Some dumb questions!

[EeveeTechTips]

Im saving up money to upgrade my computer spec

Here is my original post about my rather 'bad'? set up

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/241421-need-suggestions-on-my-build/

 

Some of my questions are these.

1. Is 2 X GTX 970 SLI better than GTX 980?

2. Looking for a rather smaller case for my next set up. How is Bitfenix Prodigy? in comparison to some of the specs I have(probably need a new mobo? to fit?)

3. Is the power supply I have sufficient enough for my future set up? For example, if I were to go for 2 X GTX 970 with my set up will 750 W hold up?

4. what are some of recommendations for dual monitors that are reasonably affordable?

    Right now Ive been using Samsung Syncmaster SA300 23inch monitors. Is this good enough for high end gaming?

5. Oops almost forgot!

    I currently have i7 2600K CPU and was considering upgrading to i7 4790K. Is it worth the investment?

[SAV1OUR]

1. yes 

2. you won't be sli'ing in the prodigy is mini itx unless you get the micro atx version 

3. 750w is more then enough 650w is also fine 

[XTankSlayerX]

750W Would hold up for SLI. Although go for a single 980, its generally better at the expense of performance.

 

I have a Samsung Syncmaster as well. And its fine imo.

[Katsu-K1L]

Build is fine just get a single 980 and yes ur PSU is good and for a monitor maybe upgrade to 1440p in the future?

[EeveeTechTips]

1. yes 

2. you won't be sli'ing in the prodigy is mini itx unless you get the micro atx version 

3. 750w is more then enough 650w is also fine 

So would you say SLI set up is better than a single 980?

 

750W Would hold up for SLI. Although go for a single 980, its generally better at the expense of performance.

 

I have a Samsung Syncmaster as well. And its fine imo.

Im a heavy gamer and do streaming from time to time and very few video editing here and there? Whats the advantage of having a single 980 over dual 970? or the other way around. It seems like the pricing is rather similar so Im trying to find out which way is more beneficial

[STRMfrmXMN]

You can't SLI in the Prodigy unless you go Micro ATX (don't put your first build in a Prodigy, did that and it was hell - so tiny and had to take things out and put them back in several times)

Some games don't support SLI so going 980 is my opinion (but wait until prices drop because demand is so high the prices are higher than Lindsey Lohan in 2011)

Your PSU is fine. Watch this if you're truly concerned.

Your monitors should be fine. 60 hertz caps you at 60FPS (I haven't bothered to look up your monitors specs so I dunno the refresh rates in Hz) if that matters to you.

[SAV1OUR]

So would you say SLI set up is better than a single 980?

 

Im a heavy gamer and do streaming from time to time and very few video editing here and there? Whats the advantage of having a single 980 over dual 970? or the other way around. It seems like the pricing is rather similar so Im trying to find out which way is more beneficial

depends on the game, but in most cases yes sli is better 

[EeveeTechTips]

You can't SLI in the Prodigy unless you go Micro ATX (don't put your first build in a Prodigy, did that and it was hell - so tiny and had to take things out and put them back in several times)

Some games don't support SLI so going 980 is my opinion (but wait until prices drop because demand is so high the prices are higher than Lindsey Lohan in 2011)

Your PSU is fine. Watch this if you're truly concerned.

Your monitors should be fine. 60 hertz caps you at 60FPS (I haven't bothered to look up your monitors specs so I dunno the refresh rates in Hz) if that matters to you.

Thanks for the info. Yeah one thing I was never sure about was the Wattage usage my computer spec needed. When I first built my system I just went for something safe and got 750W and I guess that was a good choice even for my future upgrading!

and I just added another question. I was considering upgrading my CPU from i7 2600K to i7 4790K along with a new gpu(probably gtx980 I guess later). Is this worth the money?

[STRMfrmXMN]

 

and I just added another question. I was considering upgrading my CPU from i7 2600K to i7 4790K along with a new gpu(probably gtx980 I guess later). Is this worth the money?

No. You'd need a whole new motherboard setup and your 2600k will for sure last you another 2 or more years. GPU - maybe, but wait for price drops.

[Mistersprinkles]

Thanks for the info. Yeah one thing I was never sure about was the Wattage usage my computer spec needed. When I first built my system I just went for something safe and got 750W and I guess that was a good choice even for my future upgrading!

and I just added another question. I was considering upgrading my CPU from i7 2600K to i7 4790K along with a new gpu(probably gtx980 I guess later). Is this worth the money?

