It's been awhile since my last build..like I have a i7 3770 and a 650ti, and while it still runs well, I feel it's time to finally upgrade. My goal was to keep it under $2k, and here is what I came up with. Looking for feedback, advice and general knowledge. Thanks in advance.
Tower:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139048&ignorebbr=1 Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130969 CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726Cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=13C-000X-00037 Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231967Video:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127955Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2F84BC9923That's about it, still debating on also upgrading my ssd "Need better load times" and my 1tb "store the rest of yer random crap here" hd.
Again thank you in advance for any advice, feedback and general knowledge.
Comments
I7 7700K is maybe 40% faster than I7 3770. Upgrading it is not really worth it for normal gaming and home use.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3770/3647vs1979
Whereas GTX 1070 is about 379% faster than 650 Ti:
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-650-Ti-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1070/2189vs3609
I find it hard to just recommend upgrading the GPU card, some of these older motherboards don't support the newer graphics cards that well. Going to DDR4 memory will speed things a bit too.
As the poster above said, adding a good SSD if you don't have one, will speed things up immensely.
Another thought, is wait until the end of the month and look at the new AMD Ryzen chips coming out, if they are as good as the previews have suggested, it might be a better value.
Your CPU will run regular games just fine. A new GPU will do you wonders.
Next year or the year after, the new CPUs, GPUs, etc. etc. will just be that much better.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
CPU - i7 975 extreme
RAM - 12 gigs
HD - SSD
Video - Nvidia 970
I had that computer for years and only upgraded the video card a while back. I had a great year financially in 2016 so at Christmas, I decided to drop $2600 on a new computer. The new system has:
CPU - i7 6700k
RAM - 32 Gigs
HD - a pair of SSD's in a RAID-0
Video - Nvidia 1080
I dont know if I am old or just going blind but I honestly can not see any difference in the new PC. The only noticeable difference I see is when I am using a 3D modeling program like 3ds Max. I dont see any difference in games like ESO, BDO or Overwatch.
Like a user above said, decide what you are going after. Is it frame rates, lower CPU utilization, and then target the problem. If I could go back, I would just add a bit more ram to my old PC and probably gotten near the same results I have now.
I dont know where you are at in life or what your level of disposable income is, but in my opinion, things like, dropping $1000 to go from 50 FPS to 70 FPS is not worth the effort. Of course that is easy for me to say since I am older, with a good amount of disposable income and rocking a PC that scores in the top 5% of 3D Mark.
I just upgraded my own machine this week. A few things to note:
1) If all you're doing is gaming, then an i7 is overkill. The i7 mainly offers a faster clock speed (which you can easily overclock to compensate for) and hyperthreading. Most games don't use hyperthreading effectively, so the performance difference is almost nothing. For just games, save the $100 and put it into another component.
If you're going to be doing anything with video, or even streaming to a degree, or think you may in the future, then an i7 is something you should consider. That's what I did. In my mind, I want the freedom to effectively do any of that stuff without feeling hamstringed.
2) Cooling could be an issue with that case. Kaby Lake (the new i7-7700 and i5-7600 series) runs hot, especially when you OC, but you could take care of that with a couple of changes. First, take out whatever hard drive cages you don't need. Get a 3.5-to-5.25" drive converter from newegg for $5 and shift whatever drives you can up into the optical bays (this is what I got: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994160). This will free up airflow from the fan in the front to the rear exhaust and should definitely help your flow.
3) That said, I would really consider adding at least a top exhaust fan. That said, ideally, you want more air moving into the cast than out. If it were me, I would add one to the bottom intake as well. This would push cool air up directly at your GPU and help push the flow of air in the proper direction across your motherboard without any dead spots.
4) Not sure what motherboard you're getting (that was a link to your CPU), but make sure it is a "Z270". That indicates it is an "unlocked" board that will allow you to overclock. Anything else and the "K" processor will be meaningless. If you go with an MSI gaming one (I grabbed the M7 on a combo deal from newegg) just beware that MSI clocks that CPU to 4.5GHz out of the box, even when you tell the BIOS you don't want to overclock. I could only set it to default by using the MSI command center app. Very weird.
5) That PSU is waaaaaay more than you need. No one with a single video card needs 1200 watts. I just ran your system (guessing probably much higher for your extras and everything) and it even overshooting it, it said you'd only need 472 watts under load. I personally wouldn't be comfortable with that, but you could do the 650 watt easily with that system and save yourself $130. Pascal cards use less power. Here is the site: http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator .
Good luck!
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130653
the i7 3770
16g DDR3 1600 ram
and the also aforementioned 650ti
I do have an ssd (256gig) and my data drive as well
one of the things I worry about is my 850w power supply being able to handle one of the new cards, and the newer cards being compatible with the board as well. I haven't gone full into investigation mode yet on all of the fine details of such things, and thus I decided to start here and get your feedback. Thanks again by the way, it does help. And if you think I can save some by just upgrading bits and pieces awesome!
Edit: I also run two monitors
You mention long loading times.
One thing that I like to do periodically is do a wipe and a clean OS install. Over time with installing and uninstalling software your Windows registry gets all messed up with crap that's not even on your computer anymore..
A little house cleaning can really improve performance.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
That's actually the motherboard I have too! Picked it up on the combo. I'd act fast. The last time I waited, it was taken off combo. There's also a $20 mail in rebate until the end of the month.
A good quality 850 W power supply is massively overkill for most gaming rigs. That's the sort of thing you'd want for an SLI/CrossFire rig or an unreasonably large overclock. But that's assuming it's good quality; exactly what power supply do you have? Give the exact brand name and model, not just the nominal wattage. If you don't know, then open up the case and find out.
A build for half the price would make more sense but like others said, just upgrading GPU should be likely enough.