Built PC in 2015 - Need upgrade advice

[RossP]

Hi All,

Built my PC back in early 2015, and have not touched it since. Its been rock solid and run pretty much whatever I throw at it, but now I think its time to start upgrading. At first I thought I would just upgrade the GPU but then figured I would ask the community to see what else may need to be addressed.

Current Build:
CASE: Corsair Obsidian Series Black 550D
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Maximus VII HERO Z97 DDR3 2600
CPU: Intel i7-4790k
CPU COOLING: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTx970
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR3 1600mhz
STORAGE: Crucial Mx100 512 SSD / WD 2TB SATA III 7200RPM HD
POWER: XFX PRO1050W Black Edition
OS: Windows 10 Pro
MONITOR: Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch 4k UHD LED-Lit Monitor

Goals/Use:
Gaming (COD WZ, Battlefield, FPS) at Max settings (4k) (or as close as I can get)
General web browsing

Upgrade Budget:
~$1000 for any/all upgrades

Any help/feedback is appreciated!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I'm tempted to say at 4K you could just throw in another GPU. But I assume you are playing those FPS games online? In which case a faster CPU might help more than your average single player title....

Looking into it a bit deeper. Warzone seems to be limited to 4 cores as it maxes out an older quad core I5, and in Battlefield 5 4/8 cpu's like yours dont seem to be significantly behind newer 8/16 ones. I think you would get smoother gameplay, with better 0.1% minimums, but it wont be worlds apart.

In other news, your PSU is a good one although its coming to the end of its warranty. Its also way overpowered for what you actually need. I would think it will do another few years as its been so underused. There's no danger of your RAM capacity being an issue in gaming for the next 5 years still. If you sold it and replaced it with 16GB of some 2400 C10ish stuff you'd improve your multiplayer minimums by 5 or 10%

In your position with 1000 to spend, I'd look into a 1TB SSD to keep more games on and a new GPU then keep the CPU until the next round. a 6800, 3060Ti or 3070 would be a good buy.

Might also be worth looking into a 2560x1440 high refresh rate monitor. IPS makes a big difference to image quality, and the response times are great now rivalling TN screens. A very good quality faster screen should doable be within your budget. Sure you wouldnt be at 4K, but speed, colour reproduction, viewing angles will more then compensate. Up to you though, monitors are quite subjective. 4K 144 hz monitors are more expensive still, and you'd be talking 3080/6800XT upwards to justify it IMO, so over budget.

 

[RossP]

I'm tempted to say at 4K you could just throw in another GPU. But I assume you are playing those FPS games online? In which case a faster CPU might help more than your average single player title....

Looking into it a bit deeper. Warzone seems to be limited to 4 cores as it maxes out an older quad core I5, and in Battlefield 5 4/8 cpu's like yours dont seem to be significantly behind newer 8/16 ones. I think you would get smoother gameplay, with better 0.1% minimums, but it wont be worlds apart.

In other news, your PSU is a good one although its coming to the end of its warranty. Its also way overpowered for what you actually need. I would think it will do another few years as its been so underused. There's no danger of your RAM capacity being an issue in gaming for the next 5 years still. If you sold it and replaced it with 16GB of some 2400 C10ish stuff you'd improve your multiplayer minimums by 5 or 10%

In your position with 1000 to spend, I'd look into a 1TB SSD to keep more games on and a new GPU then keep the CPU until the next round. a 6800, 3060Ti or 3070 would be a good buy.

Might also be worth looking into a 2560x1440 high refresh rate monitor. IPS makes a big difference to image quality, and the response times are great now rivalling TN screens. A very good quality faster screen should doable be within your budget. Sure you wouldnt be at 4K, but speed, colour reproduction, viewing angles will more then compensate. Up to you though, monitors are quite subjective. 4K 144 hz monitors are more expensive still, and you'd be talking 3080/6800XT upwards to justify it IMO, so over budget.

With all this in mind, assuming I pickup a 3070, would that GPU be able to handle a 4k 144hz monitor? If possible I would like to future proof this a bit even if my monitor is the weakpoint for a time, and I pick one up later once prices drop a little.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yes it would, you may need to lower a setting or two if you want to keep it up towards the higher end of the refresh rate but a 3070 will run 4k just fine.

 

[DXCHASE]

I am literally running the same set up minus the case and gpu (using a 1080), not sure why youd use a 4k monitor with a 970 lol, my first upgrade would be far and wide a new GPU, you can use everything else pretty much still, maybe a new CPU but that doesnt come close to being the 1st thing to replace imo. So yea, a gpu, thats if you can find one right now. Your system will be good until you can get one, thats for sure.

 

[RossP]

I am literally running the same set up minus the case and gpu (using a 1080), not sure why youd use a 4k monitor with a 970 lol, my first upgrade would be far and wide a new GPU, you can use everything else pretty much still, maybe a new CPU but that doesnt come close to being the 1st thing to replace imo. So yea, a gpu, thats if you can find one right now. Your system will be good until you can get one, thats for sure.

I think that a 3070 is the right move. In general when are people expecting more stock to come in?

 

[DXCHASE]

I think that a 3070 is the right move. In general when are people expecting more stock to come in?

Not for a while, they sell out just as fast as they come into stock, its a mess atm. I'd say not for a couple of months at least, maybe around the time a 3080ti or equivalent drops? Its so hit and miss right now, with demand being outweighed by the supply , also the pandemic.

 

[RossP]

Not for a while, they sell out just as fast as they come into stock, its a mess atm. I'd say not for a couple of months at least, maybe around the time a 3080ti or equivalent drops? Its so hit and miss right now, with demand being outweighed by the supply , also the pandemic.

Well, I was searching the internet high and low, following bots on discord etc. and was finally able to snag a 3080 off Amazon.......only for Amazon to cancel my order the next day for no reason. Contacted customer service and they could not provide any reason for the cancellation, they just said "the system just cancelled it". Super frustrating.

 

[RossP]

Thinking about approaching this from a different angle: Buying a pre-built PC and just scavenging parts from it, and selling what ever is left.

Newegg sells a prebuilt machine for $1900

• Intel Core i7 10700F 2.90GHz (4.80GHz Turbo), 8-Core 16-Thread
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
• 16GB DDR4 3000MHz
• 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD

Based on my existing setup I think I could use the GPU and the SSD no problem (If I am wrong here, please correct me). That will offset some of the cost.

Also based on CPU benchmarks, the i7 10700 is an upgrade from my current CPU. Is this true? And will it work with my existing motherboard?

 

[RossP]

I'm confused, if you are going to buy a pre-built, why not pull the parts you wanna keep of your current system and then just use the new one?

Put everything in the case you like, Pull your HDD and pop it in with the new comp, and most swap the power supply, then format the drive on your old comp and sell it as a full comp, or just part it out.

The CPU on the new comp is a pretty big jump as is the ram.

I think you are just describing a variation of what I was already thinking of doing. I was really just wondering about any compatibility issues that might arise. The only one I can see is that my MB is still DDR3.