Upgrade help?

[MrStan88]

Hey guys. First time posting here so I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place. Essentially I'm thinking about upgrading since my pc has started to make a clunking sounds (which I assume is the HDD) so while I replace that, I might as well replace my other components. 

 

My current pc has the following components - GPU - gigabyte 970. CPU - i5 3470 3.2ghz. MOBO - MSI H77MA-G43. 8gb of DDR3 ram. Two 1080p monitors. 1tb seagate HDD (which I assume is failing) and a 256gb Crucial mx100 ssd.

 

So the issue is, do I upgrade my GPU to a 1070 and stop worrying about this 3.5gb of vram crap, or overhaul my cpu/mobo obviously at a much higher cost (I'd be looking at getting a 6600k). Which would give me a greater gain in performance? 

 

Thanks for any help. 

[Guest]

I would get a 1070. Better upgrade

[kelvinhall05]

4 minutes ago, MrStan88 said:

Hey guys. First time posting here so I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place. Essentially I'm thinking about upgrading since my pc has started to make a clunking sounds (which I assume is the HDD) so while I replace that, I might as well replace my other components. 

 

My current pc has the following components - GPU - gigabyte 970. CPU - i5 3470 3.2ghz. MOBO - MSI H77MA-G43. 8gb of DDR3 ram. Two 1080p monitors. 1tb seagate HDD (which I assume is failing) and a 256gb Crucial mx100 ssd.

 

So the issue is, do I upgrade my GPU to a 1070 and stop worrying about this 3.5gb of vram crap, or overhaul my cpu/mobo obviously at a much higher cost (I'd be looking at getting a 6600k). Which would give me a greater gain in performance? 

 

Thanks for any help. 

8

1070 would be a good performance increace, but maybe wait to upgrade cpu, mobo, and gpu?

[xephoneration]

Your 970 is still a good card, I would focus on upgrading the CPU and mobo, than gpu. 

[WkdPaul]

moved to New Builds & Planning

[MrStan88]

Seems to be conflicting suggestions right now. Is there a reason to wait for whatever is next from intel or would it be ok for me to just get a 6xxx series cpu? I haven't upgraded in a long time obviously so I'm not at all sure on whats even changed.

[pcshme33]

If you haven't already, make sure you get your $30 if you live in the US.

[MrStan88]

2 minutes ago, EnemySp0tt3d said:

If you haven't already, make sure you get your $30 if you live in the US.

Unfortunately I live in the UK. 

[xephoneration]

1 minute ago, MrStan88 said:

Seems to be conflicting suggestions right now. Is there a reason to wait for whatever is next from intel or would it be ok for me to just get a 6xxx series cpu? I haven't upgraded in a long time obviously so I'm not at all sure on whats even changed.

If you upgraded your CPU to the i5 6600k this is what you may see, http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3470/3503vs2771 the reason why you may want to upgrade your CPU first is that 1) kaby lake is coming out very soon so essentially the sky lake gen cpu will get a price reduction. 2) an i5 6600k wont be a bottleneck for your 1070, your i5 3470 is 4 years old and is at this time its under powered, even if you dont upgrade your cpu you will still get good frame rates just not the maximum possible. 3) upgrading to an 6600k will give a few more years (probably 4 years) than your 3470. Really it is up to you, your cpu could handle a 1070 but a 6600k would handle the 1070 better. 

[MrStan88]

6 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

If you upgraded your CPU to the i5 6600k this is what you may see, http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3470/3503vs2771 the reason why you may want to upgrade your CPU first is that 1) kaby lake is coming out very soon so essentially the sky lake gen cpu will get a price reduction. 2) an i5 6600k wont be a bottleneck for your 1070, your i5 3470 is 4 years old and is at this time its under powered, even if you dont upgrade your cpu you will still get good frame rates just not the maximum possible. 3) upgrading to an 6600k will give a few more years (probably 4 years) than your 3470. Really it is up to you, your cpu could handle a 1070 but a 6600k would handle the 1070 better. 

I had no idea that my cpu was so old at this point. According to that site you sent me it is a fair bit faster. I might well just keep my gpu and upgrade the other stuff first. I wish I didn't have to pay for windows 10, I thought I could transfer it but it seems I can't. With the £80 I would have saved I could have bought something else. 

