What should I upgrade?

[edward13brewin]

Hello everyone, my name is Edward. I've had the same system for well over a year and a half and I'm stumped on what to upgrade? Should I just buy a new system all together? Here are my specs

CPU: AMD FX 6300 4.5GHz

CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3-1600

GPU: Gigabyte R9 270x 2GB

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

PSU: XFX Pro Black 850W 80+ Gold

SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB

HDD's: 2x Seagate Barracuda's 1TB

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912

 

I mainly use my computer for gaming and browsing the web. My budget is around $800, so let me know what you think I should do with my system.

 

Thanks, Edward

[ahuckphin]

as you have an excellent power supply, i advise upgrading your GPU to something like an 980ti Radeon R9 390

 

[sorry, just realise an 980ti would be bottleneck by the fx-6300] 

[edward13brewin]

1 minute ago, bindydad123 said:

as you have an excellent power supply, i advise upgrading your GPU to something like an 980ti 

Hmm but I only have a FX 6300 wouldn't that be a super bottleneck?

[edward13brewin]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Uhh

 

Go Skylake?

Skylake would be great I'm just trying to figure out which processor from the skylake lineup is for me and my needs. 

[HKZeroFive]

I'd go either i5 4690K or i7 4790K with a Z97 motherboard ($350-450) so you can reuse your DDR3 RAM and pair it with a R9 390/GTX 970 ($300).

[Frankie]

4 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

Hmm but I only have a FX 6300 wouldn't that be a super bottleneck?

It would. If you really just gaming i5 + r9 390 would be nice upgrade, if you want to go all out i7 + 980ti. Those are the usuals. 

[edward13brewin]

Just now, HKZeroFive said:

I'd go either i5 4690K or i7 4790K with a Z97 motherboard ($350-450) so you can reuse your DDR3 RAM and pair it with a R9 390/GTX 970 ($300).

That would actually be a great idea but I'm just wondering if it'd be worth it to go back to Haswell CPU's or just jump right into skylake to give a more "futureproof" upgrade path if you will. 

[edward13brewin]

2 minutes ago, Frankie said:

It would. If you really just gaming i5 + r9 390 would be nice upgrade, if you want to go all out i7 + 980ti. Those are the ussuals. 

I'll see if I can tally up some parts on pcpartpicker and see how that works 

[sushisharkjl]

Just now, edward13brewin said:

That would actually be a great idea but I'm just wondering if it'd be worth it to go back to Haswell CPU's or just jump right into skylake to give a more "futureproof" upgrade path if you will. 

Haswell is not outdated in any way; you'll get negligible performance gains using a Skylake chip compared to a comparable Haswell chip.

[Frankie]

1 minute ago, edward13brewin said:

I'll see if I can tally up some parts on pcpartpicker and see how that works 

Yup, that's a good idea to summarize your budget and then get more help with choosing.

[HKZeroFive]

1 minute ago, edward13brewin said:

That would actually be a great idea but I'm just wondering if it'd be worth it to go back to Haswell CPU's or just jump right into skylake to give a more "futureproof" upgrade path if you will. 

There are no added benefits of DDR4 currently and the performance difference between Skylake and Haswell is minimal. I'd go with Haswell.

[ahuckphin]

 

14 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

Hello everyone, my name is Edward. I've had the same system for well over a year and a half and I'm stumped on what to upgrade? Should I just buy a new system all together? Here are my specs

CPU: AMD FX 6300 4.5GHz

CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3-1600

GPU: Gigabyte R9 270x 2GB

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

PSU: XFX Pro Black 850W 80+ Gold

SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB

HDD's: 2x Seagate Barracuda's 1TB

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912

 

I mainly use my computer for gaming and browsing the web. My budget is around $800, so let me know what you think I should do with my system.

 

Thanks, Edward

what about used parts? you could get used parts

[edward13brewin]

I tallied up this list with pcpartpicker, keep in mind that I'm Canadian and our dollar isn't doing too well these days.

 

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/rw2xyc

[edward13brewin]

By the way I'm gonna be doing mostly 1080P gaming at 60Hz maybe in the far future I'll bump it up to a 144Hz. 

[Frankie]

2 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

I tallied up this list with pcpartpicker, keep in mind that I'm Canadian and our dollar isn't doing too well these days.

 

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/rw2xyc

That doesn't look bad at all, but I would try to bump it to the r9 390 nitro if you can.

[edward13brewin]

Just now, Frankie said:

That doesn't look bad at all, but I would try to bump it to the r9 390 nitro if you can.

It's $450 in Canada making the price of the total system about $900. Yikes, but would the 380 do well in modern games at 1080p @60Hz and also is the mobo I chose gonna be good for overclocking?

[Frankie]

3 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

It's $450 in Canada making the price of the total system about $900. Yikes, but would the 380 do well in modern games at 1080p @60Hz and also is the mobo I chose gonna be good for overclocking?

I know, I get that it would be about 150 more. I'm just saying it might just be worth the extra if you're spending the money just so you won't have to kick yourself in the ass in the future, especially if you may bump it up to 144hz gaming.  

