Building a Multi-use PC - go to the past or the future?

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jamok99

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I'm in a bit of a funny position. I have a top of the line (2015) Samsung 4k TV that I want to use to watch films, tv, etc. as 4k content becomes more common. So I kinda need the things a video editor might, yes? And I want to be able eventually to game at resolutions above 1080p for sure. I just upgraded an otherwise middling system by buying an msi gtx 980 for black friday (final price: $375 - how could I not?) I'm stumped between going forward into the future (Skylake a better idea than Haswell? With associated new socket, DDR4, etc. I can afford it, if it's worth it.) Or take advantage of prices on fastest Haswells that multi-task (gaming and watching) well? (4790K? 58XX? 59XX?)
My current middling 'nowhere' parts are a 4590, a z87board, and 8gb of 1866mhz ram. I have a 480gb ssd I haven't used. I have a 1tb wd black I could 'commission' in. I have two psu's at hand - an unreal antec 850W from 2008 that is flawless, and a boxed Thermaltake Toughpower 850W bronze (even with age, the Antec might be a better PSU, not sure.)
The high-end haswells sure will be tempted as prices fall in relation to skylake. With what I want to do, which way would you go - spend $ and get - what in terms of cpu, mobo, memory? Or spend less $ and go with last-gen cpu/mem/mobo now and upgrade later? I do want to cover both gaming and viewing bases if it takes bucks to do that, but is it necessary? Thanks all.
 
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CEO_NeptuneGaming

CEO_NeptuneGaming

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Dear Sir
Skylake is better than haswell...
Replace the PSu with a Rosehill or Seasonic
get the asus z-170a which is cheap and supports ddr4
It is not necessary to do this but I would suggest you to... Otherwise get a 5820K or a 5960X
BUT a single GTX 980 will not be enough for 4K gaming... I would recommend a single GTX980Ti or a FURY X at least for decent 4K gaming...
Best Regards
Abhinav D'Souza,
Ph.D Computer Science
M.Sc Information Technology
B.Tech Computer Science
M. B.A.
CEO, Neptune Gaming® International (P) Ltd. A part of Neptune Group International Inc.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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a few things about that. first haswell is currently better then skylake is for gaming and you cant get the 6 cores wit a skylake build. with that said you will not be able to upgrade the cpu on a haswell system without switching motherboards. currently their will be almost no difference in performance between ddr3 and ddr4 ram. also a gtx 980 is more then capable for 4k gaming when paired with a decent cpu.

 
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jamok99

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jamok99

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jamok99

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(I'm hoping I'm replying in the right places - it's a little confusing of how to answer whom, so please be tolerant.) Thanks for your take, as well. Interesting to me that both of the replies arrive at the same place, it seems: go with the best-gen (skylake) tech, at least for the reason that going with Haswell doesn't leave much that's upgradeable to a new system in the future. I see that the two of you differ on what cpu will do the job of viewing/playing with my 55" 4k tv as a monitor. Not a big deal, as in the future I could SLI another gtx 980, or pony up and just buy a new card. Early intimations I've read on Nvidia says that their new architecture may be twice as fast as current cpu's. But part of the reason I asked the Q was to draw on the expertise of others, given that reading about skylake/z170 mobos/DDR4 is a career in itself for a layman like me. It's very tempting to scarf up past gen parts a good prices - but you both present the downside of that. I'm not so sure 6 cores would be better than 4 for gaming, given that perhaps the majority of games still only really need 2 (I may be wrong on that.) I was a bit more concerned with the 4GB in the gtx 980 becoming a bottleneck in the future. Although I only paid $375 for the gtx 980, I could've had a deal on a radeon r9 390x with 8gb DDR5 for about $320 on BF. But I currently have an AMD Gpu, and drivers are often buggy and incomplete, and the cards run hotter due to higher power reqs.

There are apparently lots of places to get suggested builds - do you know where the best places might be to look at complete system configurations (even better if there's an explanation of why the given parts were chosen?)

I'm not going to mark any post as 'the answer', as I'd like to hear any and all further opinions. But I'm deeply grateful.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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a few things i would like to clear up for you if i can. first you are correct very few programs will use more then 2 threads. a 4 core i7 has 8 threads available witch is more then enough for a long time. second you got your 980 for a nice price and it will work fine. 4 gigs is enough for 4k gaming right now. i didn't really understand that last part if your looking for someone to show you the best parts and explain why you can create a new post asking that and many people will help.
 
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jamok99

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jamok99

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cdabc - I appreciate the further comments/information you provided. At the end of it, what I was aiming at were suggestions for a build using what parts I had that 'fit' a forwards-looking rig (e.g. skylake and a z170 mobo). I think you're right, that ought to be a separate thread.
Again, I'd like to mark *all* of responders' comments as 'the Answer' - because it is folks like you who help me learn to be more knowledgeable, and perhaps I can pay that 'forward' by passing on info as I become more knowledgeable.
 
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