Computer Upgrade Advice Wanted

[DarkAngelsBlade]

My current rig is becoming more and more obsolete as the months go by from what I can tell. Since I built this computer I've learned a lot and have noticed mistakes that I should have avoided when I made this PC back in 2012. The person who helped me plan my build sadly limited my future upgrading. 

 

Now, years later I know much more about computers and what I need it to do. Though I'm not to the point where I can't use outside help. I don't think many get to that point.

 

So this is what I currently have. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DarkAngelsBlade/saved/hbZgXL

 

I have several reasons why I'm asking for help.

 

1. I want an outside opinion on what would be the best way to go about upgrading. I know that my GPU can not handle many of today's games and it can barely handle some games from the last year or two. I am not sure if just upgrading the GPU would solve most of my issues or if I'd need to basically buy a CPU/Motherboard/GPU, however I suspect I will.

 

2. I would like outside opinions on what to upgrade to. Ryzen just launched, Kabylake is new and solid. There's also hope that the R5/R3 series from Ryzen will be more suitable for OC'ing for gaming performance. 

 

3. I can pick out parts for a PC that would work great, my own issues are whether or not they'd be the best solution for what I want.

 

Budget and Location.

My budget is up in the air right now, so that's not a defining factor, however I do know the limit. My max limit on pricing would be at about $1,000.  I am also in the US, in an area where local used PC parts do not exist.

My time frame is open ended and I should be able to buy the components within the next few months so I can't really jump on many sales and such, I'd rather focus on the components and the budget range and not so much the actual pricing.  I would be just fine spending $20-50 more on something if it is considerably better than other options basically.

 

Goal for my upgrade.

My lowest aim is solid 1080p 60fps gaming on todays titles. I'd also love being able to stream those games or record the gameplay and make videos. My ideal would having components that would allow me to in the near future upgrade to 4k gaming with as minimal as possible overhauling in the future. Like with my current setup it's been 5 years, and had I chosen my parts differently I would have a better computer now and wouldn't necessarily be needing an upgrade like I am now, in the way I need it.

 

Monitors.

I currently have two 1080p monitors, a 23 inch and a 40 inch. Both are 60H I believe. I would like to be able to upgrade to a 4k monitor in the next few years as they become more and more mainstream. But the most I would be running is 3 monitors and only one of them would be 4k. 

 

Peripherals.

On to peripherals! I don't need a new mouse or keyboard. I'd be open to a good backlit/rgb mechanical keyboard on sale but otherwise I'm set for now. If my current windows 10 OS wouldn't crossover to a new rig I would need windows 10, but that doesn't need to be a factor in the budget. I would like to know if I would have any issues with that.

 

In-depth Reasons for upgrading.

I talked about why I'm upgrading earlier but I'll go into more lengthy detail here, so if you don't want to read this that's fine. 

 

I'm mainly upgrading from my current PC because it's really slacking in the video gaming department. My GPU is this PC's current weakest link and I'm torn between just buying a budget 1080p gaming GPU or upgrading more. I personally don't know what gpu's would be bottlenecked by my CPU. My CPU also tends to have a hard time handling more than a few things at once, whether that's an issue of what I'm doing or the CPU's ability is also lost on me. I've optimized windows 10 as much as I can without losing some features I really like, I've made sure my drivers are constantly up to date unless I hear some news about a driver causing issues. I clean out my PC regularly as far as malware and such goes. 

 

I'm mostly in need of options, from just upgrading my GPU to upgrading the major parts of my pc. If I did upgrade the three major parts of this computer I'd probably turn it into a family pc for browsing and light gaming or into my own person server hosting pc etc, something that would benefit. I don't think anyone would buy the parts for anything, and my local area is horrid for used PC parts because everyone thinks their used PC parts are worth as much or more as a new part.

 

The number one reason why I'm posting here is to gain more knowledge about building my second PC and what would suit me better for my PC usage. It's not so much as the actual items I'll upgrade to but learning how others came to that decision and picking up the information I've not gotten. So thank you for any and all help and I'll definitely be responding to this with updates on my thoughts and what I decide to do. Also please let me know if I need to add anything to this post or fix any mistakes, much appreciate. (Though I would prefer you don't just post fixes for that stuff.)

