Been out of the game for a while, help with upgrade please

[Rike]

1. Uses: Gaming: modern FPS, MMRPG’s (Guild Wars 2)
2. Budget: I’d like to keep it around $550. This upgrade is all about price for performance.
3. Country: USA
4. OUTSIDE the US?: N/A
5. Brand Preference: Not a fan of Seagate. No, it is not rational. Move on; nothing to see here.
6. Current parts: i5 750 (Lynnfield 1156) 2.66GHz OCed to 3.6GHz (Watercooled)
8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333 OCed to DDR3 1440
MSI P55-GD65 mobo
(2) ATI 6850’s in CrossFire
Various 120GB or smaller SSD’s for System and Games (All older than 3 years), 1TB WD Black for Data
Corsair 850w PSU (can’t remember model, not digging though the case to figure it out.)
Windows 7 HP
The system is stable and has been for years.
7. Overclocking or default: OC, Willing to do OCed video card, not looking to water cool the video card but might if there was good reason
8. Resolution: 1920x1200 (single monitor)
9. WHEN: now to one month

Here’s my main question: Where is there room to get more performance out of this system?
I’m not considering: more OC on current CPU. It’s happy where it is and I’m good with a nearly 1GHz OC.
I’m currently considering: 970 GTX (do I have enough processing power to run?), 16 GB (2x8GB or 4 x 4GB?) DDR3 1833 or faster RAM, Faster CPU that could be OCed (if fairly cheap), Larger, Faster SSD’s

I’ve been out of the computer building game for a while so I’m not sure what I might be missing. Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ken g6]

970 GTX (do I have enough processing power to run?)

Maybe. The other thing to consider is you have a nice, big PSU. So you could get an R9 290 ($247) or 290X (as low as $290) and (try to) OC it.

Faster CPU that could be OCed (if fairly cheap)

Hm. If you did the R9 290, you'd have $303 left. Well, NCIX and Amazon have the i5 4690K for $215, and Newegg has the ASRock Z97 Pro3 for $86AR. That's $549. Although there could be OS complications if your Win7 install was OEM.

16 GB (2x8GB or 4 x 4GB?) DDR3 1833 or faster RAM

Nah. Your RAM is good for now.

Larger, Faster SSD’s

Maybe. Won't help your gaming much, though.

 

[Charlie98]

I'd probably upgrade the GPU(s) before upgrading the CPU, like Ken suggests, and leave the RAM alone. Spending the money on 'faster' RAM is a diminishing return, and you say your OC is stable... why fool with it for little real benefit.

I would recommend 1 big GPU vs 2 lesser in SLI...

I would also consider an SSD anyway... it would improve your day-to-day use greatly, and would move to a new build/machine if and when.

 

[Cerb]

Here’s my main question: Where is there room to get more performance out of this system?

CPU and GPU. Chances are both will be minimal, though you can surely cut down >10dB of load noise with a Maxwell video card, regardless of what GPU performance improvements it may or may not bring (a GTX 970 will be faster, but depending on your typical settings, maybe not by much). It also won't warm up the room as much in the summer, if that's appealing at all.

I’m currently considering: 970 GTX (do I have enough processing power to run?)

Yes.

16 GB (2x8GB or 4 x 4GB?) DDR3 1833 or faster RAM, Faster CPU that could be OCed (if fairly cheap)

Need currency values for, "fairly cheap," to make any determinations.

Overall, I would venture you could get another 20-30% performance with a new CPU and GPU, more if you heavily use AA, or want to go with higher resolutions in the very near future, and could probably cut 100-250W of load power, depending, on actual power use of the overclocked GPUs, assuming you intend to use a single new GPU, and don't OC it too much (but, if you plan to OC it a great deal, get a Gigabyte G1). CPU less so, unless you have some CPU-heavy strategy or sim games in the mix, thanks to your OC. It would be an improvement, but I doubt worth the money, unless you just have the itch. Even if the GPU total performance improvement ends up not huge, with the games and settings you use, you'll get more even frame times, be able to increase the detail levels due to increased VRAM, and not have as much of a fire breather. While you could try to wait out the 20nm GPUs, Maxwell is pretty solid, today.

