I have at least 38% of an idea what I'm doing.

[Rampaging_Tomato]

Alright, so I have some questions as to upgrading my build.

My current rig looks like this:

Intel i5 3470

ASUS P8B75-MLX (with three fried SATA ports D: )

2x4GB Corsair 1333mhz memory

Seagate 1TB 7200RPM HDD

Samsung 850 evo 250GB

ECGA Supernova G2 750W PSU (newly acquired, replaced old shoddy unit that fried my SATA ports)

MSI GTX 970 (newly acquired, replaced the old HD7770 in my first build three years ago)

All this in a case so crappy I dare not say the name in front of the pc community.

Add to this a 144hz 1440p monitor, and we have my setup which (apart from the shiny new 970) has served me well for the last three years. But now, the new monitor and my itching for those gloriously high FPS numbers has me wanting to do some work on my build.

I play mostly games, do a little video and photo editing on the side, and use this device as my everything machine, basically.

No here's the thing. I want to get a new motherboard, as I want to add in another ssd to store all my games (the three working ports are used up by two drives and an ODD) and get an SLI board so I can add another 970 to keep up with dat resolution (1440p). And, of course, I am considering a CPU upgrade, because this thing is not overclockable, and DX12 is coming with promise of seriously improved performance for multithreading in games.

Two options I am considering are as follows:

Z97 chipset board with an i7 4790k

OR

X99 chipset board with an i7 5820k

Now, obviously, the 4790k will be a chunk cheaper, but I really want this upgrade to last me four years (or more, if possible), because a CPU upgrade rarely comes without a mobo upgrade.

Will the 5820k be worth the extra money in the long run? (I have heard that 4.4/4.5 ghz overclocks on that thing are quite doable, especially with one of those fancy ASUS OC sockets.)

For the 5820k option: should I wait until the promised Skylake E comes out in Q3 next year for price drops, or is it unlikely to make very much of a difference?

For the 4790k option: is waiting for Skylake to drop in prices (or even become available) a better idea than going for the 4790k (I mean, the 5820k is currently cheaper than the 6700k over here...)?

Furthermore, should I attempt to sell my GTX 970 in order to grab a 980 ti, or is dumping another 970 into SLI (which would be cheaper than a 980 ti, thanks to our pricing over here) likely to be just as good (considering that there is no real viable upgrade path after that)?

Of course I am also going to be slapping the whole bunch into a new case with a new CPU cooler, and once I have all the parts I will document the endeavour of building the whole thing (FOR SCIENCE).

Thanks for any advice you can give, I also appreciate any criticism, of course!

[OAcesync]

Get Skylake better for gaming than X99 and I would just SLI 970 since it's cheaper than a 980Ti

[stealth80]

where are you and what is your budget? When are you physically buying? I have 4790k and 2x 970 in SLI and theyre pretty damn good. Keep in mind that if a game doesnt support SLI then you're stuck with one so 1 980ti is better if you can afford it

[DarkBlade2117]

So...

I'd get a 5820k and X99 to easily last 4 years. I'd much rather get a 980ti, See what you can get for 970 then decide. The 980Ti will stop alot of SLI issues.

What case are you preaching on?

[DarkBlade2117]

Get Skylake better for gaming than X99 and I would just SLI 970 since it's cheaper than a 980Ti

Yeah though in 4 years I think a 5820k will be better, and it is cheaper. Also at 1440p the CPU is less dependant.

[OAcesync]

Yeah though in 4 years I think a 5820k will be better, and it is cheaper. Also at 1440p the CPU is less dependant.

true you wouldn't tell much difference 1440p 

[don_svetlio]

5820K > 6700K > 4790K

[Rampaging_Tomato]

I'm in the UK, and my budget is about £1000 for case, cooler, CPU, mobo, new SSD (I was thinking of getting another Samsung 850 evo because they perform well and are dead cheap by now) and new RAM if I'm going with a DDR4 CPU.

Also, I'm planning on buying within the next month or so.

 

Will Broadwell-E/Skylake-E likely affect prices strongly?

[stealth80]

I'm in the UK, and my budget is about £1000 for case, cooler, CPU, mobo, new SSD (I was thinking of getting another Samsung 850 evo because they perform well and are dead cheap by now) and new RAM if I'm going with a DDR4 CPU.

Also, I'm planning on buying within the next month or so.

 

Will Broadwell-E/Skylake-E likely affect prices strongly?

 

Probably not, but it aint due for at least another 6 - 8 months (Q3 2016 afaik)

[Rampaging_Tomato]

Oh yeah, the case I'm eye-ing is the Fractal Design R5.

The cooler I'm looking at is the Noctua NH-D15.

£90 and £70 respectively.

 

Also, prospective prices:

5820k: £305

ASUS X99 PRO: £255

Corsair Vengeance 2400mhz DDR4: £70

Samsung 850 evo 250gb: £55 (A samsung 950 pro M.2 drive [or equivalent speedy M.2 ssd] would be nice, but would I see any noticeable difference to the evo in games?)

 

Making: £850

 

So I have £150 left over in original budget, which wouldn't be enough for an additional 970 (£270-ish), and definitely not enough for a 980 ti (£500+)

[stealth80]

You can either go something like this and add another 970 when you have £££

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£299.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£90.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£206.22 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£161.89 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£146.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£88.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £995.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-29 18:16 GMT+0000

​

 

Or more like this, sell your 970 to fund the extra

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£299.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£90.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£206.22 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£71.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card  (£487.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£88.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1246.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-29 18:18 GMT+0000

 

 

​

[Rampaging_Tomato]

I would really like a "silent" case with no side panel window. As discreet as possible. And in the Fractal R5, I wouldn't have space for the drive cages with a rad in the front, and I would be sacrificing noise isolation if I place it up top.

 

And will the Super fast M.2 really enhance my experience? According to what I've heard, it really doesn't affect loading times all that much.

 

 

EDIT:

 

I've also heard great things about the ASUS OC socket and had great experiences with them so far (hence the ASUS board), and I've heard mostly bad things about MSI boards, so I was going to give that a miss.

[stealth80]

I would really like a "silent" case with no side panel window. As discreet as possible. And in the Fractal R5, I wouldn't have space for the drive cages with a rad in the front, and I would be sacrificing noise isolation if I place it up top.

 

And will the Super fast M.2 really enhance my experience? According to what I've heard, it really doesn't affect loading times all that much.

 

 

EDIT:

 

I've also heard great things about the ASUS OC socket and had great experiences with them so far (hence the ASUS board), and I've heard mostly bad things about MSI boards, so I was going to give that a miss.

 

When it comes to top edge performance not much is really effected, I don't think you would notice the difference between say a 980 + 4790K and a 5960X and 980Ti when gaming. We generally get the best we can for the money. Its a suggestion as to what can be bought at your budget, pick and change as you will, its your £££

[Rampaging_Tomato]

Of course. Thanks for the advice!