Upgrade i7 920 system or buy a new PC?

noisecrime

noisecrime

noisecrime

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Hi, hoping to get some input on the following dilemma I have.

I've recently bought Elite Dangerous and a Oculus Rift DK2, sadly my current PC system is not up to the task (GPU), so either I upgrade or buy a new PC. In terms of use the PC is for both gaming and work, with applications like Unity, Photoshop and Blender, though as I do real-time 3D its more dependant upon the GPU than the CPU - i.e. don't use Blender for rendering.

My current PC is a 4 year old Titan Onyx (spec below), though for some reason it lost its overclock years ago and I've never bothered to set it back up, but cpu temps at load are pretty good so it should be possible to re-apply it. So essentially in terms of the cpu (i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz) its fast enough for my needs, though obviously it would be nice to have something better, but from what i've been reading even the latest cpu's aren't a huge improvement unless you have apps that make full use of multi-threading on the cores.

I tend to simply buy a new system every 4-5 years, so I am within that time frame now but in order to make it future proof I need to spec out a i7 5820K/5390k, SLI GTX970 and 32Gb Ram. SLI to make sure it can run Oculus Rift commerical version (CV1 ) next year (fingers crossed) and the ram due to 16Gb probably being border line for my future Photoshop work (i.e for the next 4 years). Sadly unlike the Titan Onyx that I got for a bargain at just over £1000, this new PC will be in the region of £1800-£2000 which is quite a jump.

However here is my main concern, i'm buying this now with a view to making it future proof, but that future is uncertain. At best Oculus CV1 will be released mid-late 2015, it will likely move from 1080p to 1440p and from 75Hz to 90Hz, which for cutting edge games is likely to demand at least dual GTX970 but may even need next gen cards! I'll be safe with 32GB of ram, but really I only need a bit more than 16GB (e.g. 20Gb) to feel safe, but there is no way to do that. I'll probably go for the 5390K as i'm worried about the 28 lane restriction on the 5820k, especially if needing SLI cards and maybe other cards at some point. So I just feel its a little bit of a risk, especially as I seem to be paying for a premium for new cpu and DDR4 ram. I could buy last gen, but then that seems like a worse idea long term even though the 4790k faster clock speed appeals to me (i.e DDR3 ram will be useless for updating to a new rig in the future).

So I come back to upgrading my current machine, I can get 12GB triple channel for £100, a single GTX970 for £300 and I need an additional 1TB HDD (£60), so total approx £460 for a PC that should easily last me a couple of years. My big question here though is whether this upgrade is feasible (see below).

Finally just to throw another spanner into the works, there is a chance early next year that I might need USB3 which my current PC does not have. I wont know if the project is going ahead for 4-8 weeks so its not something I can real wait or rely on happen. This means either getting a USB3 card (are they any good?) or at that point getting a whole new machine.


So my current machine is
Titan Onyx - Win7, i7 920 D0 2.67Ghz / ASUS P6T Deluxe X58 / OCCZ StealthXstream 2 600W/ EVGA GTX 465 / HyperX 6GB DDR3-12800C9 (1600MHz) / Barracuda 0.5 TB Sata-2

I want to upgrade the RAM, GPU, add a HDD and maybe add a USB3 card. My two biggest concerns here are running all 6 slots of memory and the overall power requirements as I was surprised my Onyx only had a 600w psu.

I want to upgrade/add to the ram, to go from 6Gb to either 12Gb or 18Gb total. I have found the exact same model ram for sale as a 12Gb (3x4GB) pack, which I think is my best bet. I'm hopeful this means I could run all 6 slots with 12Gb & 6Gb respecitvely to get a total of 18GB, although worse case I could probably live with just 12GB.

I'll swap the GTX465 with a GTX970, this should be ample to run ED on the DK2 Rift even if I have to drop a few quality settings, though the game has yet to be optimised fully so might be some room for improvement there. From looking at the stats the 465 and 970 are pretty equal in power usage, suggested power supply etc, though i'll double check if i'm using 2x6pinns currently or not.

Finally I want to add a second HDD (1TB) and maybe a USB3 card, so i'll have to check my PCI-e available slots, but I think I should be good.


So my questions are

1. Is the upgrade below feasible for my current machine? Mainly in terms of will the PSU handle it?
2. Can I add the 12GB to my current 6Gb (assuming same manufacture/model of ram) and get 18GB? What are the downsides?
3. Would using all 6 ram slots affect overclocking?
4. Is a USB3 card a good idea and does that affect upgrading my machine?
5. If upgrade is feasible is there anything i'm forgetting? Do i need to check PSU cables to make sure I have what I need?
6. Is it worth upgrading to wait worse case 3 months, best case a year or more before buying a new PC?

Thanks for your time.
 
Definitely should upgrade the GPU to a 970.
Might need a new PSU as a result - older PSUs can make a bunch of noise with a new GPU.

