Considering upgrading-need opinions

[HeyYouOK?]

Hi,

 

haven't posted in awhile or kept up with PC news as well as I could apart from the insanity that is crypto-currency and how its screwing with pricing all over the place. But I was looking for opinions on if i needed to upgrade my rig or not Apart of me really wants to because I kinda wanna build another PC but I have to be practical here.. I do alot of PC gaming but alot of the games I play can be pretty much maxed out on my ZOTAC 1070 at 1080P and for now im fairly content with that. But mostly I want a beefy workstation that can handle what i throw at it. I do mostly graphic design and illustrations with some light 3D'ing for composition quick turn-arounds and im aware my current system can handle it just fine but i would like to do alot more, such as video rending and special effects and whatnot for my artwork. Maybe i focus on peripherals instead. I dunno, I was looking for the opinions of those more experienced.

 

My goal was for a completely new system but I think maybe, upgrading the cooler, Case and more storage and ram would be the best options.

 

CASE: NZXT PHANTOM 820(looking to downsize to bullet BH8)

MOBO: GIGABYTE Z170 G1 Gaming

CPU: i7 6700k

GPU:ZOTAC 1070 AMP! EDITION-

PSU: EVGA G2 SUPERNOVA 750 80G 

RAM: 16GB G. SKILLS RIPJAWS Z 2100

STORAGE: 500gb SAMSUNG EVO SSD; WD BLACK 1TB- 

CPU COOLER: BE QUIET DARK ROCK  PRO 3 190W TDP.

 

Thanks for viewing!

[Guest]

What specific software do you work with the most?

[HeyYouOK?]

17 minutes ago, Legendarypoet said:

What specific software do you work with the most?

Basically all of the adobe design suites. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, currently learning AE and flash, Corel Painter, Blender and sketchup

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, HeyYouOK? said:

Basically all of the adobe design suites. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, currently learning AE and flash, Corel Painter, Blender and sketchup

Adobe software loves Intel and single threaded performance, so you'll likely be better off w/ an 8700K.

[WoodenMarker]

16 hours ago, HeyYouOK? said:

Basically all of the adobe design suites. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, currently learning AE and flash, Corel Painter, Blender and sketchup

Where are you mainly looking for more performance? Are there any hiccups you're experiencing? Is your cpu currently oc'ed?

Where are you shopping/located? Budget?

[HeyYouOK?]

2 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

Where are you mainly looking for more performance? Are there any hiccups you're experiencing? Is your cpu currently oc'ed?

Where are you shopping/located? Budget?

Faster storage access, would like more optimal cooling. right now my CPU cooler is loud and i would like to get it quieter. I want to downsize on my case and increase the amount of ram i have. currently my CPU is not OC'ed. never really messed with the process. Currently there arent any hiccups I guess im mostly looking for excuses to upgrade. I have a budget of $2100. probably buy my parts from Amazon and my local Microcenter.

 

This is the upgrade I was considering doing

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dyGjjc

 

EDIT: now thinking about it, I could just probably keep my PC how it is and just upgrade coolers, case, fans, and add more drives.

[Doomed83]

Have you checked that your cooler is plugged into a PWM fan header and setup with a custom fan curve? Your cooler is overkill for a non overclocked chip so it should be running pretty quiet.

 

As far as upgrading cpu/mobo goes, I personally would hold off unless you are doing a lot of blender work as the rest of the applications listed probably won't see much performance boost from extra cores.

 

The case change I would say go for it because having something that works for your needs can be worth it.

 

The memory upgrade I would say only do if you are actually running out of memory as ram prices are really high right now.

 

As for storage upgrade they aren't exactly cheap right now, but if it will help then go for it. You can always move these to a new platform when you get there.

 

Good luck with the upgrades!

[WoodenMarker]

8 hours ago, HeyYouOK? said:

Faster storage access, would like more optimal cooling. right now my CPU cooler is loud and i would like to get it quieter. I want to downsize on my case and increase the amount of ram i have. currently my CPU is not OC'ed. never really messed with the process. Currently there arent any hiccups I guess im mostly looking for excuses to upgrade. I have a budget of $2100. probably buy my parts from Amazon and my local Microcenter.

This is the upgrade I was considering doing

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dyGjjc

EDIT: now thinking about it, I could just probably keep my PC how it is and just upgrade coolers, case, fans, and add more drives.

Which drive are you currently using as the scratchdisk and writing to? Is the disk usage in Task Manager pinged at 100% while working or exporting?

What type of performance are you mainly aiming to improve? 

The DRP3 is a very quiet cooler. Are you sure that it's your cpu cooler that's too noisy and not something else in the system? Does stopping the fans on the cooler with your hands stop the noise?

[HeyYouOK?]

14 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

Which drive are you currently using as the scratchdisk and writing to? Is the disk usage in Task Manager pinged at 100% while working or exporting?

What type of performance are you mainly aiming to improve? 

The DRP3 is a very quiet cooler. Are you sure that it's your cpu cooler that's too noisy and not something else in the system? Does stopping the fans on the cooler with your hands stop the noise?

I use an external I've had for a couple of years as a scratch disk because i couldn't find any other use for it. Do you mean 100% for my scratch disk? if so I don't believe its ever gotten that high, i keep it relatively blank. 500gb external.

 

The cooler itself is fine i think, in face i dont hear much noise from it. Its the case in question. the front and top fans are both 2x240mm fans in front and 2x240mm fans on top with 2x120mm silent wings at the bottom of the case. More tha likely its the huge ass case fans that a really bothering me. I initially bought the case for adaptability since I wanted a long term case but the noise is pretty loud. That ones completely on me.

 

If i wanted to downscale to a smaller case i would preferably want to switch to a AIO cooler as the DRP3 is huge and restricts access to ram modules and overall was a huge pain to get on. I can see uninstalling being just as painful.

[Doomed83]

I believe @WoodenMarker was referring to read/write speeds on the scratch disk rather than capacity.

 

With that many fans it sounds like all you need is a fan controller to slow them down to a reasonable level so you don't hear them. Kinda the point of having so many fans is being able to run them at low/inaudible speeds.

 

As for the cooler. if you want something different by all means go for it, but you shouldn't have to remove the cooler even if you switch cases.

 

 

[WoodenMarker]

6 hours ago, HeyYouOK? said:

I use an external I've had for a couple of years as a scratch disk because i couldn't find any other use for it. Do you mean 100% for my scratch disk? if so I don't believe its ever gotten that high, i keep it relatively blank. 500gb external.

The cooler itself is fine i think, in face i dont hear much noise from it. Its the case in question. the front and top fans are both 2x240mm fans in front and 2x240mm fans on top with 2x120mm silent wings at the bottom of the case. More tha likely its the huge ass case fans that a really bothering me. I initially bought the case for adaptability since I wanted a long term case but the noise is pretty loud. That ones completely on me.

If i wanted to downscale to a smaller case i would preferably want to switch to a AIO cooler as the DRP3 is huge and restricts access to ram modules and overall was a huge pain to get on. I can see uninstalling being just as painful.

I'm asking about disk usage in terms of drive activity and not how filled the drive is. If you have Windows 10, you can see the disk usage in Task Manager in the Performance tab.

Have you tried lowering the fan speeds? You should stop fans with your hands to see if that stops the noise. It could also be the hdd. 

You could probably leave the cooler in place while you install the motherboard.