I need help figuring out upgrade priorities, ~$450 budget (detailed info inside)

[Amphioxus]

Hi! I’d consider myself an intermediate-level hardware guy. I’ve built a few PCs over the years, but they’ve all been relatively simple setups. My last major build was in 2011, and while I’ve added some very worthwhile upgrades (notably SSD’s and doubled Ram from 8GB to 16GB), I think I’m at the point where I need help figuring out what to prioritize for updates. I’m hoping to get some advice from people more knowledgeable about hardware. Forgive me if there’s any egregious displays of ignorance ahead!

 

Before I list my current specs, I’ll try to give you an idea of what I want/need to do with my computer… I do some gaming, but I’m not a hardcore enthusiast. Gaming at 60fps on ultra-high settings on every game isn’t top priority for me. I do a lot of internet browsing and media streaming (and I have a horrible habit of having way too many tabs open, admittedly). However, over these past few years I’ve gotten into hobbies and professional work that are likely more CPU-intensive:

 

• Music production and audio editing with DAWs (Ableton Live 9)
• 3d Modelling & CAD (Mostly Sketchup but I’d like to try something like Zbrush)
• Geospatial analysis and cartography (ArcMap / ESRI suite)

 

Here’s what I have currently: PC PART PICKER LIST HERE

 

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) 

 

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel

 

Ram: 16gb (4x Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3)

                

CPU: Core i5-2500k Sandy Bridge Quad Core 3.3GHz (LGA 1155)

 

GPU: Nvidia GTX 680 (Bought used from a friend, seems to be working just fine?)

 

PSU: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12

 

Other Stuff:

-1x 3.5” bay multi-format card reader 

-1x DVD burner

-2x SSD

-3x HDD (possibly adding more? Or possibly replacing older ones?)

-6+ USB devices plugged in at once (Mech keyboard, Mouse, MIDI keyboard, Game controller, Microphone, Cheap DAC…)

 

Case: Raidmax Smilodon

 

Monitor: 24” BenQ XL2420TE 144hz

 

 

At the moment I’m probably willing to spend up to ~$400-$500 on upgrades. Here’s some of my thoughts/questions/concerns:

 

CPU/Motherboard? I’m suspecting a new CPU would be near the top of the list for recommended upgrades, but with the 1155 socket, would I need to upgrade my motherboard too? It looks like a lot of the CPUs I was eyeballing take 1151/1150. I’d definitely benefit from an i7, but I’m confused as to what particular model would be best for my applications? 

 

PSU concern? Do I need a larger PSU? If it looks like I do, what wattage is suggested? I'm interested in trying a modular PSU next. 

 

Monitor concern? I’m expecting to purchase a secondary monitor at some point (For productivity, not gaming… That’s what the BenQ is for), and I’m set on either a 34” 3440x1440 ultrawide, or some kind of large 4k monitor. Would my current setup struggle to display a big ultrawide/4k monitor and a 144hz monitor?

 

Case curiosity? I really like the look of my case, but I’ve found it a bit of a pain to work inside, as it feels like a tight squeeze. I’m also a bit of a data-archiver (read:hoarder), so I’d like to have plenty of room for adding more HDD’s. A friend of mine has a “super-tower” which looks incredibly roomy and easy to tinker in. Where/what are all the decent super towers? It looks like the market selection is fairly small? Or am I just not looking in the right spots?

Edits: Formatting

Edited December 1, 2016 by Amphioxus
Added PC part picker list link

[Paytend01]

Put the Parts into a pc part picker list and more people will help. 

[Starelementpoke]

3 minutes ago, Amphioxus said:

 

4790k with a Z97 board probably would be fine. PSU wise, more over to get a better quality one. Case is subjective, if you feel like you need a bigger one, go for it. The r5 has alot of bays. The 680 will most probably struggle with 4k and 144hz.

[Starelementpoke]

8 minutes ago, Amphioxus said:

 

Maybe something like this:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jMZ92R
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jMZ92R/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($333.69 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: Rosewill 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $489.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-01 10:05 EST-0500

[NTDaws]

get this power supply, just more reliable. http://www.corsair.com/en-ca/rmi-series-rm650i-650-watt-80-plus-gold-certified-fully-modular-psu

[TheNuzziNuzz]

Rosewill Power Supplies are not permitted on the LTT forums.

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

Rosewill Power Supplies are not permitted on the LTT forums.

Nor is ignorance:

 

Kindly see yourself the damn out.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

3 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

Nor is ignorance:

 

Kindly see yourself the damn out.

 

Touché

[JefferyD90]

37 minutes ago, Amphioxus said:

Hi! I’d consider myself an intermediate-level hardware guy. I’ve built a few PCs over the years, but they’ve all been relatively simple setups. My last major build was in 2011, and while I’ve added some very worthwhile upgrades (notably SSD’s and doubled Ram from 8GB to 16GB), I think I’m at the point where I need help figuring out what to prioritize for updates. I’m hoping to get some advice from people more knowledgeable about hardware. Forgive me if there’s any egregious displays of ignorance ahead!

 

Before I list my current specs, I’ll try to give you an idea of what I want/need to do with my computer… I do some gaming, but I’m not a hardcore enthusiast. Gaming at 60fps on ultra-high settings on every game isn’t top priority for me. I do a lot of internet browsing and media streaming (and I have a horrible habit of having way too many tabs open, admittedly). However, over these past few years I’ve gotten into hobbies and professional work that are likely more CPU-intensive:

 

• Music production and audio editing with DAWs (Ableton Live 9)
• 3d Modelling & CAD (Mostly Sketchup but I’d like to try something like Zbrush)
• Geospatial analysis and cartography (ArcMap / ESRI suite)

 

Here’s what I have currently:

 

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) 

 

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel

 

Ram: 16gb (4x Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3)

                

CPU: Core i5-2500k Sandy Bridge Quad Core 3.3GHz (LGA 1155)

 

GPU: Nvidia GTX 680 (Bought used from a friend, seems to be working just fine?)

