Looking for ideas/input on upgrade ideas

[mattias1172]

I'm looking for some input/ideas as to what to upgrade/add/change etc on my pc. I'm thinking about swapping out the gpus for 2 290x's but I'd like to see what others may think and hear some other ideas. My budget is roughly $2000. (Please no one comment "eat dinner for a week" or other useless comments. I'm a computer security major in college so my rig is rather important). My current rig:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $580.00)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $80.00)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $80.00)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $115.00)
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Black Edition EATX LGA2011 Motherboard (Purchased For $482.00)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $180.00)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $110.00)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $180.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $53.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (Purchased For $290.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (Purchased For $290.00)
Video Card Cooler: NZXT G10 Video Card Cooler (Purchased For $38.00)
Video Card Cooler: NZXT G10 Video Card Cooler (Purchased For $38.00)
Case: NZXT Phantom 820 (Grey) ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $215.00)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $190.00)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $61.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) (Purchased For $110.00)
Monitor: Asus VS278Q-P 27.0" Monitor (Purchased For $270.00)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card (Purchased For $80.00)
Wireless Network Adapter: Linksys AE2500 802.11a/b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $20.00)
Case Fan: NZXT FZ-200mm LED 103.0 CFM 200mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Case Fan: NZXT FZ-200mm LED 103.0 CFM 200mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Case Fan: NZXT FZ-200mm LED 103.0 CFM 200mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $17.00)
Keyboard: Logitech G510s Wired Gaming Keyboard (Purchased For $80.00)
Mouse: Logitech G602 Wireless Optical Mouse (Purchased For $60.00)
Speakers: Logitech Z506 155W 5.1ch Speakers (Purchased For $80.00)
Total: $3784.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-08 02:25 EDT-0400

 

[Amencerment]

What are you going to do with this build?

This is what I have now...

Mobo -- Asus Sabertooth Z58
CPU -- Intel i-920 Clocked to 3.8ghz
RAM -- 16gig Dominator
Video Card -- Asus EAH6970 2gb Eyefinity
PSU -- Antec True Power Quattro 1000
Case -- Thermaltake Xaser VI
OS Drive -- Corsair Force GT 120 SSD's x2 Raid 0
Adobe Drive -- Patriot Torqx 64gig
MS Office Drive -- Patriot Torqx 64gig
MMORPG Drive -- Patriot Torqx 64gig
Games Drive -- Patriot Torqx 64gig
Data Drive 1 -- WD Velociraptor 300gig
Data Drive 2 -- WD Velociraptor 300gig
Media Drive -- WD Velociraptor 500gig
Optical Drive -- LG 16x Blu-Ray Burner
Monitors -- Acer S271HL, Dell U2713HMT and Samsung Syncmaster 2494hm, Keyboard -- Logitech G15
Mouse -- Logitech G702


I do Heavy media editing with Adobe Master Collection and Autodesk 360, plus gaming and what ever I like. I run anywhere from 3-6 programs with no prob, but I am also OCed in the CPU, RAM, and Vid...

My next system is this...

1. LG Electronics 14x Internal BDXL Blu-Ray Burner Rewriter WH14NS40 - Bulk Drive - Black by LG $71.00
Quantity 1

2. Cooler Master Seidon 240M - PC CPU Liquid Water Cooling System, All-In-One Kit with 240mm Radiator and 2 Fans by Cooler Master $88.16
Quantity 1

3. ASUS SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK1 ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK1by Asus $238.99
Quantity 1

4. Intel Core i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) (BX80646I74790K) by $339.99
Quantity 1

5. Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHz (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory CMD32GX3M4A1866C10) by Corsair $409.99
Quantity 1

6. Enermax Platimax 1350W 89+ EPS 12V Modular PSU 240-Pin 1600 Power Supply, EPM1350EWT by Enermax $294.99
Quantity 1

7. ASUS Graphics Cards R9290-DC2OC-4GD5 by Asus $429.99
Quantity 1

8. Samsung Electronics Samsung 850 Pro-Series 2.5" 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive Single Unit Version MZ-7KE128BW by Samsung $129.99
Quantity 2 Just Running the OS

9. SanDisk Extreme PRO 240GB SATA 6.0GB/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) With 10-Year Warranty- SDSSDXPS-240G-G25 by SanDisk $172.00
Quantity 3 For Programs

10. WD VelociRaptor 500 GB Workstation Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 10000 RPM, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD5000HHTZ by Western Digital $125.99
Quantity 2 Data Backup

11. WD Velociraptor WD1000DHTZ 1TB 3.5" SATA Hard Drive by Western Digital $224.99
Quantity 1 Only Media

12. Corsair Air Series SP120 PWM High Performance Edition - Twin Pack (CO-9050014-WW) by Corsair $29.24
Quantity 3

13. Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - Full Version by Microsoft Software $174.94
Quantity 1

14. ASUS VS278Q-P Ultrafast 1ms 27-Inch LED-Lit Monitor by Asus $259.99
Quantity 3

Subtotal (22 items): $4,168.69

Computer Case: CaseLabs Mercury S8 W/Tax & Shipping $535.76

Total with CA Tax $5,111.45

So again what are you going to do with it?

