i7-970 still good enough, Upgrade or new build?

[Sinnz]

Hi Guys.

My current pc is:
Cpu: i7-970 (stock clock atm.)
Cpu cooling: Corsair H70
Mobo: Asus Rampage III Black Edition LGA 1366
Ram: 12 gigs of Corsair Dominator 2000mhz. Not running at that speed.
GPU: 1x580gtx.
Power: Corsair AX850 80+ Gold
System Drive: Intel 120GB 510 Series
Storage: 2TB WD.
Case: CM HafX
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 1920x1200.


This rig started with 2xgtx580 as i was using 3xU2410 in Nvidia Surround.
However one of my gtx580 is unstable and i am now only running 1 monitor. The pc is now about 2.5 years old.
I would love to start using a 30" monitor. The U3014 is my choice.

So here is my question: Is it time for me to get an entire new rig, or just upgrade some parts? The GPU is ofcourse a must I use this pc for everything. Games, music, movies and so on.

Thanks for any advise you can give me

 

[Feronix]

First of all; Welcome to the forums

A new CPU would be worth it in my opinion. With that also comes a motherboard.

You can easily re-use the RAM, however Haswell or 2011 (would recommend you to go Haswell) don't support triple channel so the best would be to either leave one stick out, or buy another one with the same specs.

The CPU cooling will also suffice, but you won't be able to overclock very far if you decide to buy a Haswell chip. Those guys run very hot.

The PSU will be more than enough. Most components started using less and less power anyway. The SSD is quick enough and you probably have plenty of storage.

The GPU is of course a bit older now and if you want to game on it on a 30" 1440p monitor you might run into problems. You'll have to turn some settings down. It doesn't have an amazing amount of RAM (unless you have the 3GB model) either.

If you want to upgrade the GPU, I would recommend an HD 7970 or, if you can afford it, a GTX 780. Those cards are really quick and come with some nice memory speed and bandwith, which you are going to need at 1440p.

 

[kenny01924]

Hi Guys.

My current pc is:
Cpu: i7-970 (stock clock atm.)
Cpu cooling: Corsair H70
Mobo: Asus Rampage III Black Edition LGA 1366
Ram: 12 gigs of Corsair Dominator 2000mhz. Not running at that speed.
GPU: 1x580gtx.
Power: Corsair AX850 80+ Gold
System Drive: Intel 120GB 510 Series
Storage: 2TB WD.
Case: CM HafX
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 1920x1200.


This rig started with 2xgtx580 as i was using 3xU2410 in Nvidia Surround.
However one of my gtx580 is unstable and i am now only running 1 monitor. The pc is now about 2.5 years old.
I would love to start using a 30" monitor. The U3014 is my choice.

So here is my question: Is it time for me to get an entire new rig, or just upgrade some parts? The GPU is ofcourse a must I use this pc for everything. Games, music, movies and so on.

Thanks for any advise you can give me

its still a good set up just get a new gpu that's all you need just upgrade that

 

[Sinnz]

Oh my that was quick Thanks.

Well budget is not really an issue so gtx780 is my first choice and i will prop get 2 of them if i will be using the 2560x1600 30" Dell. I want my games to run smooth. Will the Ax850psu be enough to power these 2 Cards?
I would love to do some beginners OC, nothing too complicated. Would the Haswell 4770k be a good choice? If im doing a new build i will only reuse the case and my storage drive.

Again thank you very much for the quick respond, i knew this was the right forum to go to

 

[Feronix]

2 x GTX 780 should make everything run smooth :lol:

AX850 should be enough, it's a really high quality unit and Corsair units can also go above their rated voltage. That won't really be necessary though, as even a 4770k and 2 GTX 780s won't use 850 Watt...

For some mediocre OCing (~4.0 GHZ) the H70 will be fine (though I hope you don't run it with the stock fan) but if you want to push it past 4.2-ish GHz I'd recommend you to step it up to an NH-D14/ H100i/ H220. Otherwise your CPU will be running quite hot. Your case should be able to hold 240mm radiators.

