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System Upgrade(s) $1500 Budget.

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Hey guys I am new to this forum and started building computers around 2 years ago (which i bought from WWW.UMART.COM.AU, i have much to learn and was hoping i could get some thoughts on my planned upgrade, and existing builds. I was also planning on reusing components from my current gaming rig on the new build aswell as maybe upgrading my NAS while I am at it. My budget is around 1500 to 2000, i am open to suggestion on where to buy from also as up until recently i only used umart.

i also have 2 24" Benq monitors 1920x1080 2ms and am considering a 3rd.
I do not have all the links i quick wrote this up while at work =/ i can provide them if needed, thanx in advance for your thoughts :D .


EDIT: PROPER LAYOUT BELOW: v
Approximate Purchase Date: November/December
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Playing Games (BF3, Guild Wars, WoW, etc) Movies tv shows downloading etc.
Are you buying a monitor: Maybe
Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, Ram, Power Supply?, Graphics Card
Do you need to buy OS: No. Windows Professional 64 bit
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Umart.com.au, Pccasegear.com, (open to suggestions)
Location: Australia
Parts Preferences: Intel CPU
Overclocking: Maybe (lacking experience, willing to learn)
SLI or Crossfire: Eventually.
Your Monitor Resolution: 2 x 24" benq monitors 1920 x 1080 2ms
Additional Comments:
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Unhappy with performance when playing high end games, current build is 3 yrs old.

PROPOSED SYSTEM UPGRADE (INCLUDING SOME OF THE OLD HARDWARE):
Hard Drive: Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache $115
MotherBoard: Asrock Z77-EXTREME6 $176
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K/3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/LGA1155 Ivy Bridge $339
GPU: Sapphire HD7850 OC 2G 256Bit GDDR5 PCIE3.0 DVI HDMI 2*MiniDSP $266
RAM: Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4X1600C91600MHz,ddr3,cl9 $130
Disk Drive: Samsung 22X DVDRW Black SATA $0
PSU: Not Sure whether to use old PSU or buy a newer unit. $?
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card PCI Express $0
Case: Ascension Duality $700 (Includes postage from US)
http://www.mountainmods.com/ascension-duality-mirror-bl...

CURRENT GAMING BUILD:
Hard Drive: Seagate SATAII NCQ 1TB 7200RPM 32mb Cache $112
MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P P55 DDR3 PCI-Ex16 SATAII RAID 2xGLAN SLI $190
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 Processor LGA1156 2.8GHz 8MB Cache CPU $350
GPU: 2 x Zotac Geforce 9800GT Synergy 1G DDR3 Dual Dual Link DVI $310
Ram: 2 x Geil 4G(2x2G) DDR3 1600 PC12800 CL9(34G1600K-9) $270
Disk Drive: Samsung 22X DVDRW Black SATA $22
PSU: Corsair TX-850 V2 ATX Power Supply 140mm fan $205
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card PCI Express $47
Case: Coolermaster RC-690-KKN1 690 Case with Black mesh design, Nopsu $109

CURRENT NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE BUILD:
USB DRIVE (OS): Sandisk 8GB
Hard Drive: 3 x Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache $345
MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V 2DDR3 GLAN PCIE16 mATX SATA3 2USB3 $65
CPU: Intel Celeron G530/2.40GHz/2MB CACHE/LGA1155 $45
GPU: None $0
RAM: G Skill 4G(2x2G) DDR3 1333 PC10600 (F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT) $24
Disk Drive: None $0
PSU: Thermaltake Litepower 500W ATX PSU $45
Sound Card: None $0
Case: Sharkoon Micro ATX case Black USB3.0 $49

More about : system upgrade 1500 budget

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i don't trust water cooling as i have heard and read some horror stories, but am curious to give it a go. how much difference will an SSD make? i may overclock as the system becomes outdated, and i was just thinking bout maybe adding an aftermarket cpu cooler?

Add a 3rd monitor for a 3-way Eyefinity setup.

Get the 7970 GHz Ed for that, maybe 2 for Crossfire.

