Yet Another Time to Upgrade or Wait Question (YATUWQ).....

So should I build a new PC this fall, or wait until early next year? Seems like a good time with the 970 just out and some good games imminent (Bordlerlands Pre-Sequel, Dragon Age, Morder, etc), but not sure what's going on with Intel CPUs (preferred) and Windows 10....

Thoughts? My GTX 460 and E8400 are starting to look down right elderly. :-)

Thanks!

Anytime is a good time to upgrade from your specs. Congrats for holding out so long!

I would say the only time you should wait is if you don't have enough money for a proper build yet. Hardware is ever changing, no point in waiting.

You need to add a budget and what res you're playing at. (and add an avatar to your GS account)

Lol, I'm lazy and since 2007, haven't been able to think of a good avatar to add. Hm.

I've been rocking this epic rig since January of 2008 ftw. Started with an 8800, so the 460 is the only upgrade since then. Aside from some bad RAM, it's been a rock-f-ing-solid machine from day one and I'll be sad to see it go. It still plays most games, but the newest Wolfenstein finally brought it too its knees. So kudos to the Gamespotter who recommended the build (can't remember his name, filed away somewhere in my archives).

My budget is US $1,500 to $2,000. I'd like to stay closer to $1,500, but willing to spend more to future proof. I have a small 22" Dell display, so game only at 1680x1050 currently, although I might get a bigger monitor, too.

Also wondering if I can reuse the Antec 900 case? Can't see why not....

Thanks!

Yes you can keep on using that case. And can the dvd drive as well if its in good shape. An idea for a build , under $1100

i5 4690k

Z97 motherboard

8gb DDR3

GTX 970

2tb harddrive

Good quality 550+ watt psu. (I would replace the one you are using if its the same one from 2008)

@04dcarraher:

Thanks! That seems like a solid build. And good to know I reuse the case. Forgot to mention that I'd like to use SSDs, maybe a larger one for games and smaller capacity for just Windows. I think prices for 512GB SSDs aren't too bad now? I know 512GB isn't a ton of space what with today's drive-eating 50GB installs, but I don't have time to play more than one or two games at a time anyway (maxed out the 300GB storage drive on the current rig only once).

Any recommendations for SSDs?

For SSD you can get Samsung 840 EVO for $250 for 500gb. Evo's are the better quality/price/performance ratio ssds

Awesome, thank you. Samsung Evo it is, then. Is there a big difference between the i5 and i7?

I ordered everything from Newegg last time, but maybe I'll go to my local Microcenter (not sure why I didn't before). I've heard their component prices are crazy good.

The i7 has hyper threading at 2MB larger L3. Also if you are planning on going either i5 4690K or i7 4790K the i7 will have 500 more MHz.

Did I mention that it will cost around $100 more? :P

And about 500GB SSDs, Crucial at the moment has a better offer Crucial MX100 512GB at $208, $30 cheaper than Samsung's offer.

If you want to buy now pick the Crucial. If you want to wait, Samsung 850 EVO is around the corner and it will offer 3D Nand which means lower prices and higher reliability (and maybe even 5 years warranty)...

For gaming not a big difference in gaming, i7 is an i5 wit more cache and HT that's about it. Just look around at Mirco and see if you can save some money, I ended up only paying $195 for my 5 4690k the other week at tigerdirect saving more then going into microcenter.

Sounds good. I figured there isn't a huge difference between the i5 and 7 when it comes gaming. I'll just see what kind of deals I can find.

I can probably wait for the Samsung 850, assuming it's coming out in the next month or so.

Black Friday, get a brand new PC.

i5 socket 1150 or 1155, MOBO that fits, 8Gb of RAM, any GPU from GTX760 and above or R9 280 and above.

If I were you I would wait till early next year or at least to black Friday. Next year because even better video cards are coming or black Friday if you live in the US for really nice sales.

You could build everything awhile and wait for the GPU. AMD is going to launch stacked RAM cards next year from what I am reading. They should put the smack down on Maxwell if AMD doesn't drop the ball.

Thanks, guys! All good food for thought. Black Friday sales are a good idea, although I vow never to leave my house on that day. Scary sh*t. :-)

you can build a great rig for under 1500, you should for sure upgrade your monitor.

