Upgrading my rig

[Red0y0s]

Hi,

I hope this is the correct place to ask this question?

my current specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5 4670K (Overclocked to 4.0ghz)
Corsair H60 Water Cooler
256gb SSD (Main system)
256gb SSD (For games)
Gigabyte Z87N-WIFI MOBO
CORSAIR Vengeance Low Profile 8GB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti "Reference Design" 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Default cooling)

If I were to build a new rig with these specs, what kinda of FPS would I gain? if any?

Intel Core i7 5820K (Overclocked, as much as I can with stable temps, maybe 4.something)
Custom cooling on the CPU
ASRock X99 Fatal1ty Professional E-ATX Motherboard
Corsair 16GB Vengeance LPX Red 3200MHz
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti "Reference Design" 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Water cooling)

Thanks

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

You don't need to upgrade your CPU or GPU. Why are you only at 4.0 ghz with your i5 4690k? I'm assuming your motherboard is limiting you from what I've read on it.

If anything, buy a Z97 motherboard, Gigabyte has a nice one for $89. You may need to get a different case (not sure if you bought a mid tower or not) but thats a cheap upgrade too, they have very nice cases like the Corsair Carbide series for around $50 depending on what you bought.

You aren't seeing performance because you haven't unlocked the true potential of you CPU. Your motherboard is likely holding you back. The cooling should be fine, as H60i's are pretty good, but you could always step it up to the H80i as well.

One of my current gaming rigs has the i5 4690k at 4.6 ghz with a H75i liquid cooler in a Rosewill Challenger U3 mid tower with a Gigabyte Z97 motherboard and 16 gb of Crucial Ballstix at 1600 ghz, a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming edition GPU and the CX750M PSU and I haven't come across a game that I can run it at maxed out settings at 60 FPS. I have Win10 on the 120 gb SSD and the rest on a 2 TB HDD.

You aren't going to see much of a difference gaming-wise between the i7 and the i5, so I'd spend your money on a new motherboard, a new case (if you need it), and a 2x8 GB kit of RAM (if you have extra money, definitely not necessary). I'd probably throw in a regular harddrive in there because you are cutting it pretty close with the amount of storage you have. Only certain games will you see an FPS difference installed on an SSD vs a regular HDD. Seagate has 4 TB HDDs on sale for $99. I'd suggest at least 1-2 TB of something.

You definitely do not need to change out your GPU.

No point at all in 3200 mhz RAM...if anything I would just upgrade your RAM to a 16 GB kit at 1600 mhz.

Also, you really, really don't want to fill your SSD's past 75% of their storage capacity, otherwise you may see a dip in performance. I try to stay around 60% as a general rule.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Also, are you having cooling issues with your GPU? I'm not understanding why you'd require the same GPU but with water cooling. With decent case airflow, you shouldn't be running into overheating issues with a GTX 980Ti. The official max heat from nVidia is 92C, but I highly doubt you are hitting that. As general rule keeping the GTX 900's under 85 C is fine.

I've overclocked the hell out of mine and its never risen past the mid 60's C without any extra cooling, just good case airflow and cable management.

 

[Red0y0s]

You don't need to upgrade your CPU or GPU. Why are you only at 4.0 ghz with your i5 4690k? I'm assuming your motherboard is limiting you from what I've read on it.

If anything, buy a Z97 motherboard, Gigabyte has a nice one for $89. You may need to get a different case (not sure if you bought a mid tower or not) but thats a cheap upgrade too, they have very nice cases like the Corsair Carbide series for around $50 depending on what you bought.

You aren't seeing performance because you haven't unlocked the true potential of you CPU. Your motherboard is likely holding you back. The cooling should be fine, as H60i's are pretty good, but you could always step it up to the H80i as well.

One of my current gaming rigs has the i5 4690k at 4.6 ghz with a H75i liquid cooler in a Rosewill Challenger U3 mid tower with a Gigabyte Z97 motherboard and 16 gb of Crucial Ballstix at 1600 ghz, a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming edition GPU and the CX750M PSU and I haven't come across a game that I can run it at maxed out settings at 60 FPS. I have Win10 on the 120 gb SSD and the rest on a 2 TB HDD.

