Decisions decisions......upgrading from 5850 and i5 750

[chihlidog]

Im building a new gaming rig and going mid to high end with it. I can save some money since I plan to stay at 1080p. My current rig is a 5850 and an i5 750 overclocked to 3.7. Its been a great rig especially at my current 1600x900 but alas its time to move on.

My only hard decisions thus far are a 4670k and MSI Lightning 290x. I dont need an ssd.

My major dilemma right now is which motherboard to go with. I may decide to go xfire with the lightnings at some point next year and Im not sure which motherboards would give me enough space between slots.

Total budget is 1400 but ideally less. 160 of that is a monitor but I can reuse my Gskill 8gb set of DDR 3 1600. I already have Win7 which i will reuse. Ill need all the other hardware.

Any suggestions for options would help. I always waver a ton before deciding on my final build so go ahead and fire off ideas at me....maybe theres something i havent considered.

As far as what games I play everything. Love skyrim....love simulations like DCS A10. Love strategy. So itll need to be a good all arounder.....but with the cpu and gpu horsepower ive got picked it should be ready for anything at 1080p.

 

[Essence_of_War]

At your budget ~$1200 after monitor, you sound like a good candidate for mfenn's weekly build

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32293457&postcount=1

You'll even have a little extra leftover for a nice keyboard/mouse if you don't already have those.

 

[chihlidog]

At your budget ~$1200 after monitor, you sound like a good candidate for mfenn's weekly build

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32293457&postcount=1

You'll even have a little extra leftover for a nice keyboard/mouse if you don't already have those.

Except Ill be using the MSI lightning....and I need a board specifically that will fit xfire lightnings should I ever choose to. As well as a seriously stout power supply with enough cables to handle it.

 

[lehtv]

My only hard decisions thus far are a 4670k and MSI Lightning 290x.

You probably mean 4690K, not 4670K.

How heavily are you planning to overclock the i5-4690K?

I dont need an ssd.

You already own one? If not, on your budget you should buy at least a 120GB SSD.

Total budget is 1400 but ideally less. 160 of that is a monitor

Why $160, did you already buy the monitor? Which one?

I may decide to go xfire with the lightnings at some point next year

290X Lightning won't be around next year. In just a few months, 200 series will be replaced by 300 series, and going by the usual generation cycle, 400 series would come another year after that, and another NVIDIA generation a little sooner than that. If you want Crossfire or SLI in 2016, you'll want to upgrade the 290X to two newer generation cards.

Also keep in mind that dual graphics cards won't make much sense unless you're playing at 1440p or higher.

Im not sure which motherboards would give me enough space between slots.

All SLI/Crossfire compatible Z97 boards

 

[chihlidog]

You probably mean 4690K, not 4670K.

How heavily are you planning to overclock the i5-4690K?



You already own one? If not, on your budget you should buy at least a 120GB SSD.



Why $160, did you already buy the monitor? Which one?



290X Lightning won't be around next year. In just a few months, 200 series will be replaced by 300 series, and going by the usual generation cycle, 400 series would come another year after that, and another NVIDIA generation a little sooner than that. If you want Crossfire or SLI in 2016, you'll want to upgrade the 290X to two newer generation cards.

Also keep in mind that dual graphics cards won't make much sense unless you're playing at 1440p or higher.



All SLI/Crossfire compatible Z97 boards

Typo. Sorry about that. 4690k indeed. I do not have a set goal in mind as far as speed. Ill OC it as high as I can reliably comfortably take it so that its stable and the temps are reasonable. Its what Ive done with each cpu ive owned....im not the type to shoot for a specific speed but rather buy the best hardware I can reasonably justify based on my budget amd needs and then get the most for my dollar by using reasonable overclocks. My 750 at 3.7 has been fantastic....I never expected it to get that high and be so cool and stable. A lot of that i know is the mobo....Im strongly considering another ASUS ROG board based on my experience with my Gene these last 4 years.

As far as availability of the 290x....ill hit up the used market if I decide to xfire. Im not worried about that. I do have access to an SSD so no need to purchase. The monitor is a 24" Asus ive picked out in person.

 

[chihlidog]

My concern with the board is based on what ive read of the girth of the Lightning....since it takes up 2.5 slots.

 

[Ichigo]

You could just upgrade your GPU for 1080p and call it a day. Or at least you wouldn't have a $160 monitor driving a $1200 build. Eugh. Spend some money on that thing you look at for several hours a day and make sure it's quality.

 

[lehtv]

You could just upgrade your GPU for 1080p and call it a day.

i7-750 just doesn't cut it any more. People gaming on 1080p were upgrading it to i5-2500K four years ago already, and it was a good upgrade. Today, i5-750 @ 3.7GHz is roughly equivalent to i5-4xxx downclocked to 2.6GHz (extrapolated from Anandtech Bench). You can see in Techspot's gaming CPU performance tests that i7-4xxx @ 2.5GHz is a considerable bottleneck to a high end GPU on 1080p:

http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/917/bench/CPU_02.png
http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/878/bench/CPU_02.png
http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/787/bench/CPU_03.png

And these are just average framerates. Minimum framerates will be even worse and will kill framerate consistency.

Or at least you wouldn't have a $160 monitor driving a $1200 build. Eugh. Spend some money on that thing you look at for several hours a day and make sure it's quality.

But what does the price of the monitor matter in the end? If it's a 1080p 60hz monitor, it takes just as much hardware to run smoothly as any other 1080p 60hz monitor, regardless of panel quality.

 

[lehtv]

My concern with the board is based on what ive read of the girth of the Lightning....since it takes up 2.5 slots.

Well, there's nothing you can do about that apart from either buying an overly expensive motherboard designed for tri-SLI/quad-SLI (waste of money), or buying cards that are only 2 slots thick.

If/when you're ready to go dual GPU, and if you're still concerned about the size of the card, then sell it and upgrade to cards that don't pose such problems. Problem solved :thumbsup:

Now regarding the build itself - I'd buy something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($106.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($97.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB LIGHTNING Video Card ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Core V71 ATX Full Tower Case ($119.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($95.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $935.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-03 16:33 EST-0500

+ CPU cooler: Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev. B $53
There's a combo discount on the CPU+mobo here.
If you want a good reason to spend more... then go i7-4790K with a beefier motherboard and cooling:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($316.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($154.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($97.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB LIGHTNING Video Card ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Core V71 ATX Full Tower Case ($119.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($95.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1160.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-03 16:44 EST-0500

Also, if you're close to a Microcenter, you can get a CPU+motherboard combo and save some cash there.