The Great Upgrade

[the_weegie]

• Where are you located?
Glasgow, Scotland

• What is your budget?
Happy to spend money but not unlimited. Enthusiast rather than Elite.

• Will you need a monitor, keyboard, and/or mouse included in that budget?
No

• Shall you be requiring an OS?
No

• What will you be using this rig for?
Mostly Gaming

• If gaming, what resolution will you be playing at?
At the moment 1080p but increasing in future to 4K.

• Will you be overclocking?
More than likely

• Do you need a full build or will you be reusing some old parts?
Using some old parts

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Ok, with that out the way here's the rundown on the existing main system I started in 2008 (couple of upgrades since then).

CPU - Intel I7-920 D0 Stepping @ 4GHZ
MOBO - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Rev. 1
COOLER - Prolimatec Megahalems
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 LPX (think might be 2333MHz)
GPU - EVGA GTX 780
CASE - Corsair 750D
PSU - Corsair AX850
SSD - Samsung 840 Pro 256GB 2.5"
SSD - Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 2.5"
HDD - HGST 4TB 3.5"
MONITOR - Samsung 2443BW
MOUSE - Razer DeathAdder 3G
KEYBOARD - Generic MS Keyboard

I also have another cheap Zoostorm PC which I use for learning various programming languages. I've got SQL Server 2016 installed on it as well so it does some grunt work with databases, as well as some SEO work I do. It is and probably will never be used for gaming and is switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's a Generic ZooStorm with the following:

CPU - Intel G840 @ 2.8GHz
MOBO - Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV mATX
COOLER - Intel own
RAM - 1x 8GB generic
GPU - Radeon 6850 (found in a drawer)
CASE - Zoostorm generic
PSU - Corsair TX 750 (repurposed from the above machine)
HDD - 120 GB
MONITOR - Samsung 2443BW (plugged into the VGA connection, shared with main machine.)
MOUSE - Generic
KEYBOARD - Generic

So here's my plan, please pick apart my logic and where possible suggest improvements/alternatives.

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Step 1:
- Upgrade the motherboard/processor/RAM/cooler of main rig to one of the following:

CPU - AMD Ryzen R7 1700
MOBO - Asus Crosshair Hero VI
COOLER - Corsair H105
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3200 (2x 8GB)

Total Price - £739.15

CPU - Intel I7 7700K
MOBO - Asus STRIX Z270F ATX
COOLER - Corsair H105
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3200 (2x 8GB)

Total Price - £693.95

Use existing parts for main rig:

GPU - EVGA GTX 780
CASE - Corsair 750D
PSU - Corsair AX850
SSD - Samsung 840 Pro 256GB 2.5"
SSD - Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 2.5"
HDD - HGST 4TB 3.5"
MONITOR - Samsung 2443BW
MOUSE - Razer DeathAdder 3G
KEYBOARD - Generic MS Keyboard

Transfer parts to the office work PC:
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 LPX

Retire:
CPU - Intel I7-920 D0 Stepping @ 4GHZ
MOBO - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Rev. 1
COOLER - Prolimatec Megahalems

Notes:
- I do admit to having a love of Corsair stuff but that's through personal experience of having never had any of their products fail on me yet (touch wood). I'm not wedded to them though if there's better products.

- I know in a lot of gaming benchmarks the I7 7700K comes out on top but I don't think the 1700 is that far behind on single core performance that it makes that much of a difference? However on multi core it seems to be vastly superior.

- I've been an Intel guy for many years but I like that AMD have committed to using the AM4 socket for future generations of Ryzen as well. I'd be able to pick up Ryzen 2 or whatever is after that and drop it in (hopefully) getting an upgrade on the processor without having to change my motherboard.

- Whilst the I7 920 is better than the G840 in multithreading (which is what the office PC will benefit from the most), its TDP means it'd be more expensive to keep on 24/7.

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Step 2:
- Upgrade the graphics card (August/September) and then monitor (minimum 1440p but hopefully 4k)

Expected Total Cost - £1000

Transfer parts to the office work PC:
GPU - EVGA GTX 780
MONITOR - Samsung 2443BW

Retire:
GPU - Radeon 6850

Notes:
- I'm basically waiting for Vega to come out to see which is better performance/bang for buck between it and the GTX 1080 TI. I'm hoping to go to 4k but at least 1440p. Not bothered about VR at the moment as personally I think it's still in the gimmick stage but if Valve release HL3 in VR I'll be all over it. Will be good to try be a little future proof.