My vote is to a 480-512GB SSD, new single video card, and then wait out the CPU upgrade for another generation. Only a handful of FPS games today will get enough out of a new quad CPU to make it feel like a major upgrade from what you have, and none will run poorly, now or into the near future, on your Lynnfield, with that OC.

 

[Nhirlathothep]

1. Uses: Gaming: modern FPS, MMRPG’s (Guild Wars 2)
2. Budget: I’d like to keep it around $550. This upgrade is all about price for performance.
3. Country: USA
4. OUTSIDE the US?: N/A
5. Brand Preference: Not a fan of Seagate. No, it is not rational. Move on; nothing to see here.
6. Current parts: i5 750 (Lynnfield 1156) 2.66GHz OCed to 3.6GHz (Watercooled)
8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333 OCed to DDR3 1440
MSI P55-GD65 mobo
(2) ATI 6850’s in CrossFire
Various 120GB or smaller SSD’s for System and Games (All older than 3 years), 1TB WD Black for Data
Corsair 850w PSU (can’t remember model, not digging though the case to figure it out.)
Windows 7 HP
The system is stable and has been for years.
7. Overclocking or default: OC, Willing to do OCed video card, not looking to water cool the video card but might if there was good reason
8. Resolution: 1920x1200 (single monitor)
9. WHEN: now to one month

Here’s my main question: Where is there room to get more performance out of this system?
I’m not considering: more OC on current CPU. It’s happy where it is and I’m good with a nearly 1GHz OC.
I’m currently considering: 970 GTX (do I have enough processing power to run?), 16 GB (2x8GB or 4 x 4GB?) DDR3 1833 or faster RAM, Faster CPU that could be OCed (if fairly cheap), Larger, Faster SSD’s

I’ve been out of the computer building game for a while so I’m not sure what I might be missing. Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

-ssd
-gtx 970

done!

 

[Rike]

"Fairly cheap" on the CPU would be less than about $125.

What I'd like to do is get another 2-3 years out of this rig and then build another midrange beast, which is what this was (roughly) in it's day. I feel like the demands of new games have slowed down a quiet a bit (or I have!) so my upgrade cycles can and have slowed considerably. I used to build a new rig every 2 years and this one is already twice that with plenty of life left. I guess the fact that I'm not pushing massive resolutions helps a great deal.

Thanks for all the feed back so far. Anyone else want to throw in their two cent?

 

[escrow4]

"Fairly cheap" on the CPU would be less than about $125.

What I'd like to do is get another 2-3 years out of this rig and then build another midrange beast, which is what this was (roughly) in it's day. I feel like the demands of new games have slowed down a quiet a bit (or I have!) so my upgrade cycles can and have slowed considerably. I used to build a new rig every 2 years and this one is already twice that with plenty of life left. I guess the fact that I'm not pushing massive resolutions helps a great deal.

Thanks for all the feed back so far. Anyone else want to throw in their two cent?

$125 is a compromise. You need an i5 minimum for 2015 AAA gaming. Dual cores are dead. Dying light say, recommends a 4670, the minimum is SNB. If you don't want to overclock than a 4590 + H97 board will do it as a minimum.

 

[Chevron]

-ssd
-gtx 970

done!

This basically.

 

[mfenn]

"Fairly cheap" on the CPU would be less than about $125.

You won't get a worthwhile upgrade over your i5 750 for $125; the cost of a new motherboard alone throws that budget out the window. The minimum would be around $250 for a non-overclocking Haswell i5 and a reasonable H97 board. So I'd recommend sticking with the CPU/mobo that you've got until you have $250-300 to spend on a new one.

Certainly don't buy new RAM over a new CPU/mobo.

 

[Rike]

The desision has been made for me; mobo seems to be dead. Dang it!

Now looking looking at an i5 4690k and a Z97 mobo ($125-$175) and a 970 GTX. Will reuse everything else.

Anyone want to recommend a mobo?

 

[mfenn]

The desision has been made for me; mobo seems to be dead. Dang it!

Now looking looking at an i5 4690k and a Z97 mobo ($125-$175) and a 970 GTX. Will reuse everything else.

Anyone want to recommend a mobo?

Unfortunately the Newegg CPU+mobo combo deals aren't good right now, otherwise that's what I would suggest. For today, I would get the ASRock Z97 Pro4 for $95 AR. You could spend more, but I don't really see the point in a normal single-GPU rig.