 

PSU: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12

 

Other Stuff:

-1x 3.5” bay multi-format card reader 

-1x DVD burner

-2x SSD

-3x HDD (possibly adding more? Or possibly replacing older ones?)

-6+ USB devices plugged in at once (Mech keyboard, Mouse, MIDI keyboard, Game controller, Microphone, Cheap DAC…)

 

Case: Raidmax Smilodon

 

Monitor: 24” BenQ XL2420TE 144hz

 

 

At the moment I’m probably willing to spend up to ~$400-$500 on upgrades. Here’s some of my thoughts/questions/concerns:

 

CPU/Motherboard? I’m suspecting a new CPU would be near the top of the list for recommended upgrades, but with the 1155 socket, would I need to upgrade my motherboard too? It looks like a lot of the CPUs I was eyeballing take 1151/1150. I’d definitely benefit from an i7, but I’m confused as to what particular model would be best for my applications? 

 

PSU concern? Do I need a larger PSU? If it looks like I do, what wattage is suggested? I'm interested in trying a modular PSU next. 

 

Monitor concern? I’m expecting to purchase a secondary monitor at some point (For productivity, not gaming… That’s what the BenQ is for), and I’m set on either a 34” 3440x1440 ultrawide, or some kind of large 4k monitor. Would my current setup struggle to display a big ultrawide/4k monitor and a 144hz monitor?

 

Case curiosity? I really like the look of my case, but I’ve found it a bit of a pain to work inside, as it feels like a tight squeeze. I’m also a bit of a data-archiver (read:hoarder), so I’d like to have plenty of room for adding more HDD’s. A friend of mine has a “super-tower” which looks incredibly roomy and easy to tinker in. Where/what are all the decent super towers? It looks like the market selection is fairly small? Or am I just not looking in the right spots?

Edits: Formatting

So here is my first question, are you currently happy with your platform?  Do you find yourself looking for more USB ports, DDR4 RAM, or NVME Support? 

 

What is your biggest concern with your machine?  What is it not doing, that you want it to do?  Video games, productivity, editing?

[Mi26]

A new PC is what u need

[Amphioxus]

26 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

So here is my first question, are you currently happy with your platform?  Do you find yourself looking for more USB ports, DDR4 RAM, or NVME Support? 

 

What is your biggest concern with your machine?  What is it not doing, that you want it to do?  Video games, productivity, editing?

My biggest concern with this machine is its age. Despite upgrading RAM, it still has plenty of times when it slows down and chugs along (which made me suspect it was the CPU). Digital Audio editing and geo-spatial work can be pretty demanding in particular. I was also interested in getting a second monitor for productivity, but it's been said in this thread that my current GPU will probably struggle with both a 144hz (which I currently own) and either a 4k or 3440x1440 ultrawide (so perhaps a new card is warranted?)

 

Could the slowdowns I'm experiencing be a product of an older, sub-par PSU?

 

By the way, I've added a PC parts picker link in my original post, as suggested.

[JefferyD90]

1 minute ago, Amphioxus said:

My biggest concern with this machine is its age. Despite upgrading RAM, it still has plenty of times when it slows down and chugs along (which made me suspect it was the CPU). Digital Audio editing and geo-spatial work can be pretty demanding in particular. I was also interested in getting a second monitor for productivity, but it's been said in this thread that my current GPU will probably struggle with both a 144hz (which I currently own) and either a 4k or 3440x1440 ultrawide (so perhaps a new card is warranted?)

 

By the way, I've added a PC parts picker link in my original post, as suggested.

So with the Digital Audio editing thing, you MIGHT see a 10%-20% performance increase by upgrading your platform.  If you're having this kind of issue editing just audio, means there is probably something else going on.  I personally, if I was you, would do a clean install of Windows with the newest version of your drivers and such and see what kind of performance you'll get then.  If you're having a problem with audio editing, its probably memory related, storage related, or software related.  Because with $500, it will be very hard for you to squeeze in a actual sizeable upgrade that gives you more than just 1 of the aspects you have suggested.  A GPU upgrade for you would be a GTX 1070, that would take $400 of the $500...  A CPU mobo upgrade would be $400...  A matching monitor would be $300 at least...  See what I'm saying?

 

Considering you didn't mention video games at all, don't upgrade your video card.  You didn't mention video game performance, so your video card is still sufficient for your purpose.

[Quaker]

1 hour ago, Amphioxus said:

Edits: Formatting

CPU/Motherboard - any worthwhile upgrade will involve both a CPU and motherboard. Your best upgrade at this point would be a Skylake i7-6700 (or some model of Haswell-E). That would require you to get DDR4 RAM as well.

Next best would be an i7-4790 which could use your current DDR3

 

PSU: If your PSU works fine with your GTX-680, then you don't need a new one. 630 watts is enough.

 

Monitor: The 680 would struggle to play games at 4K, but normal desktop use should be fine. (If the 680 has the capability of displaying 4K at all) The graphics card should be able to handle both monitors provided the 4K is just used for static apps while you game on the other one.

 

Case: It's time to consolidate your HDD usage. Get rid of your old HDDs and replace them with some newer 1-3TB drives. (Use 2 in RAID1 if you want some data security.) Newer and fewer drives would be quieter and use less power and produce less heat.