Upgrading rig - Tips/Suggestions?

[KineticDepth]

So I have been having issues with my motherboard as of late, and wanted to upgrade. Rather than mess around with pulling the CPU off and risk frying it (I am horribly clumsy), I was going to use this as an excuse to upgrade my CPU as well (either a beast i5 or i7).

 

Also, one of my GPUs died on me, so I am considering upgrading GPUs as well. Would prefer to avoid running 2 cards this time and just go for 1 powerhouse card.

 

Ive seen some good deals for Black Friday, but dont want to jump the gun and buy something just because its cheap.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Location = Canada

Budget = < $1200 ideally

Aim = Gaming

 

Current rig:

• CPU - Intel i5-2500k Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3 GHz
• Motherboard - AS Rock P67 Extreme4 Gen 3
• RAM - G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 16BG (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2
• GPU - 2 x SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950
• Case - LIAN LI Lancool PC-K63 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
• PSU - FirePower ZX Series 1000W 80Plus Gold
• Monitor - 2 x Asus VS247H-P 23.6-Inch Full-HD LED-Lit LCD Monitor

 

[LawrenceBarnes2013]

4690K, a GTX970 Gaming(add other one later and witness the Power) and an MSI Z97 Gaming 3/5, maybe add an H220 for that CPU 

[Arphenyte]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($289.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($80.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($121.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($98.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  ($79.90 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $1195.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-28 12:19 EST-0500

[NuggetX3]

4690K, a GTX970 Gaming(add other one later and witness the Power) and an MSI Z97 Gaming 3/5, maybe add an H220 for that CPU

Yah, what he said.

[Rodneyg87]

 

So I have been having issues with my motherboard as of late, and wanted to upgrade. Rather than mess around with pulling the CPU off and risk frying it (I am horribly clumsy), I was going to use this as an excuse to upgrade my CPU as well (either a beast i5 or i7).

 

Also, one of my GPUs died on me, so I am considering upgrading GPUs as well. Would prefer to avoid running 2 cards this time and just go for 1 powerhouse card.

 

Ive seen some good deals for Black Friday, but dont want to jump the gun and buy something just because its cheap.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Location = Canada

Budget = < $1200 ideally

Aim = Gaming

 

Current rig:

• CPU - Intel i5-2500k Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3 GHz
• Motherboard - AS Rock P67 Extreme4 Gen 3
• RAM - G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 16BG (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2
• GPU - 2 x SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950
• Case - LIAN LI Lancool PC-K63 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
• PSU - FirePower ZX Series 1000W 80Plus Gold
• Monitor - 2 x Asus VS247H-P 23.6-Inch Full-HD LED-Lit LCD Monitor

 

Are you wanting to re-use any good parts left in your current rig to save money such as ram, psu, and case???

[KineticDepth]

@Rodneyg87

 

Yes - plan on keeping current:
Case

RAM
PSU

Monitors

 

Budget of $1200 is for CPU, Motherboard, maybe new GPU. That would be the max.

 

I am keen on the i7 4790k. $300-$329 today

[Rodneyg87]

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/jqRKGX

Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/jqRKGX/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($362.98 @ DirectCanada) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($118.20 @ DirectCanada) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($174.95 @ Vuugo) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.89 @ DirectCanada) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ NCIX) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card  ($398.69 @ DirectCanada) 

Total: $1184.70

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-28 14:07 EST-0500

 

This should be good enough for "future proofing" as well the single 970 will be good for a while and down the road you could always opt for a second one but that will be at least 2 years down the road. Also I looked on my local craigslist that one working GPU that you currently have is going for around $150 USD down here in florida so you should at least be able to get around $100 up there if not more to help ease the pain on your wallet for this upgrade. Some things to consider is the i5-4690k runs $229.00 up there so if you want to cut some cost you can go that route as well. Yes all prices are figured for Canadian currency so the price is accurate.

 

Another thing to consider is that you could possibly save even more money come january or february when AMD launches their new GPU's which will start a price war between AMD and Nvidia, which in turn will bring the cost of the GPU's down considerably. Maybe even upgrade everything else and stick with your current GPU until that happens.

 

There is always the AMD GPU option as well here is a XFX Radeon R9 290X for $424.99 Canadian dollars or even a MSI R9 290X lightening for $411.98 ill link both below.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9290xedbd

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9290xlightning

 

whichever brand is your preference its all there.

I will say this that MSI lightening looks pretty awesome so if your a looks kind of guy that one is pretty nice.

[KineticDepth]

Why the 4770k when the 4790k is so cheap? On sale for $330

 

As for CPU cooler, would it be worth reusing my old one? 

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

[Rodneyg87]

 

Why the 4770k when the 4790k is so cheap? On sale for $330

 

As for CPU cooler, would it be worth reusing my old one? 

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

 

That was my fault im sorry i clicked the wrong one lol i meant to click the 4790k but i guess i hit the wrong one they were right next to each other lol id go for the 4790k instead again im sorry about that.

Hey go for it I didnt know the height of the exact ram you had so i figured worst case scenario go for the cooler you currently have then thats what i would do. 

[Rodneyg87]

Here ya go I updated it with the correct cpu and removed the cooler..

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/zrmDMp

Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/zrmDMp/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.00 @ Canada Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($174.95 @ Vuugo) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.89 @ DirectCanada) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ NCIX) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card  ($398.69 @ DirectCanada) 

Total: $1002.52

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-28 14:37 EST-0500

 

Since your saving even more money on not needing a cooler here is an option you could go for if you want instead of the GTX 970 you could go for a Sapphire 100361-8GVXSR which is the 8gb vram version of the R9 290X it runs $583.63 which would bring your total up to $1187.46 and with that you should never have to worry about GPU for the life of this build. And by the time that GPU starts to have issues running on ultra you could probably pick up an additional one for less than half of what it costs today.

[KineticDepth]

Ok - I appreciate all the input.

 

Going to order:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.00 @ Canada Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($174.95 @ Vuugo) 

 

And Im on the fence about the GTX 970... Depends if I can find something to do with my older cards.

 

Skipping storage, because I already have 1TB in there. Will wait and see for SSDs though.

[Rodneyg87]

Ok - I appreciate all the input.

 

Going to order:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.00 @ Canada Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($174.95 @ Vuugo) 

 

And Im on the fence about the GTX 970... Depends if I can find something to do with my older cards.

 

Skipping storage, because I already have 1TB in there. Will wait and see for SSDs though.

No problem happy to help idk if you saw it in one of my earlier posts your one working card is running used one craigslist right now for $150 USD so if you decide you want to upgrade to a better GPU there is an option to put some money back into your pocket. And between now and Monday would be the days to buy an SSD since everyone is putting those on sale at a massively reduced cost. I know best buy down the road is selling the 120gb 840 EVO's for $32.99 and they normally run $64.99 so thats right at 50% of normal cost.