Help me upgrade my first build

burno70 · 9 Oct 2015 at 19:45

Hi there

My current spec is:
MSI Z97S Motherboard
Intel G3528 CPU overclocked to 4.5hz with after market cooler
8gb 1600mhz Ballistix sport ram
Monitor is a ProLite E2208HDD
MSI Nvidia GTX 970

I'm looking to spend around £500 - maybe £600 absolute max.

I was originally set on getting an Intel I5 4690k with another GTX970 to SLI - but is there a better way to get increased performance?
Should I consider changing the ram to 16gb 1866mhz?
Should I invest in a better monitor? 144 refresh rate, G-sync or 1440P? I do have my eye on a AOC G2460PG - but would the increased performance of two GTX970's beat the enhancement a monitor upgrade might bring?

Any advice is very welcome as I know very little other than what went into my first build!

Thanks.

burno70 · 9 Oct 2015 at 20:38

Lemin said:
Id get AOC G2460PG, i5 4790k and ssd.
edit, what is your psu ?

Good point - 500w, just did a power calulator and it's close so it looks like I'd be upgrading that too!

Sorry, I already have a 240gb ssd for general apps and games and another 2tb sata driver.

Also, doing the maths, I could figure a GTX 980ti in the mix, rather buying an additional 970, would then sell on my current 970, would end up around the same.

burno70 · 9 Oct 2015 at 21:01

Gaming, especially visuals.

burno70 · 9 Oct 2015 at 22:09

Thank's Daniel, now that I've realised I can do this I'm really warming to the idea of a GTX 980 TI!
The only only other thing I'm concerned about is my monitor - will I get the benefit of such a high end card with this monitor? As far as I can tell it's a 60hz 1080p. Should I stick with my current processor and get a better monitor and the 980TI for example - would this be better? Or would a 980ti and the intel G3258 create a bottleneck of sorts?

burno70 · 9 Oct 2015 at 22:55

Quartz said:
Your monitor will do 75 Hz vertical refresh which is a nice boost over 60 Hz if you haven't got it set already. But with a 970 you should be able to crank everything apart from Hairworks and the like to the max or nearly so at 1080p. There are a whole raft of 21:9 monitors coming out later this year, so it may be worth holding off until then.

I didn't know I could increase the refresh rate! Just found out how to do it - the maximum I could get was 65hz.