[R3ep3r]

Well @DarkAngelsBlade, from what I've read right now you definitely need a GPU upgrade. I looked over your actual parts and that CPU can still handle most of the apps for the simple fact that it is a quad core, overclockable CPU which is GREAT. Since you need an upgrade you have two choices. Either you go and buy every component at the same time. Either you go and buy them one by one until you finish your PC. I suggest you going the second way since your PC is still in good shape. The first upgrade you should look into is the GPU. For playing 4k you kinda need a 1070 or 1080 because the 1060 can't run very well the 4k or you could go with the RX480 which is a bit cheaper and a bit slower than the 1070. After upgrading the CPU you could simply go and buy the other components. And since you are going with kaby or ryzen you'll have to go DDR4 which means you have to get the 3 comps together. CPU, MB and Ram. For that I would suggest you wait till the R5 series from ryzen will show up, ONLY if you want to spend less money on almost the same power that intel could give you, or simply go with an kaby i5 unlocked that will do everything is needed. If you go unlocked with kaby i5, I'll suggest you a z270 mobo since it has good OC features. And maybe another PSU. 

For the peripherals, I would suggest you to get a mechanical keyboard with RGB because in my opinion, mechanical is better than the normal one. And for the mouse, you could also go with something RGB to match your keyboard. But if the peripherals aren't a big need, you should plan firstly how to upgrade the PC, step by step.

[robertpartridge]

Up until a month ago, my fiancee was still using an old AMD X4 635 chip (not much slower than yours) but with a GTX 660 for video.  Was it a great performer?  No, but it was playable if you kept the quality low.  The 660 is still a decent card for a number of games (if you keep the quality down) and trying to put something more into a system like that is just going to cause a CPU bottleneck.

 

I think your best bet is to build new - make your current PC a plex server or other family desktop.  Going to mull over a spec list and will be back in a bit.

[genexis_x]

Both CPU and GPU are bottlenecking. 

23 minutes ago, DarkAngelsBlade said:

Goal for my upgrade.

My lowest aim is solid 1080p 60fps gaming on todays titles. I'd also love being able to stream those games or record the gameplay and make videos. My ideal would having components that would allow me to in the near future upgrade to 4k gaming with as minimal as possible overhauling in the future. Like with my current setup it's been 5 years, and had I chosen my parts differently I would have a better computer now and wouldn't necessarily be needing an upgrade like I am now, in the way I need it.

For streaming and gaming on 1080p 60fps, here's a nice build:
 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NW8k7h
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NW8k7h/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B350M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($99.00 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.00 @ B&H) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.88 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 480 8GB ARMOR 8G OC Video Card  ($219.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($70.02 @ Amazon) 
Total: $933.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-06 02:11 EST-0500
Note: I didn't select a case. Choose the case you like.

You can upgrade to 4k GPU few years later and the CPU will not bottleneck 4k gaming.

[robertpartridge]

Here's what I came up with ...

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/s3knCy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/s3knCy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($175.77 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Jet) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA Ultimate SU800 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($83.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ NCIX US) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card  ($389.99 @ Jet) 
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C with Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design GP12-WT 52.3 CFM  120mm Fan  ($8.49 @ NCIX US) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design GP12-WT 52.3 CFM  120mm Fan  ($8.49 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $994.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-06 02:13 EST-0500

[DarkAngelsBlade]

@R3ep3r That really helps a lot. I also spaced and forgot about the ram needing to be upgraded for some reason, but I knew I'd need it, just left it out. I'm glad to heard that some of my thoughts are in track with someone else's. 4k Is not that big of a dealbreaker for me if all I'm doing is buying just a GPU, if I upgraded CPU, Motherboard, Ram and GPU I'd be a bit more wary about it honestly. Wouldn't want to have to drop a large chunk of change a year or two down the road after spending so much already, though I'd probably still be able to sell the used gpu if I did. 

 

Yeah, waiting on the R5 to come out is logical for saving money. My mouse is already RGB with all the buttons for gaming I could ever need so I'd only need to upgrade my keyboard to mechanical and backlit to make my overall setup better. My PC as it is now only outputs soft blue light from the PSU on the bottom and the side panel fan. The panel itself is a dark black plastic so seeing into it isn't exactly easy. But that's also where my head is at for my future builds, making everything tie together somehow in the way it looks, but first comes functionality for me!

 

@robertpartridge My CPU being a champ after 5 years compared to today's gaming and such really makes me happy. However, the 550 ti and the 660/ti are not that close together in ability from looking at a few places. Though it would work great as my families PC where others can play older games and browse the web. Thank you very much for the build, I will definitely be looking it over.

 

@ZM Fong Thank you very much, I'll be looking over that build.Thank you for those tidbits.

