Build suggestions - time to upgrade!

[Apollo127]

Hey guys, Its less then a week away until wildstar early access and I need to upgrade or maybe even replace my current set up. I am looking for input as to if It is more cost effective to upgrade what I am working with now or if its better to just sell my old set up and get something completely new. I think everything might need to be upgraded including my video card but if the video card is okay I also have a GTX 550 I can throw in the current set up for when I sell it.

My current set up is as follows:

AMD FX 4170 Quad Core 4.2ghz
8gb Ram
Windows 7 64 bit
Nvidia Geforce GTX 650
Cool Master Elite Power 460w power supply

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Budget Range: 1000$ total

The set up will be used for gaming and watching videos online. Currently I can only get about 30fps while playing wildstar so I am looking for something with a lot more power.

Are you buying a monitor: No, I have a AOC 1920x1080 monitor that I will be using.

Overclocking: Overclocking is fine with me as long as the parts can handle it

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Needs to play wow on ultra, as well as be able to handle the new mmo's being released this year. I am not expecting 100fps on ultra settings for every game but I do not want to have to struggle with 20 fps under heavy use, like while I am raiding.


Thanks for your help!!

 

[Apollo127]

After more research I am leaning towards these parts so far, but I'm not sure for video card if I should go the r9 290 or the GTX 770? Or another card around that price range?

 

[numanator]

Sounds like you are looking for a new full build? If that is the case then this build would work well for you:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.94 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.23 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Dual Superclocked ACX Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1004.09
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-27 12:59 EDT-0400)

If you don't/aren't selling your old pc then you could probably reuse the hard drive, case, and ram.

Edit: The r9 290 will be more powerful than the gtx 770, didn't realize it had gotten so cheap recently.

 

[jaraldo]

Hey,

Would need to know the motherboard aswell to know how old it is and what it can do.

You might want a more powerful PSU if you upgrade the GPU. If you want to SLI later you will need 750w minimum; for a single card 500w-550w will do.

I personally don't like the Coolermaster PSU, they aren't the best quality. Antec/XFX/Seasonic are the better brands to get.

here is a list of what performance you might get with different GPUs in a game like BF4. (i find it's a nice reference)
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/11/27/battlefield-4-performance-analysis/3

This is a chart of the power consumption of many GPUs.It will allow you to pick the appropriate PSU.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-750-ti-review,3750-21.html

With $1000 budget you could buy new if you wanted to, but your needs don't seem too demanding so an upgrade should suffice.

 

[Apollo127]

Thanks for the replies guys. The plan as of right now is to just go will a brand new build because I am really looking for something that will perform a lot better then my current set up which I have been un happy with for a long time, even after I upgraded from the gtx 550ti to the 650.

With that being said my plan is to go completely new build and then just sell the old set up to pay for a few of the new parts.

I don't need an OS, Monitor or mouse but I would like to possibly have room in my budget for a mechanical keyboard.

Will I notice a lot of increased perfomance on wildstar with the r9 290 over say the 770? I upgraded from the 550ti to 650 and I hate having to throw all my settings on low/medium for all games even world of warcraft. I don't need anything over kill but I just want to be able to play wildstar and have 60+ fps even while in raids. Lastly I would definately like a SSD atleast for 1-2 games + my OS so that I can have faster loads times because I am sick of my OS taking 2-5 minutes to boot up, thanks!!

Also I forgot to post what the parts I was thinking so far so here they are :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.94 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($145.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $405.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-27 11:43 EDT-0400)

 

[Apollo127]

Oh and lastly I am currently using a tp-link USB wifi adapter and can barely load live streams on medium quality, but I have 50mb/s internet. I have been seeing some mobos have built in wifi, is this something that I should look for or should I just buy a wireless adapter whether its usb or built in? Thanks!

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

Since I'm a WoW player just like yourself, I think I can help you here

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670k

CPU Cooler: bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 (this may be a subject to change depending on your own preferences)

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Sniper M5(MAtx)/Asus Maximus VI Hero(Atx)

Memory:Gskill Ares 16gb 2x8 2133MHz/Gskill Ares 8gb 2x4 2133MHz

Video Card: Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II

Storage: Samsung 840 Evo 120gb SSD

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1tb 7200rpm HDD

Power Supply: Corsair RM750/Corsair HX650

Case: Corsair Obsidian 550D

If there are two options for one component it means you have to chose one depending on your budget.

This may go a bit over 1000$ but it's worth it!

I personally highly recommend the Gigabyte motherboard it's an awesome board!

***Double check if the suggested components are compatible or not.

 

[numanator]

The r9 290's performance will be a step up from the gtx 770 and at only $30 more, it is a pretty good deal. For the wifi, you will have much better speeds using a PCI-e x1 wifi card rather than a USB wifi since the usb wifi will be limited by the transfer rate of the usb port. Here is the same build but with the r9 290 and a wifi card for $50 more. This build pretty much has everything you need/want:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.94 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.23 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X Video Card ($354.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N600PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($24.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1051.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-27 16:36 EDT-0400)

 

[jaraldo]

Really, you should just go with numanator's build. It's on budget and everything you will need. A good wifi card shouldn't be more than $50 anyways.

Edit: oh you included that in the new build

 

[Apollo127]

Thanks for the help everyone! Nunanator that second build looks exactly like what I am looking for!

 

[Apollo127]

Just noticed on newegg the Sapphire Radeon r9 290 4g is 439 not 354 Big difference in price there I am going to have to find something closer to 350$

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

The Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II maybe?

 

[numanator]

Yeah, if you can't get the r9 290 (pcpartpicker doesn't update right all the time) then one of the gtx 770's would work prefectly too. Knew that price was too good to be true

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($319.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($319.99 @ Amazon)

 

[Apollo127]

Thanks numa for the quick response, and yah price seemed too good to be true! I'm not very knowledgeable with video cards but when I went from a 550ti to a 650 I noticed only a tiny tiny tiny increase, will the 770 along with the i5 and all the new parts be a substantial performance increase? I'm not necessarily spending money I don't have on this build but I want to see a huge increase in performance

 

[numanator]

Yeah the gtx 550 ti vs gtx 650 are pretty much equal so you probably did not get much out of the upgrade. This chart shows in general how the graphics cards are ranked, if you are jumping more than 2 ranks up it is considered a good upgrade and you are jumping up 5 or 6:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The gtx 770 can run almost every game out right now at Ultra settings and get 60+ FPS, only the most graphically intensive games will need to have some settings turned down.