Need advice on gaming rig upgrade

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Guischnoo

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Jun 8, 2015
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Greetings

I'm planning on upgrading my 3 year old semi-budget rig into something more that will run 1080p gaming at very high fps (up in the 120 range if possible), good performance in 1440p (80s range) and alsoideally be 4k ready (hopefully up to 60fps on medium-low settings). I've never done more than installing new harddisks so I'm somewhat of a noob, my current rig was pre-assembled. My current specs are as follows:

Build case: CM Storm Trooper Gaming Big Tower
PSU: Silver Power SP-SS500 500W PSU
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45,
CPU: Intel® Core i7-3770 3.4 ghz (with stock fan)
RAM: Crucial DDR3 BallistiX 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB
GPU: Gainward GeForce GTX 560Ti 1GB PhysX
Harddisks: Crucial m4 SSD 2.5" 128GB
Samsung 850 EVO SSD 250GB
Seagate Barracuda® Green 2TB
Monitor: Asus 27" 3D LED VG278HE
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

The upgrade I'm aiming for is mainly a better GPU, better cooling for the CPU and a PSU to meet those requirements. I'm on the fence as far as SLI goes, as SLI would require me to also upgrade my motherboard, and I'm not sure if the i7-3370 CPU would handle that well either. I'm also on the fence whether to get a high quality 1440p-monitor with 144hz (like the ROG swift), or a 4k monitor that will be capped at 60hz (meaning the 120 fps on 1080p will be pointless). I'm currently considering the following components:

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB SC w/ ACX 2.0 cooling
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2, 1000W PSU (or something with the same wattage that will be ready for SLI and/or ocing + some leeway)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15

Are there any obvious compatibility issues with the components, like between the new PSU/GPU and the old motherboard and CPU, or e.g. between the build case/CPU/Motherboard and the Noctua NH-D15? Any other advice on recommended alternative components are welcome.

 
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ferwindjacks
Compatibility wise it's all good. You'll probably want to stick with EVGA for your GPUs, others may come with a higher stock rate but with ACX 2.0 you can OC the hell out of those. Some more expensive variants from Zotac would be interesting to look into (hybrid w/ liquid cooling, I think Asus has a variant [Poseidon] coming soon) but I'd stick with EVGA anyway.

1000w is overkill, even for SLI. An 850w PSU (I'll recommend you the XFX 850w Black Edition) will be good enough for SLI 980Tis, I always reference this website for info there: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

The D15 is nice but its simply huge. I'd be wary of RAM clearance if I were you. I personally have the NH-U14S and it's small enough to not worry about...
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ferwindjacks

ferwindjacks

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Jun 26, 2013
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Compatibility wise it's all good. You'll probably want to stick with EVGA for your GPUs, others may come with a higher stock rate but with ACX 2.0 you can OC the hell out of those. Some more expensive variants from Zotac would be interesting to look into (hybrid w/ liquid cooling, I think Asus has a variant [Poseidon] coming soon) but I'd stick with EVGA anyway.

1000w is overkill, even for SLI. An 850w PSU (I'll recommend you the XFX 850w Black Edition) will be good enough for SLI 980Tis, I always reference this website for info there: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

The D15 is nice but its simply huge. I'd be wary of RAM clearance if I were you. I personally have the NH-U14S and it's small enough to not worry about any clearance issues (Corsair Vengeance) but still a fantastic cooler. I run it in a push-pull. Also, you can't do any overclocking with your CPU anyway so don't go crazy with the cooler.
 
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Guischnoo

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Jun 8, 2015
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4,510
Thanks a lot for your helpful advice. I'll downgrade to a 850W PSU then. How does the XFX 850W Black Edition compare to the EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 850W PSU (the XFX 850w is not available to order from the store I plan to buy the other components and this EVGA PSU is about the same price).

I'll also go for the fan you recommend. My CPU is running up in the 90's on torture tests and up to 72c during gaming with the stock fan with no OC, so I definitely need to do something about that. That's why I don't want to buy a medium quality fan that might not solve the problem.

So if there's no compatibility issues I hope that also means that there will be no bottlenecks in e.g. the CPU or motherboard that hampers GPU performance?
 
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ferwindjacks

ferwindjacks

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Jun 26, 2013
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The difference between the two PSUs is little, I'll direct you to the Tier thread if you'd like more comparisons: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I rarely go above 55c under heavy load with that CPU fan, and I expect it to drop more when I get the other fan for the push-pull config. Be advised, it only comes with one so if you do want a push-pull you need to snag another.

No, there shouldn't be any bottlenecks with a 980Ti and 3770. You will be fine.
 
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