Well,

I would go with something like this.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/j2zkbv

CPU: i7-4790K @ 4.0GHz - $320
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 - $65
Mobo: MSI Z97 Gaming 5 - $145
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series (2X4GB) 8GB @ 1866mhz - $74
SSD: Crucial MX100 256GB - $110
HDD: WD Blue - $55
GPU: X2 EVGA GTX 970s - $660
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 - $80
PSU: EVGA SuperNova NEX 750W - $73
Total: $1582

Pretty powerful build.

@PredatorRules said:

@attirex said:

Thanks, guys! All good food for thought. Black Friday sales are a good idea, although I vow never to leave my house on that day. Scary sh*t. :-)

Well,

Lol, Predator. That's about right, although I'm married and have two kids so (cue Sam Kinison voice (you kids look him up if you're too young to get reference)) I DINE IN HELL EVERY FING DAY OF MY LIFE AUGGH AUGGH AAAAUUUUGGGH!

Thanks! That's a sweet build. I like that case, too. Hm.

So is there any reason these days to bump up the RAM to 16GB, or is 8GB future proof enough?

@attirex said:

@PredatorRules said:

@attirex said:

Thanks, guys! All good food for thought. Black Friday sales are a good idea, although I vow never to leave my house on that day. Scary sh*t. :-)

Well,

Lol, Predator. That's about right, although I'm married and have two kids so (cue Sam Kinison voice (you kids look him up if you're too young to get reference)) I DINE IN HELL EVERY FING DAY OF MY LIFE AUGGH AUGGH AAAAUUUUGGGH!

@insane_metalist said:

I would go with something like this.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/j2zkbv

Thanks! That's a sweet build. I like that case, too. Hm.

So is there any reason these days to bump up the RAM to 16GB, or is 8GB future proof enough?

I'm glad you like it. I mean, if you're using your rig for gaming mostly then 8GB is enough. But if you have the money then go with 16GB to be future proof and all video rendering/editing needs.

Hey, guys:

Went on a little (big?) component shopping spree at Microcenter today.:-) They even had a couple of EVGA GTX 970s in stock. :-) I ordered the RAM from Newegg, and when that arrives in a few days, I'll be able to put this thing together (reusing old case and sound card). So thanks again for your build suggestions. If I run into any problems (likely), I'll let you know.

Cheers....!

Yup similar specs to my Build, can do 4k gaming at 30+fps and surround gaming on 3 screens 60+fps on many games with ease.

Future proof for a good while with that setup

Nah man go X99! Especially if you are going to wait this long before the next upgrade.

If your budget is around $1,500 I will say go for 5830K, X99, DDR4 16GB, GTX970, SSD, and reuse or sell the rest.

Thanks for suggestions but...too late! As I mentioned previously, I already went shopping. :-) And everyone has an opinion on the "best build" and everyone is wrong and everyone is right, so you just have to pull the trigger at some point. In any event, I can always add more RAM later if 8GB doesn't turn out to be enough for crappy unoptimized console ports.

And this comp will probably have to last me another looooooong stretch. Heck, considering how old I am, it could be my last (no, no, not because I'll be dead, but because it'll be time to start paying for my kids' college tuition and I'll probably be more interested in old people hobbies like birdwatching and reading books).

that. Any time is a good time unless is certain that a major new release on Cpu's/Gpu's is about to come in the next few weeks. The only new release hardware wise are new broadwell cpus from Intel but those cpu's are basically Haswell with only minore performance improvement and better power consumption plus any Z97/H97 mobo aside been compatible with Haswell they will be compatible with the new Cpu's as well

I think I saw in the news that broadwell e is delayed till 2016

Nice i had the same e8400 cpu back in 2008. It was good for its day but really isn't suitable anymore for todays games, most need more then 2 threads now. Plus its single threaded performance is way lacking compared to a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gen cpu.

I was trying some games on my e8400 just this week actually and it does not fair well, most i ran max'd the 2 cpu cores out to 100% but the video card was only being used around 60%... so theres a huge cpu bottleneck for any new game.

So ya, build a new PC as soon as you can.... not sure how you held out so long with the e8400... you seem to have more willpower then i do.

@attirex: They say the GTX990 is coming so I would wait.

@Old_Gooseberry:

Believe it or not, I was able to run all of the games I played just fine on my trusty E8400...up until the new Woflenstein, which stutters badly even on medium settings. But then again, I'm running only 1680x1050 and don't obsess too much over frame rates, as long as things aren't obviously choppy.