[robertpartridge]

Just thinking ... instead of the i5-6400 you could consider a i3-7350k with appropriate board and cooling and you'd get some really sweet performance, though at a higher price premium.  In which case you'd have to go from a GTX 1070 to a GTX 1060.  Just more food for thought.

[robertpartridge]

i3-7350k variant

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zpnq9W
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zpnq9W/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-7350K 4.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z270M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($113.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA Ultimate SU800 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($83.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ NCIX US) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Strix Video Card  ($294.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C with Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design GP12-WT 52.3 CFM  120mm Fan  ($8.49 @ NCIX US) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design GP12-WT 52.3 CFM  120mm Fan  ($8.49 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $982.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-06 02:28 EST-0500

[aithos]

10 hours ago, DarkAngelsBlade said:

So this is what I currently have. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DarkAngelsBlade/saved/hbZgXL

 

1. I want an outside opinion on what would be the best way to go about upgrading. I know that my GPU can not handle many of today's games and it can barely handle some games from the last year or two. I am not sure if just upgrading the GPU would solve most of my issues or if I'd need to basically buy a CPU/Motherboard/GPU, however I suspect I will.

 

2. I would like outside opinions on what to upgrade to. Ryzen just launched, Kabylake is new and solid. There's also hope that the R5/R3 series from Ryzen will be more suitable for OC'ing for gaming performance. 

 

Goal for my upgrade.

My lowest aim is solid 1080p 60fps gaming on todays titles. I'd also love being able to stream those games or record the gameplay and make videos. My ideal would having components that would allow me to in the near future upgrade to 4k gaming with as minimal as possible overhauling in the future. Like with my current setup it's been 5 years, and had I chosen my parts differently I would have a better computer now and wouldn't necessarily be needing an upgrade like I am now, in the way I need it.

First things first: five years is a pretty decent lifespan for a computer and most people who can afford to upgrade on a 3-4 year cycle.  If you're getting into the 5-7 year range then basically anything you had bought would be getting pretty out-dated at this point.  If you ask me it's a better idea to simply plan your builds according to how often you can afford a full build rather than to try to upgrade in-between.  The only exception I've made in the past is when a video card upgrade is both cheap and a significant boost in performance that can ALSO be used in a subsequent build.

 

To answer your questions:

1) Upgrading just your GPU isn't really going to help you.  Not only are you running a 5 year old CPU but it's an AMD, which means it was already behind in gaming performance even when it was new.  I'm not hating on AMD or trying to start any "flame-wars" but Intel has been the leader in gaming performance for a long time and not by a small margin, that's why they have (generally speaking) been more expensive.

 

2) While I think Ryzen is a good step in the right direction for AMD a couple things stand out as why I personally wouldn't be looking at them in your situation.  First, the ones that offer competitive performance with the high end Intel offerings (6900k) are out of your budget range, just like with a 1080 or 1080ti you simply can't blow half your budget on a CPU and still have a decent build.  Second, from a gaming perspective they don't even beat the less expensive lineup from Intel... so if gaming is your primary purpose then they simply aren't worth looking at.  Ryzen is attractive for people who do heavily threaded productivity work and a little gaming but who don't want to spend $1k on a CPU.

 

As for other stuff you mention:

 

Quote

 

Monitors.

I currently have two 1080p monitors, a 23 inch and a 40 inch. Both are 60H I believe. I would like to be able to upgrade to a 4k monitor in the next few years as they become more and more mainstream. But the most I would be running is 3 monitors and only one of them would be 4k. 

This is my opinion, so take it or leave it... but I'd forget 4k until the build after this one.

 

First of all, you're not even running 120+ fps in your games and I'm guessing you've never spent a decent amount of time playing with little to no motion blur.  I would not even consider 4k until you can run 120+ fps on it, losing the additional smoothness and feel is (IMO) a bad trade-off.  Why?   Because the overwhelming majority of games aren't even running native 1440p textures, they are using 1080p textures that have been upscaled and post-processed to make them look better.

 

What does that mean?  It means that when you're playing in 4k you aren't getting actual 4k native content, you're getting upscaling.  I'd say we are still at least 5 years away from getting content that is mostly native 1440p, and at least 8-10 years away from getting anything natively 4k.  The simple truth is that most people running 4k today would probably not even be able to tell the difference between that and 1440p on high settings with 120+ hz and ULMB, in fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if those people picked the lower resolution as the one that looks better during actual game-play.

 

I personally think it's silly to run 60 fps on ANYTHING these days.

