Updating my gaming computer. Looking for input on prioritizing my hardware upgrades.

[Road Bull]

Hi All,

First post here at Tom's Hardware.

So I am looking to upgrade my computer. I bought this several years ago and I feel it is time to upgrade some items. I mostly play games, World of War Planes, World of Tanks, but would like to be able to play some more graphics intensive games like BF4 and whatnot. Other than that I surf the internet and do just about everything else that I need out of a computer on my rig.

I have a fairly older build.

Intel 2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50 GHz 2.50GHz
16GB Mem
64 bit OS
Windows 7 Ultimate (service pack 1)
GTX 560TI
Asus P5Q mother board (stop laughing...)
Powered by a Corsair 850
1TB 7200 HD
Lan Li Tower

I have been looking to upgrade the system piece by piece. I am planning on swapping out the MB and the CPU first. From there I might upgrade to a SSD followed by the GPU.

So I think I am about to purchase a new MB and CPU first. I am leaning towards getting the i7-4770K for $319 after promo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901

To go with a ASUS MAXIMUS VI HERO motherboard for $189 afer promo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131989

I will have to get some new RAM for the new style MB, probably 8GBs for now.

My plan is to see how that goes and see how my GTX560TI likes the upgrade. As time and money allow, I plan on picking up a SSD, and at some point getting a EVEGA GTX770. I don't currently, but I would like to pick up a first person shooter game to break things up a bit. I realize that WOWP and WOT are not as graphics intensive, but I would like my rig to be able to play other games and not act like its having an epileptic fit. I am sure that an Intel i5 would work too, but they don't seem to be too far off in price at the moment with the special.

So what do you guys think about this MB and CPU combo?

What would you suggest for a good CPU cooler? The Intel i7 comes with a nothing special stock cooler, but I would like this equipment to last me a while. So, heat-sink/fan vs. some sort of water cooler for this task?

And, does this seem like a solid plan?

Thanks for reading!

 

[SixCoreFiend]

I think you are on track with a good plan for upgrading! I think the i7-4770 is a good bang-for-buck option right now, and is definitely where you would want to start off for upgrading your rig.

In terms of cooling options, I'm a big supporter of closed-loop liquid cooling options (like the Corsair H80 for example). I have had an i7-970 for two years now running with a Corsair H60, at stock speeds, at 28 degrees Celcius. Additionally, they are extremely low on fan noise.

 

[Road Bull]

I think you are on track with a good plan for upgrading! I think the i7-4770 is a good bang-for-buck option right now, and is definitely where you would want to start off for upgrading your rig.

In terms of cooling options, I'm a big supporter of closed-loop liquid cooling options (like the Corsair H80 for example). I have had an i7-970 for two years now running with a Corsair H60, at stock speeds, at 28 degrees Celcius. Additionally, they are extremely low on fan noise.

Thanks for the reply SixCoreFiend!

I just basically want to put my money where it is going to be most effective with the idea that I plan to upgrade most of my major components this year. I have gone a long way with my old build, but it is time to update.

Another question I have is about SSDs. I have never had one, but I understand that most load their OS on them, and maybe a couple of games if they are into gaming. WOWP seems to have new updates fairly often. I have read that some of the older SSDs seem to degrade performance over time being rewritten often. I thought that I also read that Samsung and maybe some others have features that allow for clean overwrites that don't degrade performance.

I guess I am asking if it makes sense to put something on the SSD that gets updated. Will that kill the performance over time?

I will look into that Carsair H80. I am just running fans for now, so with my upgrade I would like to make sure that I am protecting my investment.

 

[SixCoreFiend]

You are correct on the Samsung SSDs. I have heard nothing but good things from people who have opted to use them. They also give a significant performance boost as an OS and application disk. The idea is to use them for anything which can be replaced/reinstalled, which is why they are often used in this fashion. Most people opt to keep a convention HDD for large data storage (think movies, tv, music)

 

[Road Bull]

You are correct on the Samsung SSDs. I have heard nothing but good things from people who have opted to use them. They also give a significant performance boost as an OS and application disk. The idea is to use them for anything which can be replaced/reinstalled, which is why they are often used in this fashion. Most people opt to keep a convention HDD for large data storage (think movies, tv, music)

Yeah, that sounds like where I want to end up. Now, do you feel it is better to keep the OS on a SSD all by itself and maybe get another SSD for something like a few games? Or is that a bit of overkill? I plan on still having a conventional HDD for the rest of my storage needs.

 

[SixCoreFiend]

There really wouldn't be any advantage to utilizing a second SSD that way. If you wanted to use two SSDs, you could set them up a a RAID-0 array (faster performance, but twice the chance of failure) or you could get a motherboard that supports SSD caching for your conventional hdd (but that strikes me as unneccessary for your build)

 

[Road Bull]

There really wouldn't be any advantage to utilizing a second SSD that way. If you wanted to use two SSDs, you could set them up a a RAID-0 array (faster performance, but twice the chance of failure) or you could get a motherboard that supports SSD caching for your conventional hdd (but that strikes me as unneccessary for your build)

Thanks, that sounded a bit unnecessary but I am just now,educating myself on the joys and merits of PC builds. I just want a solid build that will last me a while. This will be my first partial build so I am trying to do the whole measure twcie, cut once thing.

I have also been reading that i7 hyperthreading offers little, if any advantage over, say an i5 without hyperthreading. I am sure that either would be a solid boost in performance and they aren't too far from eashother in price. Do you have a take on the Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell vs. the Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell?

For the small difference in price, I would be happy to go the i7 if it helps enough with other things, even if I don't use them much now, (future proofing).

But I mostly play games and do a fair amount of mulit-tabbed surfing for the most part. I am sure I could be happy with either.

 

[Road Bull]

OK, So I made a purchase to upgrade a fair amount of my components.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2zV8r

I plan later on, to upgrade my GPU to a GTX-770, but otherwise I am using the rest of the odds and ends from my other build.

It's a sort of early birthday present to myself. It should get here sometime next week, just in time.

This will be my first build, or partial build, but I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for your input.