Help me upgrade my current rig please.

[dgvu2903]

Hi all, I want to upgrade my current rig. This is what I currently have:

Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 280X DirectX 11.2 R9-280X-TDFD 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5
PSU: Rosewill CAPSTONE Series 550W 80 Plus Gold Certified ATX12V/EPS12V
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3
Case: CORSAIR CARBIDE 330R Mid-Tower Case - Blackout Edition
Cooler: CORSAIR h100i

I write software and need multiple multiple instances of IntelliJ Idea, and I also play a lot of Guild Wars 2. I figured I might need a new i7, more ram and a better GPU (I'm thinking GTX1080). Any suggestion on what I should keep, and what I should upgrade? base on what I've researched so far, I think I'll need a new Motherboard that supports LGA 1151 because that's the socket all the new CPUs are using.

Edit: Budget is $1000

 

[ChumP]

Do you have a budget limit for the upgrade?

 

[dgvu2903]

Budget is $1000, edited in the question.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Fortunately if your just programming with java and are gaming, you really need more memory than CPU. Do you know if IntelliJ Idea runs better on Intel or AMD CPUs?

Here's an Intel system, if you can go AMD i can do that one aswell (I left storage out, so choose whatever you need there):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($167.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($281.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 4GB NITRO+ Video Card ($199.95 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1116.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:13 EDT-0400

If you really want a GTX 1080, i'd recommend using your h100i and GPU for now and then wait for more money to upgrade:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($167.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($281.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $869.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:14 EDT-0400

 

[dgvu2903]

Fortunately if your just programming with java and are gaming, you really need more memory than CPU. Do you know if IntelliJ Idea runs better on Intel or AMD CPUs?

I honestly don’t know. Pretty much all the computer at my company uses Intel, so I’m assuming Intel is better.

 

[dgvu2903]

Fortunately if your just programming with java and are gaming, you really need more memory than CPU. Do you know if IntelliJ Idea runs better on Intel or AMD CPUs?

Here's an Intel system, if you can go AMD i can do that one aswell (I left storage out, so choose whatever you need there):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($167.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($281.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 4GB NITRO+ Video Card ($199.95 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1116.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:13 EDT-0400

If you really want a GTX 1080, i'd recommend using your h100i and GPU for now and then wait for more money to upgrade:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($167.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($281.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $869.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:14 EDT-0400

I have a case, cooler and psu, so we can subtract those out and get a better GPU or CPU. For Ram, I’m thinking 16GB is good enough since that’s what I’m having at work.

 

[TechyInAZ]

I tried looking up info, but can't find anything. I'll leave this one up to you, if you want to run Intel or AMD. AMD will be cheaper, but if your programming prefers higher clock speeds, then amd will be a touch slower.

If it were me, I'd go AMD, hope this build helps (again you can choose storage, i recommend you buy 1 SSD at least):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($249.43 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($158.59 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($281.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $929.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:21 EDT-0400

You can choose if you want to use your current H100i or not, I'd get a new one just for reliability reasons.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Ok just saw your post now, sorry. So 16GB of RAM, keep the case, cooler. I do recommend you get a new PSU if you want a 1080 tho.

So you want intel or AMD?

 

[ChumP]

I went with the I7-8700 because I saw that you probably aren't into overclocking by your current CPU. Squeezed a 1070Ti in there too.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($325.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - H370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $978.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:21 EDT-0400

 

[dgvu2903]

Ok just saw your post now, sorry. So 16GB of RAM, keep the case, cooler. I do recommend you get a new PSU if you want a 1080 tho.

So you want intel or AMD?

I think I will go with Intel, I could stretch the budget a bit more. of course I don’t want to cheap out on the PSU, what do you think would be a good budget for this?

