Need some tips for hardware on my build upgrade/case transfer

[GenerousGuava]

Hey everyone,

 

I only recently started binging on LTT videos and since I'm planning on upgrading + transfering cases on my PC soon I thought I'd ask for some suggestions here.

My rig currently has an ASUS ROG HERO VI mobo with an unoverclocked 4770K (more on that later), a GTX 1080 Ti (definitely a keeper, obviously), 32GB of HyperX Low Profile DDR3/4 RAM (can't remember frankly, but think DDR3) as well as 2 regular old SSDs. One cheap SanDisk 256GB and one Samsung Pro 250GB SSD for my games. The PSU is a massively overpowered 1200W monster with 7 years of guarantee and Platinum+ rating so I'll certainly be moving that over to the new case.

Other than that I just have a Sound Blaster ZxR card which takes up two slots thanks to the optional add-on card, but can be bridged over up to 3-4 slots and only takes up one PCIe slot. IO wise I also have a 2TB HDD for cold storage and low read/write data, as well as a BluRay drive (which isn't required but should be easy enough to install).

 

Now for the new case: It's a Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition (yea I know, 2017 as fuck). I plan on running it with the pink color config and want to buy components that fit the whole white/pink design.

Another consideration is that I'd like to keep the current PC running with my old GTX 980 and possibly one or two replacement parts, though the cost can't get too high. I plan on giving it to a friend as a replacement for their old machine.

 

Now I don't quite have the money yet, so I'm willing to wait up to 3-4 months for new parts to come out (if you guys think its worth the wait). The things I definitely want is: At least 256GB of nVME storage (preferrably with a second slot for later upgrades), a CPU that surpasses my current one by at least a 10-20% margin - I don't usually bottleneck on CPU but it's nice to future proof it a bit. I also DON'T want overclocking - it's just too much of a hassle for me personally. I pretty much exclusively game and develop on this machine, so excessive cores are not needed. The mobo obviously needs a replacement - white ones with configurable lighting would be ideal here. I think I'll need to upgrade the DIMM version for my RAM so that'll have to be new as well - as for the Mobo white color and optionally RGB lighting would be nice. A CPU cooler with a matching design would be an added bonus, but I could go stock for the time being if need be.

 

One peculiarity is the fact that the PSU takes a USB 2.0 hub slot for it's digital control - so that would be a nice thing to have but not worth more than a 10€ price increase. I don't plan on using the feature but hey, who knows.

 

Last, but certainly not least I don't want to spend any more than 1000€ on the entire setup (excluding the case and parts that are moved over), and lower is better. I'm willing to spend at most a 30%/50€ premium for the color scheme, otherwise a different one will do.

 

I'll be doing my own scouting and post any ideas I have so you can comment on it. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Edit: I should mention I'm in Germany, so the prices should be the german ones.

 

Edit 2:

After realising I may not have been clear enough in the original post, I want to clarify the circumstances for upgrading and moving the stuff into a new case.

About a year ago I shipped the PC between countries with what I thought was a good shipping service but they ended up severely damaging it and refusing to pay out any insurance (long story, but doesn't matter here).

The parts that were damaged were the case (big dent on the bottom edge and the whole thing is slightly lopsided now), the GPU (bent cooling fins, I replaced that with a 1080 Ti), as well as the CPU cooler (bent fins again) and the motherboard (broken fan control, always reads 0 RPM). If you compare these parts with the stuff I listed above, you can see why I want to upgrade the parts I do (well, apart from the nVME drive - that's just because I hate load times).

I should also say 3-4 months is the absolute max I can wait - 1-2 months is how long I'll need to get the money together.

Edited October 7, 2017 by GenerousGuava

[GenerousGuava]

Alright, the first component I picked out is a mobo: the ASUS PRIME Z270-A https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132936

Any objections to this one or does it meet all my requirements? Color wise its perfectly fine.

[GenerousGuava]

Got another one - the 2x CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 16GB White version - https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820236260

Don't think there will be anything wrong with those - posting just in case and to stop people from looking for RAM for me

[seon123]

If you won't buy until a few months from now, don't bother picking out parts already

[GenerousGuava]

2 minutes ago, seon123 said:

If you won't buy until a few months from now, don't bother picking out parts already

Well parts tend to come in cycles as far as I can see, and I'm not saying I'll definitely buy in 3-4 months, that's the maximum I'd be willing to wait for a part. 1-2 months is a more accurate timeframe. I know it was a bit unclear in the OP, sorry about that.