You aren't going to see much of a difference gaming-wise between the i7 and the i5, so I'd spend your money on a new motherboard, a new case (if you need it), and a 2x8 GB kit of RAM (if you have extra money, definitely not necessary). I'd probably throw in a regular harddrive in there because you are cutting it pretty close with the amount of storage you have. Only certain games will you see an FPS difference installed on an SSD vs a regular HDD. Seagate has 4 TB HDDs on sale for $99. I'd suggest at least 1-2 TB of something.

You definitely do not need to change out your GPU.

No point at all in 3200 mhz RAM...if anything I would just upgrade your RAM to a 16 GB kit at 1600 mhz.

Also, you really, really don't want to fill your SSD's past 75% of their storage capacity, otherwise you may see a dip in performance. I try to stay around 60% as a general rule.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply dude

I have the i5 4670K, not the 4690k. I was overclocking it to 4.2 but I was running into some over heating issues whilst playing BF4 for 2-3 hours straight, it would go to about 80 - 90 degrees and the game would lock up for a few seconds, so I set it to 4.0 which seems more stable.

Performance wise, these are my game stats :

Witcher 3 max settings with hair on: 55 - 60 fps
Assassins syndicate max settings: about 45 fps
Battlefield 4 max(ish) settings: about 70-80 fps

Most games the CPU temp is about 75 - 80 degrees at load.

So not getting bad performance, I've just got the new rog swift (PG279Q) (I'm actually on my 3rd one cos I keep on getting some issues with them but that's another thread ) so my monitor is set to 120hz, so my games need to be max fps so i can try to match my monitor hz while still keeping the settings to high.

My 980 TI is awesome and performs nicely, the reason I'm thinking of water cooling is 2 fold.

1) it's noisy as f**k, so should keep it quiet.

2) I'm lead to believe one of the reasons these cards keeps a stable 83(is) degree temperature is it throttles back the clock, so by keeping it as cool as you can you can get max performance of the card.

plus if I can keep it cool, I might be able to overclock it slightly.

The other reason I'm thinking of all that kit, mainly the I7 is I'm thinking of getting another 980 TI and then I will definitely need the power of an I7, but was curious of the performance gain I would get if I just kept 1 card with the upgrading to the mentioned kit?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

My bad, misread your CPU there....That being said, there is very little difference between the two CPUs, the 70k and the 90k. You should be able to get an overclock of at leas t4.4 to 4.5 ghz if you got a decent chip and are properly cooling it, along with decent airflow through the case, and a motherboard that will actually allow it. More than likely the motherboard cant handle that kind of overclock because it's an miniITX and is probably overheating. A lot of guys run into this issue when they try to budget build a PC and try to OC using a microATX board. A majority of those boards can only handle slight overclocking most of the time.

Number one my list would be to get a better ATX sized motherboard and a decent case with good airflow and plenty of fan mounts.

Buying another 980Ti is a waste of money considering you aren't getting the full performance out of your current one.

Two 980Ti's is even more pointless unless you are planning on running 4K on some ridiculous sized monitor. You aren't unlocking the full potential of your first one, so why get a second? I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming and I agressively overclocked it. No heating issues there. You just need an aftermarket brand that has a good cooling system (Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, or EVGA...but I'm less familiar with those)

You should be able to max out pretty much any game out there with a single 980 Ti out of the box. Reference design cooling is often awful and by awful I mean extremely sh*tty, hence why your GPU is so loud and throttling back.

You need a better motherboard (and likely a better case to fit that motherboard and one with better airflow and lots of fan mounts) which will allow you to OC much more, and dual channel RAM. Running 980ti's SLI is just a complete waste of money IMO, unless you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Everyone jumps on the SLI bandwagon because they think more is better. Not always the case. Unless you are doing something much more graphically intensive other than gaming, your GPU is perfectly fine.

You've kinda got a mish-mash of parts that don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Throwing more money at you PC isn't going to necessarily translate into better performance. You should always be buying parts with reasonable justification as to why you are buying them and why that combination makes sense. Unless you are trying to save as much physical space as possible, I am lost with the choice of a minITX.

I don't think you should completely abandon your current system, just the current hardware set-up doesn't make a ton of sense, hence why you are running into performance issues. I can't say I've seen someone with a miniITX and a 980Ti before, unless space saving is really that much of a priority. Those small motherboards usually cant handle OCing and overheat very, very easily.