You don't need an i7 for gaming, the i5-3570K will perform just the same.
Same with 16gb of RAM. 8gb would be plenty.

I assume you'll be re-using your HDDs?
Get a 128gb or 256gb SSD for faster loading times and boot up speed for your OS and games.

If you're gonna water cool, make sure to get the custom water loop kits. The closed ones like the Corsair Hxx series are matched by high-end air coolers.

I took down my suggestions once I saw you were ordering in Australia and I'm not familiar with the shops there. SSD's provide performance increases in I/O performance for example boot times load times in games faster response times more snappy performance. Because of the case you are getting I wouldn't suggest any of the Corsair Hydro Series maybe something like this. I would although suggest a noctua cooler yes its a great overclocker however its also a great cooler in general and will do a much better job then the stock cooler. You mentioned you don't know how to overclock in the bios for the intel sandy/ivy bridge processors you set your cpu boost to a speed and your done most of the time its something like this 3.8 ghz 4.0 ghz 4.2 ghz and so on and basically you set it to those settings and when you get to a point where you are running a application or game that uses processing power it will boost up to that speed.


Also I will provide my link again so you have a basis on parts. The 7970 is the best you can get if you feel the need to just go all out on it do it :) 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

my old link before i felt dumb and erased it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/lgTU
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Also I wouldn't go with a crossfire configuration I would stick to one single good card you create more issues heat, power scaling along the way. Looks great in benchmarks doesn't always translate in real world performance. AMD/ATi eyefinity is known for having the ability to push 3 monitor setups at a nice resolution without turning down performance if at all or very much. Of course it's all about personal preference if you would prefer to have 3 monitors or not.

The samsung 840 (comes out november 6th in the states) This one I would suggest the 256 gigabyte model. Gives you room for the OS and room for you to prioritize your most used applications/games in a decently sized medium and you can stick everything else on your storage drive.

Fast programs: in your sports car
Everything else: In your large truck :p 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

review first look
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/840-pro-ssd-toggle-...

Um, I kind of think with that budget you can splurge and stick with the i7 you have. I don't how how often you upgrade or how much you know about the current socket but this is the last cpu series for this socket once they go to series it will be on a seperate socket number 1150. Also the great thing about i7's is they come with hyperthreading which basically comes down to this.

i5 uses 4 cores
i7 uses 4 cores+4 hyper threaded

So essentially what it comes down to is if you do anything dealing with editing, rendering, graphic design things of that nature it really shines. Otherwise you could always put more on your GPU if you don't use your computer for the i7 purposes. And in today's games graphic card performance is more of a factor then CPU.

Motherboard
It's received okay reviews I have a Asrock board its okay it works pretty well overclocks pretty well however I kind of like this one because of the trademark stability that this line has. Either way tomshardware has really good things to say about the board you have picked out

Tomshardware review of the z77 boards with the Asrock Extreme6 in there
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-g...
Stability choice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Don't bother with an i7. You'll just be wasting money.
The only way you'll make good use of hyperthreading is if your workload is heavy enough to make good use of hyperthreading, which almost always comes with the need of 16gb of RAM.

Normal editing, rendering, etc can still be done quickly with 4 cores. Spend your money on other components.

And yes, the 3570K supports PCI-E 3.0; all Ivy Bridge CPUs do.

Isn't exactly a complete waste its the best he can get with the socket if he intends to stick with his system for a while. But again it as always depends on what he does and that's the key.

And agreed with the op about pcie-3.0 you will have it with a ivy bridge cpu although at the moment there hasn't been much of a difference between 2.0 and 3.0.

Also, to go with excella's comments it would be more of a performance upgrade to get a better gpu with the 100+ dollars difference between the i5 3570k and the i7 3770k. So essentially what I'm saying is on the AMD side if you were to jump from a 7950 to 7970 it would mean more then the cpu upgrade from i5 to i7. There is a really informative article on this page that lays it out for you.


part 1
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bo...
part2
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bo...

if your systems main use, like most are suggesting, is for gaming then you will gain no significant benefit from getting the i7. There are no forseeable games that will utilize the hyperthreading. I see new builders always rushing for the most expensive CPU thinking it will be some how better then all the rest just because its the most expensive.

