


I'm pretty much set about all of those parts except the GPU('s). I've considered countless options and can't seem to work out what gets what I want and what I need blend nicely. I'd like 780's because it's a looot of performance. But I don't think I need that kind of power for the monitors I'm using. And the 880 is around the corner so I was going to wait for the announcement and the pricing so I can maybe get a better deal. Regardless of what I do I think waiting is a good thing cause even if the 880 isn't the card we're thinking it might be at the price range they put it, it'll still lower the price of the 780's so i could go back to that. But now I've been considering going ATI because of mantle and... yeah I'm stuck..


So if you'd care to share any advice or insight I'd be more than grateful. I need some smart people to help me here. 

[Sauron]

Don't get sli 780s, get crossfire R9 290s, they're much better for the money. Get a third monitor and game in surround or make the jump and go 4k, 2 290s can handle it.

[CaffienatedBovine]

Wait for Nvidia 800 series you will get more for your money. Announcement September, launch late September or early October. Other than that beastly system (setting my Intel fanboyism aside).

[silentmelodies]

Get the FX-6300, its on a never Vishera platform instead of Zambezi.

 

Get the H80i, it has a better pump and tubes.

Get 8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury RAM, you dont need 16GB unless you do video production.

That motherboard has a poorely protected VRM. Get a different board.

You can check out motherboards here.

The Crosshair V is a bit too much, a Sabertooth 990FX is also a good choice!
 

And crossfire R9 290X is enough, the 780 Ti's are too much.

Good luck!
 

[Horrorfull]

Get the FX-6300.

Get the H80i, it has a better pump and tubes.

Get 8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury RAM, you dont need 16GB unless you do video production.

That motherboard has a poorely protected VRM. Get a different board.

You can check out motherboards here.

Good luck!

Why upgrade from 6200 to 6300? Why not go all the way to an i7.

That's like saying. Get rid of your 1998 Honda civic for a 1999 Honda Civic.

[silentmelodies]

Why upgrade from 6200 to 6300? Why not go all the way to an i7.

That's like saying. Get rid of your 1998 Honda civic for a 1999 Honda Civic.

 

Because AMD.

Piss off Intel fanboy

[Horrorfull]

Because AMD.

Piss off Intel fanboy

Or the 8350. 

And how am I a fanboy?

Plus the 6300 will bottle neck A SINGLE R9 290x so that doesn't make any sense.

Piss off tech noob.

 

On Topic: If I had a budget to work with that'd be great. @Spectrre

 

[Spectrre]

Why upgrade from 6200 to 6300? Why not go all the way to an i7.

That's like saying. Get rid of your 1998 Honda civic for a 1999 Honda Civic.

Yeah I agree with you there. I think the upgrade that small is rather pointless. And I don't even really NEED to upgrade the cpu but the 8350 is cheap as all hell and still a nice boost. I was thinking R9 290x's as well, my only quip is that they're about the same price as the 780's for me here. And the 780's (not TI's for those who weren't paying attention before ) preform a bit better. But that's ignoring the boost I'll get with mantle which is way more significant than I expected btw . So I'm not sure yet. Either way like I said I want to try and wait (it aint easy >.<) till the 800 series drops. The mobo he has a point on, it's a bit much, I could try and find a gigabyte 990fx or go with that sabertooth, but i'd rather go with the gigabyte because I'm aiming for a colour matching pc. Mine colour matches atm, with my peripherals too. Everything is black with red accents or LED's. So the sabertooth isn't an option(yes that is kinda dumb shh). 

And I have a fair bit of money to spend but I wouldn't jump up to I7 unless I had a bit more. 

[Spectrre]

My budget atm is 1500 euros but I could do it for cheaper if the 800-series was out, so that's about as much as I want to spend for now. Unless someone can really tempt me. 

[Spectrre]

Might also be worth mentioning that I have considered getting a third monitor and I want to keep my options open for possibly a 120hz monitor in the future (i'm talking at least 9 months from now) or MAYBE 4k. 

