$700 upgrade budget - What should I buy? GPU perhaps?

rcald2000 · Jul 30, 2015

Background: One of my cell phones died and American Express refunded me $400 under my retail insurance policy. In addition, I have 4 x Samsung 850 (250 GB) SSD's, which I confident I can sell for $300 total. Gives me a grand total of $700 to spend on my computer.

Many things that I have are in my signature, but I'll try to give a more comprehensive list:

Current Inventory:

CPU: 5820K
MB: Asus Sabertooth X99
Storage: Intel 750 400 GB. I have two, but I'm going to donate one to my friend's build. He's had a rough year.
PSU: EVGA G2: 1200 watts + 2 x 1300 watts + 2 x 850 watts (5 power supplies). Long story.
CPU coolers: Dark Rock 3 / CM hyper 212 EVO
GPU: EVGA 980 Ti (reference cooler)
case: Phanteks full atx

Purchases I'm considering, but open to ideas:

Adding a GPU or swapping for a 980 Ti hybrid. I'm not sure if it's weird to have a hybrid + a non-hybrid in the same system.
Upgrading my Intel 750 from 400 GB to 1.2 TB
Upgrading my two Dell 24" 1920 x 1200 monitors to one Dell UltraWide 3440 x 1440 monitor

These are all the ideas that I could think of, so I thought I would ask for ideas. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post.

Addendum: Putting my Dark Rock 3 CPU cooler was a major major pain in the butt with the included mini wrench tool that fits around the hex nuts. I clearly need to purchase a long hex screw driver, with ratcheting action, long handle (to clear CPU heatsink) and magnetic tip. If anyone has a recommendation that I can purchase on Amazon, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again.

KKAW · Jul 30, 2015

rcald2000 :

Background: One of my cell phones died and American Express refunded me $400 under my retail insurance policy. In addition, I have 4 x Samsung 850 (250 GB) SSD's, which I confident I can sell for $300 total. Gives me a grand total of $700 to spend on my computer.

Many things that I have are in my signature, but I'll try to give a more comprehensive list:

Current Inventory:

CPU: 5820K
MB: Asus Sabertooth X99
Storage: Intel 750 400 GB. I have two, but I'm going to donate one to my friend's build. He's had a rough year.
PSU: EVGA G2: 1200 watts + 2 x 1300 watts + 2 x 850 watts (5 power supplies). Long story.
CPU coolers: Dark Rock 3 / CM hyper 212 EVO
GPU: EVGA 980 Ti (reference cooler)
case: Phanteks full atx

Purchases I'm considering, but open to ideas:

Adding a GPU or swapping for a 980 Ti hybrid. I'm not sure if it's weird to have a hybrid + a non-hybrid in the same system.
Upgrading my Intel 750 from 400 GB to 1.2 TB
Upgrading my two Dell 24" 1920 x 1200 monitors to one Dell UltraWide 3440 x 1440 monitor

These are all the ideas that I could think of, so I thought I would ask for ideas. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post.

Addendum: Putting my Dark Rock 3 CPU cooler was a major major pain in the butt with the included mini wrench tool that fits around the hex nuts. I clearly need to purchase a long hex screw driver, with ratcheting action, long handle (to clear CPU heatsink) and magnetic tip. If anyone has a recommendation that I can purchase on Amazon, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again.

If i were you i would:
1. Upgrade your monitor if it already is not 1440P 120Hz.
2. If your monitor is already 1440P 120Hz you can add another EVGA GTX 980 Ti for butter smooth performance on 120Hz.

Woodzyowl · Jul 30, 2015

Let's see here...

Adding a 980 Ti sounds interesting, but unless you're running 4k it's probably completely unnecessary.
If you really only have the one SSD, I'd probably get a HDD or two. Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure what you're using this PC for, but generally some mass storage is handy. A 1.2 TB SSD is unnecessary in my eyes, but I try to keep the number of things I need to load quickly low for my 128 GB Samsung 830.
I can't speak for the monitors, but your current setup sounds sufficient for most uses. Maybe you could hook up all 3 for a goofy surround setup, but it would be very goofy.

Really, I'd probably look into making a custom watercooling loop. They're a lot of work and really not all that much more efficient than your current CPU cooling (it would crush your current GPU cooling), but they reduce the physical strain on components, come with lots of nerd cred (somewhere between installing Linux and learning Klingon, if I remember correctly), and look pretty cool as well.

rcald2000 · Jul 31, 2015

Both of my monitors are 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz. I should have included my refresh in my initial description.

rcald2000 · Jul 31, 2015

@Woodzyowl, I'm using the computer is a VMware virtualization lab. I have ESXi servers virtualized and then run a load of VM's under each of them. This is so I can practice concepts and don't have to have six physical computers running. Ironically a buddy of mine recently offered to give me an Intel blade server, but that things requires a ton of electrical power. Not sure if I'm taking it yet. But here is some info, if you'd like to see:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mfsys25-smb-server,2138.html

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$700 upgrade budget - What should I buy? GPU perhaps?

rcald2000

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KKAW

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Woodzyowl

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rcald2000

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rcald2000

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