[xephoneration]

1 minute ago, MrStan88 said:

I had no idea that my cpu was so old at this point. According to that site you sent me it is a fair bit faster. I might well just keep my gpu and upgrade the other stuff first. I wish I didn't have to pay for windows 10, I thought I could transfer it but it seems I can't. With the £80 I would have saved I could have bought something else. 

buy a OEM key off of reddit for $30

[MrStan88]

4 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

buy a OEM key off of reddit for $30

You can do that? Is that even legal? (sorry I really have no idea)

[xephoneration]

Just now, MrStan88 said:

You can do that? Is that even legal? (sorry I really have no idea)

yes it is, here is the link https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/

[MrStan88]

1 minute ago, xephoneration said:

yes it is, here is the link https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/

Fantastic. That's gonna save me  a lot of money. Now the long process of finding a motherboard and all that other stuff.

 

[xephoneration]

4 minutes ago, MrStan88 said:

Fantastic. That's gonna save me  a lot of money. Now the long process of finding a motherboard and all that other stuff.

 

kinda easy, may want to look into bundles like a mobo, ram, and cpu bundle since you are going to change from ddr3 to ddr4.  also it must be a z170 chipset board

[Alec_FC]

What's your upgrade budget?

[MrStan88]

3 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

kinda easy, may want to look into bundles like a mobo, ram, and cpu bundle since you are going to change from ddr3 to ddr4.  also it must be a z170 chipset board

Thank you, I would assume that the z170 boards allow for overclocking? 

 

1 minute ago, Alec_FC said:

What's your upgrade budget?

I don't want to spend more than £600 if possible.

[xephoneration]

Just now, MrStan88 said:

Thank you, I would assume that the z170 boards allow for overclocking? 

 

I don't want to spend more than £600 if possible.

yes, and its meant for K series chip, if you do not plan on OC than a i5 6500 and a non z170 motherboard will be your best bet. 

[xephoneration]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£209.72 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£32.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£127.43 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£66.92 @ More Computers) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£133.08 @ Aria PC) 
Total: £569.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 16:15 BST+0100

 

 

SSD is optional 

[Ichi]

If you want to upgrade the GPU then go for it.

If you're going to upgrade the CPU to something new then I'd say save enough and just make the jump to i7.

[MrStan88]

2 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

yes, and its meant for K series chip, if you do not plan on OC than a i5 6500 and a non z170 motherboard will be your best bet. 

I definitely want the option to overclock this time, even if its just a mild overclock. I made that mistake last time because I wanted to save money and I regretted it. Good lord, that's a build. Though since I already have an SSD, I'll swap the SSD for a 1tb normal HDD (I don't tend to horde stuff) and then replace the cooler with a noctua one since everyone and their dog seems to have one of them.

 

 

[Alec_FC]

I'd suggest buying a Seagate SSHD along with the rest of your items

[xephoneration]

This is if you went with an i7 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£290.28 @ Aria PC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£32.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£127.43 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£66.92 @ More Computers) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£60.98 @ Novatech) 
Total: £578.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 16:21 BST+0100

 

 

i would get the i7 since you can afford it 

[Alec_FC]

9 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£209.72 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£32.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£127.43 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£66.92 @ More Computers) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£133.08 @ Aria PC) 
Total: £569.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 16:15 BST+0100

 

 

SSD is optional 

 

I'd suggest a Dual Channel 16GB kit of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMK16GX4M2B3000C15-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B0134EW7G8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475507804&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair%2Bvengeance%2Blpx%2Bddr4%2B3000&th=1

 

[MrStan88]

3 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

This is if you went with an i7 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£290.28 @ Aria PC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£32.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£127.43 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£66.92 @ More Computers) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£60.98 @ Novatech) 
Total: £578.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 16:21 BST+0100

 

 

i would get the i7 since you can afford it 

How in the world did you manage to get an i7 in with that? I thought that was way out of my price range. Would i7's really give much of a gain for that extra price over an i5? 

 

2 minutes ago, Alec_FC said:

 

I'd suggest a Dual Channel 16GB kit of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMK16GX4M2B3000C15-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B0134EW7G8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475507804&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair%2Bvengeance%2Blpx%2Bddr4%2B3000&th=1

 

And (optional) upgrading to a 6700K and skipping the new SSD, or wait for Kaby Lake (even though it brings almost nothing new)

What exactly is kaby lake supposed to bring thats new?