What to do inbetween builds...

[Novabutter]

So here's the deal.

 

Backstory

 

Originally, I was a console gamer. Finally in the fall of 2015, my buddy put together (what he thought was a good) parts list. He told me he'd build it if I got the parts, cause at the time I had no idea what a processor even was; I just wanted to be able to game with my friends, and my Toshiba laptop couldn't do it.

 

Fast forward to now, we share an equal and updated amount of knowledge, and I know every part of a computer. Matter of fact I've built 4 gaming ones. He just built his new beauty of a rig with both a watercooled GTX 1080 FTW 2 and an Intel 7700K he plans to overclock. He gave me the remains of his old system, which included some RAM, a 6100 FX CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 FTW Graphics Card. My system, since it was based off his at the time, is sporting an AMD FX 6350, 32 GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM running at 1600 MHz, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 FTW with a 250 GB Toshiba SSD and 4 TB of Hard Drive Storage. I think to myself, I could totally SLI these two 970s, and boy would that be cool. Oh wait, the M5A97 R 2.0 doesn't support SLI. 

 

Indecision

 

So I decide to look into AM3+ Motherboards that can SLI. I found one that, although older, and more expensive than required (but lets be honest. Got to have a matching color scheme between my case and motherboard) it really was pretty good. I ordered it on Amazon about 2 weeks ago, and it was suppose to ship in another 3 weeks. But then, tragedy (or maybe a ray of light) struck me after watching JayzTwoCents recent video on FX series processors.

 

I realized that my processor would be bottlenecking my SLI configuration, and the money I was spending on the board I could probably just save. I mean, today, 1600 MHz RAM is considered slow, my processor is now almost entirely outdated, and with me planning on building a massive upgrade in the next 4-5 years, it just didn't make sense to SLI at this point. (Am I right in this thinking?)

 

Here is where my debate is.

 

1) Do I sit here and game on my current rig for 4-5 years before I drop $5,000 on the most beautiful build ever? I'd have to either sell the extra GTX 970 or just let it sit around and gather dust few years.

2) Do I save up just enough for maybe 6 months to upgrade to a Ryzen (looking at 1600) system and buy new RAM so I can use the SLI configuration while it is still relevant? It'll be temporary for a few years until I can build the big one (meaning I'll have slightly less money to spend because of the upgrade now), because I plan on going to Intel later on. I mean, in 4-5 years having an SLI config of two GTX 970s (having the rough performance between a GTX 1070 and 1080) will be almost too far out of date for future equipment. Do I buckle down and use it now?

       a) So I will be editing plenty of 4K videos on my future build at some point, and I know that having an SLI config and a ton of CPU cores is going to aid so much in this process. But I'd also love to have some insanely high clock speeds, approaching (I'm hoping later down the line) 4.9 GHz with plenty of cores. Intel as of right now specializes in the higher clock speeds even with a decent amount of cores. I know, the best of both worlds isn't necessarily an option, but this is more of a hypothetical. Which would be better? Going to Ryzen now, waiting for Threadripper, waiting entirely until I'd go to Intel, or building off the minor Ryzen upgrade later down the line? If I'm not mistaken, Ryzen at its best is limited to 4 GHz, no?

 

I am so lost right now. I have no idea what to do. I'm not really into spending more than $500 on upgrading this year if I go that route; I'm trying to save, and I've already spent too much money on the other 4 builds I mentioned above. I know with a Ryzen upgrade, that price point really limits me, and if need be I can go over, but I want to be sure that it's worth it. I wonder if that 16 GB 3200 MHz of Corsair RAM, Ryzen 1800 and ASUS Prime B350 Plus for $600 on craigslist is worth it if that's the case. I just want to not waste my time by not utilizing my extra GTX 970 or just knowing if I should sell it. 

 

Oh community, what on Earth should I do??? I need thoughts to push in a direction!

[Shreyas1]

personally, i would wait. a 970 is good enough for now .

 

[Novabutter]

3 hours ago, charrst said:

What you could do is sell the 970s and use that money, plus some of what you have, to get a 1080 or something. Then you could use it with your current motherboard. That GPU will be relevant long enough for you to save up and upgrade the rest of the system. Although I worry that the CPU may bottleneck it...

Oh I know for a fact the 6350 FX will bottleneck it. JayzTwoCents did a video where he used an 8-core (I have a six core) with a GTX 1070 and it did bottleneck it. I think his average was about 50 FPS, so that's pretty severe for graphics cards that has the potential for plenty more. So, with that asked, should I just sell the one and put that money aside for 4 years, or sell that, upgrade to Ryzen, and just use the 970 I have in my current build? That way for video editing, I have 12 cores to use, and a decent video card to help with GPU Acceleration. And Ryzen, although not the best for gaming, should suffice for a few years until I really go all out yeah?

 

[Novabutter]

3 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

personally, i would wait. a 970 is good enough for now .

 

Wait on building a new PC 4 years down the line then SLI the (what will be then) outdated GTX 970s?