I'd do asExcella suggested and drop down to the i5-3570k and either go GTX 670 or 7970. You wont need 16Gb ram, for gaming you wont even use 8Gb, so as suggested you'd be better off getting 8Gb. Also on board sound on most motherboards is outstanding, an aftermarket sound card really isn't needed unless you are some high end audio phile. Save that money, upgrade the GPU and you wont regret it.

I'm currently running this system and I'm competing with my friends system that uses a GTX 680 :D . The games I play are Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2, Mechwarrior Online, Hawken and a few others. All of which I play at ultra settings and hardly ever see my FPS drop bellow 60fps.

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Apropo said:
if your systems main use, like most are suggesting, is for gaming then you will gain no significant benefit from getting the i7. There are no forseeable games that will utilize the hyperthreading. I see new builders always rushing for the most expensive CPU thinking it will be some how better then all the rest just because its the most expensive.

I'd do asExcella suggested and drop down to the i5-3570k and either go GTX 670 or 7970. You wont need 16Gb ram, for gaming you wont even use 8Gb, so as suggested you'd be better off getting 8Gb. Also on board sound on most motherboards is outstanding, an aftermarket sound card really isn't needed unless you are some high end audio phile. Save that money, upgrade the GPU and you wont regret it.

I'm currently running this system and I'm competing with my friends system that uses a GTX 680 :D . The games I play are Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2, Mechwarrior Online, Hawken and a few others. All of which I play at ultra settings and hardly ever see my FPS drop bellow 60fps.


I think for some yes they buy whatever the most expensive is. Its my feeling though that depending on how often one upgrades that getting the best chip may be worth looking into. You have Haswell the new cpu's that will come out something next year that may or may not use DDR4 and the performance may or may not be a lot higher then the current cpu's. I just think based on his budget that he could get the best which includes the extra if you do anything on top of gaming. But I'd like to make a suggestion as well.

CPU<Graphics<SSD

Essentially what I mean by this is this get a CPU whether the i5 3570k or the i7 3770k get a graphics card you are happy with but at the same time don't neglect to toss in a SSD. Some may play off a SSD as a upgrade that won't make any performance differences but having one will make a difference primarily with windows which is the biggest slow down in most applications and with programs that have intense hard drive draw will help dramatically there as well.

Also he's carrying over his soundcard based on what I read from his previous specs :) 


Futhermore here is what I have shrugs :na: 

Intel Core i5 2500k
Asrock Z68 EXTREME4 Gen 3
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB OC
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 8GB (2x4)
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Professional
Samsung 830 256GB SATA III SSD
Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA II
LG 12x Super Multi Blue WH12LS38
CM Storm Sniper
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair Hydro H100

I think i will just go with the i7 as i will probably not upgrade for another 2-3years and sometimes dabble in game mapping, autocad, etc.

will the ram i have in my current build match up to newer ram such as the corsair vengeance?

i will more than likely buy an SSD and reuse my old 1tb sata 2 hdd as a storage drive.

for the gpu: Sapphire ATI HD 7970 OC 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 1000/5800 Mhz, D-DVI, HDMI, 2x Mi

i am still undecided about the motherboard i originally was going to pick an asus board, but was told by the umart staff that the return rate is like 70%, he then pointed me in the direction of the asrock boards which i have used in a friends build and is working fine.

The 3570K's quad-core will still be fast enough for that. You're spending an extra ~$100 for no reason. Again, the only NOTABLE difference between the 3570k and 3770k is HYPERTHREADING.

Now, if you don't mind shelling out money for something you'll most likely never utilize efficiently, I won't stop you. It's also part bragging rights at this point. :p 

ASRock is a great mobo manufacturer; ranks 3 in the world's top motherboard manufacturers. They also sell for cheaper than ASUS and their boards have MORE features most of the time.
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