[megaant4]

Yeah I agree with you there. I think the upgrade that small is rather pointless. And I don't even really NEED to upgrade the cpu but the 8350 is cheap as all hell and still a nice boost. I was thinking R9 290x's as well, my only quip is that they're about the same price as the 780's for me here. And the 780's (not TI's for those who weren't paying attention before ) preform a bit better. But that's ignoring the boost I'll get with mantle which is way more significant than I expected btw . So I'm not sure yet. Either way like I said I want to try and wait (it aint easy >.<) till the 800 series drops. The mobo he has a point on, it's a bit much, I could try and find a gigabyte 990fx or go with that sabertooth, but i'd rather go with the gigabyte because I'm aiming for a colour matching pc. Mine colour matches atm, with my peripherals too. Everything is black with red accents or LED's. So the sabertooth isn't an option(yes that is kinda dumb shh). 

And I have a fair bit of money to spend but I wouldn't jump up to I7 unless I had a bit more. 

 

Just be careful  when looking at the gigabyte mobo.. I have the FX-8350 and the sabertooth, only because I red that you need to update the gigabyte BIOS  before you could install the FX-8350 and you need a cpu in the mobo to be able to install the bios... It shouldn't be a problem because you already have an older CPU you could use.. Just be careful..

[ForsakenLive]

Because AMD.

Piss off Intel fanboy

He is not being a fanboy at all, he is helping the user with his upgrade with a recommendation.

We don't really need biased people telling others to piss off, we try to be a good community that gets along, let's keep it that way.

 

 

To the OP, Keep the motherboard the 970 chipset is still decent, although there is not much OC headroom on it, it's not worth it to spend $150+ on an older platform, on september the FX series are getting prices slashed, you may get a FX 8350 for dirt cheap, together with your board it's going to be a nice upgrade without spending a ton.

For the GPU get a R9 290 or 290X now (change PSU also, 850W so you can crossfire later) and then add another one later down the road. I see no point in getting the 780 now, it packs a punch, but R9 290s are cheaper and have a bit more power, and do very nice on high res (triple monitor/4k).

[Tsuki]

you dont really need too much of an upgrade, with that large of a budget, drop your AIO, and get a custom loop, wait for the 880, and get a better psu.

 

 

Get 8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury RAM, you dont need 16GB unless you do video production.

 i strongly disagree with this.  you need 8GB for just chrome these days.  and theres no point in "upgrading" to less ram. _{but i still think 12GB is perfect..}

[Clyne]

My budget atm is 1500 euros but I could do it for cheaper if the 800-series was out, so that's about as much as I want to spend for now. Unless someone can really tempt me. 

since your budget is 1500, you could go with a i5

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€199.90 @ Caseking) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H90 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€79.90 @ Caseking) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€88.43 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€63.98 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€113.28 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 1TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€49.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (€473.00 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (€52.90 @ Caseking) 

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€108.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Total: €1230.08

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-21 01:44 CEST+0200

[silentmelodies]

FX-6300 is newer and runs cooler than the FX-6200 and is on Vish......ah whatever, he is gonna buy a i5 anyway :mellow:

[KemoKa]

I would say if your internal hard drives are dying, move the stuff on them over to you externals, take the externals out of their enclosures and stick them in your computer as internals. Will work seamlessly.

 

I don't see what the deal with these uber-expensive high-end boards is. We've established over and over again that they offer no noticeable performance benefit. Sure, they look sick, but give me some paint and I'll take the heatsinks off of a mid-range board and make them look sweet too.

Also get the 8350 when prices are slashed, stick a good cooler on there and overclock the hell out of it.

 

Or to be honest I would wait until their Excavator chips come out. We can live in hope, right? We can dream, right?

[KemoKa]

you dont really need too much of an upgrade, with that large of a budget, drop your AIO, and get a custom loop, wait for the 880, and get a better psu.

 

 

 i strongly disagree with this.  you need 8GB for just chrome these days.  and theres no point in "upgrading" to less ram. _{but i still think 12GB is perfect..}

Can you get 6GB DIMMs? I'm not sure you can, and mixing RAM is a really really bad idea.

[Spectrre]

He is not being a fanboy at all, he is helping the user with his upgrade with a recommendation.

We don't really need biased people telling others to piss off, we try to be a good community that gets along, let's keep it that way.

 

 

To the OP, Keep the motherboard the 970 chipset is still decent, although there is not much OC headroom on it, it's not worth it to spend $150+ on an older platform, on september the FX series are getting prices slashed, you may get a FX 8350 for dirt cheap, together with your board it's going to be a nice upgrade without spending a ton.

For the GPU get a R9 290 or 290X now (change PSU also, 850W so you can crossfire later) and then add another one later down the road. I see no point in getting the 780 now, it packs a punch, but R9 290s are cheaper and have a bit more power, and do very nice on high res (triple monitor/4k).

