Good morning all.
I've been mulling over a new build for most of this year and keep managing to talk myself out of it because you know, money. Just looking for input on what people think.
Existing spec is as signature, i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3 and a GTX 970 onto a fairly bog standard 1080p screen. I built this system back at the start of 2011 with an HD6950, and swapped that out to a GTX 970 at the end of 2014. If I can achieve the same sort of longevity again I would be very pleased. Alas, it's got to the point now where the system is showing it's age and starting to struggle in various aspects. I was frequently getting crashes, lock-ups and BSODs (overclocks trimmed back a bit seems to have helped) and in general I've just fallen out of love with the current PC.
I've eyed up doing a complete system overhaul and the cost of it, honestly, is a bit staggering. I'd love to be in a position to jump to an i7 8700k, 1080Ti and get a new 1440p GSync monitor. Reality is, in one hit that's going to cost around £2500, which is probably a bit more than I'd like to spend at one point. Yes there's the age old "save up for it", but the truth is that any money that gets saved will eventually be used up in other aspects of my life and more importantly, this PC is on its last legs as far as I'm concerned.
Add the fact that components only seem to be increasing in price, it makes my personal justification even harder. So the obvious choice is to copy what I did last time - take the top end components and downgrade one step. So in this day, that's going to be an i5 8600k and probably a GTX 1080. Both are very capable components and I imagine will run everything I want it to without issue. However I don't want to be in a situation where two or three years down the line I find the PC lacking again. I know no one has a crystal ball and can tell what will happen in the coming years, but would an 8600k last me, say, 5 years before I'm at the same point I am now? Obviously with the i7 you get the added bonus of hyperthreading which could justify the slightly high initial outlay (if there's stock). Is a 1080 man enough to drive 1440p @ ~100Hz for the next couple of years, or should I really be looking at the Ti instead?
With that in mind, I'm probably going to end up staggering the build over a few months. So that leaves me in a dilemma - do I upgrade the CPU platform first onto the new chipsets and DDR4 and stick with the 970 for the time being; or would I be better served to aim down the graphics side first and make the jump to a 1080 / Ti for now. At 1080p they'll be more than overkill I'd imagine so I could take the GPU > Monitor > CPU route to spread the cost.
A penny for your thoughts?
TL;DR upgrading bits at a time, start with CPU or GPU for quickest benefit?
I've been mulling over a new build for most of this year and keep managing to talk myself out of it because you know, money. Just looking for input on what people think.
Existing spec is as signature, i5 2500k, 8GB DDR3 and a GTX 970 onto a fairly bog standard 1080p screen. I built this system back at the start of 2011 with an HD6950, and swapped that out to a GTX 970 at the end of 2014. If I can achieve the same sort of longevity again I would be very pleased. Alas, it's got to the point now where the system is showing it's age and starting to struggle in various aspects. I was frequently getting crashes, lock-ups and BSODs (overclocks trimmed back a bit seems to have helped) and in general I've just fallen out of love with the current PC.
I've eyed up doing a complete system overhaul and the cost of it, honestly, is a bit staggering. I'd love to be in a position to jump to an i7 8700k, 1080Ti and get a new 1440p GSync monitor. Reality is, in one hit that's going to cost around £2500, which is probably a bit more than I'd like to spend at one point. Yes there's the age old "save up for it", but the truth is that any money that gets saved will eventually be used up in other aspects of my life and more importantly, this PC is on its last legs as far as I'm concerned.
Add the fact that components only seem to be increasing in price, it makes my personal justification even harder. So the obvious choice is to copy what I did last time - take the top end components and downgrade one step. So in this day, that's going to be an i5 8600k and probably a GTX 1080. Both are very capable components and I imagine will run everything I want it to without issue. However I don't want to be in a situation where two or three years down the line I find the PC lacking again. I know no one has a crystal ball and can tell what will happen in the coming years, but would an 8600k last me, say, 5 years before I'm at the same point I am now? Obviously with the i7 you get the added bonus of hyperthreading which could justify the slightly high initial outlay (if there's stock). Is a 1080 man enough to drive 1440p @ ~100Hz for the next couple of years, or should I really be looking at the Ti instead?
With that in mind, I'm probably going to end up staggering the build over a few months. So that leaves me in a dilemma - do I upgrade the CPU platform first onto the new chipsets and DDR4 and stick with the 970 for the time being; or would I be better served to aim down the graphics side first and make the jump to a 1080 / Ti for now. At 1080p they'll be more than overkill I'd imagine so I could take the GPU > Monitor > CPU route to spread the cost.
A penny for your thoughts?
TL;DR upgrading bits at a time, start with CPU or GPU for quickest benefit?
