What should I upgrade for BF4?

[Razerium]

Hey everybody,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC, so I can record and play BF4 at ultra settings 120fps .
Here is my current setup:
Intel i7-2600K CPU @3.4 GHZ 4 Cores (64 Bit)
16gb RAM-Super Talent
AMD Radeon HD 7970
230gb SSD
1,000gb HDD
Corsair CX600 Power Supply
LG Optical Drive

I have a budget of $1,000. What are the upgrades I can do? Please tell me. I'm going to be recording AS WELL AS playing BF4 ultra settings 120fps Help me out!

PS: no processor overclocking!!

 

[Jack Revenant]

Ah, but the thing is, eight cores and 4.6GHz for an AMD processor is not equal to eight cores and 4.6 GHz on an Intel, nor even to the "mere" six cores and 3.4GHz of the 4930k. The processor you have now is around the same performance as that one, and you could beat it handily with overclocking if you wished to.

The HAF X is a damn solid case, I've got to say. I don't use one myself, but I've had one on my table for the past month (long story, that), and I can definitely appreciate both the aesthetics and the performance. It actually does have a window, by the way, it's just L-shaped, conforming around a fan mount which blows onto the GPUs. If you want to change the colour, the only thing you'd need to remove would be the front fan, which has red LEDs, but fortunately many good options exist for replacements. From there, you could either get differently-coloured fans, add an LED system like the NZXT HUE, or both.

I wouldn't expect DDR4 to be massively expensive, but you're definitely right that it won't be a big gain in gaming. I'll be trading up, myself, but I can definitely understand choosing not to.

I wouldn't recommend the 7990 in almost any circumstance. It costs more than a pair of 7970s/280xs, which are equal if not better in all regards except for space consumption (two cards taking up 4-6 expansion slots instead of 2). As for the 290x, if price is a pressing issue (or, honestly, even if it's not), the R9-290 may well be the better option. Honestly, if I were buying GPUs now, I'd grab a CrossFire of 290s (once the appropriately-cooled versions were released, of course). That said, a single R9-290x should be absolutely fine for your needs, particularly with an overclock on it.

Liquid cooling a processor isn't actually that much easier than liquid cooling a GPU if you're talking about a custom loop, but processors have the advantage of not requiring warranty-voiding modification to support non-stock coolers, which makes things like closed-loop liquid coolers a much easier route than they are with GPUs. The HAF X is a pretty good case for that, for reference, though if you don't intend to OC your processor, you wouldn't actually need anything better than the stock cooler. That's your call, obviously, however.

Ha! You're a more honourable man than I am. I'm definitely in it for the money, at least in part. What can I say? I have tuition to pay.
Sounds like your channel is doing pretty alright, at least by comparison to mine. Mind linking me it? I'm quite intrigued, I must admit.
I'd be happy to link you my channel, but I don't like to connect my online identities too much. If you send me a PM, I'll give you a link to my channel in response (due to TH's shitty coding, I can't actually send PMs, only respond to them).
Well, if your times are okay with you, that's great. Maybe I should look into Vegas, actually. I love the interface on Premier, but I get pretty impatient waiting for things, particularly when I'm working on my backup system, which only has an 8350.

I'm always happy to help. If anything, this sort of relatively concrete tech stuff ("4770k > FX8350", "770 > 7970") is a relief from the damnable subtleties and relative values of my everyday life.

I'm sorry that we're not moving as fast as you might like, though. In the past, I've tended to shepherd folks towards a relatively quick, simple solution in threads I've responded to, but I often felt that left them without everything they were looking for, so I'm trying to be less heavy-handed these days.

Don't worry about not finding a solution, at least when we find one I'll be sure that I wasn't trolled and I'll know that somebody really took time to answer considering every option. So let me just do a little recap of what we're looking at to upgrade:
I'd like a new case. I changed my mind and probably would prefer something quite fancy and modern. I was looking at NZXT's Phantom line. Not sure which one though...
-Second, we're upgrading the graphics card, and we're looking at the 290x once they get better coolers for it. How long do you think that will take? And do you think I could instead have just a ton of fans? Could that be enough to cool down my computer? I'd mostly likely get a Fan Controller then aswell. Are you sure the 290x is good? It's a maybe a bit expensive, especially when I'm going to buy two on a $1,000 budget.
-Motherboard. Is an upgrade needed? I'm wondering...
-Processor: No upgrade needed? 4 Cores isn't much but it IS intel...
-Cooling: So I was thinking water cooling for the processor, (Is that hard) and maybe some air cooling for the graphics card.