 

 

 

since your budget is 1500, you could go with a i5

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€199.90 @ Caseking) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H90 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€79.90 @ Caseking) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€88.43 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€63.98 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€113.28 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 1TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€49.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (€473.00 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (€52.90 @ Caseking) 

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€108.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Total: €1230.08

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-21 01:44 CEST+0200

 

Thanks for the recommendation, that actually seems like a nice build, but I should have emphasized more that besides the GPU and possibly the mobo (and MAYBE cpu if the offer is nice enough) that I want to keep the other parts the way they are

I know the 760T is pricey but I love that case and that is staying. The H80 is super as well, I don't need to replace that. The storage I said i'd possibly upgrade but all I'd want to do is get another SSD, a 512 or maybe a TB one even (down the road, not now) and a 4TB mechanical. 

Thanks for the post though 

[Spectrre]

I would say if your internal hard drives are dying, move the stuff on them over to you externals, take the externals out of their enclosures and stick them in your computer as internals. Will work seamlessly.

 

I don't see what the deal with these uber-expensive high-end boards is. We've established over and over again that they offer no noticeable performance benefit. Sure, they look sick, but give me some paint and I'll take the heatsinks off of a mid-range board and make them look sweet too.

Also get the 8350 when prices are slashed, stick a good cooler on there and overclock the hell out of it.

 

Or to be honest I would wait until their Excavator chips come out. We can live in hope, right? We can dream, right?

Yeah like I've said I'm definitely waiting and I didn't know those were getting a drop too so that's an added bonus, I'll get the 8350 even cheaper and a nice mobo to fit (which will be as of yet undecided) And yea I don't really use those interal drives anymore. They're just there for pure storage atm. I use my SSD and the 3TB external as work drives as mentioned ^^ 

[Spectrre]

Also everyone seems to be under the assumption that I'm buying that 16GB Corsair Vengeance ram kit. I already have that and I'm not just gonna throw it away so  

[helping]

this thread is a clusterfk of bad ideas

 

i5k + dual tower cooler (I.e. PHTC14PE, NHD14/15, Dark rock pro 2/3) or h100i and above if going for AIO.

150$ or less on a Z97 MB

spend the rest on GPU

If never SLI, ~600w quality PSU

If SLI, 750w+ with 770 and below. 780 or R9 cards 850w+

 

I would consider nothing in your current build reusable except for your monitors and RAM. You can make a case for the h80, but I don't really think it's ideal.

Sell your old stuff off for whatever you can get for it, parted out.

[Spectrre]

I seem to have made my post a bit of a mess but the first specs I listed are what I currently have, not what I'm intending to buy. The parts listed in the lower section are the parts I intend to put into the system and replace them with. 

[Spectrre]

this thread is a clusterfk of bad ideas

 

i5k + dual tower cooler (I.e. PHTC14PE, NHD14/15, Dark rock pro 2/3) or h100i and above if going for AIO.

150$ or less on a Z97 MB

spend the rest on GPU

If never SLI, ~600w quality PSU

If SLI, 750w+ with 770 and below. 780 or R9 cards 850w+

 

I would consider nothing in your current build reusable except for your monitors and RAM. You can make a case for the h80, but I don't really think it's ideal.

Sell your old stuff off for whatever you can get for it, parted out.

What's wrong with the H80? And honestly, I don't want to go for an i5. Call me stupid or a fanboy. I don't care, but I don't see the point in spending more money on a less capable CPU. And losing the potential of the boost that mantle is. 

[helping]

What's wrong with the H80? And honestly, I don't want to go for an i5. Call me stupid or a fanboy. I don't care, but I don't see the point in spending more money on a less capable CPU. And losing the potential of the boost that mantle is. 

It's only really useful for SFF. For a bit more a 240 AIO is superior, and some air coolers perform comparably without any of the drawbacks at all of an AIO.

 

..what do you mean less capable CPU? An AMD CPU is a budget compromise, find me a single game where an 8350 beats a 4670 or 4690k.

Mantle has nothing to do with the CPU.

[Spectrre]

Uhm.

That's an 8350 beating a 3570k and a 3770k and even a 3820k in some games and definitely the applications I'm looking for (i.e. streaming)

Those have double the threads your 4670/4690 have. And it's more than half the price of those (thrice in some cases)

pls.