I'm truly not trying to be a d*ickhead or hate on you...it just kills me when guys spend all their hard earned money on stuff and put it together and it doesn't work out like they had envisioned it to...but that's why you are here, and there's never a stupid question to ask on this forum...so please don't feel offended or judged in any way, that is not my intention with this whatsoever.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

But trust me, there are ways we can take what you already have, and just add a few different parts to the mix and you'll be running a much more efficient and powerful gaming rig.


Also, just a bit of forewarning, i7's really dont have much advantage over i5's gaming-wise. i7's are absolutely fantastic for intensive productivity applications and business/industriral/scientific workstations, as I honestly cannot do my day to day work without an i7...it'd drive me insane. I can never own a laptop without an i7 either...I've just been spoiled!

But for desktop gaming and regular misc. use, your CPU is PERFECTLY fine...you just need to have the right MOBO to support the overclock. I know lots of guys with the 4670k that have it stable OCed at 4.5 or 4.6.

Your main issues are your motherboard holding you back and likely the small size (im assuming, correct me if I'm wrong) of your case limiting the cooling efficiency of everything overall. If you aren't satisfied with the cooling of the H60i, then honestly get the beefier ones, like the H80i or the H100i. I got an H75i for a steal of a price and have my i5 4690k stable and cool at 4.6 ghz (I know I mentioned that already), but I'm just trying to reiterate that your priorities are a bit jumbled at the moment, which is FINE! No one is perfect and gets their builds right a majority of the time! I run a side business building custom PCs from your average housewive to high-end workstations for analytical laboratories. Trust me, I've had my share of mess ups throughout my years, so it's all good! You have an excellent base of parts, we just need to get you a few different ones, luckily ones that aren't terribly expensive.

If you really really want to get another 980Ti for SLI, then by all means go for it, but just try what I've suggested first, and see where that gets you. You can always add on a second 980Ti later, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. There's a reason why the GTX 970 and 980 have held steady in their price, and that is because they absolutely dominate. nVidia simply just has better driver support and less issues. I've RMA'ed so many R9 290x's I've lost count. Not that I'm a complete nVidia fanboy, because I still have a PC with an OC'ed FX-6300 at 5.0 ghz (cooled by a H60i!) with an Asus R9 270. Hell of a gaming computer for the low price I paid for the parts at the time.

 

[Red0y0s]

My bad, misread your CPU there....That being said, there is very little difference between the two CPUs, the 70k and the 90k. You should be able to get an overclock of at leas t4.4 to 4.5 ghz if you got a decent chip and are properly cooling it, along with decent airflow through the case, and a motherboard that will actually allow it. More than likely the motherboard cant handle that kind of overclock because it's an miniITX and is probably overheating. A lot of guys run into this issue when they try to budget build a PC and try to OC using a microATX board. A majority of those boards can only handle slight overclocking most of the time.

Number one my list would be to get a better ATX sized motherboard and a decent case with good airflow and plenty of fan mounts.

Buying another 980Ti is a waste of money considering you aren't getting the full performance out of your current one.

Two 980Ti's is even more pointless unless you are planning on running 4K on some ridiculous sized monitor. You aren't unlocking the full potential of your first one, so why get a second? I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming and I agressively overclocked it. No heating issues there. You just need an aftermarket brand that has a good cooling system (Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, or EVGA...but I'm less familiar with those)

You should be able to max out pretty much any game out there with a single 980 Ti out of the box. Reference design cooling is often awful and by awful I mean extremely sh*tty, hence why your GPU is so loud and throttling back.

You need a better motherboard (and likely a better case to fit that motherboard and one with better airflow and lots of fan mounts) which will allow you to OC much more, and dual channel RAM. Running 980ti's SLI is just a complete waste of money IMO, unless you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Everyone jumps on the SLI bandwagon because they think more is better. Not always the case. Unless you are doing something much more graphically intensive other than gaming, your GPU is perfectly fine.

You've kinda got a mish-mash of parts that don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Throwing more money at you PC isn't going to necessarily translate into better performance. You should always be buying parts with reasonable justification as to why you are buying them and why that combination makes sense. Unless you are trying to save as much physical space as possible, I am lost with the choice of a minITX.