 

[TechyInAZ]

Here's AMD (1070 ti = 1080 when overclocked fyi):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($249.43 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($158.59 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($143.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB FTW2 GAMING iCX Video Card ($454.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1086.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:26 EDT-0400

Intel:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($167.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($143.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB FTW2 GAMING iCX Video Card ($454.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1126.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:27 EDT-0400

My dad is a programmer and works on a core i5 6600K so i don't think you'll need a core i7. And since i know some programming langauges like javascript still prefer higher clock speeds (tho for the user to notice the difference is marginal), the 9600K should work well.

Hope that PSU and GPU and CPU combo work well for you.

 

[dgvu2903]

I went with the I7-8700 because I saw that you probably aren't into overclocking by your current CPU. Squeezed a 1070Ti in there too.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($325.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - H370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $978.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:21 EDT-0400

Ah nice nice, this seem pretty good too. How does 1070ti compare to 1080?

 

[ChumP]

I went with the I7-8700 because I saw that you probably aren't into overclocking by your current CPU. Squeezed a 1070Ti in there too.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($325.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock - H370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $978.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 13:21 EDT-0400

Ah nice nice, this seem pretty good too. How does 1070ti compare to 1080?

10% performance difference... maybe less in some cases

 

[TechyInAZ]

^^ And that goes to 0% if you overclock both core and memory.

 

[coozie7]

Do you intend to do any overclocking? If not we can trim the budget a little with the CPU/MB and RAM choices.
In what way is the current system lacking?

As the system stands a few possible upgrades spring to mind:
With 8Gb of installed RAM you may just be running out of memory, rather than hitting a CPU restriction, moving to 16Gb is likely to help here but check Task Manager first, see how much system RAM is being used.
You don't mention storage at all, spinning HDDs slow down-often significantly-over time as they clutter up and fragment, as a first action I'd seriously consider adding a large 2.5" SATA SSD to the current system.

 

[ChumP]

That said, compiling huge projects takes a while... so those extra threads may come in handy .

 

[dgvu2903]

Do you intend to do any overclocking? If not we can trim the budget a little with the CPU/MB and RAM choices.
In what way is the current system lacking?

As the system stands a few possible upgrades spring to mind:
With 8Gb of installed RAM you may just be running out of memory, rather than hitting a CPU restriction, moving to 16Gb is likely to help here but check Task Manager first, see how much system RAM is being used.
You don't mention storage at all, spinning HDDs slow down-often significantly-over time as they clutter up and fragment, as a first action I'd seriously consider adding a large 2.5" SATA SSD to the current system.

So far I know Ram is not enough, it’s hitting 100% constantly, the CPU fluctuates while a bit, I see 90% - 100% most of the time. I know how to OC GPU, But I don’t know much about CPU Overclocking

 

[coozie7]

Just wondered about the CPU usage, I was thinking about just improving the existing system by adding memory and an SSD but if you're seeing 100% CPU usage fairly frequently your original thoughts are correct: You'll need a full core update to make significant improvements.

The software developers aren't being very helpful about core/thread usage, but I'll suspect that with multiple instances open you'll need plenty of CPU cores/threads available so my take on the upgrade would be this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($249.43 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($139.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($72.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $1051.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 14:11 EDT-0400

While AMD cores aren't quite as fast as Intel ones, here there are 8 of them, with some 16 available threads for your software to chew on.
Lower end 'B' chipset motherboard as opposed to a all singing and dancing 'X' series, no significant loss of performance and with plenty of features it was chosen for value rather than bling.
Added a decent 1Tb SSD, trust me once you've used one you will not want to go back to a spinning HDD.
Yep, a GTX1070Ti, albeit the cheapest out there.

Same build but costed out for a AMD Vega 64 graphics card: Vega 64 nips at the heels of the GTX1080Ti and bests the GTX1080/1070Ti in most games:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($249.43 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus - Radeon RX VEGA 64 8GB AREZ Strix OC Edition Video Card ($574.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($72.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $1126.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 14:31 EDT-0400

 

[dgvu2903]

My storage is good, I have a 1TB Samsung ssd.

