Upgrading my PC, need some advice please.

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Hey all,

Decided I want to upgrade part of my PC, namely the mobo, CPU and ram (presently have a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H, i7-4770K and 16GB DDR3 Corsair memory). I think my SuperFlower Leadex Gold 850W PSU still be good enough, was bought the 28th November 2014 (but if they not to pricey, maybe a new one and have this as a spare for unforeseen circumstances). I have some new 500GB SSD for the OS already (Which will be win7, since not to keen on win10 and all it's fuzz about breaking games etc), as well going to keep the Gigabyte 1080 Ti Aorus Xtreme Edition card. All be put into a Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower case.

I'm mostly playing games, watching some movies, YouTube and Twitch on my PC. Was thinking maybe go AMD and their Ryzen chips, they seem to have got good reviews. But not to fuzzed really, as long as it is value for money in the end. Also, minimum 16GB ram I think, or would 32 be better ?? And if going Ryzen, can a Liquid CPU Cooler be used for them ??

Don't really have a budget, so as mentioned above, as long as it good value for the coinage then all good. :cool:

I really appreciate any and all help you experts can give me in this regard, you always been good at giving me a good PC spec in the past, which I been very grateful for ! :D
 
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If you already have a 1080ti then a new CPU seems the next logical upgrade, albeit it never gives you the great performance boost that the next gen graphics card will. 16GB is still fine, especially given the price of RAM at the moment. Rather depends of personal choice whether you go water or air cooling. Personally I think the 8700K is the most interesting CPU at the moment.
The only item I would re-consider is the case! I don't know whether you already own the case, but while that's a good case, it's starting to date a little. Take for example the Phanteks range, perhaps the Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass Flow Edition Mid Tower Case. Seems most fitting for a modern top-end PC.
 
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Problem with upgrading the CPU to a current one it would mean having to buy new RAM and Motherboard as your still on the DDR3 platform and the current market is DDR4, That's when it starts to get pricey... I'm sure your PSU will be fine for the new build, There's enough power there to cope with what your asking for, It seems like you have a few great parts you could salvage from your current build.

The new Ryzen 2600 would be a good step and will go well along side your 1080Ti..
 
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as above, personally would stick with what you've got!
and also take the jump to win 10- which has now over taken win 7 on steam survey . honestly its fine !

if you really wanted to splash the cash - and only a hand few of games at the mo would take advantage of the extra cores/threads (BF1, As Creed Ori, Tomb Raider .. are few more) and keeping with Aorus theme

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £714.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)​

cases is all down to personal tastes

Base 700- rgb elements and can be inverted


CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £339.58 (includes shipping: £12.60)​

B CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £276.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

case to replace 750D


BB CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £296.68 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
 
Soldato
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Thank you for all suggestions, greatly appreciated ! :D

Problem with upgrading the CPU to a current one it would mean having to buy new RAM and Motherboard as your still on the DDR3 platform and the current market is DDR4, That's when it starts to get pricey... I'm sure your PSU will be fine for the new build, There's enough power there to cope with what your asking for, It seems like you have a few great parts you could salvage from your current build.

The new Ryzen 2600 would be a good step and will go well along side your 1080Ti..

Yeah, I'm aware of that and it's fine. Got the PSU, GPU and SSD/HDD's to keep, but need to buy all new of the rest though. So you would suggest this one Ryzen 5 Six Core 2600 3.90GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail as a good upgrade and with a MB to fit, and it being a AM4 socket, there is a possibility to just upgrade the CPU sometime later again ??

as above, personally would stick with what you've got!
and also take the jump to win 10- which has now over taken win 7 on steam survey . honestly its fine !

if you really wanted to splash the cash - and only a hand few of games at the mo would take advantage of the extra cores/threads (BF1, As Creed Ori, Tomb Raider .. are few more) and keeping with Aorus theme

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £714.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)

cases is all down to personal tastes

Base 700- rgb elements and can be inverted
CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £339.58 (includes shipping: £12.60)

B CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £276.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)

case to replace 750D


BB CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £296.68 (includes shipping: £11.70)

Thanks for all the suggestions, was not expecting some case suggestions as well though. But, that made me check these out and by doing that found another case that I might be buying. :p

In regards to your Intel build, would it be better then the Ryzen 2600 that Minibiker suggested ?? Or what Ryzen CPU would be considered equal to the i7-8700K ??

