Need some second opinions

[Muyen]

Built my first PC back in 2011, and since then, I've changed the case, changed the PSU from a 750W non-modular to a 850W semi-modular (upgrade was for the modular capabilities), and an additional HDD was added.

 

Here's a link to what my current setup is, at the moment (except my monitors are really Dell ST2210s): http://pcpartpicker.com/b/M7Pscf

 

Starting to show its age, especially from a poor case choice at the time (was a RAIDMAX Blackstorm ATX-615WU) while being a PC building newb, which lead to a extremely bad rats nest of unused power cables, especially sitting in front of my video card. Now it's a struggle of, which games can I afford to run on medium or if I'm lucky to run on high before the video card overheats, crashes and reboots itself within a span of 30 seconds.

 

I've practically put my video card on life support in my new case, the NZXT Phantom 820, with more open airflow and better cable management that isn't interfering with said airflow.

 

Now that I'm running into a struggle of not being able to run games outside of low settings, I've started looking into my upgrade options.

 

At the moment, this is what I have planned out: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Yorugata/saved/kjpmP6

 

The goal is to be able to game easily at 1080p High or Ultra for games made within the last 5 years and stay high quality for current and upcoming games, as well as efficient productivity in regards to photo editing (from my photography hobby) and video editing, and watching hi-res videos among other miscellaneous tasks.

 

Realistically, in regards to the build, I might just settle with one R9 290X or even consider a R9 280X to reduce costs and continue use of my NZXT Hale82 850W 80+ Bronze PSU (though may upgrade to a 80+ Gold or Platinum grade down the road). My current case and the two WD Black HDDs will be moved over to the new build for sure, though I may consider removing the 2TB and pair it with my VelociRaptor HDD and reuse the old parts for either a  simple DIY NAS, a basic streaming PC, or just a multimedia PC.

 

Another consideration is that I may water cool my build down the road when I do more research about it and save up for it. I also don't know how to overclock, but will be reading up on how to do it and attempt to do a moderate overclocking down the road as well.

 

Just wanted to make sure the build seems to be on the right path, and if there's anything I should consider as an alternative for what's planned out at the moment. Budget isn't really an issue, since I can save accordingly, but if there's a better option for price-to-performance, then I'll consider it.

 

Also, the reason for the MSI Z97-GD65 instead of the newer Z97 Gaming 7 or 9, is because I'm wanting three USB 2.0 headers, since my case has an SD card reader and 4 USB 2.0 ports.

[Guest]

Hi

 

An i7 isn't really necessary for gaming at the moment, although the future may be different. If you do want an i7, then have you considered looking for a 2nd hand one for your current board ? That would save you having to buy a new motherboard. The difference between a sandybridge i7 and a haswell i7 is pretty small.

 

290x crossfire is massive overkill at 1080p. You would be better just buying a single high end card, and then replace it if and when it starts to struggle. A 290/x or a 780/ti as a single card should last for a while at that res.

 

The 32GB Ram is also madness. Unless you are doing extreme things with your pc then 8GB is fine for gaming, and 16GB if you are video editing. I would stick with the 16GB though, seeing as you are video editing.

 

You could drop the psu down to a 650W for a single card, although even 550W is enough. You don't need anywhere near 1200W for sli/cf (850W is enough)

[WoodenMarker]

How is your current system not able to run games outside of low settings? The 6970 is still quite the capable card. You should try lowering the voltage and creating a custom fan curve with Msi afterburner if it's overheating. 

[Muyen]

How is your current system not able to run games outside of low settings? The 6970 is still quite the capable card. You should try lowering the voltage and creating a custom fan curve with Msi afterburner if it's overheating. 

 

BF3 I can run at medium.

BF4 medium is pushing it but possible.

CoD: Black Ops 2 I could run high.

CoD: Ghost is medium.

I can't even run Team Fortress 2 (I can launch it, but even on low and medium, it crashes my GPU after the map loads).

CS:GO I get 120 FPS on every low setting, but if I optimize it at quality or balanced through AMD Gaming Evolved, I start getting issues while running 60 FPS in the higher quality.

TERA I can run on high but after running for an hour or two hours, I'll have at least 2 or 3 GPU crashes.

 

Those are the main ones I ran recently and have issues. I have a couple of other games I haven't tried out yet (Skyrim, Snipers Elite V2, Saints Row IV, and Sleeping Dogs after Steam Summer Sale) due to the issues making me question if I'd be able to do anything.

 

Again, I think some of the issues are from some noob mistakes when I first built the PC, which resulted in heat soaking the video card and not giving it sufficient airflow, as well as blocking some of it.

 

Also attached a quick screenshot from Speccy with my GPU specs. I'll download Afterburner (for some reason I never got around to getting it) and try tweaking it to see if that can help.

 

EDIT: Also attached screenshots from Afterburner. Does the new fan profile seem good or should I make it a bit more aggressive on bringing temps down lower sooner? And any other settings I should consider tweaking?

[WoodenMarker]

Those are the main ones I ran recently and have issues. I have a couple of other games I haven't tried out yet (Skyrim, Snipers Elite V2, Saints Row IV, and Sleeping Dogs after Steam Summer Sale) due to the issues making me question if I'd be able to do anything.

Again, I think some of the issues are from some noob mistakes when I first built the PC, which resulted in heat soaking the video card and not giving it sufficient airflow, as well as blocking some of it.

Also attached a quick screenshot from Speccy with my GPU specs. I'll download Afterburner (for some reason I never got around to getting it) and try tweaking it to see if that can help.

EDIT: Also attached screenshots from Afterburner. Does the new fan profile seem good or should I make it a bit more aggressive on bringing temps down lower sooner? And any other settings I should consider tweaking?

The fan curve looks alright. However, your temperatures are very high considering it isn't even at load. 

Is the graphics card clean of dust? 

[Muyen]

The fan curve looks alright. However, your temperatures are very high considering it isn't even at load. 

Is the graphics card clean of dust? 

For a reference design, it's about as cleaned out as I can get without taking it apart completely. I normally spray my system down either once a month or once every two months.

 

From observations, I can get it to idle at about 75-77 on average before I downloaded Afterburner. Under load it hit 85 easily, but at times I've seen it hit 95 almost as easily, while on occasion it can get up to 106.

[WoodenMarker]

For a reference design, it's about as cleaned out as I can get without taking it apart completely. I normally spray my system down either once a month or once every two months.

From observations, I can get it to idle at about 75-77 on average before I downloaded Afterburner. Under load it hit 85 easily, but at times I've seen it hit 95 almost as easily, while on occasion it can get up to 106.

At that point, I'd just get a new graphics card if you're not up for replacing the thermal paste or something. I'd grab a 290, a ssd, chuck the racket of a velociraptor into a bottomless pit, and call it a day. 

[Muyen]

At that point, I'd just get a new graphics card if you're not up for replacing the thermal paste or something. I'd grab a 290, a ssd, chuck the racket of a velociraptor into a bottomless pit, and call it a day. 

That's the plan. Redoing my personal build for some Z97, Crossfire goodness (or just settle with one 290X) while grabbing a 280X and a SSD for the current stuff and make it a usable current gen gaming PC for my fiancee (main focus is getting Skyrim looking nice, especially for modded Skyrim and getting it ready for Sims 4 for her).