Do you think all this could be done within a $1,000-1,100 budget?

Also, I've sort of messed up on the whole "Don't link your accounts" because all of my accounts for every single website (almost) are named lolOptix.

But yeah, here's my youtube. Feel free to like, subscribe and tell your friends about it, because my "fanbase" is quite small and seems to be un-willing to grow. That said i'm stuck at around 140 subs...
www.youtube.com/lolOptixHD

Thanks 😉

Yeah, we don't have a lot of trolls here (though there is a guy with a trollface for an avatar), but most folks are more of the "link to PC Part Picker list, okay, you're done" sort. Not everyone, naturally, but you can easily fall into that tendency when you answer 10-20 threads a day, as some do.

Case: NZXT makes fantastic cases, one of which I use for my own system. By pure specs, the Phantom 630 is the best of the lot (better cooling and noise specs than even the more expensive Phantom 820, though not by much), but given that a colour-changing light system is something you're looking for and the 820 comes with stock, you might want the 820. The 530 isn't a case I'm a huge fan of, to be honest, but it does its job as the middle-ground between the 410 and 630, The Phantom 410 itself is a great case, but I believe you expressed an interest in a full tower at some point, and it is definitely a mid tower, beyond which both the 820 and 630 beat it for cooling (as well they should, they cost 2-3 times as much).

Graphics card: Well, as we went into early up the thread, your best options are either a second 7970, or one of the Hawai'i GPU cards (290/290x). Now, at current, due to the throttling from the stock cooler, we don't actually know how much better then $550 290x is than the $400 290. It may well turn out that 290xs aren't worthwhile, when all is said and done, which would impact what you chose to go with. The current information on the non-reference coolers indicates late November, so we should be seeing something any day now. Now, regarding simply adding better cooling to your case, it probably wouldn't work. At the end of the day, the 290/290x blower is just not enough to keep up with the card, no matter what. You'd likely get better performance (when the heat is throttling you, even degree down is more performance), but not nearly what you should be getting. Beyond that, the reference cooler is loud as all hell, so it'd be a fairly significant quality of life issue.
Now, without knowing exactly how good the non-reference 290/290x cards are going to be, I can't give you a really solid recommendation. It may be that 290xs are barely better than 290s, and there's no reason to buy them. It may be that they're the best thing since sliced bread. I don't know. Without that information, I can't really inform you as to the efficiency of getting a second 7970, a 290, a 290x, a pair of 290s, etc. Fortunately, as said, that should be coming any day now.

Motherboard: Well, it never hurts, I suppose. There are some great deals on high-quality motherboards for the LGA1155 socket (what you're on), due to Haswell being incompatible and vendors wanting to clear their inventory. If you have spare cash after the graphics and case have been resolved, it might well be worth considering.

CPU: Let me put it this way: I have a CPU which is, functionally, equal to yours in performance, and I have no intention of upgrading until Haswell-E drops, and only then for DDR4 RAM. The i7s are incredibly solid processors, and honestly I'd be hard-pressed to find anything outside of the LGA2011 Intels that beats what you have now. Beyond that, yours is a very solid overclocker, so if you do put, say, a closed-loop liquid cooler on it, you can get a lot more performance out of it with overclocking.

Cooling: Installing a closed-loop liquid cooler (that is, the pump, coolant, radiator, and all the other components are a sold as a single unit which you hook up to your CPU, attach fans to, and are then done with) isn't much harder than attaching a non-stock CPU cooler. The only real different is that you need to mount the radiator somewhere in your case, and thus you'll need to make sure that your case can support whatever specific size of radiator your unit has beforehand. Other than that, it's pretty damn easy. Hell, most of them even have pre-applied thermal paste.
Tweaking GPU cooling is, as said, more of an ordeal, but were you just referring to the stock coolers, or to adding something to them?