On another small note, forgot to say the MB need at least 7 SATA ports for my drives. :o
 
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On another small note, forgot to say the MB need at least 7 SATA ports for my drives. :o

ASRock Z370 Extreme4, plus most of the other ASRock boards have 8 SATA ports or more.

Care to share what resolution you are playing your games at, since if it's 1080P with 144Hz+ then going with the i7-8700K is the no brainer here. If you are playing at 1440p or above, then it's a closer call between the AMD/Intel decision. :)
 
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Thank you for all suggestions, greatly appreciated ! :D



Yeah, I'm aware of that and it's fine. Got the PSU, GPU and SSD/HDD's to keep, but need to buy all new of the rest though. So you would suggest this one Ryzen 5 Six Core 2600 3.90GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail as a good upgrade and with a MB to fit, and it being a AM4 socket, there is a possibility to just upgrade the CPU sometime later again ??

Yeah that is something id consider, The new 2600 will be perfect for along time and with it being AM4 you'll have an upgrade path so you could just drop a new CPU in
 
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ASRock Z370 Extreme4, plus most of the other ASRock boards have 8 SATA ports or more.

Care to share what resolution you are playing your games at, since if it's 1080P with 144Hz+ then going with the i7-8700K is the no brainer here. If you are playing at 1440p or above, then it's a closer call between the AMD/Intel decision. :)
Sure, my main monitor is the Acer Predator X34A G-Sync 3440 x 1440, with 2 DELL U2412M on either side of it, but those I'm just using for other stuff, not gaming on. Had a quick look at the AM4 Aorus boards and two of them have 8 SATA ports as well. Although I am open for suggestions for others too, just never used the ASRock MB's before.

Yeah that is something id consider, The new 2600 will be perfect for along time and with it being AM4 you'll have an upgrade path so you could just drop a new CPU in
Thanks, then I was thinking along the same lines there. :D
 
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Sure, my main monitor is the Acer Predator X34A G-Sync 3440 x 1440, with 2 DELL U2412M on either side of it, but those I'm just using for other stuff, not gaming on. Had a quick look at the AM4 Aorus boards and two of them have 8 SATA ports as well. Although I am open for suggestions for others too, just never used the ASRock MB's before.

Well then it's almost flip a coin, since at 1440P there's little to chose from. If you do go from Ryzen make sure you get the best (read: most compatible) RAM you can afford, with 3200-3600 with as low latency as you can manage, Ryzen loves ultra low latency RAM due to the design of the CPU itself. Look at the 8Pack kits with are rated to 3200-C14 or 3600-C16, as they work well with X470 boards. Go with whatever board you are comfortable with, and has the features you need. :)
 
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Had a quick look at the AM4 Aorus boards and two of them have 8 SATA ports as well. Although I am open for suggestions for others too, just never used the ASRock MB's before.

Thanks, then I was thinking along the same lines there. :D

@Journey @TheSwede

ASRock Taichi flagship boards have 8 Sata ports , X470 is meant for 6 . What they have done is ONE or their M.2 slots is Gen 2 PCIe and the other is Gen 3 .
Strix/ROG and Aorus M.2s are both Gen 3 PCIe . To be honest , NVMe is pretty much a fancy feature for games and not worth it . M.2 SATA is great though for less cables . But you'll have to see with ASRock if you use the m.2 , does it disable two standard Ports .

Would personally wait for z490 , that's what's it's there for .. well more like steal Intel's thunder haha . Would say more since leak has already been confirmed but seems websites are been going through this forum for click bait news :(

If WiFi /Bluetooth connectivity is important then Aorus blows both ASRock and Asus out the window as both use older tech .
Asus bios is most feature rich , ASRock easy to use , Aorus makes itself not as slick
 
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What's your experts thoughts about the below items ?? I added two MD's since wasn't sure which one is the better, all I found was it seems like the Gaming-K7 board support higher RAM speeds then the Gaming-5 does ?? :confused:

Not to fussed about M.2 SATA, normal SSD's will do just fine for me. :cool: So main thing would be 8 SATA ports, which both the below has. Although I am open for other MB choices, the Aorus MB was picked because they would sort of match my GPU, but if there are better ones out there, I'm open for suggestions.

Have a couple questions though.

I'm not sure if I understood the description right but on the Gigabyte site, all RAM above 2666 is said (O.C) which I am guessing means Over Clocked ?? So if just want to do a "plug and play" the RAM to pick should be 2666MHz or lower ??