Definitely reinstate the overclock, it's free performance bro!

If you can get the RAM at a decent price, do that too.

You didn't mention an SSD - you really really really want an SSD if you don't have one already.

You can see from my sig I'm basically running the same spec. Even though new CPUs are about 2x quicker and 2x more power efficient, this still trashes anything I throw at it.
 
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Thanks for your fast reply.

My only issue with upgrading is if I have to get a new PSU as well, when added to memory, GPU, HDD (would love a SSD too but that might really be pushing it and not sure if i can transfer my OS and retain license?) it all starts adding up.

Its at this point I start to favour just getting a new system, less hassle, less worry (even though upgrading these things is simple i hate opening up PC's they seem to die not long after ;) ). Although the upgrade would still be a third of the cost, i just start questioning the benefit of it.

The only thing stopping me from jumping in with a new system now is that i'm at the start of a new CPU gen, new ram gen (DDR4) etc so everything is at a premium in cost and I can't be sure whatever I get now wont be underpowered by next year for the Oculus Rift.
 
If you went for a new PC would you build it yourself? It's relevant because if you upgrade now, but then decide to go for a new CPU, you'd be able to re-use all of the parts I mentioned apart from the RAM.

Regarding the SSD, it's such a big upgrade that it's worth buying a new copy of Windows and doing a clean install. Super serious, you're giving up so much performance using an HDD it's unreal.

If you were to go with a new build, and there's nothing really wrong with this - it's just a bigger spend. I wouldn't pay the premium for DDR4. It's not worth it, I'm not even convinced it's better at all. I'd go for a high end 1150 rig instead.
 
Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the PSU upgraded being needed for a GTX970, I was a bit puzzled by that, since I've even seen some reports of people being told it might run on a 450w PSU.

However upon further investigation am I right in thinking the problem with my OCCZ StealthXstream 2 600W isn't actually its wattage, but that the 12v rail only supports up to 18amps?

I found a forum post that claims the GTX970 needs 28amps, but have been unable to verify that claim. According to the OCCZ spec it only does 18amps on each of its 4 12v rails. So I assume that means its just 18amps and not (18 x 4 ) 72 amps total.

Thus for a GTX970 the OCCA cannot be used as its amps is way below the requirements?

If true then i'll need a new PSU and that adds approx £100 to the cost (though I might find a slightly cheaper one) and again i'm thinking maybe better to take the plunge and get a new system instead.

Thanks
 
Especially if you keep the motherboard, you should easily get away with using the same windows licence. Internet activation may moan at you, but you should be able to reactivate it using the phone option, possibly even without an actual operator.

I'd do more research/await further responses on the PSU: 18x12 = 204 watts, which is above the 145W TDP of a GTX 970. That said: buying a current new PSU should last you the next upgrade, as they now channel the full rating through a single rail.
 
I'm in a slightly similar situation as you. I have the 920 with a P6T SE. I've decided to keep the core system for a while longer. For the meantime I've overclocked the CPU to 3.8Ghz. I'll try for 4Ghz in the coming days.

I'll just be upgrading the GPU to a 970GTX
 
Thanks for all the replies, I'm afraid I caved and bought a new system, so I decided to just treat myself for once ;)

The 920 lasted me 4 years and could last a bit longer, but the overall upgrade cost and having to open it up and fiddle inside was just too much to stress over. I'm a worrier so although all the upgrades are easy I can't help thinking the machine might suddenly die a few months later, its been working practically 24/7 since I got it. This way i also get access to win 8.1 (yuk, but needed for certain development, e.g. Kinect V2) and USB3. Its costing me more than I like, but what the hell, spending a bit more for once so I can enjoy Elite Dangerous on the dk2 and heck its for work so I could do with the speed bump on the cpu, extra cores, etc. That alone might end up saving me time waiting for apps that it saves me money in the long term.
 
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dalehitchy1 said:
Does the oculus rift support multiple GPUs now?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. AMD crossfire seems to have driver issues, nvidia fairs much better but I still feel its a bit up in the air at the moment with it working for some and not for others, though of course the game has to support it in the first place.

In the end I decided to just go with one GTX970, that should be fine for Elite and the dk2 with a few settings reduced. It just seems too early to go full sli before the commercial version gets released as depending upon resolution (2560x1440 probably) and refresh rate (90 Hz) sli 980's may not be good enough for some games.

I'm going to wait and see what if anything nvidia does with its VR Direct technology, that alone could fix many sli issues for VR as I believe it is intended to have each card drive a single eye, which should be more optimal and may well mean sli GTX970's would be ample for Rift CV1.
 
Hope you enjoyed the upgrade!!

My CPU is still at 3.8Ghz. 30 mins into a stress test.

I tried 4Ghz and it BSODed pretty much straight away. So it may need a bit more tweeking.
 
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