The 4770k would be good. Do you have any idea what motherboard you'll be using with that yet?

 

[Sinnz]

I was thinking of using the Asus Maximus VI Formula. And the H100i for cooling.
I will no doubt be upgrading my SSD too as 120Gb just isent enough any more.
And to be honest i really dont take advantage of i7 hexacore.

 

[NeverBackDown]

You can run 3 sticks of ram on haswell. It will stick act as double channel. Check the motherboard as to where you can put the 3rd stick.

if budget is no issue then 2 7970s or 1 780(or 2 if you want) will easily max out every game on the market for a while.

 

[Feronix]

H100i is a very good cooler, so +1 for that.

In my opinion though, the Maximus VI Formula is a bit overpriced for what it does. You're probably better off the the Maximus VI Hero or the MSI GD-65 Gaming. They have mostly the same features but at a lower price point.

If you really want the thermal armour, there's always the z87 Sabertooth, but it doesn't have the audio and ethernet solutions that the other 2 boards have.

 

[Sinnz]

Hmm i would prefere the better audio on the Maximus Hero.

 

[garih]

You can run 3 sticks of ram on haswell. It will stick act as double channel. Check the motherboard as to where you can put the 3rd stick.

i dont think this is worth it for the OP, he can afford a 30" screen and 2 780's, so i think he will be buying new ram

 

[NeverBackDown]

i dont think this is worth it for the OP, he can afford a 3-" screen and 2 780's, so i think he will be buying new ram

In all honestly yes but if he needs to save money it's still not a bad option for a temporary thing. After he can use it in a different rig.

 

[Sinnz]

i dont think this is worth it for the OP, he can afford a 3-" screen and 2 780's, so i think he will be buying new ram

I will yes. I would think 16GB would be enough? But at what speed? "Just" go with 1600mhz or something above that?

Again i can not thank you guys enough for all the insight, as i havent been following the hardware Development for the last 2.5 years.

 

[Feronix]

For gaming 8GB is more than enough. Most current games don't even use more than 4. 16GB is really just for when you do editing/rendering or just because it looks cool in your specs list.

For gaming, 1600Mhz is enough but the price difference between 1600 and 1866 is pretty small so I see no reason not to grab the quicker one. Make sure it's at 1.5 Volt and has a Cas Latency of 9, maybe 10. Same as with the amount of RAM, 2133MHz or up doesn't really add anything if all you do is gaming. It's for the people that do editing and rendering.

 

[NeverBackDown]

If you go all SSD for the upgrade build then it will be worth having 16gb of ram. You can delete the page file in windows and not have to worry about over writing to the ssd and running out of memory for windows. Just my personal opinion but it's up to you.

Also higher mhz on ram means more volts on the CPU when overclocked.

 

[Sinnz]

Ok Guys i think i have enough infomation now to start putting together the new build. Thank you everyone for your replyes. It was a pleasure posting here and as im a noob, it sure as hell wont be the last time

Take care all.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Feel free to ask more questions!

 

[Feronix]

Do a build log!

 

[ObscureParadox]

You can run 3 sticks of ram on haswell. It will stick act as double channel. Check the motherboard as to where you can put the 3rd stick.

Are you sure about that. Not really relevant to the OP but for anyone else reading who might be thinking of upgrading from X58. I don't think that's completely true and I am fairly certain it will run in single channel mode if an odd number of ram sticks is installed. I can get someone to check but I don't see how it could run in dual channel with three sticks installed.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Are you sure about that. Not really relevant to the OP but for anyone else reading who might be thinking of upgrading from X58. I don't think that's completely true and I am fairly certain it will run in single channel mode if an odd number of ram sticks is installed. I can get someone to check but I don't see how it could run in dual channel with three sticks installed.

Someone else on the forums recently did this. I'm fairly certain it's possible.
What will happen is the 2 in Dimm Slot 1 and 3 will run in dual channel while the other runs in single channel. Guess i could have made that more clear earlier.