Should I upgrade?

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Cera

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Sep 11, 2010
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Hullo guys! My computer is getting a bit old and sometimes I think I can feel her clunking. Don't get me wrong, she does her job well 85-90% of the time. But I feel I should be scouting out other hardware pieces, particularly a new motherboard or CPU. Especially in photoshop, after I've had some .psb files open, it can get quite clunky. I've upgraded periodically throughout the years, but my MB and CPU haven't changed. I was wondering if you think I should upgrade, and if so, what are the recommended pieces of hardware these days?

My current rig is:
Windows 8.1, 64 bit
P6x58D-E Asus Motherboard
Geforce 780 GPU
Intel i7 950 @ 3.07ghz
24 GB of RAM
1 240GB SSD
2 1TB Caviar Black HDDs


Approximate Purchase Date: within the next year

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Intense photoshop use (brushes, etc), and intense game use (all ultra settings), 2-3 monitors, many internet browsers open at the same time

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, Motherboard, graphics card, maybe RAM, maybe PSU?

Do you need to buy OS: Maybe.

Parts Preferences: Intel, Geforce, Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Not needed if I have one good GPU

Additional Comments: If there is 'new' stuff on the horizon I should wait for, give a shout out!
 
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So if I wanted a good future proofing motherboard and CPU, I should either snag a high end Haswell i7, or maybe wait for the Skylake CPU? And that would then require new Motherboard and new DDR4 RAM, right?

For gaming the LGA1150 platform is best bang for the buck. If you want to wait a few months you should be on the cusp of Skylake - which will work with both DDR3 and DDR4.

For Z97 motherboards see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383187/motherboard-tier-list-z97-chipset.html

It depends on your budghet as to which motherboard you should get. I wouldn't buy a motherboard now if you want a Skylake CPU. I'd wait till it's released to see what happens with Z97 (or will they be Z98 by then) motherboards.
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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depending on your build funds and the parts that may be out a year from now you do have a few options. parts right now a 4690k and a z97mb are a good non budget killer. cpu is 199.00 and a z97 can run from 130-160.00.
if you old ram is ddr-3 and 1.5v you can reuse it. use cpu-z and under the memory tab it give you the part info google it and see if it 1.65 or 1.5v ram. the ssd and hard drive and video card can move into a new rig. right now it the cpu that holding your gpu back. higher end cpu would be haswell i7 or xeon cpu that run 280-400 price range. in a few weeks amd dropping there r300 line of gpu. in 2016 amd road map is another cpu core. at the end of summer and before nov holiday rush intel is dropping there skylake cpu and newer chipsets. the skylake cpu will not work on the older z97 mb the new cpu has one more pin then the older parts. myself i wait for skylake as some leaks say it will be faster then the older haswell part for about the same price. the extra cost would be the newer ddr-4 ram the newer mb will use. dont buy a 900 nvidia gpu as in 2016 it going to be replace will there pascal gpu. save the gpu funds till 2016.
 
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i7Baby

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Jul 25, 2012
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Your i7 is on tier 3 of http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html "I don’t recommend upgrading your CPU unless the potential replacement is at least three tiers higher. " - which is what you should look at eg i5 4690k

Your graphics card is in tier 4 of http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html and again - "I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. " eg Titan X

These are quite expensive. So if you have the budget then upgrade. But make the upgrade worthwhile.
 
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C

Cera

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Sep 11, 2010
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Thanks guys! To answer, I didn't toss a budget in the initial post because budget isn't really an issue (well, I'd go so far as to buy a gtx 980, but not so far as to get a titan).

My RAM is Kingston 6x4GB, DDR3-1600. I've seen the massive heights RAM have soared to lately. It's impressive! If I have to replace my RAM I might go for 32GB. As you guys suggest I'll hold off on upgrading my graphics card for now. Once I upgrade the other bits it might run better...

So if I wanted a good future proofing motherboard and CPU, I should either snag a high end Haswell, or maybe wait for the Skylake CPU? And that would then require new Motherboard and new DDR4 RAM, right?

Any recommendations on a good future proofing motherboard?
 
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i7Baby

Titan
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Jul 25, 2012
44,084
2
106,960
So if I wanted a good future proofing motherboard and CPU, I should either snag a high end Haswell i7, or maybe wait for the Skylake CPU? And that would then require new Motherboard and new DDR4 RAM, right?

For gaming the LGA1150 platform is best bang for the buck. If you want to wait a few months you should be on the cusp of Skylake - which will work with both DDR3 and DDR4.

For Z97 motherboards see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383187/motherboard-tier-list-z97-chipset.html

It depends on your budghet as to which motherboard you should get. I wouldn't buy a motherboard now if you want a Skylake CPU. I'd wait till it's released to see what happens with Z97 (or will they be Z98 by then) motherboards.
 
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