Without doubt. You have enough money to build, from scratch, an amazing rig. Applying it to an already built system just lets us push things that much further. The only obstacle is determining where it is most effective to spend. At the moment, the majority of that comes down to figuring out how the 290/290xs will perform with factory overclocks and better stock coolers, which will then impact what we have to invest elsewhere (such as in your motherboard).

Haha, don't worry too much about it. I'm mostly just paranoid about that sort of thing, a lot of people (The majority, even) just use the same name and info everywhere. Granted, a lot of their accounts get hijacked, but a decent amount of password variation goes a long way.

Well, if I could offer my speculation as to why your sub count stays relatively small, I'd guess it's the rate at which you post videos. I try to aim for 2-3 20-minute videos a day, though I've been stuck on around one a day for the past month. When people look through your channel and see that you only post a video every month or so, they figure "Oh, I can just check back every now and then, I don't need to subscribe". Totalbiscuit talked about that in an interview when asked about how he got successful on YouTube. According to him, it really does come down to just having some content posted every day.

Edit: Another factor which impacts how it would be most efficient to spend your money is whether you think you could sell your old 7970, and if so for how much. If you could get $200 or so for it, that would absolutely make upgrading the better option. If you don't think you could sell it at all, a second 7970 for $300 or less would beat a single 290 or 290x for lower cost.

 

[Razerium]

Ah, but the thing is, eight cores and 4.6GHz for an AMD processor is not equal to eight cores and 4.6 GHz on an Intel, nor even to the "mere" six cores and 3.4GHz of the 4930k. The processor you have now is around the same performance as that one, and you could beat it handily with overclocking if you wished to.

The HAF X is a damn solid case, I've got to say. I don't use one myself, but I've had one on my table for the past month (long story, that), and I can definitely appreciate both the aesthetics and the performance. It actually does have a window, by the way, it's just L-shaped, conforming around a fan mount which blows onto the GPUs. If you want to change the colour, the only thing you'd need to remove would be the front fan, which has red LEDs, but fortunately many good options exist for replacements. From there, you could either get differently-coloured fans, add an LED system like the NZXT HUE, or both.

I wouldn't expect DDR4 to be massively expensive, but you're definitely right that it won't be a big gain in gaming. I'll be trading up, myself, but I can definitely understand choosing not to.

I wouldn't recommend the 7990 in almost any circumstance. It costs more than a pair of 7970s/280xs, which are equal if not better in all regards except for space consumption (two cards taking up 4-6 expansion slots instead of 2). As for the 290x, if price is a pressing issue (or, honestly, even if it's not), the R9-290 may well be the better option. Honestly, if I were buying GPUs now, I'd grab a CrossFire of 290s (once the appropriately-cooled versions were released, of course). That said, a single R9-290x should be absolutely fine for your needs, particularly with an overclock on it.

Liquid cooling a processor isn't actually that much easier than liquid cooling a GPU if you're talking about a custom loop, but processors have the advantage of not requiring warranty-voiding modification to support non-stock coolers, which makes things like closed-loop liquid coolers a much easier route than they are with GPUs. The HAF X is a pretty good case for that, for reference, though if you don't intend to OC your processor, you wouldn't actually need anything better than the stock cooler. That's your call, obviously, however.

Ha! You're a more honourable man than I am. I'm definitely in it for the money, at least in part. What can I say? I have tuition to pay.
Sounds like your channel is doing pretty alright, at least by comparison to mine. Mind linking me it? I'm quite intrigued, I must admit.
I'd be happy to link you my channel, but I don't like to connect my online identities too much. If you send me a PM, I'll give you a link to my channel in response (due to TH's shitty coding, I can't actually send PMs, only respond to them).
Well, if your times are okay with you, that's great. Maybe I should look into Vegas, actually. I love the interface on Premier, but I get pretty impatient waiting for things, particularly when I'm working on my backup system, which only has an 8350.

