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[10k]

Ok PC-Gaf, I need some advice. It's time for a PC upgrade. I just don't know if I should wait till June (Haswell, GTX 700 series, new LGA 1150 socket motherboards).

I built my first rig in December 2009. I've only added more RAM, an aftermarket CPU cooler, and upgraded my GPU from a GTX 295 to a GTX 570 (2.5GB edition)

Core i7-920 2.7GHz (Overclocked up to 4Ghz)
Asus Rampage II Extreme Motherboard (LGA 1366, a poor socket choice )
18GB DDR3 RAM 1600mhz
Corsair TX 850Watt PSU
GTX 570 2.5GB GDDR5
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower case (Supports all ATX formats, even E-ATX)



EDIT: I posted this in the "I need a new PC thread" before making a thread. If a mod wants to delete that post or this thread I understand
EDIT 2: I already have an OCZ Vertex 3 128GB SSD.

My main reason for wanting to upgrade are:

I want USB 3.0
I want SATA 3.0
Most importantly, I want PCIe 3.0 x16 for faster GPU speeds.

But, since I have a first gen intel CPU, I won't be able to keep it. A new motherboard means a new CPU. As of now I am eyeing an Asus Maximus V Formula (Asus onboard sound is good enough for my gaming experiences, including software, and I only buy Asus motherboards) and an Intel Core i7-3770k for the overclocking ability and hyperthreading.

Now, my current i7 was a waste for HT, as no game ever used it, until now (Crysis 3). Some current games, and I expect next gen games, will make use of hyperthreading on CPU's to make up for the lack of cores most PC's have compared to PS4/X1's 8 cores. It's just a theory, but Hyperthreading is important to me. So, I won't feel comfortable going lower then an i7 for next gen.

I like to dabble in some overclocking of RAM and CPU's, and the Bios in the Republic of Gamers boards are easy to do that.

But, my timing seems poor. Haswell CPU's are coming out next month, and they use an LGA 1150 socket. Asus is releasing maximus VI boards and new sabertooth boards soon. I prefer maximus because it comes with on board audio.

I buy intel and nvidia and asus only. I prefer EVGA as my gpu dealer. My plan was to buy this setup next month:

Asus Maximus V Formula
Intel Core i7-3770k 3.5GHz (turbo boost 3.9Ghz)
GTX 780
Leftover components from old CPU like RAM and PSU.

But, should I wait a month for Haswell CPU's and LGA 1150 motherboards?
I don't want to spend more then $1000 upgrading my PC.

Am I spending too much for what I want? Should I get a cheaper sabertooth board and buy a mid-tier sound card? I don't SLI, so I don't want more then two PCIe 16.0x slots. I only game at 1080p, and one monitor, but I accept nothing less than 60fps at maximum settings (except for Crysis 3, poorly optimized lol).

 

[The Crimson Kid]

Aside from your current graphics card, your computer is already pretty beastly!

The golden rule of PC building is: wait as long as you possibly can to upgrade! The longer you wait, the more you will get for less. Example: the new Nvidia card that is equivalent to the power of a Titan will be several hundred dollars cheaper than the Titan was at launch just a few months ago.

Personally, I have a lesser rig than you do and I am waiting a year plus for components manufacturers to improve memory bandwidth across the entire system, which is currently the only area where PC power is going to be lagging behind the next generation of consoles.

USB 3 and PCI-E 3 haven't quite been too useful yet, but they definitely will be in the future.

I'm not sure that those upgrades would be worth building most of a new PC for at this point, especially because it is unclear how next-generation titles will perform on today's PCs.

At the end of the day, you're the only one who can determine how much you value such an upgrade. If you've done the proper research and know that you will get more utility from the upgrade than what it costs you, then go for it!

 

[Radec]

why would you upgrade your PC anyway, you only need to up the GPU and SSD (if you still not have one)

 

[DocSeuss]

If Haswell's coming out in a month... why not wait 30 days? Did Crysis Warhead 2 come out when I wasn't looking?

 

[-COOLIO-]

why would you upgrade your PC anyway, you only need to up the GPU and SSD (if you still not have one)

i gotta agree.

where are you feeling the bottlenecks?

edit: whoops, read futher, you want usb 3.0 and hence a new mobo. well then, ya i would just wait for haswell, its right around the corner.

 

[10k]

Aside from your current graphics card, your computer is already pretty beastly!

