Updgrade a Bit or New Build?

[Viper69]

My current rig is in my sig file below and I really like it.

I was thinking would I be better off upgrading what I have, if possible OR building a new rig? If I go with a new rig, I'll go either mATX again OR mITX (I love my ASUS board, but I'm no fan-boy- I'll take suggestions on any gear brand and any pro's/con's on either form factor.

IF you would upgrade, what would you upgrade?

I haven't been paying as much attention to tech parts lately, so any info is appreciated. The only thing that sticks out is I've noticed more out of the box liquid cooling systems this time around than a few years ago when I built my current rig, and the skyrocketing costs of video cards.

Uses, general office, home use and of course gaming (1st person shooters, real time strategy as well)

I can spend over 1,000, but I'd like to keep it below 1500 if possible.

I tend to future proof my rig as much as possible. My builds usually last me at least 3 years in regards to my gaming needs generally speaking.

Thanks in advance!

 

[trents]

You need to upgrade in a major way. Your case, PSU, DVD burner, monitor and cooler can stay. The rest must go away. I would look at the new AMD Ryzen R5 1600X CPU with the motherboard and RAM used in this review: http://www.overclockers.com/amd-ryzen-5-1500x-1600x-cpu-review/

I would get an Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU. And for certain I would get either a 500gb SSD or NVMe if you can afford it. You can use your old 1TB spinner for storage.

 

[Alaric]

One possibility. Pick your favorite cooler and you're off to the races with a brand new rig everywhere it counts. The AMD Ryzens are another possibility.

 

[Viper69]

You need to upgrade in a major way. Your case, PSU, DVD burner, monitor and cooler can stay. The rest must go away. I would look at the new AMD Ryzen R5 1600X CPU with the motherboard and RAM used in this review: http://www.overclockers.com/amd-ryzen-5-1500x-1600x-cpu-review/

I would get an Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU. And for certain I would get either a 500gb SSD or NVMe if you can afford it. You can use your old 1TB spinner for storage.

Thanks...I'd like to stick with Intel though, I've had good success with this chip. Has AMD (I used to own several AMDs many years ago, this Intel chip was my first actually) pulled ahead of Intel ? I haven't received that impression, again, I haven't watched the CPU market.

I have read about NVMe, it sure sounds like a sweet technology to take full advantage of SSD speed, but I'm aware they are super pricey relative to older tech as expected. I saw the Intel 750, 400gig model on Newegg for $380.

Man, the cost of that card is uber expensive, north of $500 in some cases, and 400's isn't any less cheap hah.

If I didn't want to go w/that level of GPU, what would you drop down to next?

Is it worth getting a core i7, or can one really go just as well with a core i5, like I did w/my Sandybridge?

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One possibility. Pick your favorite cooler and you're off to the races with a brand new rig everywhere it counts. The AMD Ryzens are another possibility.
View attachment 190188

Not bad, thanks for pointing that out too. What site did you put that together on?

I still think I want stay with my current form factor OR go smaller w/the mITX.

 

[Alaric]

The site is here https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ If I weren't getting a 1070 I would look at the RX 480. Stout card, great price (can be had in the 8 GB version for under $250). If you wanted to stick with nVidia the GTX 1060 is next in line. Whether or not you need hyperthreading depends on what programs you run that can utilize more than the four cores.

Is it worth getting a core i7, or can one really go just as well with a core i5, like I did w/my Sandybridge?

Honestly, for the price difference and your stated uses you'll never see the difference in use, only in your bank statement. The i5 will OC as well as the i7 and for $100+ less. That's money you can spend on a GPU, or a better cooler, or just not spend it on your computer.

 

[ssjwizard]

I still have a 2500K rig and it does just fine in games. Given this aspect could use a bit of an update its really not required.

If you wanted a straight across simple upgrade for your games just get a new GPU. A 670 is around 1/3 as fast as the top dogs out today. If you were to keep it all the same and just throw a 1080Ti into it you would be looking at a massive increase in FPS in latest games for around $700 in total.

