What Would You Do?

rnickster

rnickster

rnickster

Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2007
Posts
409
Location
Manchester
So I want to upgrade the below:

Corsair 650W PSU,
Solid State 250GB Hard drive and 1tb storage drive,
ATI 5870
CPU Core 2 Duo E6420 overlcocked to about 3.5ghz (4gb ram)
RAM 4GB DDR2

For The Witcher 3 mainly, CPU motherboard and RAM and CPU Cooler are the 3 main upgrades first but do I wait for Skylake? is this release date set or is it rumoured June/July?? (or have I invented that?)

Basically should I hold off for Skylake and potential new ATI cards and playing Witcher 3 or just bite the bullet and upgrade now to i5 4670K/8GB RAM.

Budget is 300-400 for cpu/mobo/ram.

If its worth waiting a month or two then I might do that.

Thanks For help/advice.
 
rnickster said:
Basically should I hold off for Skylake and potential new ATI cards and playing Witcher 3 or just bite the bullet and upgrade now to i5 4670K/8GB RAM.
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Such a tricky question , but if you can wait then why not. My expreience was i went from an e8400 core 2duo to an I-5 3570k and it was a massive diffrence.

Skylake will have ddr4 not sure how much of a diffrence that will be over ddr3 but heres an article.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8959/...to-3200-with-gskill-corsair-adata-and-crucial

Ati cards are great value at the momment but the gtx970 is a monster card.

Choices, choices
 
I would look to increase my budget while I wait. I don't think prices have been released yet so you could be looking at £600 for mobo/cpu/RAM..... and GPU.
 
Waiting for Skylake may be a good idea even if you go for an i5-4670k. Partly because a Skylake release may reduce current prices. DDR4 is pretty pricey though cheapest is £130 for 16GB, I can't find any smaller or cheaper. No idea what the Skylake compatible mobos will cost. It's a good idea for future proofing as the mobo would be forward compatible. It could be done for ~£400, especially if OCUK do motherboard bundles. Skylake i5 would be £170ish, £130 for the RAM leaving £100 for a good motherboard. And that's without offers and savings.

I also plan to build a Gaming PC this summer, but I may just go for current gen components. The GTX980ti releases in a few weeks and AMDs R9 300 series is around the corner, do at least bwait for those if you don't want to wait for Skylake. Again, prices of current cards may drop when the new ones come out. Otherwise you'll buy sonethung and feel burned when the price drops soon after. You don't want to wait forever though, since there will always be new stuff around the corner.
 
Yeah I just noticed the cost of DDR4 makes Skylake suddenly a bit more pricey. Will have to hope that the release maybe reduces i5-4670k cost and then invest in beefy GPU.
 
Well looking at Haswell, it didn't reduce the price of Ivy Bridge :p

So you may just be better of biting the bullet, as let's be honest only graphics cards are moving forward at a fast rate. Skylake will probably be an increase in performance but not a major one that will have much of an effect.

A 4690k will see you through for a few years at least.
 
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What you will find is ddr3 will start to creep up in price while ddr4 will start to stabilise in price but that will not happen for at least 18 months to 24 months. Also have you considered a Q9550 or a Q9650 (quad core) and another 4gb ram and then invest in a new graphics card for now. Sell your 5870 you will get about £40-50. Members market is a great place to start for the cpu and ram. Also you can sell your 5870 there too and your dual core cpu.

Does your motherboard support a Q9550,Q9650 or even a Q6600?

Other cheap and powerful option in second hand would be a i7 2600k or an i5 2500k setup. See that way you have more money left for a graphics card and the 290x's currently on offer are a bargain. The new 390x and 980Ti will cost over £500-£650.
 
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Yes it supports all those CPU's. I dont have access to MM, but could use an auction site.

I guess it would cost around £100 to get that CPU and RAM, then -£40 for my GPU towards one of the new ATI cards whever they are released.