I don't think you should completely abandon your current system, just the current hardware set-up doesn't make a ton of sense, hence why you are running into performance issues. I can't say I've seen someone with a miniITX and a 980Ti before, unless space saving is really that much of a priority. Those small motherboards usually cant handle OCing and overheat very, very easily.

I'm truly not trying to be a d*ickhead or hate on you...it just kills me when guys spend all their hard earned money on stuff and put it together and it doesn't work out like they had envisioned it to...but that's why you are here, and there's never a stupid question to ask on this forum...so please don't feel offended or judged in any way, that is not my intention with this whatsoever.

I built my PC 2 years ago just for indie development (my main job is software development for a large company) so I didn't want a GPU cos I know what I'm like and I would just play games instead of work. That's why I opted for a small case (bitfenix prodigy) but a few months ago I got the itch and bought a GPU that's why it's a bit weird

I'm sure my H60 isn't performing right cos my CPU temp is about 85 - 90 at load when I overclock it to 4.2, let alone 4.6. Plus as you said, the cooling of this case isn't great for a gaming rig.

I wasn't planning to get another GPU for a while, the i7 was mainly for future proofing when I do get one. But I suppose if I keep most of my stuff it will keep the cost right down for now.

I know the i7 doesn't give you much more for gaming but it helps for SLI right?

So maybe these components then?

Corsair 780T PC Case
ASRock Z97X Killer
Corsair H110i GTX Hydro Cooler

And keep the rest of my components?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

My bad, misread your CPU there....That being said, there is very little difference between the two CPUs, the 70k and the 90k. You should be able to get an overclock of at leas t4.4 to 4.5 ghz if you got a decent chip and are properly cooling it, along with decent airflow through the case, and a motherboard that will actually allow it. More than likely the motherboard cant handle that kind of overclock because it's an miniITX and is probably overheating. A lot of guys run into this issue when they try to budget build a PC and try to OC using a microATX board. A majority of those boards can only handle slight overclocking most of the time.

Number one my list would be to get a better ATX sized motherboard and a decent case with good airflow and plenty of fan mounts.

Buying another 980Ti is a waste of money considering you aren't getting the full performance out of your current one.

Two 980Ti's is even more pointless unless you are planning on running 4K on some ridiculous sized monitor. You aren't unlocking the full potential of your first one, so why get a second? I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming and I agressively overclocked it. No heating issues there. You just need an aftermarket brand that has a good cooling system (Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, or EVGA...but I'm less familiar with those)

You should be able to max out pretty much any game out there with a single 980 Ti out of the box. Reference design cooling is often awful and by awful I mean extremely sh*tty, hence why your GPU is so loud and throttling back.

You need a better motherboard (and likely a better case to fit that motherboard and one with better airflow and lots of fan mounts) which will allow you to OC much more, and dual channel RAM. Running 980ti's SLI is just a complete waste of money IMO, unless you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Everyone jumps on the SLI bandwagon because they think more is better. Not always the case. Unless you are doing something much more graphically intensive other than gaming, your GPU is perfectly fine.

You've kinda got a mish-mash of parts that don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Throwing more money at you PC isn't going to necessarily translate into better performance. You should always be buying parts with reasonable justification as to why you are buying them and why that combination makes sense. Unless you are trying to save as much physical space as possible, I am lost with the choice of a minITX.

I don't think you should completely abandon your current system, just the current hardware set-up doesn't make a ton of sense, hence why you are running into performance issues. I can't say I've seen someone with a miniITX and a 980Ti before, unless space saving is really that much of a priority. Those small motherboards usually cant handle OCing and overheat very, very easily.

I'm truly not trying to be a d*ickhead or hate on you...it just kills me when guys spend all their hard earned money on stuff and put it together and it doesn't work out like they had envisioned it to...but that's why you are here, and there's never a stupid question to ask on this forum...so please don't feel offended or judged in any way, that is not my intention with this whatsoever.

