Old PC Build starting to fail need upgrade/new build advice

[kuguar_19]

Hi everyone!
As the title explains I'm looking for some advice on the route I should go... upgrade or build new.

Approximate Purchase Date: by Black Friday unless deals are available now

Budget Range: Upgrade $500 After Rebates / After Shipping; New Build ~$2500 After rebates/shipping (includes monitor and OS)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies
Games vary: Skyrim, FO4, Batman games(Knight, etc.), Middle Earth: Shadows, Just Cause 3, Sniper Elite 3, Civ VI, Mad Max, Borderlands, XCom 2

Are you buying a monitor: Yes... Acer Predator Z35P, current monitor Asus VW246H is going to another PC with monitor that's failing


Parts to Upgrade:
Current rig build:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition Heka Triple-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM3 95W
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92mm SSO CPU Cooler
Mobo: ASRock 870 EXTREME3 (SATA port and MEM channels maybe failing)
Mem: Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3 1600 MHz
Storage: System OS (Win10): G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series 2.5" 120GB
Data: 1 TB WD Blue SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB (almost full!)
Data: Seagate 4TB Gaming SSHD
Vid Card: Sapphire 11244-01-20G Radeon NITRO R9 390 8GB
Case: currently in LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C33B but moving into a NZXT Phantom I got for free
PSupply: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold or Seasonic SS-760XP2 (have boxes for both but don't remember which is where)

Do you need to buy OS: Yes if new build

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: PCpartpicker, Amazon, NewEgg

Location: USA

Parts Preferences: no preference

Overclocking: Yes / Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: soon to be 21:9 or 3440x1440

Additional Comments: Would like to go to the AIO Corsair cooling solution (H100i V2) since new case will take it. Also would like to have some headroom with expected vid card upgrade down the line. Not stuck on AMD, and whatever gives me awesome performance in games will be a win for me.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current Mobo is starting to show it's age and I will get occasional out of Mem errors or 4TB drive will not show in OS. MEMtest doesn't find errors and multiple dimms still get errors. Losing 4TB is annoying and depends on the SATA slot whether it's found and if I get to play any games that given day or not. I would love to have the full 4TB of storage too!

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Something like this and leaving you little more than $1000 for OS, Storage if needed, a case you like and a good 1440p monitor.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LqrNM8

Obviously you go a little cheaper on the GPU if you like.

 

[coozie7]

There's no really useful upgrade options for the current motherboard and a R9 390 is going to struggle on anything over 1440 rez so I'll suggest a full, new build is in order.

Assuming the system will run happily off the 1Tb drive I'd seriously consider selling it as a going concern-Drop a cheap card like a GTX1050 in it then sell the R9 390 separately to take advantage of the currently inflated AMD prices on the used market.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

This would give you about $150 more for monitor and storage https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XWmwBP

 

[coozie7]

Hows this grab you?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($299.79 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard ($111.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($152.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AMP Edition Video Card ($739.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill - Capstone 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home Full - USB 32/64-bit ($102.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer - XF270HU 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor ($543.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $2132.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-09-03 15:02 EDT-0400

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

It's for a gaming rig, so i would suggest Intel Kaby Lake over Ryzen as it is faster in gaming. This is with everything except case and storage https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rdvX6X

 

[coozie7]

^ Not at resolutions over 1080, once over that Intel loses most, if not all of its advantage and if the OP goes for a 4K display the differences are virtually zero.

I also notice you moved to a GTX1080, nothing wrong with that, it's a fine card at 1440 rez (we, mine is anyway ), but if the OP wants to go 4K, I really think my Ryzen build with the GTX1080Ti would be the better option.

Note to Kuguar_19: We've not included any extra storage and the monitor is (in my case) a bit of a placeholder, it's not really what you want although I've included it just because...Well... I actually have it.

 

[kuguar_19]

@Coozie and Kasper: Thanks for the quick replies!
Ok, It looks like new build is on the menu, hope the wife won't look for a lawyer any time soon!

So, I'm really stuck on Widescreen and the Acer Z35P is what I keep coming to... can't find a local store that has one near me, but the internet says it's great.
I know I'm probably going to have to pony up for a high end vid (GTX1080 family) to push that monitor, but I don't know if 4K is an option/available in the widescreen format yet. As Coozie says I can sell the AMD vid card I have now.

I know that I won't be selling my current PC due to the mobo issues, so it'll be a donation somewhere. I'll pull my current storage off it though I'd like to upgrade the SSD to M.2 with some more substantial space.
Also either of the PSs I have are modular and will power what you've both listed for me so far.
The Phantom case will fit everything you guys have listed.
So it's just a matter of CPU, Mobo, Mem, and Vid I believe.
I'm currently AMD but at the time it was due to price and availability. Now I guess it's changed a little to availability and then price.
Also this is just preference but not a requirement... I like the Asus mobos as they seem to have the best feature set.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

If you can afford to wait a bit, I would wait a few months to see what Intel brings to the table with the new Coffee Lake. It might very well turn the table around again.