Do you think that CPU might bottleneck the new ATI cards though? If not that might be the cheapest option/bang for buck
 
Purgatory said:
The new 390x and 980Ti will cost over £500-£650.
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If thats the case then a 390X is out of the question...and 290X for around £250 is spot on.

Now the question is .... do I jump on the current This Week Only Offer
Asus Radeon R9 290X? Or will these prices never be thhis low for this card even when the 390X is out?

Will there be a lower budget 390 Card?
 
Q series CPUs are old and will definite bottleneck.

2500k/2600k won't but tbh you might as well buy the latest hardware and go with the 4690k :p
 
Ok, we're getting somewhere :) thanks guys

So 4690K + 8GB DDR3 + 290X looks like what I will go for.

Thoughts on the price of the 290X dropping below £229 ?
 
Reality is are you a serious gamer and use the pc for intensive stuff? If not and you only game on a few games on and off, I would get a Quad core cpu for that pc you have 4gb ram and a new graphics card. It will save you a lot of money and you will still enjoy gaming on it and I bet you only game at 1080p too, so waiting for the new graphics cards is a waste of time and I said above they are very expensive and not really for 1080p but for 1440p and up. Lots of good offers on last gen cards currently and as I said the 290x currently on offer is a bargain. Remember only the 390 and 390x are new gpus,380 and 380x are basically 290 and 290x renamed.
 
OOOOffff.

Good point Purgatory, I dont have as much time these days to hammer the games, so your right, maybe it is not worth all that moneys. My monitor is 24" Dell 1920x1200 (I think)

But would be a bit gutted if I did the Q9650 route, topped up to 8GB got a 290X and found new games stutter on mid>high settings because of CPU bottleneck. . . But saying that, I could then just upgrade the CPU/MOBO/RAM like I was before and probably sell it all on for not much loss....
 
rnickster said:
Ok, we're getting somewhere :) thanks guys

So 4690K + 8GB DDR3 + 290X looks like what I will go for.

Thoughts on the price of the 290X dropping below £229 ?
Click to expand...

If you have the money for the above,go for it. 290x will sell out before it comes down,especially the two Asus cards currently on offer. Also any stock that didn't sell will go up in price as did the 780ti preorder offer from £250 on offer to £320.
 
Purgatory said:
If you have the money for the above,go for it. 290x will sell out before it comes down,especially the two Asus cards currently on offer. Also any stock that didn't sell will go up in price as did the 780ti preorder offer from £250 on offer to £320.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks, will bite the bullet on the GPU, I can slot that into my current rig anyway and then look at CPU/MOBO/RAM in a acouple of weeks.

Can get 8GB DDR2 of an auction site for £25, but 4 week shipping time . . . :rolleyes:
 
All you need to get is another 4GB Ram for now and shop arround for a Q9650,Q9550 or a Q6600. But try get a Q9650 or Q9550 they are very close to the i7 920 in performance and there is a lot of people still gaming on that setup a i7 920 and a 290/290x or even a 780/780ti. Yes you will get a slight bottleneck but reality is will you notice it and you will overclock the cpu too.

Then save up for the all new ddr4 systems and grab the deals when they appear. Up to you really or go all in now and get a 4690K + 8GB DDR3 + 290X. Depends how much you really want to spend right now.

290x ROG Matrix (£250) + Q9650 (£50) +4Gb ram (£15) = £315


290x DCUii (£230) + Q9650 (£50) +4Gb ram (£15) = £295
 
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rnickster said:
Bah!

this or this?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-364-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-363-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

difference ? :/ I ask because I cant see one...
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On air they both clock to same speeds, the ROG Matrix version allows you to cool with nitrogen and other exotic cooling. There is no difference if you will be using them on air and the only reason to go for the Rog Matrix is if you really like the look of it more.
 
Perfect, thanks for your help. I dont particularly want to spend a lot so I will now change my mind and go the 290x + Q9650 + 4Gb ram route and begin saving a set amount each month to contribute to a beast rig in a couple of years.

thankyou all for advice and help,

Nick
 
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