I built my PC 2 years ago just for indie development (my main job is software development for a large company) so I didn't want a GPU cos I know what I'm like and I would just play games instead of work. That's why I opted for a small case (bitfenix prodigy) but a few months ago I got the itch and bought a GPU that's why it's a bit weird

I'm sure my H60 isn't performing right cos my CPU temp is about 85 - 90 at load when I overclock it to 4.2, let alone 4.6. Plus as you said, the cooling of this case isn't great for a gaming rig.

I wasn't planning to get another GPU for a while, the i7 was mainly for future proofing when I do get one. But I suppose if I keep most of my stuff it will keep the cost right down for now.

I know the i7 doesn't give you much more for gaming but it helps for SLI right?

So maybe these components then?

Corsair 780T PC Case
ASRock Z97X Killer
Corsair H110i GTX Hydro Cooler

And keep the rest of my components?

Future proofing is never worth it IMO. It's just money thrown out the window...money that could be spent towards meaningful components that will actually have an impact on your performance NOW. In the future "if", and I mean IF, you ever run into the situation where you'd need that component, then buy it then. It'll likely be cheaper too.

Those components are perfectly fine, and quite nice actually. I'd consider buying another stick of 8 GB RAM to exactly match your your single stick, or just start over and buy a 16 GB kit (2x8) so you'll have dual channel memory. If you buy an additional stick instead of a whole new kit, make sure it is the EXACT same model. Otherwise, good RAM dual 16 GB kit's are only going for $70ish these days, so get that and call it a day. I really wouldn't waste money on higher frequency RAM, as again, it doesn't jack squat for gaming, unless you are running an AMD APU. So find a reasonable 16 GB (2x8 GB) 1600 mhz kit and you are good to go.

All of the experts I've learned from still tell me i7's aren't useful over i5's, even in SLI. There's a few posts about it on here somewhere in the forum, I'll try to find the links.

I'd still stick with you have, and in the future when you absolutely need to spend more money on your rig (I know how it goes! It get's real addicting real fast)...then you can upgrade, and the components will be a lot cheaper. I'm glad I waited for the price drop on the i5 4690k. Used to be $330, picked one up for $209 not too long ago. I had been running off of an FX-6300 OC'ed at 5.0 ghz and it was still bottlenecking (hate using that term because it gets thrown around far too often without anyone really understanding it) the performance of my GTX 970. Once installed the i5 on a proper Z97 motherboard, the thing was like night and day just STOCK. Then you get into the OCing, and holy crap, you start seeing stars.

What kind of power supply do you have? I'm assuming a fairly beefy one due to the GTX 980Ti?

I should correct myself...the things worth future proofing are: a good case that's the right size to meet your current needs and future desires, and then a good power supply! The worst is having to buy ANOTHER power supply because you skimped out on getting a good one in the first place.

EDIT:
i7's have advantage over i5's in video or graphics rendering...unless you plan to a lot of that, stick with your current CPU.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

By the way, that Bitfenix Prodigy is a really cool looking case. Props on that little thing.

The Corsair 780T is an awesome full tower case...if you want a bit more "flashy" one the Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 ($115 right now I believe) is another good one. Another good full tower option that's a little more conservative but still has a nice look to it is the Thermaltake Core V71 E-ATX ($120 right now). Obviously, make sure whatever case you end up with has a 280 mm mount for the H110i you plan on getting.

This is where your opinion matters the most, because the last thing you want is a giant, obnoxious looking full tower that you get to stare at everyday. I usually prefer the windowless models, as I don't really care about my GPU "windforce" logo in blue LED. Plus metal sides typically have more fan mounts which I'd take any day over a window. But to each his own!

Also, I'm not sure where you are buying your parts from, but Amazon has the MSI Z97 Gaming motherboard for $146. That MOBO got nothing but great reviews. The Asus Z97 is also around the same price (I think $155) and IMO Asus makes the most reliable motherboards in the industry.

 

[Red0y0s]

My bad, misread your CPU there....That being said, there is very little difference between the two CPUs, the 70k and the 90k. You should be able to get an overclock of at leas t4.4 to 4.5 ghz if you got a decent chip and are properly cooling it, along with decent airflow through the case, and a motherboard that will actually allow it. More than likely the motherboard cant handle that kind of overclock because it's an miniITX and is probably overheating. A lot of guys run into this issue when they try to budget build a PC and try to OC using a microATX board. A majority of those boards can only handle slight overclocking most of the time.