And is the suggested Liquid CPU Cooler the most quiet one ? The case I am thinking of is the Fractal Design Define R6, which is a silenced case.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £879.84 (includes shipping: £30.93)​
 
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@TheSwede

Honestly would wait for the Aorus 5 , was meant to be in end of this week , seems stocks from others places are now very low .
Just get more for your money .
But you are right, x370 boards can obtain higher ram speed at the moment as their bios is more mature . X370 starts off stronger thigh with 3200 off the start . Shouldn't be to long for bios to roll out and update the boards ram performance

And yes, that cooler is very quiet !

As above your i7k is still damn good.
And ditch the ram for 8 packs 3200hz kit
 
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Really, don't bother unless you're finding yourself CPU-limited.

@TheSwede

Honestly would wait for the Aorus 5 , was meant to be in end of this week , seems stocks from others places are now very low .
Just get more for your money .
But you are right, x370 boards can obtain higher ram speed at the moment as their bios is more mature . X370 starts off stronger thigh with 3200 off the start . Shouldn't be to long for bios to roll out and update the boards ram performance

And yes, that cooler is very quiet !

As above your i7k is still damn good.
And ditch the ram for 8 packs 3200hz kit

Hmm guess I can wait if something new suppose to be coming relatively soonish, which it sounds like from your comment about the Aorus 5 ?? Got a link for it by chance, to some article or such ??

In regards to the RAM kit though, is it these you meaning Team Group Dark Pro "Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C14 3200MHz ?? If so I keep that in mind and have an eye out for the new board you mentioned.
 
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Hmm guess I can wait if something new suppose to be coming relatively soonish, which it sounds like from your comment about the Aorus 5 ?? Got a link for it by chance, to some article or such ??

In regards to the RAM kit though, is it these you meaning Team Group Dark Pro "Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C14 3200MHz ?? If so I keep that in mind and have an eye out for the new board you mentioned.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-56y-gi.html

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X470-AORUS-GAMING-5-WIFI-rev-10#kf

If you've got BT Hub6 then wifi is worth it

8 Packs ramnhss a good rep on here due to the fact you slap it in and it works !
Also there's the support from himself
 
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https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-56y-gi.html

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X470-AORUS-GAMING-5-WIFI-rev-10#kf

If you've got BT Hub6 then wifi is worth it

8 Packs ramnhss a good rep on here due to the fact you slap it in and it works !
Also there's the support from himself
Thanks for the added info, much appreciated !

But unfortunately I don't use WiFi, direct cable from the router. And that board has only 6 SATA ports so wont be of use for me anyway. :( As mentioned, not fussed about the M.2 thingy. Plus the SSD I am going to use for the OS is brand new (well, never used, they were bought a year ago or so), so no intention on buying something else.

Now, being a bit cheeky here but there is a reason behind it. :o What RAM would you guys suggest to be the best, if it's not being 8Packs special RAM's ??
 
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True, Asus including their flagship only have 6 (both have 8 if you use an m.2 SATA 3 stick and not NVMe ).
Believe Taichi might have a 3rd party controller , haven't checked though. Pricing should be between Aorus 7 and ROG Hero , deep pockets.

If you've already got 8 Sata drives , ASRock Intel flagship also have 8 sata- Taichi , £200 on sale
 
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Don't waste your money going from an i7 4770K to an R5 2600. That is more of a sidegrade rather than an upgrade. Unless your current cpu is struggling then I would hold off until Intel release the next lot of cpu's.
 
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as above, personally would stick with what you've got!

Really, don't bother unless you're finding yourself CPU-limited.

Don't waste your money going from an i7 4770K to an R5 2600. That is more of a sidegrade rather than an upgrade. Unless your current cpu is struggling then I would hold off until Intel release the next lot of cpu's.

Hmm so the CPU I bought 4 years ago.. well, it be 4 years in June.. is still as good as what it out presently in the market ?? :confused: I thought the CPU I have had fallen behind somewhat by now. So you guys would personally wait if you had my system for a later date, i.e. nothing at all around today that would be an upgrade and not a side grade ??

And yes, I have a bad upgrade itch but if it is like a side grade as lee32uk pointed out then maybe I'll wait. Although got to admit I thought the Ryzen CPU's would trash my i7-4770K to be honest. :o
 
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I thought the CPU I have had fallen behind somewhat by now.

It has, but not by that much. And especially not that much with reference to gaming. If you were doing real work on your PC then you might well see significant improvements, but not with the tasks you list in your OP.
 
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