Upgrading Help

rockythetechguy · April 3, 2014

Hi Guys,

I've had my current build for a while now (since haswell was introduced) the specs are: Intel i5 4440, Asus GT640, 16GB Kingston Hyper X Beast, OCZ Vector raid 0 array, Seagate Barracuda 2TB, Corsair 600 watt modular power supply, I use 2 monitors with this build. Now you may ask why I put 16GB of ram and 2 monitors on a low end rig like this. I did this because of multitasking, I frequently maxed out my 8GB of ram in the last rig and find that 1 large monitor is not as effective for this as two smaller (cheaper) ones. I built this on a tight budget and time schedule. I did plan for upgradeability which is now what I need to do because I am starting to do a little light 3d work/rendering and this build is far far too slow for my needs. I have looked into a few upgrade options and don't know which to do.

Firstly the processor upgrade. I am not going LGA 2011 with this build because I can't afford it and wouldn't use its benefits anyway. This leaves me with all the LGA1150 upgrade options, the most obvious of which is getting a 4770k. This is what most would recommend and is probably the most likely option. I don't think I would over clock it much though because of my current (low to mid range not really over clocking designed) motherboard, which makes it slightly less worthwhile and it would need a aftermarket cooler, therefore this would be the more expensive option. Another option is the Xeon e3 1230/40 v3, these are slightly more limiting cpu's in a few areas (gaming for example) and perform slightly worse than the aforementioned i7 especially after that has been over clocked (obviously no over clocking on a xeon). My final option is to wait for the haswell refresh and put up with my i5 for a little longer, this would make logical sense but render times are so long it would require a lot of self control.

As well as the CPU I also plan on upgrading my graphics card, the GT640 won't be seen maxing anything out. I bought it mainly just to run 2 monitors for cheap. My options are: A geforce 770/760ti or an r9 280x. It doesn't matter to me which brand I go for. It is mainly for light workstation use, bear in mind I want to do a bit of light gaming on this rig too. Any other graphics config suggestions for under £300 ($475) would be great.

Any Help would be really useful