Number one my list would be to get a better ATX sized motherboard and a decent case with good airflow and plenty of fan mounts.

Buying another 980Ti is a waste of money considering you aren't getting the full performance out of your current one.

Two 980Ti's is even more pointless unless you are planning on running 4K on some ridiculous sized monitor. You aren't unlocking the full potential of your first one, so why get a second? I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming and I agressively overclocked it. No heating issues there. You just need an aftermarket brand that has a good cooling system (Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, or EVGA...but I'm less familiar with those)

You should be able to max out pretty much any game out there with a single 980 Ti out of the box. Reference design cooling is often awful and by awful I mean extremely sh*tty, hence why your GPU is so loud and throttling back.

You need a better motherboard (and likely a better case to fit that motherboard and one with better airflow and lots of fan mounts) which will allow you to OC much more, and dual channel RAM. Running 980ti's SLI is just a complete waste of money IMO, unless you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Everyone jumps on the SLI bandwagon because they think more is better. Not always the case. Unless you are doing something much more graphically intensive other than gaming, your GPU is perfectly fine.

You've kinda got a mish-mash of parts that don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Throwing more money at you PC isn't going to necessarily translate into better performance. You should always be buying parts with reasonable justification as to why you are buying them and why that combination makes sense. Unless you are trying to save as much physical space as possible, I am lost with the choice of a minITX.

I don't think you should completely abandon your current system, just the current hardware set-up doesn't make a ton of sense, hence why you are running into performance issues. I can't say I've seen someone with a miniITX and a 980Ti before, unless space saving is really that much of a priority. Those small motherboards usually cant handle OCing and overheat very, very easily.

I'm truly not trying to be a d*ickhead or hate on you...it just kills me when guys spend all their hard earned money on stuff and put it together and it doesn't work out like they had envisioned it to...but that's why you are here, and there's never a stupid question to ask on this forum...so please don't feel offended or judged in any way, that is not my intention with this whatsoever.

I built my PC 2 years ago just for indie development (my main job is software development for a large company) so I didn't want a GPU cos I know what I'm like and I would just play games instead of work. That's why I opted for a small case (bitfenix prodigy) but a few months ago I got the itch and bought a GPU that's why it's a bit weird

I'm sure my H60 isn't performing right cos my CPU temp is about 85 - 90 at load when I overclock it to 4.2, let alone 4.6. Plus as you said, the cooling of this case isn't great for a gaming rig.

I wasn't planning to get another GPU for a while, the i7 was mainly for future proofing when I do get one. But I suppose if I keep most of my stuff it will keep the cost right down for now.

I know the i7 doesn't give you much more for gaming but it helps for SLI right?

So maybe these components then?

Corsair 780T PC Case
ASRock Z97X Killer
Corsair H110i GTX Hydro Cooler

And keep the rest of my components?

Future proofing is never worth it IMO. It's just money thrown out the window...money that could be spent towards meaningful components that will actually have an impact on your performance NOW. In the future "if", and I mean IF, you ever run into the situation where you'd need that component, then buy it then. It'll likely be cheaper too.

Those components are perfectly fine, and quite nice actually. I'd consider buying another stick of 8 GB RAM to exactly match your your single stick, or just start over and buy a 16 GB kit (2x8) so you'll have dual channel memory. If you buy an additional stick instead of a whole new kit, make sure it is the EXACT same model. Otherwise, good RAM dual 16 GB kit's are only going for $70ish these days, so get that and call it a day. I really wouldn't waste money on higher frequency RAM, as again, it doesn't jack squat for gaming, unless you are running an AMD APU. So find a reasonable 16 GB (2x8 GB) 1600 mhz kit and you are good to go.

All of the experts I've learned from still tell me i7's aren't useful over i5's, even in SLI. There's a few posts about it on here somewhere in the forum, I'll try to find the links.

I'd still stick with you have, and in the future when you absolutely need to spend more money on your rig (I know how it goes! It get's real addicting real fast)...then you can upgrade, and the components will be a lot cheaper. I'm glad I waited for the price drop on the i5 4690k. Used to be $330, picked one up for $209 not too long ago. I had been running off of an FX-6300 OC'ed at 5.0 ghz and it was still bottlenecking (hate using that term because it gets thrown around far too often without anyone really understanding it) the performance of my GTX 970. Once installed the i5 on a proper Z97 motherboard, the thing was like night and day just STOCK. Then you get into the OCing, and holy crap, you start seeing stars.