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Step 3:
- Upgrade main rig with an NVME M.2 SSD or 2 (later in the year, December/January)

Expected Total Cost - £250 -> £500 (depending on whether get 1 or 2 drives)

Transfer parts to the office work PC:
SSD - Samsung 840 Pro 256GB 2.5"
SSD - Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 2.5" (depending on whether buy a second NVME)

Notes:
- Nothing special here. Will upgrade the feel/speed of both machines.

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Further in the future:

One of the things that leads me to favour the AMD Ryzen path is that in a 2 or 3 years from now, I'd be able to upgrade to future generation Ryzen with the same motherboard, saving some money. In turn I'd be able to buy a cheap AM4 motherboard and DDR4 RAM and drop them and the 1700 into the office PC giving it a massive upgrade as well, that PC and the work I do on it would benefit greatly from the better multicore performance. I'd then rebuild that office PC using a hypervisor to create 2 virtual machines (prob one dual core/quad thread and another hex core/12 thread), one of which would be a media server (dual core/quad thread). Transferring the 4TB HGST HDD plus adding another in RAID would allow this office machine to perform 2 functions at once, saving some money (though it may be more expensive to run as it'd use more electricity than a dedicated NAS).

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So great people of OC3D, is my plan sound? I know it's madness trying to future proof anything in computing but the main rig I'd end up with at the end of the year after step 3 would be a bit of a beast able to handle pretty much anything I could throw at it for at least a couple of years. Then once games caught up I'd be able to drop in another graphics card for SLI/Crossfire or upgrade to a better single card to get another few years out it.

I've also thought about 2 other things:

1. Custom water cooling loop in main rig.
2. Builing a living room gaming PC as well.

I'd probably think about doing watercooling first which would allow me to use the 240mm AIO watercooler from the main rig and the GTX 780 (which'll be in the office PC by that point) in the living room build, allowing me to save some money there. I have a 4K tv but probably not willing to spend the money on a 4K ready GPU as I imagine I'd mostly be on console emulators with control pads playing with friends rather than proper PC gaming so the 780 should be ok for gaming at 1080p. If I want full 4k I'll have my main rig.

Any thoughts anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. I'm not afraid to spend money on my baby but I abhor wasting money for no reason so I don't like the idea of buying something, using for a year or 2 then either having to ditch it or try sell it on eBay.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the wall of text.

 

[Avet]

Wow this was comprehensive thread.

First of all for gaming just go with Intel. No benefit in Ryzen if you are not going to do any rendering work. Future proofing for me is not worth it. You go wonky now so you can maybe be good in 2-3 years. You can sell your current motherboard when it is time for upgrade, and get some money back. Just go best you can now, for now. In 2-3 years we might get some insane new technology that renders all of this that we have useless.

When you are going for GPU/Monitor upgrade money that you will spend on 4K monitor, and hardware for running it, invest in good 1440p 144Hz, 1080ti or Vega equivalent. Money that you get left blow on beer and travels.

 

[KingNosser]

If it was me I'd go with the ryzen build, to me it makes more sense to have a higher core count now more than the past, Intel are up'ing there chip core counts this year and X299 is out soon and I don't feel they will be cheap as is the norm. The difference in fps between the two is minimal and at 4k even smaller.

I'd opt for a nvidia 1070 at this time newer generations are out soon enough and with hbm2 and gddr5x included it makes more sense to buy a card for less and game at 1440p and 1080p until the newer cards are out and your lose less on resale or can use it in the 2nd PC when upgrading to the next and a 1070 would hold it's price if you buy a decent brand. Then when you do you can upgrade and step on the 4k button hopefully screen prices will have reduced as well by then.

There is never a good time to upgrade it's always tricky, but that's my 2cents

 

[the_weegie]

Money that you get left blow on beer and travels.

Best advice yet

 

[the_weegie]

Thanks for the thoughts folks.

 

[Excalabur50]

I too would have to say the Ryzen build whilst it may be true that current games run a bit quicker on Intel, AMD are catching up also future games may use the cores and for the 50 pound difference between what you've chosen the 1700 all the way, also if you plan on playing Star Citizen it loves cores so it's already a win
I like your idea of waiting to see what Vega brings to the table, as to 4K personally wouldn't worry about it, get a really good 1440p monitor instead it's the real sweet spot ATM then just decide Vega when it comes out or 1080 Ti, I'm thinking the Vega may beat it a little at the start but will improve as they do over time

 

[BigDaddyKong]

If you do use the Corsair memory, check and see what speeds people are getting on it. I have read a lot of reports, they can't get the 3200mhz on it. G Skill B die kits work the best with the CH6. Next month, that may be different when the new AGESA code is out and working in new bios revisions.