 

The point is, I don't know the timing on hardware cycles at all, so maybe some big upgrade will come 3-4 months down the line. That's why I added it.

[seon123]

1 minute ago, GenerousGuava said:

Well parts tend to come in cycles as far as I can see, and I'm not saying I'll definitely buy in 3-4 months, that's the maximum I'd be willing to wait for a part. 1-2 months is a more accurate timeframe. I know it was a bit unclear in the OP, sorry about that.

 

The point is, I don't know the timing on hardware cycles at all, so maybe some big upgrade will come 3-4 months down the line. That's why I added it.

The 8700K has just come out, and will probably back in stock within 1-2 months. Z370 motherboard. The 1070 Ti is supposed to cost about the same as the 1070, and offer very close to 1080 performance. 

An NVMe SSD is not necessary for most tasks. Some content creation may benefit from it, but not day to day tasks if gaming. 

I'm assuming you will mostly game?

[GenerousGuava]

8 minutes ago, seon123 said:

The 8700K has just come out, and will probably back in stock within 1-2 months. Z370 motherboard. The 1070 Ti is supposed to cost about the same as the 1070, and offer very close to 1080 performance. 

An NVMe SSD is not necessary for most tasks. Some content creation may benefit from it, but not day to day tasks if gaming. 

I'm assuming you will mostly game?

Alright, I added some stuff in the OP to go more in detail. Are NVMe SSDs really not that good for load times? I just kind of figured they were. If not I'll scratch them off the list and just use the SSDs I have (I'll have to buy a 2TB hybrid or something as a boot medium to keep it running, but those are dirt cheap anyways). One thing I am doing apart from gaming is coding, which tends to deal with frequent read/write on a lot of files. Would an NVMe speed that up by any significant margin? I could replace just the boot SSD with an NVMe then, since that's where I store VS and all app data for related stuff. Would be nice to hear back on that.

 

As for the 8xxx series CPUs, that's exactly the kind of thing I don't know about so thanks for the heads up. I'll wait for a restock on those then (or just wait for them to come to germany - normally it's a 2-3 month delay).

 

Edit: I also don't need a 1080 Ti - I already have that and plan on transferring it into the new case. I can put my bent 980 which is still working with slightly worse thermals in my current case to keep it working for the friend I mentioned.

[seon123]

27 minutes ago, GenerousGuava said:

Alright, I added some stuff in the OP to go more in detail. Are NVMe SSDs really not that good for load times? I just kind of figured they were. If not I'll scratch them off the list and just use the SSDs I have (I'll have to buy a 2TB hybrid or something as a boot medium to keep it running, but those are dirt cheap anyways). One thing I am doing apart from gaming is coding, which tends to deal with frequent read/write on a lot of files. Would an NVMe speed that up by any significant margin? I could replace just the boot SSD with an NVMe then, since that's where I store VS and all app data for related stuff. Would be nice to hear back on that.

 

As for the 8xxx series CPUs, that's exactly the kind of thing I don't know about so thanks for the heads up. I'll wait for a restock on those then (or just wait for them to come to germany - normally it's a 2-3 month delay).

 

Edit: I also don't need a 1080 Ti - I already have that and plan on transferring it into the new case. I can put my bent 980 which is still working with slightly worse thermals in my current case to keep it working for the friend I mentioned.

NVMe drives don't really help with load times in games. As for coding, I only found this

https://yoloprogramming.com/post/2016/12/15/is-an-m-2-pcie-nvme-ssd-a-worthy-upgrade-over-a-sata-ssd-drive1

Afaik, the 8700K is already released in Germany, just sold out. 

What parts do you need and what do you already have? Motherboard, CPU and RAM, and what else?

[GenerousGuava]

1 minute ago, seon123 said:

NVMe drives don't really help with load times in games. As for coding, I only found this

https://yoloprogramming.com/post/2016/12/15/is-an-m-2-pcie-nvme-ssd-a-worthy-upgrade-over-a-sata-ssd-drive1

Afaik, the 8700K is already released in Germany, just sold out. 

What parts do you need and what do you already have? Motherboard, CPU and RAM, and what else?

Hmm not sure I'll buy an NVMe immediately then but that is a pretty big difference, especially to prevent loading lag when doing the coding itself. I have that quite a bit. 1-2 Slots on the motherboard would definitely be nice for the future. I'll keep an eye out for restocks on the 8xxx stuff as well. Which tier would you recommend as a decent upgrade from a 4770K? Also I don't think I'll need a K model since I don't care for overclocking at this point.