I'm always happy to help. If anything, this sort of relatively concrete tech stuff ("4770k > FX8350", "770 > 7970") is a relief from the damnable subtleties and relative values of my everyday life.

I'm sorry that we're not moving as fast as you might like, though. In the past, I've tended to shepherd folks towards a relatively quick, simple solution in threads I've responded to, but I often felt that left them without everything they were looking for, so I'm trying to be less heavy-handed these days.

Don't worry about not finding a solution, at least when we find one I'll be sure that I wasn't trolled and I'll know that somebody really took time to answer considering every option. So let me just do a little recap of what we're looking at to upgrade:
I'd like a new case. I changed my mind and probably would prefer something quite fancy and modern. I was looking at NZXT's Phantom line. Not sure which one though...
-Second, we're upgrading the graphics card, and we're looking at the 290x once they get better coolers for it. How long do you think that will take? And do you think I could instead have just a ton of fans? Could that be enough to cool down my computer? I'd mostly likely get a Fan Controller then aswell. Are you sure the 290x is good? It's a maybe a bit expensive, especially when I'm going to buy two on a $1,000 budget.
-Motherboard. Is an upgrade needed? I'm wondering...
-Processor: No upgrade needed? 4 Cores isn't much but it IS intel...
-Cooling: So I was thinking water cooling for the processor, (Is that hard) and maybe some air cooling for the graphics card.

Do you think all this could be done within a $1,000-1,100 budget?

Also, I've sort of messed up on the whole "Don't link your accounts" because all of my accounts for every single website (almost) are named lolOptix.

But yeah, here's my youtube. Feel free to like, subscribe and tell your friends about it, because my "fanbase" is quite small and seems to be un-willing to grow. That said i'm stuck at around 140 subs...
www.youtube.com/lolOptixHD

Thanks 😉

Yeah, we don't have a lot of trolls here (though there is a guy with a trollface for an avatar), but most folks are more of the "link to PC Part Picker list, okay, you're done" sort. Not everyone, naturally, but you can easily fall into that tendency when you answer 10-20 threads a day, as some do.

Case: NZXT makes fantastic cases, one of which I use for my own system. By pure specs, the Phantom 630 is the best of the lot (better cooling and noise specs than even the more expensive Phantom 820, though not by much), but given that a colour-changing light system is something you're looking for and the 820 comes with stock, you might want the 820. The 530 isn't a case I'm a huge fan of, to be honest, but it does its job as the middle-ground between the 410 and 630, The Phantom 410 itself is a great case, but I believe you expressed an interest in a full tower at some point, and it is definitely a mid tower, beyond which both the 820 and 630 beat it for cooling (as well they should, they cost 2-3 times as much).

Graphics card: Well, as we went into early up the thread, your best options are either a second 7970, or one of the Hawai'i GPU cards (290/290x). Now, at current, due to the throttling from the stock cooler, we don't actually know how much better then $550 290x is than the $400 290. It may well turn out that 290xs aren't worthwhile, when all is said and done, which would impact what you chose to go with. The current information on the non-reference coolers indicates late November, so we should be seeing something any day now. Now, regarding simply adding better cooling to your case, it probably wouldn't work. At the end of the day, the 290/290x blower is just not enough to keep up with the card, no matter what. You'd likely get better performance (when the heat is throttling you, even degree down is more performance), but not nearly what you should be getting. Beyond that, the reference cooler is loud as all hell, so it'd be a fairly significant quality of life issue.
Now, without knowing exactly how good the non-reference 290/290x cards are going to be, I can't give you a really solid recommendation. It may be that 290xs are barely better than 290s, and there's no reason to buy them. It may be that they're the best thing since sliced bread. I don't know. Without that information, I can't really inform you as to the efficiency of getting a second 7970, a 290, a 290x, a pair of 290s, etc. Fortunately, as said, that should be coming any day now.

Motherboard: Well, it never hurts, I suppose. There are some great deals on high-quality motherboards for the LGA1155 socket (what you're on), due to Haswell being incompatible and vendors wanting to clear their inventory. If you have spare cash after the graphics and case have been resolved, it might well be worth considering.

