To wait or not to wait?

[dak1220]

I'm looking to upgrade my current build that is nearing six years old. It doesn't quite cut it in games any more and is generally slow as can be, largley due to a nearly six year old windows install that I am too lazy to format and re-install paired with matching six year old hardware. This will primarily be a gaming/workstation build. I use Adobe Creative Cloud software (so GPU acceleration might be handy) as well as Visual Studio (which I'm not aware of any hardware optimizations, but I thought I would include it), and play lots of the latest games. My hopes are to game at 1200p (it was a thing back when I built my current computer) at high/ultra settings @ 60fps. I have put together a preliminary build here. I want to stay around 1200-1250 USD. My main questions are as follows:

 

1. Is there an advantage to buying the two SSDs I have in my parts list above, the 128GB for windows and the 250GB for all my programs, or would it be better to consolidate the two into one ~500GB SSD? I've always heard a separate Windows drive is better.
   
2. Is the difference in price between the Samsung 850 Pro vs 850 Evo worth it? Or should I be looking at entirely different brands?
   
3. Is Intel Skylake/R9 300 series/whatever NVIDIA has next/Windows 10 worth waiting for? I know I can just upgrade Windows, but as I mentioned earlier I hate re-installing OS's and I would also hate to buy a 970 or 4790k now and have Intel/AMD/NVIDIA release something better in two months. (I know this can't be avoided, but if its only a couple months away I can wait)
   

Note: Power Supply and Case are NOT needed as I will reuse the ones I currently have.

[Ian Schmid]

i would wait 980ti (if it is in your budget)

and i believe there is new intel cpus coming out soon

[dak1220]

i would wait 980ti (if it is in your budget)

and i believe there is new intel cpus coming out soon

Thanks for the input! Are there any dates rumored for these items to drop?

[Boink]

1. My recommendation for storage is a ~250GB or larger SSD for your OS and larger programs like the creative suite then a 1TB or larger HDD for file storage and games. There is no real advantage to having two SSDs like you mention above.

2. The 850 Pro can withstand more write cycles (though the Evo can already handle more than you would use before you would upgrade) and has slightly faster speeds, but overall not entirely worth it. Honestly, any reputable brand would be fine.

3. Skylake: not really worth waiting for, it's a long way off. R9 300 series: I would wait until they announce what it is going to be in a couple months then decide from there. Nvidia has already released most of their new cards, at least in this price bracket. Windows 10 won't require a re-install, it will upgrade using your current drivers, programs, and files, so no worries there.

[Reuben]

Thanks for the input! Are there any dates rumored for these items to drop?

Within a few weeks for 980 Ti, '2015' for new Intel CPUs, but they won't really be a big deal for gaming. R9 390X should also be available pretty soon.

[dak1220]

1. My recommendation for storage is a ~250GB or larger SSD for your OS and larger programs like the creative suite then a 1TB or larger HDD for file storage and games. There is no real advantage to having two SSDs like you mention above.

2. The 850 Pro can withstand more write cycles (though the Evo can already handle more than you would use before you would upgrade) and has slightly faster speeds, but overall not entirely worth it. Honestly, any reputable brand would be fine.

3. Skylake: not really worth waiting for, it's a long way off. R9 300 series: I would wait until they announce what it is going to be in a couple months then decide from there. Nvidia has already released most of their new cards, at least in this price bracket. Windows 10 won't require a re-install, it will upgrade using your current drivers, programs, and files, so no worries there.

Thanks for the input! I appreciate it. I would probably have to get around ~500GB to hold all of my programs and a Windows install. I forgot to mention I am reusing some of my current drives for larger storage. Would installing a bunch of programs on the C: drive with Windows compromise performance? I will probably wait for the R9 300 series.

[dak1220]

Within a few weeks for 980 Ti, '2015' for new Intel CPUs, but they won't really be a big deal for gaming. R9 390X should also be available pretty soon.

Thanks! I will probably hold out till the 980Ti and the R9 300 series drops. Won't the 980Ti fall in a much higher price bracket like the 780Ti?

[Reuben]

Thanks! I will probably hold out till the 980Ti and the R9 300 series drops. Won't the 980Ti fall in a much higher price bracket like the 780Ti?

Probably even worse because it's a different core than the 980, the 390/390X will most likely be closer to your price range.

[georgespamme]

snip

Yes, 980Ti will likely be priced above the 980.  This is just a thought, but you might consider water cooling since your air cooler is already near AIO water cooler prices.

[Boink]

Thanks for the input! I appreciate it. I would probably have to get around ~500GB to hold all of my programs and a Windows install. I forgot to mention I am reusing some of my current drives for larger storage. Would installing a bunch of programs on the C: drive with Windows compromise performance? I will probably wait for the R9 300 series.

Because of how SSDs work, installing a bunch of crap on them won't impact performance nearly as much as it would for a HDD, if at all.

 

Thanks! I will probably hold out till the 980Ti and the R9 300 series drops. Won't the 980Ti fall in a much higher price bracket like the 780Ti?

The 980ti is expected to be ~700 USD

[dak1220]

Probably even worse because it's a different core than the 980, the 390/390X will most likely be closer to your price range.

Thanks for the help! I will hold out for AMD's new cards before I buy. 

[dak1220]

Yes, 980Ti will likely be priced above the 980.  This is just a thought, but you might consider water cooling since your air cooler is already near AIO water cooler prices.

I thought about an H100i or H100i GTX. From the reviews I've seen there isn't much, if any cooling benefit, and with water cooling its just one more thing to go wrong.

[dak1220]

Because of how SSDs work, installing a bunch of crap on them won't impact performance nearly as much as it would for a HDD, if at all.

 

The 980ti is expected to be ~700 USD

Thanks for the help! I will consolidate my SSD's and wait for the R9 300 series!

[Ian Schmid]

Thanks for the input! Are there any dates rumored for these items to drop?

980ti should be soon ish the cpus might be end of this year/ next year