Potential Upgrades

[Lazz45]

Alright everyone, I'm trying to plan some friday/christmas upgrades and see what exactly I can do for my computer to improve my gaming/general usage experience. So here are my system specs:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X OC Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-bit  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case Fan: NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM  140mm Fan  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case Fan: NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM  140mm Fan  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Monitor: Acer G226HQLBbd 21.5" 60Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Monitor: Acer G226HQLBbd 21.5" 60Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Wired Gaming Keyboard  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Other: MAD Catz R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse (White) (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: Cablemod Black/Red E-series Custom Sleeved Cables ($49.99)
Total: $324.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-09 11:26 EDT-0400

 

1. Is moving to crossfire 290's worth the money? (buying used)

2. Should i move to skylake/zen based on which is better

3. Should i move to the new gpu lines

4. Should I do a combination of things listed above

I'll pay attention to this post as much as possible to answer questions and to see what people are suggesting.  Also I understand that its halfway through the year, but I am in college and would like to have a general target for how much money to keep around and such.

Thank you all for your input and have a nice day!

 

EDIT: The parts list is my last upgrades to my existing system, hence why it says purchased for most of them. Also sorry if not all of this post belongs in this thread but it really had pieces that belonged different places

Edited June 9, 2016 by Lazz45

[UKWaffes]

To be totally honest, you don't really need to upgrade.

But if you are going to, then I would wait unltil AMD brings out their higger teir cards as they are going to be quite good based on the new RX480. 

 

In general though if you are maxing out games then no need to upgrade. Though if you want something newer then I would swap the GPU out. One faster card is normally better than 2 cards from my experance. As some games dont have great SLI/Crossfire profiles. So if anything i would say hop to a newer GPU but only untilnwe know what AMD is offering later on with the 4xx series cards. 

[Matias_Chambers]

Budget? This is what I would start with: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/rzw9jX

[Matias_Chambers]

Current gen AMD CPU's have bad single core performance and IPC which is important in games. 

[Lazz45]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($233.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte GA-Z170X-GAMING 6 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($154.99 @ Micro Center) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($68.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Max graphics card price ($450.00)
Total: $907.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-09 11:44 EDT-0400

 

I threw this together (i am going with black and red because i have black and red sleeved cables).  I obviously won't be buying soon I would like to see what amd/nvidia/intel all bring to the table before buying. However, I do realize that my cpu platform is aging and I feel like that should be priority 1 as opposed to a new card because I fear my platform choking the card too much.  Although i have benched my rig and come very close to most intel platforms with my card and beating some out 

[Nena Trinity]

2 hours ago, Lazz45 said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($233.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte GA-Z170X-GAMING 6 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($154.99 @ Micro Center) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($68.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Max graphics card price ($450.00)
Total: $907.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-09 11:44 EDT-0400

 

I threw this together (i am going with black and red because i have black and red sleeved cables).  I obviously won't be buying soon I would like to see what amd/nvidia/intel all bring to the table before buying. However, I do realize that my cpu platform is aging and I feel like that should be priority 1 as opposed to a new card because I fear my platform choking the card too much.  Although i have benched my rig and come very close to most intel platforms with my card and beating some out 

No that FX CPU is plenty until Zen or next lake arrive...

[Lazz45]

1 hour ago, Nena360 said:

No that FX CPU is plenty until Zen or next lake arrive...

So would moving to crossfire 290's be a wise move? or just dump the 290 and move to polaris/pascal when they come out, or get the 290 and wait for vega?

[ace_cheaply]

Crossfire 290s will bottleneck like crazy on an 8350 unless you are running 4k. I'd say have some patience and wait 6 months for zen, kaby lake, vega, and big Pascal all to launch.  You aren't in immediate need, and the gains you see probably won't be worth it.  It would be in your best interest to just save your money.  I definitely understand that burning itch to upgrade and the money burning a hole in your pocket, so if you absolutely have to upgrade then go for it. But for 1080p60hz, You'll likely have no better of an experience than what you're having now, you'll just be significantly poorer.

[Lazz45]

Just now, ace_cheaply said:

Crossfite 290s will bottleneck like crazy on an 8350 unless you are running 4k. I'd say have some patience and wait 6 months for zen, kaby lake, vega, and big Pascal all launch.  You aren't in immediate need, and the gains you see probably won't be worth it.  It would be in your best interest to just save your money.  I definitely understand that burning itch to upgrade and the money burning a hole in your pocket, so if you absolutely have to upgrade then go for it. But for 1080p60hz, You'll likely have no better of an experience than what you're having now, you'll just be significantly poorer.

any suggestions on upgrades? not gpu/cpu/mobo.  Ive considered a 3rd monitor but meh, its hard to fit it in a dorm room.  I more or less need something to tell people to get me for christmas besides money or clothing lol

[ace_cheaply]

3 minutes ago, Lazz45 said:

any suggestions on upgrades? not gpu/cpu/mobo.  Ive considered a 3rd monitor but meh, its hard to fit it in a dorm room.  I more or less need something to tell people to get me for christmas besides money or clothing lol

I would go for a monitor upgrade,  something with an ips panel rather than the cheaper tn panel.  Maybe 1440p ultrawide, or 1080p 144hz with freesync.  You look pretty set everywhere else, at least until next gen hits.  

[Nena Trinity]

1 hour ago, Lazz45 said:

So would moving to crossfire 290's be a wise move? or just dump the 290 and move to polaris/pascal when they come out, or get the 290 and wait for vega?

Zen + Vega!

[ace_cheaply]

6 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

Zen + Vega!

That'll probably be my next build.  I already have a 6700k, but I really have been wanting to do a high end amd build for years, but it's been an oxymoron for the entire time.