 

Quote

 

Peripherals.

On to peripherals! I don't need a new mouse or keyboard. I'd be open to a good backlit/rgb mechanical keyboard on sale but otherwise I'm set for now. If my current windows 10 OS wouldn't crossover to a new rig I would need windows 10, but that doesn't need to be a factor in the budget. I would like to know if I would have any issues with that.

I strongly recommend the Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire.  It's extremely well-built (aluminum), has a sleek/simple design, the keys use Cherry switches that feel great and perform like Reds except have a shorter travel distance/actuation point which make them excellent for gaming.  The lighting interface is kinda complex, but you can download other people's profiles and as a bonus...you can store a profile ON the keyboard so that it loads without drivers.  I absolutely love mine and know several people who bought it on my recommendation and have been raving about it.

 

Quote

 

I'm mostly in need of options, from just upgrading my GPU to upgrading the major parts of my pc. If I did upgrade the three major parts of this computer I'd probably turn it into a family pc for browsing and light gaming or into my own person server hosting pc etc, something that would benefit. I don't think anyone would buy the parts for anything, and my local area is horrid for used PC parts because everyone thinks their used PC parts are worth as much or more as a new part.

Well, to be honest from a bang/buck perspective your best bet is going to be either a good i5 or an i7 Intel CPU (current or previous gen) depending on what the prices look like when you go to buy.  If you're still a couple months out it's honestly hard to give you specific recommendations because prices fluctuate so much, I'd advise that you post when you have your money saved up and you're ready to pull the trigger and then ask for help.

 

Quote

 

The number one reason why I'm posting here is to gain more knowledge about building my second PC and what would suit me better for my PC usage. It's not so much as the actual items I'll upgrade to but learning how others came to that decision and picking up the information I've not gotten. So thank you for any and all help and I'll definitely be responding to this with updates on my thoughts and what I decide to do. Also please let me know if I need to add anything to this post or fix any mistakes, much appreciate. (Though I would prefer you don't just post fixes for that stuff.)

If you want to know how I go about picking parts it's pretty simple: 

 

1) I look at what parts are current generation, what their relative performance is to the previous generation and what the upcoming generation is going to be.

2) I look at benchmarks and reviews from several reputable sources and make a note of how they do their testing and on what equipment.

3) I determine my budget and look at where the best bang/buck performance is for CPU/GPU/MB since those are the highest cost items

4) I try to figure out whether waiting will mean I can get a much better deal or if now is the best time to buy.

 

To give you an example of #4 - I am sitting at 3.5 years with my current build and I knew last fall I'd be looking to upgrade sometime this year.  My computer has no problem running what I want, but since I'm running 1440p 120hz+ it's starting to show signs of aging and I can afford to upgrade so I'm going to.  When I started looking at parts I saw that Intel would be (and has) released new chips and that the 1080ti was likely on the way (and is). 

 

I know from previous builds that buying when a new product line comes out is the best time because you either get better performance for similar money, or you can save money through price drops.  Now, I could keep waiting until the next set of releases but I prefer jumping on the last set of releases before a new architecture because you typically see less issues with manufacturing and the performance/money ratio is usually very good.  Not to mention the chips are usually at their most efficient, there are pros/cons but I like this timing so I don't think it's worth waiting for me.

[DarkAngelsBlade]

@aithos That helps me out extremely in the forming process. If we don't have native 4k resolution then I don't need to be worrying about it yet. All these posts have helped me immensely and I definitely have an idea of what I'm going to be doing, but I'll be keeping an eye out on this topic and updating when I can. Thank you so much for the detailed advice and information.

[aithos]

7 hours ago, DarkAngelsBlade said:

@aithos That helps me out extremely in the forming process. If we don't have native 4k resolution then I don't need to be worrying about it yet. All these posts have helped me immensely and I definitely have an idea of what I'm going to be doing, but I'll be keeping an eye out on this topic and updating when I can. Thank you so much for the detailed advice and information.

You're welcome. 

 

I don't want there to be any confusion about the 4k thing so allow me to add on thing: it isn't that games won't look better on a 4k monitor, because with upscaling and processing they will.  It's that in my opinion the trade-off of FPS and back-light strobing (ULMB) isn't worth it for upscaled content.  Gaming on a 4k monitor is a bit like watching a DVD in 1080p, even if you remaster it and release it on Bluray if the original film was standard definition it's never going to look as good as a movie that was shot in native high definition.

 

People always seem to jump the gun on resolution increases LONG before it's actually necessary to do so!