Upgrade advice needed please

Acquittedseeker · 24 May 2014 at 16:50

Afternoon everyone

I built my current system in 2008 and the time has come to upgrade.

Current spec is
Coolermaster Cosmos case
Phenom x4 955 b/e O/C @3800
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P
Coolermaster hyper evo 212 cpu cooler
12gig DDR3 Corsair dominator 1600mhz
1000w psu
Radeon 6790 crossfired
150gig ata hdd
400gig sata hdd
2tb sata hdd
x2 combi drives

System will be mostly used for 1080p gaming on a 92" projector and blueray although some video/photo editing will be done occasionally.
I'm a graphics whore so a very good graphics card is a must, is crossfire/sli still worth doing or go single gpu???
is SSD worth it???????
any AMD/intel comparisons welcome same with the GPU brands
Can I squeeze anymore from the current system by just a CPU-GPU upgrade or overhaul and just use Case HDD RAM etc.

Looking forward to your suggestions

dacads · 24 May 2014 at 16:54

Yep an SSD will certainly be worth it. From looking at your spec I would look at upgrading the CPU, MOBO & GPU

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £155.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £104.99
Total : £710.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Doomedspeed · 24 May 2014 at 23:16

Atleast get the 4670k.

Acquittedseeker · 12 Jul 2014 at 14:41

spent the last month or so looking at different combos

I was considering a console but figured upgrading my pc is the way to go

would this be overkill ????????
driving me crazy so many choices of combos my brain hurts

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC POWER BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 1000W Platinum PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £627.96
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x BenQ XL2720Z 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £359.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
Total : £1,680.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

dacads · 12 Jul 2014 at 15:02

RAM and PSU is probably overkill

scotsdragon · 12 Jul 2014 at 15:03

dacads said:
RAM and PSU is probably overkill

We like overkill ! and what people call over kill I call room for upgrades in the future lol

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC POWER BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 1000W Platinum PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £627.96
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x AOC G2460FQ 24" Widescreen 144Hz 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Gunmetal £169.99
1 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £159.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £60.98
Total : £1,496.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Acquittedseeker · 12 Jul 2014 at 15:33

agree with room for upgrades in future lol I wanna decent system to last me a good few years so I would really only need maybe a gpu upgrade in a few years, don't need any hdd just ssd as i will use the ones from my old system. i'm unsure if the H100i will fit it my cosmos 1000 nothing wrong with the case so if it fits i'll be very happy

Acquittedseeker · 12 Jul 2014 at 16:48

another one I really like the look of

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 750W PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £555.96
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Case - Black £299.99
1 x AOC G2460FQ 24" Widescreen 144Hz 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Gunmetal £169.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
Total : £1,550.56 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Tohrazer · 12 Jul 2014 at 16:49

Acquittedseeker said:
spent the last month or so looking at different combos

I was considering a console but figured upgrading my pc is the way to go

would this be overkill ????????
driving me crazy so many choices of combos my brain hurts

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC POWER BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 1000W Platinum PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £627.96
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x BenQ XL2720Z 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £359.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
Total : £1,680.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

sorta overkill but undeniably awesome!

dacads · 12 Jul 2014 at 16:55

I'd stick with a 27" monitor, ideally 144Hz and 1440p

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 27" G-Sync 144Hz Gaming Widescreen LED Slim Bezel Monitor - Black/Red £719.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11226-03-40G) £359.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£45 Saving** £356.98
1 x Crucial M550 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M550SSD1) £109.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Arctic White £79.99
1 x Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler £65.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/8-OC) £59.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
Total : £1,891.49 (includes shipping : £22.20).

413x · 12 Jul 2014 at 16:56

have you not got a decent PSU already??

Acquittedseeker · 12 Jul 2014 at 17:00

al4x said:
have you not got a decent PSU already??

Has been very reliable but it's 5 years old now may aswell get a new one

scotsdragon · 12 Jul 2014 at 17:41

That case (cosmos) isn't so great its a wee bit old now also

YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case £199.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
Total : £306.48 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Both these cases have great features will allow upgrades and fit any cooler you like I have the pro mid for my media pc don't let MID fool you its huge

Acquittedseeker · 12 Jul 2014 at 18:50

added case you suggested, I'm really liking this

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 750W PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £555.96
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x BenQ XL2720Z 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £359.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case £199.99
1 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £159.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
Total : £1,870.55 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Acquittedseeker · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:11

I'm still at this madness can anyone quote me happy, any room for improvement £2400 is my limit

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce TITAN Black Edition SC Signature 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (06G-P4-3793-KR) £869.99
1 x AOC U2868PQU 28" 4K 60Hz 1MS Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £479.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£45 Saving** £356.98
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case £199.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £129.95
1 x NZXT KRAKEN X60 AIO Water Cooling Unit - 280mm £119.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Gold (HX21C11BGK2/16-OC) £119.99
1 x Corsair Force LX 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (CSSD-F256GBLX) £89.99
Total : £2,393.50 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Doomedspeed · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:20

Ill be honest with you, for 4k gaming the TITAN black is a poor investment, it over VERY little over the 780ti 3Gb card. VRAM isn't a factor with 4k at this point in time, so the 6Gb helps nothing currently.

You can go one of two ways here.

780ti SLI
or
R9 295 x 2 (single card).

Both are valid 4k options and both come in around the £1k mark (and massively outperofrm a single TITAN black.

There some 4k benchmarks in here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/02/26/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-black-review/10

Ethermaster · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:25

I agree with Dacia on this one and that you should be looking at GTX 780Ti R9 295 x2 but I'm going to put another option in the frame namely a pair of these in Crossfire

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-353-SP

Acquittedseeker · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:25

thanks doomspeed I originally went towards that 4k monitor and the r9 295x2, does the monitor support other resolutions such as 1440 1080 etc????????

Doomedspeed · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:28

That 290X is Sweet but coming in MUCh more expensive than the 780ti's.

Like i say VRAM matter very little to 4k at the moment.

This is what i was thinking:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC U2868PQU 28" 4K 60Hz 1MS Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £479.99
2 x Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99 (£959.98)
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£45 Saving** £356.98
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £129.95
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £125.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
Total : £2,330.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Here are some benchmarks comparing 780ti SLI to the 295x2 (remember the 295x2 is Xfire 290X)

http://techreport.com/review/26279/amd-radeon-r9-295-x2-graphics-card-reviewed/6

Ethermaster · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:31

Games (or anything for that matter) look horrid outside of the monitor's native res try turning you res down to 1366x768 on your current one and try that it will give you some idea on the 4k running at 1920x1080 ....