 

And I need like you said CPU, RAM, Motherboard as well as a nice looking CPU cooler, or stock if the CPU comes with one. I can look for an NVMe when and if I decide I want one.

[seon123]

2 minutes ago, GenerousGuava said:

Hmm not sure I'll buy an NVMe immediately then but that is a pretty big difference, especially to prevent loading lag when doing the coding itself. I have that quite a bit. 1-2 Slots on the motherboard would definitely be nice for the future. I'll keep an eye out for restocks on the 8xxx stuff as well. Which tier would you recommend as a decent upgrade from a 4770K? Also I don't think I'll need a K model since I don't care for overclocking at this point.

 

And I need like you said CPU, RAM, Motherboard as well as a nice looking CPU cooler, or stock if the CPU comes with one. I can look for an NVMe when and if I decide I want one.

Why not overclock, though? 

The 8700 will be a reasonable upgrade, with 2 more cores, and it comes with a cooler, but it's not a good one. The 4770K is still very capable, though, especially when overclocked. The 8700 doesn't really perform better in single core. There should be some Z97 motherboards with an M.2 slot, so just keeping the 4770K is an option. 

[GenerousGuava]

7 hours ago, seon123 said:

Why not overclock, though? 

The 8700 will be a reasonable upgrade, with 2 more cores, and it comes with a cooler, but it's not a good one. The 4770K is still very capable, though, especially when overclocked. The 8700 doesn't really perform better in single core. There should be some Z97 motherboards with an M.2 slot, so just keeping the 4770K is an option. 

You're right, honestly. The only LGA1150 board I could find with an M.2 slot was this one https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157501, not sure if you know other places to look or something (I've done building before but am far from an expert on this stuff). The color isn't ideal but if it is actually the only one available I guess I'll take it. Cooling wise I thought this looked nice enough and will give me plenty of TDP for overclocking https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835146059 . Any other suggestions or is this a good choice for the two parts I need if I keep the 4770K? Particularly, do I need a reservoir for just cooling the CPU? I see one in pretty much every built but the promo pictures for that cooler don't have one.

[seon123]

5 hours ago, GenerousGuava said:

You're right, honestly. The only LGA1150 board I could find with an M.2 slot was this one https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157501, not sure if you know other places to look or something (I've done building before but am far from an expert on this stuff). The color isn't ideal but if it is actually the only one available I guess I'll take it. Cooling wise I thought this looked nice enough and will give me plenty of TDP for overclocking https://www.newegg.com/global/de/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835146059 . Any other suggestions or is this a good choice for the two parts I need if I keep the 4770K? Particularly, do I need a reservoir for just cooling the CPU? I see one in pretty much every built but the promo pictures for that cooler don't have one.

You can go to Pcpartpicker and use the filters to find an LGA1150 board with an M.2 slot, though I doubt there is much. You might find something used somewhere.

The X62 is a good AiO, but a decent air cooler should be enough. AiOs look nice, which is why they are used in promo pictures, but they don't perform significantly better than an air cooler

[GenerousGuava]

2 hours ago, seon123 said:

You can go to Pcpartpicker and use the filters to find an LGA1150 board with an M.2 slot, though I doubt there is much. You might find something used somewhere.

The X62 is a good AiO, but a decent air cooler should be enough. AiOs look nice, which is why they are used in promo pictures, but they don't perform significantly better than an air cooler

Well, I ended up with an AsRock Z97 Extreme6 as my Mainboard. It was hard to find one that was still available - had to settle for blue and black instead of the preferred white and black board since that was no longer available anywhere. As for the cooling, if an AiO isn't much better than air cooling - do you have a recommendation for that? The 1151 coolers are backwards compatible so the choices are frankly too numerous for someone with no clue about good cooling to dig through. With some general recommendations I can try and find something that looks nice.

[seon123]

2 hours ago, GenerousGuava said:

Well, I ended up with an AsRock Z97 Extreme6 as my Mainboard. It was hard to find one that was still available - had to settle for blue and black instead of the preferred white and black board since that was no longer available anywhere. As for the cooling, if an AiO isn't much better than air cooling - do you have a recommendation for that? The 1151 coolers are backwards compatible so the choices are frankly too numerous for someone with no clue about good cooling to dig through. With some general recommendations I can try and find something that looks nice.

You have OC3D's test of 35 air coolers.

https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/cpu_air_cooler_mega_test/39

Be quiet, Cryorig and Noctua make the best looking coolers imo, but you can of course decide for yourself. 

Cooler Master has come out with the MasterAir Maker 8 since the mega test, and it looks decent.

Water coolers do look nice, if you want that look.

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