CPU: Let me put it this way: I have a CPU which is, functionally, equal to yours in performance, and I have no intention of upgrading until Haswell-E drops, and only then for DDR4 RAM. The i7s are incredibly solid processors, and honestly I'd be hard-pressed to find anything outside of the LGA2011 Intels that beats what you have now. Beyond that, yours is a very solid overclocker, so if you do put, say, a closed-loop liquid cooler on it, you can get a lot more performance out of it with overclocking.

Cooling: Installing a closed-loop liquid cooler (that is, the pump, coolant, radiator, and all the other components are a sold as a single unit which you hook up to your CPU, attach fans to, and are then done with) isn't much harder than attaching a non-stock CPU cooler. The only real different is that you need to mount the radiator somewhere in your case, and thus you'll need to make sure that your case can support whatever specific size of radiator your unit has beforehand. Other than that, it's pretty damn easy. Hell, most of them even have pre-applied thermal paste.
Tweaking GPU cooling is, as said, more of an ordeal, but were you just referring to the stock coolers, or to adding something to them?

Without doubt. You have enough money to build, from scratch, an amazing rig. Applying it to an already built system just lets us push things that much further. The only obstacle is determining where it is most effective to spend. At the moment, the majority of that comes down to figuring out how the 290/290xs will perform with factory overclocks and better stock coolers, which will then impact what we have to invest elsewhere (such as in your motherboard).

Haha, don't worry too much about it. I'm mostly just paranoid about that sort of thing, a lot of people (The majority, even) just use the same name and info everywhere. Granted, a lot of their accounts get hijacked, but a decent amount of password variation goes a long way.

Well, if I could offer my speculation as to why your sub count stays relatively small, I'd guess it's the rate at which you post videos. I try to aim for 2-3 20-minute videos a day, though I've been stuck on around one a day for the past month. When people look through your channel and see that you only post a video every month or so, they figure "Oh, I can just check back every now and then, I don't need to subscribe". Totalbiscuit talked about that in an interview when asked about how he got successful on YouTube. According to him, it really does come down to just having some content posted every day.

Edit: Another factor which impacts how it would be most efficient to spend your money is whether you think you could sell your old 7970, and if so for how much. If you could get $200 or so for it, that would absolutely make upgrading the better option. If you don't think you could sell it at all, a second 7970 for $300 or less would beat a single 290 or 290x for lower cost.

I don't really know what to do anymore because It seems as you say we don't have enough information to be certain which GPU to get, as for cooling, you don't think a lot of fans and stuff will be enough to cool the GPU's? I really don't want to be messing too much with them... I'd do a CPU water cooling but not GPU. Motherboard I'll upgrade once I choose a new GPU, and motherboard I shouldn't upgrade yet. With all this waiting I'm tempted to go for the DDR4... As for my passwords and such, for my youtube and the things I care about I have extremely complicated passwords but for the little things like forums I once signed up for it's pretty much always the same (however there is some change)... As for my subscribers, I did a 9month break from youtube (so much work) and I'm only starting to come back into it. I'm posting once a week. Do you think that's enough for people to subscribe? I actually cannot post more than that.. I can record on Sundays (long story) and I have to edit on Sundays. And I also have to do homework on top of that.. I can always try though, it'd be a nice goal... And I think quality over quality, especially since I get a little pressure when my videos are bad (my friends). But yeah, I also think that my subscribers are only my friends, or people I once made a deal with, and so they're not "active" that's I'm trying to expand, and really get some new people in. I'm trying to expand, but nobody is willing to say to one, two, or three friends "Hey check this out" and show them my videos. But yeah, that's why. Anyhow, I don't really know what to do...

