Rebuild from scratch or upgrade my current build?

[OttoVonBismarck]

So, my current build is:

 

i7 4790k w/ an AIO water cooler which has given me some grief, possibly due to incorrect mounting

Two GTX 970s in SLI

8gb DDR3 RAM

Maximus VII Hero motherboard

a 256gb Samsung SSD (boot drive + has a favourite game or two on it)

a 2 TB storage hard drive

Unknown PSU - but it was 80+ gold rated and i didnt cheap out on it

Corsair 540 Air case

 

my intended gaming resolutions are 3440x1440p, and possibly i will be getting a 4k, or high refresh rate 1440p monitor at some point (im leaning towards a 144hz ultrawide if i can get one). the 3440x1440 21:9 monitor is my main monitor for now however. The problems ive been having with the build is that the graphics cards aren't holding up very well for that resolution (which makes sense, i actually got them for standard 1440p originally, not for this larger resolution). Plenty of slow downs, and heres a big one - i'm experiencing power failures every night. after i power my computer down in the night when i eventually come back to it in the morning or the afternoon/evening i notice that theres no lights on the motherboard etc and the computer wont power on. i have to fiddle with the power supply, turning it off and on and taking the cable out and putting it back in, i'm still not sure why it eventually powers on but eventually it does even if it takes 20-30 minutes.

So my current two options appears to be

 

1) replace the graphics cards with a more modern card (a 2080 or a 2080 TI i was considering), add another 8gb of ram, do a fresh install of windows, reformat the drives, and put a new PSU in

 

or

 

2) complete rebuild - the only things i would be able to keep would be the AIO cooler, the storage, and the case. and i'd probably replace the case because ive had a problem with the top and front covers which makes cleaning the dust filters very hard.

 

i'd like the new build to last 5-6 years, keeping up with modern games, heavy multi tasking, and aiming for 60-144fps in 3440x1440 resolution. i work with photoshop from time to time, but never do anything like video editting. if you like option 2 more, what parts do you recommend? No budget limit, i just want a reasonable 5-6 years out of whichever option. its okay if im not gettting 60fps in 5 years on ultra obviously

 

 

 

[Cereal5]

No single piece of technology will stay relevant to the standards you're asking for for 5-6 years. Also, 3440x1440 doesn't come in 144Hz. It does come in 120, but those are thousand dollar monitors. Better off going with a 1440p 144Hz if you want high refresh rates, or a 4k 60Hz if you like resolution. 4k 144Hz isn't feasible with today's GPUs, even if you have enough money for two 2080 Tis. What problems have you been having with your AIO? and what cooler is it? If it's mounted wrong than that could definitely lead to bad temps, if that's your issue. If you can get the model of your PSU that would help determine the quality (price =/= quality).

 

I would suggest just getting a new GPU. The 4790K should be fine for another couple years at least. You can buy more RAM if you need more, but just having more won't increase performance. The 970 was never a great 1440p card, much less 1440 UW. My 1080 performed great at 1440 UW (i upgraded to a 1080 Ti).

 

If all you want is more frames, and certain items have been giving you trouble, do a full rebuild with your current system (with whatever upgrades you want). Just taking everything out and putting it back in will allow you to rerun your cables, remount your storage devices and radiator, and maybe change your fan layout for better airflow. Or just throw a new GPU in lol. I personally don't see a need for you to do a full rebuild.

[akialwayz]

15 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

So my current two options appears to be

 

1) replace the graphics cards with a more modern card (a 2080 or a 2080 TI i was considering), add another 8gb of ram, do a fresh install of windows, reformat the drives, and put a new PSU in

 

or

 

2) complete rebuild - the only things i would be able to keep would be the AIO cooler, the storage, and the case. and i'd probably replace the case because ive had a problem with the top and front covers which makes cleaning the dust filters very hard.

 

i'd like the new build to last 5-6 years, keeping up with modern games, heavy multi tasking, and aiming for 60-144fps in 3440x1440 resolution. i work with photoshop from time to time, but never do anything like video editting. if you like option 2 more, what parts do you recommend? No budget limit, i just want a reasonable 5-6 years out of whichever option. its okay if im not gettting 60fps in 5 years on ultra obviously

 

 

 

I would suggest you go with option two.Dont get me wrong, 4790K is a very good cpu but i recommend you upgrade to Ryzen/coffee lake cpu since you want to have good perfomance system which will last for next 5 years

[Guest]

Rebuilding your whole will cost more than upgrading the graphics card. There is no need to do a fresh install of windows because that will just make your life so much harder along with formatting the drives. Your better off looking around on ebay, craigslist, local fb groups for a gtx 1080 or 1080ti. They are still great cards and will provide you the power you need to play games at 4k. And plus, you could use the money from selling the two 970s to put towards a 1080 or 1080ti. The 4790k is plenty for gaming and is already beginning to bottleneck the 1080/1080ti a little, the rtx series would be a worse choice to put together for that platform as it will create a greater bottleneck than the 10 series would.

