$300-700 Upgrading Current System - Streaming, Video Editing, Youtube, Gaming etc

[Jimbo81]

Approximate Purchase Date: In the next week or so 6/18 - 6/24

Budget Range: $300-700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Streaming, Youtube/Video Editing, Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: Yes, but getting a cheap one for Twitch Chat on the side and not part of the budget

Parts to Upgrade: Ram (8gb),CPU possibly (i5-4690 @ 3.50GHz) I feel like streaming Overwatch and running OBS is being bottle necked. Need a 2nd hard drive/SSD

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Prefer Newegg but open to other reliable sites

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Parts Preferences: No preference

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe, I think my current GPU is handling games just fine and don't think I need two (AMD Radeon R9 200 series)

Additional Comments: Currently using OBS for streaming and Sony Vegas for Video Editing. My current upload speed through Comcast is roughly 12mb. Windows 8- 64 bit,

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I feel my system getting bogged-down when I stream games like overwatch. Also my memory usage gets randomly sky high for basic programs like firefox with 1-2 windows open and its taking 70+% of memory. Also I know I need a new/second hard drive/SSD. Currently have a 250gb SSD which I have EVERYTHING saved on which could also be causing these slow-downs?

Long story short, - experiencing slow downs when I stream overwatch and have a couple other programs open (will upgrading my CPU help this?), likely need to add more RAM and another Hard drive.

Any help or feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[coozie7]

Swapping the i5 for a i7 4790K might help, the 'K' base and turbo clocks are higher than those of the current i5 and non 'K' 4790, but I'd say this is the last thing you should consider.

The choked SSD is likely to be the main problem, most of us have a SSD for fast load/save operations with a HDD for bulk storage, adding some space here will almost certainly help.

Look into that memory use, it sounds very abnormal, is the system infected with something nasty?

Adding memory is also likely to help, the stuff is getting silly cheap anyway, but don't expect miracles and bear in mind Haswell parts like fast memory, aim for 16Gb of DDR3 2400 or faster (if the MB supports it).

What graphics card do you have? IT may also be a restriction here.

 

[Bearmann]

Ideallly you would want a 6 core 5930K or 6850K. This should show some noticeable improvement however. Check you MB for compatible RAM and check to make sure the RAM will fit under the cooler. What graphics card are you using?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($88.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($153.37 @ Amazon)
Total: $698.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-18 15:17 EDT-0400

OR

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($56.60 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($63.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Sandisk X400 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $572.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-18 15:23 EDT-0400

 

[Jimbo81]

Thanks for all of your feedback so far!

So it sounds like the SSD I have is slowing things down mainly, and getting my RAM up to at least 16gb wouldn't hurt.

My GPU is a AMD Radeon R9 200 series, at least thats what it says when I look at the specs. How would the GPU restrict me?

 

[Bearmann]

Can you find an exact number on the GPU? R9 280, 290X, etc. Go to Device Manager and click on Display Adapters. In addition to gaming, the GPU helps with video processing.

 

[Jimbo81]

Weird, all it says is AMD Radeon R9 200 Series...Doesnt give a specific number.

 

[Bearmann]

You could download CPU-Z and it should tell you.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

 

[Jimbo81]

I downloaded the program and it still says Radeon 200 series?

Did some digging through my closet and found my old boxes! lol

GPU - HIS Radeon R9 290 - 4GB GDDR5
PSU - EVGA - NEX750W 80+ gold
Mobo - ASRock H97 Pro 4 - Haswell Chipset
Ram - G.Skill two 4GB sticks DDR3 Dual Channel Mem - Frequency 800MHz

Hope this additional info helps...

 

[Bearmann]

That's a good GPU. I would hold on to it.

 

[Jimbo81]

Thanks for your feedback! I think I am going to start with upgrading the RAM and getting another SSD/HDD that you recommended.

If it its still getting slowing up then it would be time to upgrade the CPU.

Thanks!