 

[Jack Revenant]

I don't really know what to do anymore because It seems as you say we don't have enough information to be certain which GPU to get, as for cooling, you don't think a lot of fans and stuff will be enough to cool the GPU's? I really don't want to be messing too much with them... I'd do a CPU water cooling but not GPU. Motherboard I'll upgrade once I choose a new GPU, and motherboard I shouldn't upgrade yet. With all this waiting I'm tempted to go for the DDR4... As for my passwords and such, for my youtube and the things I care about I have extremely complicated passwords but for the little things like forums I once signed up for it's pretty much always the same (however there is some change)... As for my subscribers, I did a 9month break from youtube (so much work) and I'm only starting to come back into it. I'm posting once a week. Do you think that's enough for people to subscribe? I actually cannot post more than that.. I can record on Sundays (long story) and I have to edit on Sundays. And I also have to do homework on top of that.. I can always try though, it'd be a nice goal... And I think quality over quality, especially since I get a little pressure when my videos are bad (my friends). But yeah, I also think that my subscribers are only my friends, or people I once made a deal with, and so they're not "active" that's I'm trying to expand, and really get some new people in. I'm trying to expand, but nobody is willing to say to one, two, or three friends "Hey check this out" and show them my videos. But yeah, that's why. Anyhow, I don't really know what to do...

Us not having enough information to determine what GPU (and specific graphics card, in fact) is the right one is precisely correct. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) we're in something of a transitional period for graphics cards at the moment. Fortunately, as said, that should be something which will be resolved soon, with the release of the non-reference 290/290x coolers.

Ah, let me clarify my statements re: GPU cooling. I do not believe that any number of case fans will be enough to cool a 290/290x properly, if that 290/290x has a reference cooler. With a proper non-reference cooler, the stock fans (or whatever LED fans you may prefer) on a high-end tower will have no issues with cooling the cards.

I admit I don't understand what you mean about upgrading your motherboard, there. Do you mean that you will or won't upgrade it?

Well, the waiting should (in theory) be near its end. Once the better coolers for Hawai'i drop, we can move forward, and that's supposed to be very, very soon.

Well, that's not terribly safe password policy, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the same. Sadly, the optimal route is bloody annoying to take, eh?

Well, as a content creator, I absolutely respect the ethos of quality over quantity, but sadly the statistics tend to indicate that volume of content is what attracts subscribers. Part of your issue, though, might be format. It seems that you primarily do a montage-type of video, taking specific parts out of a larger body of footage. While that's a perfectly fine way to do things (and, in fact, "cutting out the dead weight" is more artistically valid than not), the "Let's Play" model, whereby the vast, vast majority of recorded content is put on the channel, is both easier to edit and quicker to make, and is still often enjoyable. I'm not saying you need to switch to Let's Play, mind you, but it's a very time-efficient, low-effort way to get content for your channel. Probably why there are so many big Let's Play channels, really.

Beyond that, for increasing viewer exposure, tags are the main thing. To my understanding, that's the majority of how YouTube sorts "related" videos, which is where a lot of your audience influx is going to come from. A well-tagged video is more likely to show up in the related section of similar videos, and thus more likely to attract viewers who will subscribe to your channel.

 

[Razerium]

I don't really know what to do anymore because It seems as you say we don't have enough information to be certain which GPU to get, as for cooling, you don't think a lot of fans and stuff will be enough to cool the GPU's? I really don't want to be messing too much with them... I'd do a CPU water cooling but not GPU. Motherboard I'll upgrade once I choose a new GPU, and motherboard I shouldn't upgrade yet. With all this waiting I'm tempted to go for the DDR4... As for my passwords and such, for my youtube and the things I care about I have extremely complicated passwords but for the little things like forums I once signed up for it's pretty much always the same (however there is some change)... As for my subscribers, I did a 9month break from youtube (so much work) and I'm only starting to come back into it. I'm posting once a week. Do you think that's enough for people to subscribe? I actually cannot post more than that.. I can record on Sundays (long story) and I have to edit on Sundays. And I also have to do homework on top of that.. I can always try though, it'd be a nice goal... And I think quality over quality, especially since I get a little pressure when my videos are bad (my friends). But yeah, I also think that my subscribers are only my friends, or people I once made a deal with, and so they're not "active" that's I'm trying to expand, and really get some new people in. I'm trying to expand, but nobody is willing to say to one, two, or three friends "Hey check this out" and show them my videos. But yeah, that's why. Anyhow, I don't really know what to do...