I'm not sure it was sheer willpower that let met hold out so long as it was practical considerations--a year after I built that PC my twins were born. :-) That sort of thing tends to re-arrange your priorities in life. Yikes. But now that my kids are older, I have a little more time and $$$ to get back into the hardware side of things.

Hey, guys:

Help! I managed to get everything assembled without any problems, booted up, but now of course I'm having an issue installing Windows 8.1 on the Crucial 512GB SSD. :-(

The Windows installer indicates that the SSD has an MBR table, and EFI systems need GPT (?). So how the heck do I convert to GPT? I've tried formatting the disk using the installer format function, but that doesn't help.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm not up to speed on EFI, MBR, GPT, etc.

Thanks!

I don't want to make a new thread. I'll just hijack this one.

I need a quite powerful laptop for work so I figured I could as well make it play games decently. I'm not sure about the specs though. I'm trying to decide between i7-4710MQ or i5-4310M one the one hand and between GTX 770M ot GTX 860M on the other hand. Is an i7 for a laptop really worth it? Or is it pretty useless and only generates heat? For the GPU I think I'll get a Maxwell GTX 860. Or are there any points at all that would make me go for the 770?

On topic: to convert to GPT run "diskpart", use "list disk" to get the number of drive, "select disk" number of drive and "convert gpt".

Thanks! Fortunately, I was able to use the Windows installer disk utility to delete the MBR partitions (missed that) and start over. Windows installed. Phew.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for the upgrade recommendations and advice. Can't wait to see what this rig can do.

That's wussup! 4790K with two 970s like I suggested? I want to see some benchmark numbers! Also what mobo?

@insane_metalist: @insane_metalist:

I did go with that setup. And also the MSI Z97 Gaming 5. :-)

I'd be happy to post some benchmarks, but I'll need help getting them (haven't tried it before). I spent most of my free time yesterday installing drivers (see next).

BUT FIRST--I need help. Ran into an apparent problem with my venerable X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium Pro sound card. Got it installed, system recognizes it, found Windows 8.1 drivers and Creative console launcher. Configured everything, fired up Diablo III and....it sounds like ass. Flat with absolutely no bass response through my Siberia Steel Series V2 headphones. :-( I tried disabling the onboard audio via Device Manager and BIOS, but didn't work. Futzing with audio settings in the console and Diablo didn't help, either.

Any suggestions? I love good sound and this is killing me.....

I know this wont solve your problem but i would say try and see what sound quality you are getting from the onboard sound card. Mid and high end range motherboards ( like yours ) actually have quite good sound chips and i wouldnt be surprised if it sounded as good as a dedicated sound card of yesteryear .

The realtec ALC 1150 codec your motherboard has is a substiantial improvement over previous realtec iterations and will sound better than any $50 dedicated sound card

Thanks, but I forgot to mention I also tried that. I disabled the X-Fi and tried onboard (what the heck, worth a shot). Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed. No depth or bass to speak off. :-( Cranking the Cinema software's "bass boost" all the way up just made the muffled low-end sound a wee bit louder.

Dunno, unless I missing a system setting somewhere or there's an issue with my headphones, game audio sounded a lot better on Windows 7. Hm.

If your looking for something more budget friendly, I would recommend the hybrid drives by seagate.. You can get a 1tb one with a 16 (or 32gb?) ssd cache to it for under half that price..

Sounds like your headphones could be the issue. Try using a different headset or speakers. As far as benchmarks just download 3DMark, 3DMark11 and Heaven Benchmark 4.0. Run them and then post your results. You're gonna get pretty high scores with that setup.

I think the headphones are fine. Dunno, I'll just live it with it for now until I have more time to troubleshoot (wrestling with other issues--I also bought a new monitor and keyboard (K70) and the keyboard isn't playing nice with my KVM, so had to order a new one).

In any event, thanks for benchmarking suggestions. I'll probably give them a spin next week.

Well, after a few BSODs, I disabled the X-Fi drivers and used onboard audio. No more crashes. So no surprise Creative has bad Win 8.1 drivers...bad sound, BSODs....X-Fi officially retired. The onboard audio is actually not that bad, so I'll stick with that for now.

(and, yeah, I'll also blog this and you'll have to ask my sister if she's for sale....and my mom IS ugly)

UPDATE:

Ok, FINALLY had time to give the dual 970s a workout last night. Booted up Wolfenstein: New Order, and running on "Ultra" settings on my new Asus 24"....fing awesome!! Smooth as butter and the visuals on the bigger screen are so immersive. I'll try to run some benchmarks soon.