What kind of power supply do you have? I'm assuming a fairly beefy one due to the GTX 980Ti?

I should correct myself...the things worth future proofing are: a good case that's the right size to meet your current needs and future desires, and then a good power supply! The worst is having to buy ANOTHER power supply because you skimped out on getting a good one in the first place.

EDIT:
i7's have advantage over i5's in video or graphics rendering...unless you plan to a lot of that, stick with your current CPU.

I have the Seasonic P-760 SS-760XP2 PSU. It's a great PSU.

So with that cooling I'm getting and overclocking it to 4.5, what temps should I be looking at while gaming?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

 

[Red0y0s]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

 

[Red0y0s]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

I didn't touch the voltage, just left it at default which was 1.230, just read online to set it to 1.260 - 70, I've now overclocked to 4.4 and 1.260, ran the Intel Burn test 20 times and it was fine, the highest temp it went to was 70 degrees. Idles at 29 degrees. I'll go and play some games and see how I get on.

BTW dude, thanks for all your help, you're a dude of dudes

 

[Red0y0s]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

Definitely seems stable now at 4.4 with 1.260

again, thanks for all your help mate.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

Definitely seems stable now at 4.4 with 1.260

again, thanks for all your help mate.

No problem my friend...anytime. Would you mind selecting one of my solutions so this question thread can be marked as "answered"? Thanks and have fun with your new OC!

 

[Red0y0s]

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

Definitely seems stable now at 4.4 with 1.260

again, thanks for all your help mate.

No problem my friend...anytime. Would you mind selecting one of my solutions so this question thread can be marked as "answered"? Thanks and have fun with your new OC!

I can't find the "pick best solution" button? I'm logged in. I would assume there is a link on one of your replies?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

You may have not been a member long enough or answered enough questions to be eligibile to have the green button "pick as the solution" appear in other's threads. No big deal!

You're definitely good to go on the PSU aspect of things.

Ideally, you really shouldn't be hitting over mid 50's-60C while gaming (in a mid tower with proper airflow), but then again, I'm not sure what you are idling at.

Also, the size of your current case will inevitably trap more heat, and the components are much closer together....So your temps aren't quite what they would be in a mid tower.

Once you get a bigger case and different MOBO, I'd expect to see all your temps drop, especially your GPU. Look for a case with plenty of fan mounts and one that allows you to blow out the exhaust from the PSU. Most of the decent cases have this, but just double check. You can always throw some Antec Cyclone PCI slot coolers in there as well to pull out extra heat. I like to put those around the GPU to help directly pull the hot exhaust out.

Hi Mate,

Well, I got my case, mobo and new CPU cooler and stuck the rest of my bits in the new case.

The graphics card still has the same temps, 83 degrees on load but the CPU is much cooler now.

I am getting one issue, if I overclock to 4.4 my PC reboots randomly, I checked the event viewer and I'm getting a kernel power critical error, I've had this in the past and I changed my PSU and all was well.

if I overclock it to 4.0 seems much stable, playing BF4 for 2 hours and it's fine.

The CPU when overclocked to 4.4 is definitely not over heating, seems ok, must be drawing too much power? it reboots in windows just browsing and downloading games so can't be the temps.

the PSU I've got is the seasonic 760w, that should be enough power right? faulty PSU?

Are you increasing the Vcore to the CPU at all when you are overclocking the CPU from 4.0 to 4.4? I don't think your PSU has conked out on you, I think you might not be supplying your CPU with enough power. Have you stability tested any of these overclocks with Aida64 or Intel Burn Test?

760W PSU is definitely enough for you, even with a GTX 980Ti.

Before we start going down the road of a new PSU, let's make sure your OC is stable voltage-wise.

Definitely seems stable now at 4.4 with 1.260

again, thanks for all your help mate.

No problem my friend...anytime. Would you mind selecting one of my solutions so this question thread can be marked as "answered"? Thanks and have fun with your new OC!

I can't find the "pick best solution" button? I'm logged in. I would assume there is a link on one of your replies?