 

If you plan on dual GPU, you have no choice but to upgrade your 2600K as it is limited to PCIE 2.0. 2 cards will be running at 8x/8x, equivalent to PCIE 3.0 4x/4x... a terrible bottleneck.

So for that reason alone, an upgrade to a 4790K is in order. You'll get 10-15% better clock per clock performance, as well as 6 SATA 3 ports on chipset, M.2, Sata Express, and PCIE 3.0. So yes, it's worth it in your case.

 

If you only plan on getting 1 GPU (ie, GTX 980) you can keep your 2600K a little longer and just slap the 980 in your current system. It'll be running at PCIE 3.0 8X equivalent which only loses you 1 or 2 frames per second. Certainly an acceptable loss. 

 

Personally, I think this way:

 

If you have lots of money and you do this as a hobby, upgrade to a 4790K and get 2 970s. If you are just a gamer on a budget (as much as being able to afford a 980 is "on a budget"), keep your 2600K (still a perfectly respectable CPU) and slap a 980 in there.

 

If you're like 99% of computer users (want to prolong life of your system, want to not "over spend"), you want to slap a 980 in your 2600K system and call it a day. 

[EeveeTechTips]

If you plan on dual GPU, you have no choice but to upgrade your 2600K as it is limited to PCIE 2.0. 2 cards will be running at 8x/8x, equivalent to PCIE 3.0 4x/4x... a terrible bottleneck.

So for that reason alone, an upgrade to a 4790K is in order. You'll get 10-15% better clock per clock performance, as well as 6 SATA 3 ports on chipset, M.2, Sata Express, and PCIE 3.0. So yes, it's worth it in your case.

 

If you only plan on getting 1 GPU (ie, GTX 980) you can keep your 2600K a little longer and just slap the 980 in your current system. It'll be running at PCIE 3.0 8X equivalent which only loses you 1 or 2 frames per second. Certainly an acceptable loss. 

 

Personally, I think this way:

 

If you have lots of money and you do this as a hobby, upgrade to a 4790K and get 2 970s. If you are just a gamer on a budget (as much as being able to afford a 980 is "on a budget"), keep your 2600K (still a perfectly respectable CPU) and slap a 980 in there.

 

If you're like 99% of computer users (want to prolong life of your system, want to not "over spend"), you want to slap a 980 in your 2600K system and call it a day. 

Great advice thanks

as you can see from my previous set up, I definitely need a new case and a new gpu

So depending on what type of case I get I will probably upgrade everything else accordingly

If I get a smaller case like bitfenix prodigy, I think I will have to upgrade my mobo to atx mini version so I will probably upgrade my cpu at the same time.

for the gpu.. hmm I might take up on STRMfrmXMN's advice and wait for the price to drop a little bit. (unless theres a boxing sale on those cards!!! doubtful  

 

No. You'd need a whole new motherboard setup and your 2600k will for sure last you another 2 or more years. GPU - maybe, but wait for price drops.

thanks for the help

[STRMfrmXMN]

Great advice thanks

as you can see from my previous set up, I definitely need a new case and a new gpu

So depending on what type of case I get I will probably upgrade everything else accordingly

If I get a smaller case like bitfenix prodigy, I think I will have to upgrade my mobo to atx mini version so I will probably upgrade my cpu at the same time.

for the gpu.. hmm I might take up on STRMfrmXMN's advice and wait for the price to drop a little bit. (unless theres a boxing sale on those cards!!! doubtful

 

thanks for the help

No problem.

[Mistersprinkles]

Great advice thanks

as you can see from my previous set up, I definitely need a new case and a new gpu

So depending on what type of case I get I will probably upgrade everything else accordingly

If I get a smaller case like bitfenix prodigy, I think I will have to upgrade my mobo to atx mini version so I will probably upgrade my cpu at the same time.

for the gpu.. hmm I might take up on STRMfrmXMN's advice and wait for the price to drop a little bit. (unless theres a boxing sale on those cards!!! doubtful

 

thanks for the help

 

Don't go expecting 980 and 970 to drop in price. They might go down 10-15% at most when AMD introduces competing DX12 cards, but don't expect them to budge much. Nvidia will likely release a 980Ti and/or a Titan based on GM204 at price points above the 980. That in itself won't make the 980/970 any cheaper. What will make them cheaper is when the GM210 chips come out (likely end of 2015) at which point we'll get the GTX 1070 and 1080 (or whatever they call them) and 980/970 prices will fall through the floor. Obviously though, at that point, you'll want a 10 series card, and the vicious cycle begins a new.