 

[TechyInAZ]

I agree coozie7. Intel technically should be faster when compiling code, but since you have less cores and threads, means overall you can't run as much stuff at the same time.

Is the code you compile very CPU taxing dgvu? Or is it more simple stuff like website or database work?

 

[dgvu2903]

I agree coozie7. Intel technically should be faster when compiling code, but since you have less cores and threads, means overall you can't run as much stuff at the same time.

Is the code you compile very CPU taxing dgvu? Or is it more simple stuff like website or database work?

It's while a big application I'm working on. I'm new to the project so I'm not sure what else is in the app. But so far I know it's a web application that also works with databases, and the back-end part of it does a lot of files processing, that's what I'm working on.
I remember the desktop I'm using at work has an Intel Xeon (not sure what version, but I checked newegg after that and I remember it costs around $330 and has 6 cores.) and 16gb of rams. I always have at least 4 instances of IntelliJ open to run 4 different applications, while those instances are on, at idle, the CPU usage is around 30% - 40%, but does hit 100% sometime while compiling and testing (this is with the desktop at work).
I work remotely and while far away from the office, but if ya'll need to know what setup I have at work I could come to the office sometime next week and check it out.

 

[dgvu2903]

Is the new PSU 650W necessary? I have a 550W PSU, do yall think that would be good?

I looked around on google, and it seem like a good quality PSU at 550W would do the job well, do correct me if I'm wrong.

In that case, What if I don't buy a new PSU, instead, I will keep using the PSU I currently have (listed in the original post), and spend that money on an i7-8700k, I can learn to OC, 4.8Ghz seem to be a sweet spot for this chip.

If I do go this route, will the ASRock - H370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard be able to handle the OC?

 

[TechyInAZ]

Ok, thank you for the info, that helps significantly.

Definitely go with a core i7 then. An H370 Pro4 will not be able to overclock, if you want to overclock, lets try this:

The 9700K is newer than the 8700K, has 8 physical cores but no hyperthreading. Generally it beats the 8700K. It also has soldered TIM meaning it will cool a bit better with your h100i than the 8700K (at least it should, not sure if the two extra cores make more heat).

The motherboard I recommend is the Asus Prime motherboards, AMAZING BIOS, solid quality across the board.

Yes if you want a GTX 1080, i recommend a 650W PSU. NEVER ever cheap out on a PSU, it is your lifeline to your system. If it's a cheap PSU and goes out, it can take your CPU motherboard AND GPU with it. (you could use your old PSU, but i would not risk it one bit.)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor ($419.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($183.90 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($143.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $827.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 23:07 EDT-0400

 

[dgvu2903]

Ok, thank you for the info, that helps significantly.

Definitely go with a core i7 then. An H370 Pro4 will not be able to overclock, if you want to overclock, lets try this:

The 9700K is newer than the 8700K, has 8 physical cores but no hyperthreading. Generally it beats the 8700K. It also has soldered TIM meaning it will cool a bit better with your h100i than the 8700K (at least it should, not sure if the two extra cores make more heat).

The motherboard I recommend is the Asus Prime motherboards, AMAZING BIOS, solid quality across the board.

Yes if you want a GTX 1080, i recommend a 650W PSU. NEVER ever cheap out on a PSU, it is your lifeline to your system. If it's a cheap PSU and goes out, it can take your CPU motherboard AND GPU with it. (you could use your old PSU, but i would not risk it one bit.)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor ($419.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($183.90 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($143.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $827.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-21 23:07 EDT-0400

Thank you for everyone effort. This is the build I will be going with.

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
GPU: GTX 1070-ti

This will put me at around $1150, over the budget but that's fine. I will settle for the GTX 1070-ti. I will need that new CPU+Motherboard+RAM asap for work, I will wait until Black-Friday and hope that the GPU will get a bit cheaper.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Nice man! I hope you enjoy it!!