Upgrading a Custom 2011 Gaming/Audio build

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soUp_10

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Oct 20, 2011
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Sup guys

I put my first PC together a few years ago, (with help from this site) and I believe it's time to upgrade to keep up with this generation of performance requirements. I don't know a whole lot about brands, technical speeds, compatibility, and what and what not to avoid. So I come here in seek of guidance.

I play games like BF4, and DayZ, and I want to maximize my experience and FPS substantially, Along with gaming, I need the computer to be able to handle CPU demanding DAW's like Cubase + ProTools. With the upgrades, I want a decent computer that will easily last a few more years, and as I'm not willing to pay TOP dollar for top of the line, I am somewhere in a mid range budget. I am looking for a very decent performance. Any tips/thoughts/advice is greatly appreciated!!

Current System:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ...

CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with ...

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D

Western Digital WD Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor W/Speakers

(sorry couldn't get my NewEgg wishlist to go public)


Here are my thoughts for what I need to upgrade:

New+More RAM (how much do I need?)
1 or 2 Solid State HD's (Slave+Master? If so what size HD's)
Possibly 1 new, or SLI with current GPU?
Audio Interface PCI card
A MIDI interface PCI card
And a new monitor


What should I do?
 
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TriBeard

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I don't know that I would upgrade that CPU and motherboard just yet. Unless you really do a ton of media conversion or use applications that are really optimized for more than 4 cores, you probably won't see the kind of upgrade that you are looking for.

My first bit of advice would be to get another matching stick of ram and put in there. That motherboard is supposed to have 2 or 4 sticks of ram because it is dual channel. The older x58 boards are the only ones that were triple channel, so you are handicapping your performance a little bit by not using your ram in its optimal configuration, and the extra 2gb of ram will help you some too.

Secondly, I would just upgrade the GPU. What you would upgrade it to really depends on your budget, but that's gonna give you a much bigger increase in your gaming than a CPU upgrade. As for AMD or Nvidia, do the programs you use have any CUDA or OpenCL acceleration? If they only have CUDA, you may want to go Nvidia, but if they have opencl, AMD tends to perform better than nvidia does by a good margin.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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From a gaming perspective, the only worthwhile upgrade is a new GPU. everything else is fine.
From an audio perspective, the 2500K is probably powerful enough for what your doing. Sound cards and external DAC's I don't know about so I cant really comment. You could probably do with a bit more RAM, a 16GB kit might be in order.

A good SSD, the go-to option right now is a Samsung 840 EVO. Cant really go wrong with that, typically an OS drive is 120/128GB though 240/256GB drives are becoming affordable.
Which graphics card to go for depends on your budget. Without that we cant really say much. What technologies your applications can leverage would also have a decent say on Red vs Green as well.
 
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soUp_10

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manof, how do I know which type of RAM, I'm looking at 4 x 8gb sticks, is compatible with my motherboard + OS? Can I run 32 if I wanted?

and I can spend about 300-500 on a gpu, just have no idea what to look for .
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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How to tell if RAM is compatible with your Motherboard.
If it says DDR3 and your mobo says DDR3, its good to go. Its pretty much that simple from a "will this work" perspective.
You have Win7 Professional 64bit, which has a RAM cap much higher than you could ever install on that board so your good on that front.

For around that budget, would be looking at an R9-280X/GTX770 or a GTX780 depending on how much you want to lay down.
 
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soUp_10

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A couple more questions, I am considering getting the GTX 780 Ti, my question is, will that card have problems running on my MoBo (being as old as it is) or running on my 750W PSU?

Also, how long are the EVGA GTX 780 Ti's, are they any bigger than the GTX 570 I'm currently running? Worried about it fitting in my case.


One last thing, I have a Dual Channel MoBo but say I wanted 4 sticks of 8gb RAM, will the MoBo or my i5 CPU be put under a larger amount of stress from running 4 sticks, instead of 2? Thanks!
 
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soUp_10

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But if the 780 Ti says it needs 600w min, and my CPU says it needs 95w, if you add in the harddrives, ram, and anything else drawing power, wont I need something way bigger than the 750w PSU that i already have?
 
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