The golden rule of PC building is: wait as long as you possibly can to upgrade! The longer you wait, the more you will get for less. Example: the new Nvidia card that is equivalent to the power of a Titan will be several hundred dollars cheaper than the Titan was at launch just a few months ago.

Personally, I have a lesser rig than you do and I am waiting a year plus for components manufacturers to improve memory bandwidth across the entire system, which is currently the only area where PC power is going to be lagging behind the next generation of consoles.

USB 3 and PCI-E 3 haven't quite been too useful yet, but they definitely will be in the future.

I'm not sure that those upgrades would be worth building most of a new PC for at this point, especially because it is unclear how next-generation titles will perform on today's PCs.

At the end of the day, you're the only one who can determine how much you value such an upgrade. If you've done the proper research and know that you will get more utility from the upgrade than what it costs you, then go for it!

why would you upgrade your PC anyway, you only need to up the GPU and SSD (if you still not have one)

So far, everyone has said I need a new GPU only. Hmmm, so having a PCI 3.0 GPU on a PCI 2.0 slot won't bottleneck my new gpu?

 

[secretanchitman]

Aside from your current graphics card, your computer is already pretty beastly!

The golden rule of PC building is: wait as long as you possibly can to upgrade! The longer you wait, the more you will get for less. Example: the new Nvidia card that is equivalent to the power of a Titan will be several hundred dollars cheaper than the Titan was at launch just a few months ago.

Personally, I have a lesser rig than you do and I am waiting a year plus for components manufacturers to improve memory bandwidth across the entire system, which is currently the only area where PC power is going to be lagging behind the next generation of consoles.

USB 3 and PCI-E 3 haven't quite been too useful yet, but they definitely will be in the future.

I'm not sure that those upgrades would be worth building most of a new PC for at this point, especially because it is unclear how next-generation titles will perform on today's PCs.

At the end of the day, you're the only one who can determine how much you value such an upgrade. If you've done the proper research and know that you will get more utility from the upgrade than what it costs you, then go for it!

You just summed up what I was about to type in a much shorter post!

I 110% agree with The Crimson Kid. You already have a pretty high end machine and you'll only be achieving diminishing returns if you upgrade. If it were me, I would just upgrade the GPU and get an SSD if you haven't already to really supercharge your machine. An overclocked 920 at 4Ghz, 18GB of RAM and a GTX 570? Holy crap that's pretty fast to me.

Specifically:

the GTX 570 is still pretty good even to this day. Sure it may not run the highest possible settings on every single game at 1080p 60fps, but to do that, you either need a better gpu or SLI at the very least.

USB 3.0 is nice, but I wouldn't consider it a dealbreaker. I have USB 2.0 on literally every machine I own and while it's nice to have, it's not essential (though I have Firewire 800 and Thunderbolt to make up for it).

SATA 3.0 I'll give you. A fast 6gbps sandforce SSD just screams on SATA 3.0, but it's also no slouch on SATA 2.0.

PCIe 3.0 is moot at this point quite frankly. We haven't even approached the saturation point for 2.0 so 3.0 really is out of the question.

TLDR - keep your machine the way it is and worst case upgrade to an SSD and GPU if you really want to.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I buy intel and nvidia and asus only. I prefer EVGA as my gpu dealer.

My man

 

[Akuun]

With your current PC and the upgrades you're looking for, I think you can wait another month or so for Haswell. I hear the CPU prices will be nearly identical anyway.

Hell, I'm on a computer roughly half as good as what you have right now, and I'm okay with waiting for Haswell.

 

[10k]

You just summed up what I was about to type in a much shorter post!

I 110% agree with The Crimson Kid. You already have a pretty high end machine and you'll only be achieving diminishing returns if you upgrade. If it were me, I would just upgrade the GPU and get an SSD if you haven't already to really supercharge your machine. An overclocked 920 at 4Ghz, 18GB of RAM and a GTX 570? Holy crap that's pretty fast to me.

Specifically:

the GTX 570 is still pretty good even to this day. Sure it may not run the highest possible settings on every single game at 1080p 60fps, but to do that, you either need a better gpu or SLI at the very least.

USB 3.0 is nice, but I wouldn't consider it a dealbreaker. I have USB 2.0 on literally every machine I own and while it's nice to have, it's not essential (though I have Firewire 800 and Thunderbolt to make up for it).