 

[kuguar_19]

Coffee Lake? So are you saying this as to get the current intel hardware cheaper or get the new to market stuff?
I do have until Black Friday, but after that I'll just have to lump it until next summer with my current setup.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

To get the new stuff. It's not likely the current stuff will drop much in price. With the new Coffee Lake bringing more cores to the table and with a faster clock speed than Ryzen it is very possible Intel will turn out to have better performance. Yet i'm not sure when it comes to 4K as at that resolution your GPU is the bottleneck and not the CPU.

 

[coozie7]

That big Acer is REALLY going to want aGTX1080Ti, no matter which CPU/MB you opt for.

Yep, AFAIK, you'll sell that R9 390 pretty quickly.

See if the system runs properly off just the 1Tb HDD/SSD, just disconnect the big 4Tb drive and see what happens, if it's fine then the system is just playing around with the bigger drive and ripe for a quick E-bay sale (or donation) as it stands.

Those fast M2 drives are getting a little more affordable, but be a little careful about which one you use: There are a significant number of SATA drives in M2 format, often at inflated prices, either stick with true 2.5" SATA drives or full on PCI-E 3.0x4 NVMe drives, the former are cheaper than M2 alternatives, the latter much faster (and more expensive).

OK, so scratch the PSU from our lists.

Your choices on the actual parts, like I said earlier, there's no real difference between a Ryzen and Intel CPU at 4K, and very little at 1440 rez but the final build suggestion is going to depend on your choice of display, for a 1440 (2K) build either a i7 7700 or R7 1700 will be good, as will a GTX 1080, move up to 4K and you'll really want to go for a GTX1080Ti to push all those pixels at a reasonable speed, regardless of CPU choice.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Yeah, at 4K it is only a matter what you like most of Intel and AMD. At 1440p I would still choose Intel.

 

[kuguar_19]

@Kasper: Is there some info on the Coffee Lake stuff? I've missed it in my reading here and elsewhere.

@Coozie: Care to share some more info on the M.2? All I see on here and elsewhere is that it's the format to beat for speed and performance, and I'd really like to know what would be a good OS/games (Steam) solution. I plan on moving the current SSD to another PC for OS.

So am I correct to assume that the CPU is no longer the bottleneck for game performance anymore?

 

[coozie7]

@ Kasper Jorgensen: HA! HA!, And I'd go AMD!
I'll agree to differ on this point because both have their pros and cons at that rez.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

The Coffee Lake would be 6core 12threads for I7 and with a faster clock speed than Ryzen and expected around same price as the 7700K, can only be a win.

 

[kuguar_19]

Ok, so would your suggested mobo work with Coffee, or would any other current (X299?) mobo work with it?

I'm not partial to either though I do appreciate everyone has a bias towards certain brands.
AMD has worked for me in the past as I tend to only upgrade/build after running mine longer than the technology can bear the games I try to play on it.
I guess that is where I'm hung up on this build...

 

[coozie7]

@ Kasper Jorgensen: Maybe, we'll see. Don't forget pricing, not only of the CPU but motherboard, AMD already have 8C/16T parts available for the same (or less than) Intels i7 7700K/Z270 combination.


@Kuguar_19: Some makers are selling SATA 6Gb/s drives in the M2 format, nothing wrong with that, they fit a fair number of systems, particularly laptops, but for maximum speed you'll want to look for those that specify: 'PCI-E 3.0x4' and 'NVMe'.

 

[coozie7]

@ Kugar_19; Coffee Lake won't work on any existing motherboards according to the latest info, you'll need to stump up for X3XX.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

#coozie7 yes but a lower clock speed, which is why the Intel is better for gaming and specially more cpu intensive games. Most games do not care much for more than 4 cores as of now, that might change in the not distant future though.
I think we will never agree on this subject other than it would be wise to wait for coffee lake and see how that compares to Ryzen.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Coffee lake will be good, no question.

However, my ryzen 1600 does pretty well. I'm overclocked to 3.7ghz on the stock cooler. As far as everything, amd is promising to support socket am4 until 2020. If that is true, in a couple of years you should be able to drop a new cpu in. They are already talking about a release next year, and then a shrink to 7nm, and maybe zen 2 being released later in the year. The charts I saw were old though, so who knows the plan.

 

[kuguar_19]

Ok, well I've done a little bit of poking around and here are the builds I came up with.
i7 Build... https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FtpX6X
r7 Build... https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2JfqvV

This is just based on the earlier recommendations and what I could find out as far as what's compatible based on the mobo QVL lists.
I know there is some flexibility with that but I've not had good luck in deviating from whats recommended.
I was surprised to see only ~$100 difference. Was expecting more savings with AMD, but my choices may have affected that somewhat.
Both mobos could be considered enthusiast, but they offer the feature sets I'd want for each platform, so unless there is something else compelling I stay with them.
Feel free to give me opinions...

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Both builds looking fine, not sure to that m.2 drive but if you seen test where it is doing good then I guess it is okay. Personally I would take the Intel build but in the end the choice is yours. Seeing you go 4K you probably won't see much if any difference. This may change in 2-3 years from now when GPU gets more powerful so 4K is no longer bottlenecked by GPU.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Another way to save with AMD. Are you planning to run sli? If not, look at the b350 boards. They will still allow overclocking and should give you some of the features of the x370 boards at a little bit lower price.

 

[kuguar_19]

I did look at the B350 boards but none really had all the features I wanted on one mobo. Also that wouldn't really cause a significant drop between the two, unless I went with a real low end one.