[OttoVonBismarck]

20 hours ago, Cereal5 said:

No single piece of technology will stay relevant to the standards you're asking for for 5-6 years. Also, 3440x1440 doesn't come in 144Hz. It does come in 120, but those are thousand dollar monitors. Better off going with a 1440p 144Hz if you want high refresh rates, or a 4k 60Hz if you like resolution. 4k 144Hz isn't feasible with today's GPUs, even if you have enough money for two 2080 Tis. What problems have you been having with your AIO? and what cooler is it? If it's mounted wrong than that could definitely lead to bad temps, if that's your issue. If you can get the model of your PSU that would help determine the quality (price =/= quality).

 

I would suggest just getting a new GPU. The 4790K should be fine for another couple years at least. You can buy more RAM if you need more, but just having more won't increase performance. The 970 was never a great 1440p card, much less 1440 UW. My 1080 performed great at 1440 UW (i upgraded to a 1080 Ti).

 

If all you want is more frames, and certain items have been giving you trouble, do a full rebuild with your current system (with whatever upgrades you want). Just taking everything out and putting it back in will allow you to rerun your cables, remount your storage devices and radiator, and maybe change your fan layout for better airflow. Or just throw a new GPU in lol. I personally don't see a need for you to do a full rebuild.

My apologies i think i worded it badly - i obviously don't expect to keep up with ultra graphics at highest resolution/frame rate for the entirety of the 5-6 years. in fact i expect it'll slow to a crawl and struggle across the finish line by then!

 

Oh i couldn't say what cooler it is, my best guess is a Coolermaster (which it 100% is) Nepton 240m

 

So if i get a GTX 1080TI or a 2080 TI, and add an extra 8gb of ram do you think my system will be competent for another ~4-5 years at standard 1440p 144hz and/or 1440UW at 60fps?

20 hours ago, akialwayz said:

I would suggest you go with option two.Dont get me wrong, 4790K is a very good cpu but i recommend you upgrade to Ryzen/coffee lake cpu since you want to have good perfomance system which will last for next 5 years

So AFAIK from upgrading my CPU i'd be forced to move to a more modern motherboard (LGA 1151 socket, from my LGA 1150 iirc), which means i would also have to upgrade my RAM (not a huge deal, i needed to add more anyway) from DDR3 to DDR4. Do you think that the cost of upgrading my CPU, Motherboard and RAM will be worth the benefits over staying with my current build? What other benefits will i get, like will i get generally lower temperatures from more modern components? (Australian summer is harsh, something i did not take into account when i went with SLI over a single card)

20 hours ago, PC_Master said:

Rebuilding your whole will cost more than upgrading the graphics card. There is no need to do a fresh install of windows because that will just make your life so much harder along with formatting the drives. Your better off looking around on ebay, craigslist, local fb groups for a gtx 1080 or 1080ti. They are still great cards and will provide you the power you need to play games at 4k. And plus, you could use the money from selling the two 970s to put towards a 1080 or 1080ti. The 4790k is plenty for gaming and is already beginning to bottleneck the 1080/1080ti a little, the rtx series would be a worse choice to put together for that platform as it will create a greater bottleneck than the 10 series would.

how bad is the bottle necking generally? 

[Cereal5]

13 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

LGA 1151 socket, from my LGA 1150 iirc

Correct

 

13 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

Do you think that the cost of upgrading my CPU, Motherboard and RAM will be worth the benefits over staying with my current build?

Not at the moment. Maybe in 2-3 years, but even then, meh most likely.

 

13 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

What other benefits will i get, like will i get generally lower temperatures from more modern components?

Not necessarily. I'm sure you've heard how bad Coffee lake's thermal interface material (TIM) is. Temps are meh.

 

14 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

how bad is the bottle necking generally? 

Not bad enough to really notice, especially at high resolutions

 

15 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

Oh i couldn't say what cooler it is, my best guess is a Coolermaster (which it 100% is) Nepton 240m

A re-mount and new thermal paste might help some with temps.

 

15 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

So if i get a GTX 1080TI or a 2080 Ti do you think my system will be competent for another ~4-5 years at standard 1440p 144hz and/or 1440UW at 60fps?

yes, 1440p UW you can do 100Hz+ no problem, I have one and a 1080 TI.

 

16 minutes ago, OttoVonBismarck said:

and add an extra 8gb of ram

Like I said earlier, you don't need to add RAM unless you actually run out of it. Just the fact of having more won't increase performance, unless you're using more than 8GB. Youre more than welcome to buy more, I don't care, I'm just making the distinction.

 

I'd say just throw a GPU in and go from there (and the cooler stuff I mentioned). You can always buy more RAM later, you can get another SSD, you can blah blah blah. I never really see the point of doing a full rebuild. Just upgrade parts as you need. I got a 1080 Ti 2 months ago, then last week I got an 8700K. I would have liked to do a full rebuild with a new case and a custom loop, but I don't feel like spending that money rn lol. Besides, what I have works. Why try to fix it