Upgrading gaming PC

[Skidwurd]

So I am a little new to building PC's but I am very eager to learn. Currently I have a DigitalStorm Vanquish 1. (specs below)

Processor: Intel Core i3 4330 3.50 GHz (Dual Core)

Motherboard: ASUS H81M-E (Intel H81 Chipset) (MATX)

System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz DigitalStorm Certified Performance Series

Power Supply: 430W Corsair CX

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB

Extreme Cooling Standard factory Heat sink and Fan (From DigitalStorm)

Operating system: Windows 7 (Will upgrade to Windows 10 when its available)

I would like to upgrade to a NVIDIA GTX 980, I just have a few questions about upgrading other things. So here they are, What kind of Processor would I need to get? What kind of power supply would be needed? And what kind of cooling would I need? I play games like Minecraft CS: GO Battlefield 4 and Grand Theft Auto 5. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

You need to start off by upgrading the crappy PSU. Get one of these before getting a 980:
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $104.99

 

[danisnotonfire]

As long as you're not overclocking, you should be fine with your current power supply, even with an upgrade to a GTX 980. Keep in mind the 650Ti Boost already takes 140W, and the GTX 980 although is massively faster, only bumps up power consumption to 160W for the GPU. That's the power of Maxwell

Regarding CPU you should be fine. If you have the budget for it later on then consider an upgrade to an i5 or i7 (or HT Xeon), but for now you should be fine as GPU upgrade will give you a much bigger performance boost then a GPU upgrade, even if there will be a slight bottleneck in some games.

 

[Brunostako]

The second thing you may need to do is upgrade your CPU to a core i5, so you don't have CPU bottlenecks at more demanding games.

But the PSU is the most important.

 

[danisnotonfire]

You need to start off by upgrading the crappy PSU. Get one of these before getting a 980:
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $104.99

CX430 is perfectly fine. With a GTX 980 at stock clock speeds you will be hard pressed to see 350W of total system power consumption.

And these systems are with overclocked i7s, not stock i3s.

Reviewers like Jonnyguru, Anandtech and HardwareSecrets show us that the CX430 will be happy to deliver this level of power.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=214
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6013/350450w-roundup-11-cheap-psus/2
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-CX430-V2-Power-Supply-Review/1284/7

750G2 isn't the answer to everything either. The 750B2 is also a very solid choice (reduced efficiency Super Flower Golden Green), if you don't need 80+ Gold efficiency, full modularity, and hybrid fan mode. None of those 3 a person of the general public would explicitly need.

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

The CX is a crappy PSU people come on Toms all the time with issues with them. Corsair C series PSUs are C for a reason that is crappy. A 430w PSU will not power a 980. The B series EVGA's are also pretty weak and have bad capacitors in them.

 

[Skidwurd]

As long as you're not overclocking, you should be fine with your current power supply, even with an upgrade to a GTX 980. Keep in mind the 650Ti Boost already takes 140W, and the GTX 980 although is massively faster, only bumps up power consumption to 160W for the GPU. That's the power of Maxwell

Regarding CPU you should be fine. If you have the budget for it later on then consider an upgrade to an i5 or i7 (or HT Xeon), but for now you should be fine as GPU upgrade will give you a much bigger performance boost then a GPU upgrade, even if there will be a slight bottleneck in some games.

Thank you so much for the help! I will eventually upgrade my PSU but if can handle the GTX 980 I will keep it for now. But will I need to get any cooling upgrades?

 

[danisnotonfire]

The CX is a crappy PSU people come on Toms all the time with issues with them. Corsair C series PSUs are C for a reason that is crappy. A 430w PSU will not power a 980. The B series EVGA's are also pretty weak and have bad capacitors in them.

Never said that they were any match for a high-end PSU, however for the time being, it will definitely be enough for a GTX 980. For comparison's sake a 980 uses less power then a 270X, and if you're saying an i3+270X won't run off a CX430 that's just downright misleading.

 

[danisnotonfire]

As long as you're not overclocking, you should be fine with your current power supply, even with an upgrade to a GTX 980. Keep in mind the 650Ti Boost already takes 140W, and the GTX 980 although is massively faster, only bumps up power consumption to 160W for the GPU. That's the power of Maxwell

Regarding CPU you should be fine. If you have the budget for it later on then consider an upgrade to an i5 or i7 (or HT Xeon), but for now you should be fine as GPU upgrade will give you a much bigger performance boost then a GPU upgrade, even if there will be a slight bottleneck in some games.

Thank you so much for the help! I will eventually upgrade my PSU but if can handle the GTX 980 I will keep it for now. But will I need to get any cooling upgrades?

For the time being you'll be fine with a CX430, however re-enforcing what I said about sticking to stock speeds, since overclocking can increase power consumption on Maxwell by quite a bit. You shouldn't need any cooling upgrades. The stock cooler on the i3 should be able to keep it plenty cool and most 980 air coolers get the job done very well.

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

It will not handle it. If it does handle it under load ill be really shocked.
There are multiple threads about this.
Nvidia recommends 500w MINIMUM
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2311076/gtx-970-430w-psu.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2307017/430w-corsair-handle-gtx-980-970.html

 

[danisnotonfire]

The CX is a crappy PSU people come on Toms all the time with issues with them. Corsair C series PSUs are C for a reason that is crappy. A 430w PSU will not power a 980. The B series EVGA's are also pretty weak and have bad capacitors in them.

I said B2, not NEX-B, pay close attention. The NEX-B (B1) are based on FSP Raider platform and have crappy capacitors. The B2 are based off a much more solid Super Flower Golden Green platform, and have all Japanese Nippon-Chemicon caps.

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

The B2 works but it is not worth it when you can have gold and modular for a few dollars more. Especially when you have a 980 it is a good idea.

 

[danisnotonfire]

It will not handle it. If it does handle it under load ill be really shocked.
There are multiple threads about this.
Nvidia recommends 500w MINIMUM
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2311076/gtx-970-430w-psu.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2307017/430w-corsair-handle-gtx-980-970.html

270X (rated at 180W vs 980's 160W) and i5, gaming on a CX430.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig3v2MdHbRc

 

[danisnotonfire]

The B2 works but it is not worth it when you can have gold and modular for a few dollars more. Especially when you have a 980 it is a good idea.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-110b20750vr

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

Almost double the price is not "a few dollars more"

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

Look at the one I suggested in my original post 104 dollars.

 

[danisnotonfire]

Look at the one I suggested in my original post 104 dollars.

I know. Read carefully. You said the G2 is "worth the few dollars more then the B2", but the B2 is only 54 dollars. That's not a "few dollars more", that's almost half the price.