[edward13brewin]

Just now, Frankie said:

I know, I get that it would be about 150 more, I am just saying it might just be worth the extra if you¨re spending the money just so you won't have to kick your self in the ass in the future, especially if you may bump it up to 144hz gaming.  

I'm thinking maybe I can stay with the 380 now and potentially upgrade to Polaris or pascal when they're out? Would that make sense? 

[Aereldor]

24 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

I'd go either i5 4690K or i7 4790K with a Z97 motherboard ($350-450) so you can reuse your DDR3 RAM and pair it with a R9 390/GTX 970 ($300).

You might find more value in a Xeon E3 1231-v3 with a B85 board- many of which support crossfire for another future upgrade. My personal recommendation is the Gigabyte B85M-D3H (Rev 1.0) which is capable of overclocking even K CPUs if you really want to push it, although I would recommend sticking with something like an i5 4460 or a Xeon E3 1231-V3.

[Frankie]

Just now, edward13brewin said:

I'm thinking maybe I can stay with the 380 now and potentially upgrade to Polaris or pascal when they're out? Would that make sense? 

Sure, that's always an option. I did go with the r9 390 and will probably upgrade after the second or third generation after Polaris.

[edward13brewin]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

You might find more value in a Xeon E3 1231-v3 with a B85 board- many of which support crossfire for another future upgrade. My personal recommendation is the Gigabyte B85M-D3H (Rev 1.0) which is capable of overclocking even K CPUs if you really want to push it, although I would recommend sticking with something like an i5 4460 or a Xeon E3 1231-V3.

Awesome I'll play around and see what the prices are  

[edward13brewin]

9 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

WYou might find more value in a Xeon E3 1231-v3 with a B85 board- many of which support crossfire for another future upgrade. My personal recommendation is the Gigabyte B85M-D3H (Rev 1.0) which is capable of overclocking even K CPUs if you really want to push it, although I would recommend sticking with something like an i5 4460 or a Xeon E3 1231-V3.

7 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

Awesome I'll play around and see what the prices are  

7 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

Awesome I'll play around and see what the prices are  

Well I've been looking around and I've been able to play with some parts, http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/8XwYVn  . And it looks like a dream rig. My only question is that I'm wondering if the CPU is gonna bottleneck the GPU?

 

[ImBleu]

32 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

That would actually be a great idea but I'm just wondering if it'd be worth it to go back to Haswell CPU's or just jump right into skylake to give a more "futureproof" upgrade path if you will. 

The performance difference from an i7-4790k to an i7-6700k (or i5-4690k vs i5-6600k) is minimal at best. If anything, you'll find better deals on Devils Canyon CPU/Mobo combos and they may even be cheaper than Skylake. For 99.99% of workloads, you wont notice any difference between the two series as they are a year apart.

 

As for futureproofing, you can either hop to Z97 and reuse your DDR3 ram now (and use the extra for a better motherboard/cpu/gpu) or buy DDR4 now (and spend more on ram and pay a premium for the latest Z170 CPU and Motherboard and then reuse your DDR4 in a following build when DDR4 prices would've dropped staggeringly low. 

 

You can basically choose to reuse DDR3 now in a Z97 board and save a buck now to then use the spare money later, or buy DDR4 now while there is still a bit of a premium and reuse it in whatever build you choose after Z170 while DDR4 prices are lower.

 

Personally, I'd stick with Haswell/Devils Canyon.

[edward13brewin]

2 minutes ago, ThatCoolBlueKidd said:

The performance difference from an i7-4790k to an i7-6700k (or i5-4690k vs i5-6600k) is minimal at best. If anything, you'll find better deals on Devils Canyon CPU/Mobo combos and they may even be cheaper than Skylake. For 99.99% of workloads, you wont notice any difference between the two series as they are a year apart.

 

As for futureproofing, you can either hop to Z97 and reuse your DDR3 ram now (and use the extra for a better motherboard/cpu/gpu) or buy DDR4 now (and spend more on ram and pay a premium for the latest Z170 CPU and Motherboard and then reuse your DDR4 in a following build when DDR4 prices would've dropped staggeringly low. 

 

You can basically choose to reuse DDR3 now in a Z97 board and save a buck now to then use the spare money later, or buy DDR4 now while there is still a bit of a premium and reuse it in whatever build you choose after Z170 while DDR4 prices are lower.

 

Personally, I'd stick with Haswell/Devils Canyon.

So is this link:http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/8XwYVn a good choice?

[ImBleu]

3 minutes ago, edward13brewin said:

So is this link:http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/8XwYVn a good choice?

Yep, Looks pretty solid from here  You could possibly go for a GTX970 instead of the R9 390 as they often hit similar FPS but when you throw a gameworks title in the mix, such as witcher 3, the amd option tanks, giving the 970 a bit of an edge. Considering it's also the most common card in the steam hardware survey, I'd bet quite a few more games are built with the GTX970 in mind, especially as it's the recommended spec for VR.

 

But that is entirely up to you on the Red vs Green team. Personally, Shadowplay and better drivers makes Nvidia worth it to me.