[KemoKa]

5. Oops almost forgot!

    I currently have i7 2600K CPU and was considering upgrading to i7 4790K. Is it worth the investment?

No. That 2600K will last you quite a while longer. So far it hasn't bottlenecked anything, and even then you can overclock the shit out of it, so I would say keep it. Devil's canyon still can't OC as well as Sandy Bridge, and the performance increase that you will see isn't gonna be so spectacular that it warrants spending $500+ on a brand new CPU and platform, if it's even noticeable at all.

I actually want to find a 2600K somewhere for cheap so that I can build a system out of it, but they're literally so good that they held on to their value extremely well and are still quite valuable.

[ccaian]

Yeah don't sell that 2600k just yet that thing is still awesome.

[EeveeTechTips]

No. That 2600K will last you quite a while longer. So far it hasn't bottlenecked anything, and even then you can overclock the shit out of it, so I would say keep it. Devil's canyon still can't OC as well as Sandy Bridge, and the performance increase that you will see isn't gonna be so spectacular that it warrants spending $500+ on a brand new CPU and platform, if it's even noticeable at all.

I actually want to find a 2600K somewhere for cheap so that I can build a system out of it, but they're literally so good that they held on to their value extremely well and are still quite valuable.

cool I will take you up on that advice. Is there a atx mini mobo that fits 2600K and a possible future upgrade of 4790K as well? I really want to switch my case to a small one(probably prodigy)

[KemoKa]

cool I will take you up on that advice. Is there a atx mini mobo that fits 2600K and a possible future upgrade of 4790K as well? I really want to switch my case to a small one(probably prodigy)

unfortunately neither CPU is compatible with the other's chipset. The 4970K is much more recent and uses the much more recent z97 chipset. Besides, both CPUs are based on different grid arrays, the 2600K is LGA 1155, the 4790K is LGA 1150, so the sockets are different altogether. They would never work together.

It doesn't matter that much, to be perfectly honest. You can still do pretty much everything on z77 that you did on z97. anything else is pretty much just pointless bells and whistles or features that only the most application-specific workers will want to use.

You will be fine with the Z77 platform. you can get an mATX z77 board pretty easily.

I'm actually kind of envious. Keep hold of that CPU, man, because those things are GOLD.

[Mr.Sommer-Hansen]

I'm in the same situation Regarding the monitore question .. I think I'm going for asus vg248qe .. it is about 280$

 

 but the acer gn246hl is also an a good option ( have i been told in the forum) and it is about 250$

[EeveeTechTips]

unfortunately neither CPU is compatible with the other's chipset. The 4970K is much more recent and uses the much more recent z97 chipset. Besides, both CPUs are based on different grid arrays, the 2600K is LGA 1155, the 4790K is LGA 1150, so the sockets are different altogether. They would never work together.

It doesn't matter that much, to be perfectly honest. You can still do pretty much everything on z77 that you did on z97. anything else is pretty much just pointless bells and whistles or features that only the most application-specific workers will want to use.

You will be fine with the Z77 platform. you can get an mATX z77 board pretty easily.

I'm actually kind of envious. Keep hold of that CPU, man, because those things are GOLD.

seems like its really hard to get Micro ATX z77 motherboards on the market that is actually decent. Do you have any recommendations regarding the my computer spec? assuming I will go with gtx 980

[KemoKa]

seems like its really hard to get Micro ATX z77 motherboards on the market that is actually decent. Do you have any recommendations regarding the my computer spec? assuming I will go with gtx 980

There is the ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M, apparently it has SLI support so you could add another card if you wanted.

There's also the Asus P8Z77-M Pro, that also supports SLI.

Another is the Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H

You might be able to find these boards on different sites other than the go-to sites like newegg. I managed to find some of the motherboards used on eBay, and I would send you the links, but I don't know how willing you are to take the plunge for a potentially defective board.

Actually, what the hell, I'll send you a link, see how it looks to you. Top-rated seller, 2088 rating, you should be fine (as long as you're in the US or Canada)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-P8Z77-M-PRO-DP-CG8480-Socket-1155-Intel-Z77-Chipset-Desktop-Motherboard-/171502423959?pt=Motherboards&hash=item27ee574f97