SATA 3.0 I'll give you. A fast 6gbps sandforce SSD just screams on SATA 3.0, but it's also no slouch on SATA 2.0.

PCIe 3.0 is moot at this point quite frankly. We haven't even approached the saturation point for 2.0 so 3.0 really is out of the question.

TLDR - keep your machine the way it is and worst case upgrade to an SSD and GPU if you really want to.

Alright. I guess it's GTX 780 only then. I prefer max settings and 50+fps, that is why I want to upgrade. I want SATA 3.0 for my SSD to be optimal. But for gaming, it seems pci 3.0 won't do anything for me.

My man

Ever since 2002 when my friend's dad (a software guru/rich mofo) built me my first rig! P4B533 buddy!

 

[secretanchitman]

Alright. I guess it's GTX 780 only then. I prefer max settings and 50+fps, that is why I want to upgrade. I want SATA 3.0 for my SSD to be optimal. But for gaming, it seems pci 3.0 won't do anything for me.
Ever since 2002 when my friend's dad (a software guru/rich mofo) built me my first rig! P4B533 buddy!

P4P800 for life!

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have a i7 930 clocked just under 4.0 GHz and it has virtually never bottlenecked my machine except apparently with one game, which is slowly becoming my white whale, GTA IV. Man, I want to play that game at 60 fps but my CPU doesn't have the chops. I will resist but I have been tempted to buy a Haswell CPU that I could potentially OC to 5 GHz just to see if I could achieve a solid 60 fps in that goddamned game.

 

[element]

wait.

 

[plainr_]

At this point I'd wait. Only weeks away.

 

[SneakyStephan]

You have an i7 920 at 4 ghz... I hope you understand that ivy bridge is maaaaybe a 25-30 percent upgrade at best? Why even bother?

Wait for the new architecture and even that is supposed to only be a 5-15 percent increase clock for clock, I honestly don't see the point.
What are you doing that you desperately need that minimal amount of extra cpu performance?

I'm not even aware of any gpus being bottlenecked on an 8x pcie lane...
Sata 3 is another thing you'll never be able to tell the difference for if you don't look at benchmarks or copy huge files between two ssds all day every day for god knows what reason. (in every single other case you'll be bottlenecked by the medium you are copying from or to, be it your download speed, ultraslow disc read speeds or slower hdd/flash memory speeds

There is no benifit to an upgrade for you imo other than benchmark epeen.

Be glad that you bought a cpu that lasts you for 5+ years , ride the wave of good value.

 

[10k]

Thanks a lot guy. Guess I wasn't aware how good my PC actually was and now PCI 3.0 doesn't really do much. I guess it's just a gpu upgrsde for me then. No CPU.

 

[RadarScope1]

You know I am kinda thinking about getting into PC gaming right now, but shit, reading this kind of stuff confounds me. Don't think I'd ever be able to learn it.

 

[Felix Lighter]

You know I am kinda thinking about getting into PC gaming right now, but shit, reading this kind of stuff confounds me. Don't think I'd ever be able to learn it.

It's pretty simple. Everything just snaps together at this point. If you would need suggestions for specific builds, the I need a new PC thread would hook you up in no time given your budget and need. Things only get complicated when you try to go above and beyond.

 

[sixghost]

You know I am kinda thinking about getting into PC gaming right now, but shit, reading this kind of stuff confounds me. Don't think I'd ever be able to learn it.

It's really not that intimidating. I knew virtually nothing before I built my PC in December, but it was easy enough learn. The people in the PC-GAF thread are extremely helpful and knowledgeable, and there are lots of helpful guides in the OP.

 

[fertygo]

Same question here

 

[SMT]

I have a I5 3570K, and I read that the Haswell chips will only be 9-10% better than the current chips. So, I decided I would upgrade when Intel actually has competition, and doesn't do menial upgrades.
With Intel dominating the CPU industry, they can take these liberties. Your wallet can't.

Hopefully the AMD + ARM collab will boast some powerful hardware.

The power difference between the first generation of i7 and i5 with the current one is 25%, just to give some perspective.

My suggestion to all those who want a pc is to snag all the liquidated i5s and i7s and build rigs off of them.

I also have the i7 920 OP, it was my high school present.

 

[TryHardShounen]

The GTX 780 is looking to retail for around $650 USD and appears to be around 5-10% slower than the Titan depending on the application. Compared to the 680 it appears to be around 15-25% faster, again depending on the application. I'm a graphics horsepower whore so that would be my priority first and foremost. Although it wouldn't hurt to upgrade to Haswell with something like a 4570k.

