Looking to upgrade a 3-year old build. Advice needed please!

Silvara1 · 23 Feb 2017 at 10:53

Hi all,

You guys were a great help a few years ago when I built a new gaming PC, so am looking to get some guidance again since I now would like to upgrade and don't know a huge amount about these things.

I am looking to use it for gaming and also for programs such as Tableau for work, ideally I want to upgrade my memory (since I think both Tableau and Ark Survival Evolved could certainly benefit from more) and also my graphics card - to either a 1070 or 1080. I heard that the 1080 Ti might be coming soon, so was hoping for a price drop!

My current specs:
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB
Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO
Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO
NZXT phantom 410 mid tower

Would I need to upgrade the motherboard and CPU as well (currently it is a small sized mobo since I used to have an Aero Cool mini tower, but found that it was getting too hot and got the NZXT instead).
I would like to stick with Intel CPU for any upgrades and def want to return to GTX as had quite a few issues with various games when using the Radeon card.

My budget is quite open ended currently, depending on what needs to be upgraded. But I would say somewhere between £500-800 as a guideline.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Hodders · 23 Feb 2017 at 11:44

Your system is not that different from mine - I have a 1070 GPU but the same CPU. The result is I can run any game I want to at a good quality at 1920x1280 plus my rift works well in games that use it (elite dangerous mainly).

The performance increase from upgrading my Mobo/CPU is just not worth the cost. Intel have been blatantly sitting on their laurels for the last few years and CPU prices are just too high for the performance. The new AMD cpus will have a huge impact on prices if they perform as expected so my advice is wait for 3 months and see where we are then.

Silvara1 · 23 Feb 2017 at 13:10

Sounds like good advice, thanks! Is there any particular GPU you'd recommend to go for? I'm not going to be overclocking since I don't know how to do it safely, but its hard to know what to go for when there are so many out there to choose from...

Edit: so from looking at what's available, I was thinking along the lines of:

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B30) £128.99

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £469.99

I just need to double check if the memory would fit ok or if I should get the low version.

Do these parts look ok with my current build, or should I be looking at other types of graphics cards/memory? As I mentioned earlier, I have less than no idea about the differences between graphics cards and there are just so many versions out there...

Many thanks

Devrij · 23 Feb 2017 at 14:24

Your system is well balanced as it is, so if you need more gaming performance then a new GPU is the only worthwhile upgrade right now (some games would benefit from 16GB of RAM, but I can't comment on Tableau).

A 1070 is a great upgrade from your 290, but with the 1080ti and Vega not far away it might be worth waiting to see what happens. You might see a great 2nd hand deal on a 1070! Or you could plump for one of the new gpus of course.

With regards to specific brands, it's generally down to warranty and whether you have to post it off to timbuktu to make use of the warranty if the worst happens. Other than that, some aftermarket coolers are more efficient/quieter or the gpu comes with a minor overclock out of the box (usually not worth paying for, but if you don't want to doit yourself then it does offer increased performance).

Silvara1 · 23 Feb 2017 at 14:56

Awesome, thanks for the advice. Yes, I saw that the 1080ti announcement might be as soon as next week so I will wait until they have that in case it's coming soon and there are price drops. Just wanted to get the ball rolling, so I had an idea of what I was looking at and could pick a good combination that was compatible with my mobo, etc...

pastymuncher · 23 Feb 2017 at 18:47

Get that cpu overclocked as well. It's easy enough to do and pretty much all you need to change is vcore, cpu multiplier and maybe LLC.

Silvara1 · 24 Feb 2017 at 08:21

pastymuncher said:
Get that cpu overclocked as well. It's easy enough to do and pretty much all you need to change is vcore, cpu multiplier and maybe LLC.

Yeah I know I should, but have always been nervous of overclocking in case I break something...

pastymuncher · 24 Feb 2017 at 09:14

You won't break anything. It's pretty simple these days and nothing like how complicated it could be back in the good old days of socket 775.

Silvara1 · 24 Feb 2017 at 09:29

pastymuncher said:
You won't break anything. It's pretty simple these days and nothing like how complicated it could be back in the good old days of socket 775.

Ok thanks, I will look up a couple of guides at the weekend and see what they recommend. I know my MSI mobo came with a program to do it so will have a go

Silvara1 · 25 Feb 2017 at 13:22

So I was just about to purchase the DDR4 ram (and delay the card until after the announcements next week) and decided to double check mobo website to confirm specs.

It only mentions DDR3 ram - does this mean that DDR4 isn't compatible and that I should avoid it?

Danny75 · 25 Feb 2017 at 13:35

Silvara1 said:
So I was just about to purchase the DDR4 ram (and delay the card until after the announcements next week) and decided to double check mobo website to confirm specs.

It only mentions DDR3 ram - does this mean that DDR4 isn't compatible and that I should avoid it?

Correct. And 2133-2400MHz DDR3 tends to be the sweet spot.

If you're using stock Intel cooler get a better one before overclocking.

pastymuncher · 25 Feb 2017 at 13:36

For your Z87 board? It only takes DDR3 so try to get a matching set of the kit you have already.

Silvara1 · 25 Feb 2017 at 14:10

Thanks for the confirmation guys - glad I double checked before buying!!

As for the CPU cooler, I currently have a Corsair Hydro Series H60, so hopefully that would be ok? TBH if I try OC'ing, then I'd be really cautious and not do much at the beginning until I understand things better

Silvara1 · 25 Feb 2017 at 14:28

So this one would be a good option to go with? Or would you recommend a different brand?

Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2) £128.99
Link
Many thanks

Danny75 · 25 Feb 2017 at 18:08

It should be OK but there's an even better chance of everything working right off the bat if you go for TeamGroup Vulcan 2400 Cas 11, like the existing pair. It's what I'd do, whenever possible (same kit).

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01)= £65.99

Silvara1 · 25 Feb 2017 at 18:32

Ok so you recommend that it's better to have x4 4gb ram installed, rather than just getting rid of the old memory and replacing it with the two new sticks? Thanks for the info, gives me something new to think about.
Have to say I do enjoy building/upgrading computers, you learn so much everytime!

Danny75 · 25 Feb 2017 at 18:44

Well it's less money and should be fine. But up to you. On occasion when adding sticks you may have to go into BIOS and tweak a couple of settings but given it's the same kit (even if not a matched kit) there's less chance of that.

jbh110tdi · 25 Feb 2017 at 18:59

Ive got 4 x 4gb sticks in my machine they are 2 8gb kits which are matching but were not bought together Ive not had any problems. I enabled xmp in the bios and they have worked perfect

Silvara1 · 25 Feb 2017 at 19:24

Ok thanks for the information guys. I've read about enabling the xmp and that doesn't sound too difficult to do, so yes getting the two cheaper sticks does sound like a good way to go

Thanks for all the advice, it's much appreciated

Silvara1 · 1 Mar 2017 at 10:29

So just one last question (honest!)!!

With the price drops potentially now happening for the 1080 cards, would my current system be fine running one if I installed a 1080 rather than a 1070?
I now have the additional ram that was suggested, so will be installing the 2 sticks of 4GB tonight when I get home from work