Where do I start upgrading??? (If needed)

[Allenfourlife]

Hey guys, so I'm new to the forum, and relatively new to everything "linustechtips" and I figured this would be a great place to ask what I'm about to ask. Where do I start upgrading? I've started my build at a wee Intel Pentium G3420 and a GTX 750 Ti. I'm now currently running an Intel Core i5-4590 and a GTX 960 SSC ACX 2.0. with 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM on the motherboard a Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SSD and a WD Caviar Blue 1TB HDD. I have a DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 sitting on my CPU currently. So, enough with all the technicalities, I want to know where I start off in upgrading. Do I start with my SSD and OS? Bump up to Windows 10 and possibly double the 120GB of SSD space? Do I start with the RAM and HDD? Upgrade to 12GB or 16GB and upgrade to a slightly faster HDD with the WD Black 1TB? I wanted to start at my GPU however and jump a whole generation and get the 1070. The price on that is a kick in my gonads but I'd really rather up the performance especially with what I'm currently running with practically just games and not much in the way of programs. In regards to the CPU because I have a feeling some of you might say that my i5-4590 is not overclockable and probably bumping up to the 4670K or the 4690K might be highly beneficial but then you should factor in complete redoing my build all together and repurchasing a motherboard. Because I'm squatting on the lowly B85 chipset and that's not going to do me a whole lot of good with overclocking and "future proofing" my build. I feel like my Haswell refresh CPU and its 960 need a bit of an upgrade. So I want to know where you guys think I should start. Should I start small and work my way up to the CPU/GPU/MOBO upgrade or start there and work my way down to the lesser items like the SSD/HDD/RAM upgrades (not that they're not important I just feel like where I'm sitting with those is pretty decent even if I did jump to the latest generation of CPU and GPU). Another thing I would think you should factor in is the budget and how much higher I should go. With my budget, it's getting close to tax return time and I want to put some of that into my build and give it a boost, and purchasing of parts and upgrades will consist over a period of time, not all at once. One part here, one part there, where the money is available. 

 

Now, what I want to do, quickly. I want to probably get up to something that I can overclock even if it does mean staying on the Haswell CPU architecture. I was debating upgrading the motherboard to a Z97 with possibly an overclockable i5 or i7. Otherwise waiting a bit and letting the price drop and upgrading to possibly the Skylake and sticking with the 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM. I also want to swap out the 960 for the 1070 at some point FOR SURE. Bring in 8GB of RAM, and boost the HDD where all my games and files are located, to probably a WD Black 2TB because that's in my budget and it still has a slight performance increase. I'm stuck on the SSD, and if you guys have any recommendations for a great, cheap, low capacity SSD give them to me, I'll take anything. 

 

So, with all of that said. Shoot me your ideas on any of it. I really enjoy second opinions and I find that I can think more clearer about making big steps when I can hear the other sides and other cases to different paths that can be taken. I look forward to your replies and am very appreciative of your help. Thanks guys!

[VVoltor]

My eyes can't possibly process that much text.

 

Post a list of your current specs, your budget and what you mainly need your PC for. 

 

 

[Freezanator]

@Allenfourlife Welcome to the Linus Tech Tips forum! I agree with VVoltor. It is incredibly hard to read everything and comprehend it all, sorry. Just post your PC's specifications, your budget and what you'll be mainly doing with your PC.  

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

yep what they said. not going to read it :-) just saying :-)

[Aereldor]

1 hour ago, Allenfourlife said:

-Snip-

Unnecessarily verbose. Shortening for convenience. @VVoltor, @Freezanator, @ItsTheDuckAgain; this should be easier to read.

 

OP's system

• CPU: Core i5 4590
• Cooler: Deepcool Gammaxx 400
• RAM: 8GB DDR3
• SSD: 120GB Mushkin Chronos
• HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Blue HDD
• GPU: GTX 960 (vram unspecified, not too important)
• OS: Unspecified.
• Power Supply: Unspecified.
   

@Allenfourlife If you have Windows 7 or something older, upgrade. If you have Windows 8.1, sit tight; you're fine.

How much money do you have to spend on parts? I would recommend upgrading the GPU if this is primarily a gaming PC (look into an RX 480). If this PC is used primarily for video editing/rendering, I would recommend upgrading the CPU to a used Core i7 4770 or a used Xeon E3 1231-v3. Either way, I would add an additional 8GB of RAM.

 

Tell us what power supply you have. If it's junk, replacing it takes first priority. A power supply failure can affect the entire PC, and thus, one should be prevented at all reasonable costs.

 

 

[Freezanator]

@Aereldor