Us not having enough information to determine what GPU (and specific graphics card, in fact) is the right one is precisely correct. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) we're in something of a transitional period for graphics cards at the moment. Fortunately, as said, that should be something which will be resolved soon, with the release of the non-reference 290/290x coolers.

Ah, let me clarify my statements re: GPU cooling. I do not believe that any number of case fans will be enough to cool a 290/290x properly, if that 290/290x has a reference cooler. With a proper non-reference cooler, the stock fans (or whatever LED fans you may prefer) on a high-end tower will have no issues with cooling the cards.

I admit I don't understand what you mean about upgrading your motherboard, there. Do you mean that you will or won't upgrade it?

Well, the waiting should (in theory) be near its end. Once the better coolers for Hawai'i drop, we can move forward, and that's supposed to be very, very soon.

Well, that's not terribly safe password policy, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the same. Sadly, the optimal route is bloody annoying to take, eh?

Well, as a content creator, I absolutely respect the ethos of quality over quantity, but sadly the statistics tend to indicate that volume of content is what attracts subscribers. Part of your issue, though, might be format. It seems that you primarily do a montage-type of video, taking specific parts out of a larger body of footage. While that's a perfectly fine way to do things (and, in fact, "cutting out the dead weight" is more artistically valid than not), the "Let's Play" model, whereby the vast, vast majority of recorded content is put on the channel, is both easier to edit and quicker to make, and is still often enjoyable. I'm not saying you need to switch to Let's Play, mind you, but it's a very time-efficient, low-effort way to get content for your channel. Probably why there are so many big Let's Play channels, really.

Beyond that, for increasing viewer exposure, tags are the main thing. To my understanding, that's the majority of how YouTube sorts "related" videos, which is where a lot of your audience influx is going to come from. A well-tagged video is more likely to show up in the related section of similar videos, and thus more likely to attract viewers who will subscribe to your channel.

Could you just explain to me what exactly non reference coolers, etc are? I never really understood. But right now I guess it's a waiting game really.

I might waits for the drop of DDR4. When exactly will it be coming? December? January or around April? Because when it does drop I might be going for a new processor and some new RAM. Will motherboards change as well?

Passwords, so annoying to remember all of them, especially when I have so many accounts on so many websites; I should really delete some.

As for cooling, I'll do a liquid cooling for my CPU and air cooling throughout the case, once the new 290x come out, so that should be enough. What do you think the price will be?

And finally, about youtube, I can't do let's plays, because there are so many people doing it and I don't like those at all. Like recording for hours and just putting together the best moments it's more work, but I feel more satisfied about my videos. I don't know, but I don't seem to be getting any subscribers, which is a shame... I might try to go for 2 videos a week. That might be enough for people to subscribe. What do you think?

Thanks

EDIT: I found this, should I buy it? Seems pretty good, I could maybe buy two, get a new motherboard, (more ram?) and finally of course a new PSU, and a new case. Idk seems too much for around $1,000...

 

[Jack Revenant]

Could you just explain to me what exactly non reference coolers, etc are? I never really understood. But right now I guess it's a waiting game really.

I might waits for the drop of DDR4. When exactly will it be coming? December? January or around April? Because when it does drop I might be going for a new processor and some new RAM. Will motherboards change as well?

Passwords, so annoying to remember all of them, especially when I have so many accounts on so many websites; I should really delete some.

As for cooling, I'll do a liquid cooling for my CPU and air cooling throughout the case, once the new 290x come out, so that should be enough. What do you think the price will be?

And finally, about youtube, I can't do let's plays, because there are so many people doing it and I don't like those at all. Like recording for hours and just putting together the best moments it's more work, but I feel more satisfied about my videos. I don't know, but I don't seem to be getting any subscribers, which is a shame... I might try to go for 2 videos a week. That might be enough for people to subscribe. What do you think?

Thanks

EDIT: I found this, should I buy it? Seems pretty good, I could maybe buy two, get a new motherboard, (more ram?) and finally of course a new PSU, and a new case. Idk seems too much for around $1,000...