If by chance you can sell some of that old hardware or want to have a 2nd PC around then a full build is definitely the way to go. I would go with an AMD R5 1600X or an Intel 6xxx, 7xxx CPU, 16GB of RAM, and either an RX 480 or GTX 1060 GPU to stay in budget. If your gonna sell some of that gear to bump up to a nicer GPU and a larger SSD. NVMe drives are cool, but logistically you can get double the capacity from a SATA3 SSD for the same price and the performance impact while measurable in benchmarks is imperceptible to humans.

 

[Suppressor1137]

Some points here, but we seem to have avoided the main ones:

Primary purpose of rig: You say FPS and RTS gaming. Do you want to push into the 4k spectrum? If so, GTX 1080ti(not 1080 unless you find for a really good deal) for sure. If you can wait until the 18th, AMD is about to release their competing cards for the 1080 ti, so you could get a better deal then, even if it is just a price drop on the 1080ti.

4k Upgrade:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dmJR6X

What you get:

4k monitor

500 gig samsung 960 NVME M.2 ssd. Ludicriously fast, but if you dont have a m.2 slot, get a sata Samsung 850 500 gig ssd. 500 is the magic number for me, Allowing me to have all of my main games and os installed on it, with around 100 gigs free.
GTX 1080 TI

Price: $1298.98


Reason to go with this package:

+The 2500k, while dated, is still able to perform well in today's gaming world.
+This upgrade path lets you get into 4k gaming, and ensure a flat 60 fps in almost ALL titles.
+Will run Every single title @ 4k settings without much, if any, fuss.
+Bragging rights.

Reason to not go with this package:

-CPU is dated, Will cause bottlenecking to the gpu(not enough to really matter all that much)
-RAM is locked to DDR3. While this isn't so much of an issue with gaming, it does affect the overall fps by around 2-5 fps.
-Your Motherboard does not support nvme m.2 SSD's. Not that big of a deal, affects loading times by maybe...5 seconds?
-Price, Uses almost all of your budget for an upgrade.

Conclusion:

If you choose this upgrade path, Just know that your next upgrade is a major guts overhaul. I feel like the 2500k is still more than enough for todays standards, and will likely last another 2 years assuming no hardware failures.

EDIT: just realized the 1080 ti i listed isnt coming until the 27th of april. Woops.

Any GTX 1080ti will perform great. The EVGA SC edition i listed will probably run a higher factory clock and be slightly colder/cooler.


As for AMD pulling ahead.

Multithreaded, Yes. In a big way. 6 cores 12 threads, 8 cores 16 threads. It is a multi-threaded monster. The Ryzen 7 chips compete with LGA 2011v3 chips which are $1000 processors in the multi-threaded department.

Single threaded, Not really Ahead, per-say. It is much MUCH closer than amd has ever gotten.

For gaming: Currently, I would go for a Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 5 today over a I7 7700k, even with the single thread advantage intel still holds. Gaming is starting to adopt multi-threading programming in earnest, and in 2 years, I would be willing to bet that multi-threaded games would be the norm.

 

[||Console||]

You are at the point that spending alot of $ on parts for that rig isn't really worth it. Unless it's cheep or can be transferred .

My suggestion is wait to see what vega does to the market.
Find a used 2600k for $50-100
Best 500$ gfx card after vega drops
And a 500g ssd.

750 total would fix your problems.

Gamers nexus recently revisited 2500k and 2600ks review a very well done comparison. 2500 still hangs on but a 2600k @4.7 does very well close to kabby lake and beating ryzen in most games.

Single threaded, Not really Ahead, per-say. It is much MUCH closer than amd has ever gotten.

For gaming: Currently, I would go for a Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 5 today over a I7 7700k, even with the single thread advantage intel still holds. Gaming is starting to adopt multi-threading programming in earnest, and in 2 years, I would be willing to bet that multi-threaded games would be the norm.

Not ahead at all =) probably on par with his 2500k

 

[trents]

Game developers are starting to code games to take advantage of many threads now so I would really look at Ryzen to give a significant advantage in the near future.