 

[Axonometri]

Aside from your current graphics card, your computer is already pretty beastly!

The golden rule of PC building is: wait as long as you possibly can to upgrade! The longer you wait, the more you will get for less. Example: the new Nvidia card that is equivalent to the power of a Titan will be several hundred dollars cheaper than the Titan was at launch just a few months ago.

Personally, I have a lesser rig than you do and I am waiting a year plus for components manufacturers to improve memory bandwidth across the entire system, which is currently the only area where PC power is going to be lagging behind the next generation of consoles.

USB 3 and PCI-E 3 haven't quite been too useful yet, but they definitely will be in the future.

I'm not sure that those upgrades would be worth building most of a new PC for at this point, especially because it is unclear how next-generation titles will perform on today's PCs.

At the end of the day, you're the only one who can determine how much you value such an upgrade. If you've done the proper research and know that you will get more utility from the upgrade than what it costs you, then go for it!

I am running a 8800GTX with 2gb pc6400 with a e6600 dual core.. have I waited long enough? Should I upgrade now?

 

[SMT]

I am running a 8800GTX with 2gb pc6400 with a e6600 dual core.. have I waited long enough? Should I upgrade now?

Yes, go find a discounted current gen processor.

 

[Axonometri]

Yes, go find a discounted current gen processor.

I was not really being serious in asking... I would go do that... If my Mboard was more than a 775 socket.(Stuck unable to upgrade but to a quad core) To upgrade my mem I would be limited to paying @150 bucks to upgrade to 4gb pairs and then my slots would be full. Partly why I never upgraded and just kept waiting...

Surprisingly, It runs games pretty damn good... Tomb Raider surprised heck out of me.

The Xbox back to square one even makes this PC look like a old jalopy.

 

[Jin]

I have a i7 930 clocked just under 4.0 GHz and it has virtually never bottlenecked my machine except apparently with one game, which is slowly becoming my white whale, GTA IV. Man, I want to play that game at 60 fps but my CPU doesn't have the chops. I will resist but I have been tempted to buy a Haswell CPU that I could potentially OC to 5 GHz just to see if I could achieve a solid 60 fps in that goddamned game.

My i7 3770K (stock) can't run GTA4 at solid 60fps. There's this one area near the helicopter tour in Algonquin where if you look towards the downtown building the fps takes a nose dive. I don't think we will ever see this game run 60fps 100% of time.

 

[Schnozberry]

My i7 3770K (stock) can't run GTA4 at solid 60fps. There's this one area near the helicopter tour in Algonquin where if you look towards the downtown building the fps takes a nose dive. I don't think we will ever see this game run 60fps 100% of time.

It really is a dogshit port. A real shame.

 

[scottzorus]

I am running a 8800GTX with 2gb pc6400 with a e6600 dual core.. have I waited long enough? Should I upgrade now?

I'm on a core 2 duo E6550 and a 512 MB 8600 GT
I upgraded to 4 GB of RAM, which the BIOS sees, but Windows doesn't? Windows 7 puts me at 3.25 GB. I checked my mobo and it can hold a max of 4. Not sure what's going on there, but yes, I have the itch to build a new one.

 

[Little Old Man]

I'm on a core 2 duo E6550 and a 512 MB 8600 GT
I upgraded to 4 GB of RAM, which the BIOS sees, but Windows doesn't? Windows 7 puts me at 3.25 GB. I checked my mobo and it can hold a max of 4. Not sure what's going on there, but yes, I have the itch to build a new one.

Sounds like you are running the 32bit (and not 64bit) version of Windows 7, which has limitations on how much memory it can address.

 

[scottzorus]

Sounds like you are running the 32bit (and not 64bit) version of Windows 7, which has limitations on how much memory it can address.

I'm on 64 bit! I never figured it out, but I can't really play anything new on this computer anyway.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

OP, your PC is almost mine's twin:

i7-950 OC to 4 ghz
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
12 GB DDR3-1600 RAM
MSI GTX 680 Lightning
same PSU and case (all bow down before the mighty HAF 932, the Hummer of computer cases!)

I don't even know if I'll upgrade when Haswell drops. I want to wait until I see what the PC ports of Xbone/PS4 games require to run before I do an upgrade. With the next-gen consoles so very close, it seems pretty dumb to do a PC upgrade now!