Help me choose upgrades for my CPU, MB, and RAM.

[Epsilon Rose]

I've decided that I want to upgrade my CPU, Motherboard, and ram. Initially, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to get, but now I'm less sure. I mostly blame AMD for this. Linus Tech Tips has been really informative on youtube, so I was hoping you guys could help me figure out what parts to actually buy. _{Also, I'm more likely to get seduced by large numbers I don't need, if left to my own devices.}

 

1. Budget: I'm willing to spend about $1000. Obviously, I'd be happy to spend less, but spending more would require a really good argument.
2. Aim: I mostly use my computer for gaming, watching videos, and writing, but I also occasionally stream and record content for youtube. I do want to get into digital art, but that's much further down the road.
3. Monitors: I currently have an 4k tv as my main monitor and a 1080p monitor as a secondary monitor. I used to have a third 1080p monitor, but it's currently on the fritz, so I'll need to either fix it or replace it at some point. Finally, I'm considering getting a Vive at some point.
4. Peripherals: I should have everything else I need to run the computer.
5. Why are you upgrading: Mostly, I just want better performance, but I've also been having some odd issues lately and I'm taking it as an opportunity to replace some of my older hardware before diving into fixing them.
6. Current hardware I'm keeping: PC Parts Picker has the full list. The few, important, standouts are as follows: I have a HTOmega Striker 7.1 sound card; I currently have a gtx970 that I'll probably upgrade next year, I'm not sure if I'll replace it with a faster model or go for SLI, but I'm leaning towards the former; I have 4 hard drives and a BD drive and I'll likely pick up a new hard drive soon, so 6 sata ports is a must; finally, my case has a pair of usb 2.0 and 3.0 ports, so headers for those on the MB would be great.

I think that's everything. If I missed something, please let me know.

[Flavlus]

I would suggest upgrading the cooler if you wanted to do overclocking. A single 120rad will not give you much better cooling than a cheaper air cooler. just more points of failure. 

[Legolessed]

14 minutes ago, Epsilon Rose said:

I've decided that I want to upgrade my CPU, Motherboard, and ram. Initially, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to get, but now I'm less sure. I mostly blame AMD for this. Linus Tech Tips has been really informative on youtube, so I was hoping you guys could help me figure out what parts to actually buy. _{Also, I'm more likely to get seduced by large numbers I don't need, if left to my own devices.}

 

1. Budget: I'm willing to spend about $1000. Obviously, I'd be happy to spend less, but spending more would require a really good argument.
2. Aim: I mostly use my computer for gaming, watching videos, and writing, but I also occasionally stream and record content for youtube. I do want to get into digital art, but that's much further down the road.
3. Monitors: I currently have an 4k tv as my main monitor and a 1080p monitor as a secondary monitor. I used to have a third 1080p monitor, but it's currently on the fritz, so I'll need to either fix it or replace it at some point. Finally, I'm considering getting a Vive at some point.
4. Peripherals: I should have everything else I need to run the computer.
5. Why are you upgrading: Mostly, I just want better performance, but I've also been having some odd issues lately and I'm taking it as an opportunity to replace some of my older hardware before diving into fixing them.
6. Current hardware I'm keeping: PC Parts Picker has the full list. The few, important, standouts are as follows: I have a HTOmega Striker 7.1 sound card; I currently have a gtx970 that I'll probably upgrade next year, I'm not sure if I'll replace it with a faster model or go for SLI, but I'm leaning towards the former; I have 4 hard drives and a BD drive and I'll likely pick up a new hard drive soon, so 6 sata ports is a must; finally, my case has a pair of usb 2.0 and 3.0 ports, so headers for those on the MB would be great.

I think that's everything. If I missed something, please let me know.

This current build dominates the crap out of my pc lol. Go r7 250!!!!!

[Flavlus]

Go for a Cheap I7 if you can or i5. or wait a bit with prices coming down as intel is responding to ryzen release.

 

[Flavlus]

Or if you want to go ryzen go someting like the 1600 or 1600x . Or maybe even ryzen 7 but i dont think its worth it . Depends on what cpu you have now. 

also 16gb ram is prefered but 8gb will still be kindof ok 

[Himommies]

1600x or 1700 plus any x370 mobo that isn't the biostar one.Cheapest 16gb of ram and your done

[Epsilon Rose]

24 minutes ago, Flavlus said:

Or if you want to go ryzen go someting like the 1600 or 1600x . Or maybe even ryzen 7 but i dont think its worth it . Depends on what cpu you have now. 

also 16gb ram is prefered but 8gb will still be kindof ok 

I currently have an i72700k and I definitely want at least 16gb of ram. Part of why I'm here is I'm not sure if I'd rather go ryzen or intel.

 

27 minutes ago, Flavlus said:

I would suggest upgrading the cooler if you wanted to do overclocking. A single 120rad will not give you much better cooling than a cheaper air cooler. just more points of failure. 

I don't intend to do much overclocking, but what's a 120rad?

[genexis_x]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($316.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($82.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB WINDFORCE OC 8G Video Card  ($499.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $999.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-03 03:26 EDT-0400
 

9 hours ago, Epsilon Rose said:

Budget: I'm willing to spend about $1000

Added a new GPU which is way powerful than your current GTX 970

[Epsilon Rose]

1 hour ago, ZM Fong said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($316.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($82.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB WINDFORCE OC 8G Video Card  ($499.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $999.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-03 03:26 EDT-0400
 

Added a new GPU which is way powerful than your current GTX 970

That is almost perfect. The only problem is the motherboard lacks 2 sata ports that I actually need.

I hadn't really thought about also upgrading the GPU. I take it you think that's a better idea than grabing the Ryzen 7 1800 and picking up the equivilent gpu next year?

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, Epsilon Rose said:

That is almost perfect. The only problem is the motherboard lacks 2 sata ports that I actually need.

I hadn't really thought about also upgrading the GPU. I take it you think that's a better idea than grabing the Ryzen 7 1800 and picking up the equivilent gpu next year?

No. Get the 1700, OC it and you can get similar performance with the 1800X

 

If you can wait, wait for better GPU like Volta and Vega.

[F7GOS]

I have a R7 1700 overclocked and when my buddy wanted me to build him a budget rig, we went with the R5 1400, fairly similar performance, so a compromise of a R5 1600 sounds like the best in terms of price, performance and future usability.

[Epsilon Rose]

Could I ask what advantages the Ryzen cpus have over the i7s?

 

I just did a last spate of research before pulling the trigger on some purchases, because it's always good to double check, and I saw some worrying stuff from Tom's Hardware, when it comes to gaming.