 

[SamiSC]

almost $4000?!!

what do plan on doing with the PC, gaming, V.editing?!!
from what I see, might as well get some good graphics card.
maybe custom water cooling.

 

[mattias1172]

I plan on doing anything from heavy/light gaming, heavy/light video/music production, coding, server host, really anything that might come my way. Like I said, I'm in college for this stuff so I throw a bunch of stuff at it. Sorry to be a little vague about it. I've considered a custom water cooling loop, but I want to get new gpus before I do that (hence the 290x's) so I don't have to be buying new blocks and have to drain it etc. I've also considered getting a couple more ssd/hdd and setting up some raid drives.

 

[SamiSC]

I plan on doing anything from heavy/light gaming, heavy/light video/music production, coding, server host, really anything that might come my way. Like I said, I'm in college for this stuff so I throw a bunch of stuff at it. Sorry to be a little vague about it. I've considered a custom water cooling loop, but I want to get new gpus before I do that (hence the 290x's) so I don't have to be buying new blocks and have to drain it etc. I've also considered getting a couple more ssd/hdd and setting up some raid drives.

why not buy one of the power house graphic cards instead of getting 2
GTX Titan Z or R9 295X2

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[mattias1172]

The Titan z is a crap card for gaming. It's good for 3d rending but offers little more towards gaming that the Titan has. I've considered the 295x2 but when it comes down to it, it's basically a crossfired 290x all in one with a custom cooling design for about 2-3x more money. Plus I plan on making my own loop in the near future so it would be a waste.

 

[SamiSC]

then definatly go for 2 290x card, get a good brand for overclocking, since heat and sound wont matter much after you get a loop going later on.

 

[Amencerment]

Whats the budget?

I can tell you to go stupid... But if you are like me, and your Bike and Comp cost more than your car, I have a crazy "Specialized Tarmac"... If you want to know what it takes to run 3 monitors at 1920x1080p I can tell you, been doing it for 3 years no probs.

Go with the single GPU and get the ASUS Graphics Cards R9295X2-8GD5 if you want to dump the money.... or I can show you a damn good system that will run nearly anything not 4K on 3 monitors... But again money is the factor...

 

[mattias1172]

About $2000 for upgrades.

 

[Amencerment]

This is what I would do...

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CfYTZL

1 SSD for just the OS and drivers and such (only OS and drivers nothing else), 1 SSD for Games, and 1 SSD for editing/work software.

Each 500gig Velociraptor for data storage for the game drive and just extra and the 1tb Velociraptor for strictly media (change if needed)

With this system you can do just about anything, I know it is above the $2000 mark but with the power in this you can do it all. And if there is anything you can use from the old system just start subtracting.

But for the money this is a very strong system for gaming and media editing. Allot of people will be like "That is way over kill" but trust me when you start doing editing and want to do other stuff at the same time... This can't be beat and it will run 3 27" monitors at 1920x1080p with no problems... possibly even 1 at 2560x1440 and the other 2 at 1080p, I'll have to try it to make sure, I have a 27" dell 2560x1440 and 2 1080p monitors that run fine with my setup, but the dell I have set at 1080p not at 1440...

Have fun...

 

[mattias1172]

I don't know if you quit understand the topic, I'm looking to upgrade my current pc (listed on the first post) with $2000, not build a new system. However, the build does give me some ideas for my own, thanks for the input.

 

[SamiSC]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($449.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($449.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG278HE 144Hz 27.0" Monitor ($372.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1272.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-08 13:33 EDT-0400

defiantly get yourself a 2nd monitor, 120+ refresh rate is deserving.
have you thought of going for 4K display.

 

[mattias1172]

I have considered 4k but the lack of support for it both windows os side and application size makes me not want to spend $600 on it. I've read that it has pretty bad resizing issues and to actually display in 4k, the text and icons are extremely small and hard to read. So I've been looking at 1440p monitors recently but again didn't want to spend a lot of money just for the difference between 60hz and 120hz+.

 

[SamiSC]

I have considered 4k but the lack of support for it both windows os side and application size makes me not want to spend $600 on it. I've read that it has pretty bad resizing issues and to actually display in 4k, the text and icons are extremely small and hard to read. So I've been looking at 1440p monitors recently but again didn't want to spend a lot of money just for the difference between 60hz and 120hz+.

you should defiantly get a 2nd monitor like the one you have, 2 monitors are always a good thing to have.