Ah! Most certainly. The "reference" cooler on a graphics card is the cooler that the actual GPU company (in this case, AMD) puts on their default, or "reference" model of the graphics card. These tend to utterly suck, particularly the ones from AMD. Later on, the brands that make the vast majority of the actually graphics cards, like ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, put their own, better coolers on the cards, to allow for better cooling, quieter operation, and higher overclocks. These "non-reference" coolers are still stock on the card, they don't require modification as they are actually what the card is assembled with, but they are almost unilaterally superior to the reference cooler. They usually aren't as good as, say, an aftermarket cooler, but they're good enough to do the job, and the card prices are rarely significantly higher than for the standard card (though occasionally extremely high stock-clocked cards with better PCBs and VRM circuitry, such as MSI's Lightning Edition cards, may be priced significantly higher than the standard card).

Well, I believe that DDR4 will technically be released in a month or three, but I don't believe that compatible motherboards will be on the market until the second quarter of 2014.
You would need to swap out both your motherboard and processor to the latest offerings to use DDR4, should you chose to do so.

A mathematician suggested an alternate password creation system whereby you take four random words and make a sentence with them. He argued it was harder to crack and easier to remember. Seems reasonable to me, but I just can't bear to make my password for something "Aggressive Walrus Hijack Yardarm".

I should note, you'd get more return for your money by putting the money you would otherwise spend on liquid CPU cooling into a second GPU, as a general rule. Unless you intend to overclock your CPU, the stock cooler on it will be fine, in fact.
The non-referenced cooler 290xs should be around the same price as the reference cooler models. At most, I'd expect $20-30 more.

It's your call, mostly. The main thing is, statistically speaking, quantity of content gets subscribers. Now, I can completely understand not wanting to do Let's Plays (although I do them myself), but at the end of the day, if people don't see a decent output rate, they may well not subscribe. If you want to maintain integrity of content while still making things more rapidly, however, you might consider reviews and VLOGs/news content, which can be produced more quickly than "best ofs", but still maintains a degree of respectability.

Regarding your edit, I don't know what you're referring to. Did you mean to link something?
Regarding value for money, the primarily ways you could distribute your funds would be (in my opinion) 1: pair of 290s and a new PSU, and potentially a new case ($1000). That would restrict you to a relative cheap case, but with some good deals and a little budget stretching, you could easily fit a Phantom 630 into that. Option 2 would be to add a second 7970, a new PSU, a new case, and (should you wish to) a new CPU, CPU cooler, and motherboard. That could be anywhere from $550 at the cheapest to the full $1,000, depending on the choices you made. A third option would be to get a new case, a new PSU, a 290x, and potentially a CPU cooler, which could also range from around $800 to $1,000, depending on your exact choices. Another factor which impacts efficiency is whether you think you would be able to sell your old 7970. If not, I would actually recommend simply adding a second 7970, as a 7970 CrossFire outperforms a 290x for lower cost.

 

[Razerium]

Could you just explain to me what exactly non reference coolers, etc are? I never really understood. But right now I guess it's a waiting game really.

I might waits for the drop of DDR4. When exactly will it be coming? December? January or around April? Because when it does drop I might be going for a new processor and some new RAM. Will motherboards change as well?

Passwords, so annoying to remember all of them, especially when I have so many accounts on so many websites; I should really delete some.

As for cooling, I'll do a liquid cooling for my CPU and air cooling throughout the case, once the new 290x come out, so that should be enough. What do you think the price will be?

And finally, about youtube, I can't do let's plays, because there are so many people doing it and I don't like those at all. Like recording for hours and just putting together the best moments it's more work, but I feel more satisfied about my videos. I don't know, but I don't seem to be getting any subscribers, which is a shame... I might try to go for 2 videos a week. That might be enough for people to subscribe. What do you think?

Thanks

EDIT: I found this, should I buy it? Seems pretty good, I could maybe buy two, get a new motherboard, (more ram?) and finally of course a new PSU, and a new case. Idk seems too much for around $1,000...

Ah! Most certainly. The "reference" cooler on a graphics card is the cooler that the actual GPU company (in this case, AMD) puts on their default, or "reference" model of the graphics card. These tend to utterly suck, particularly the ones from AMD. Later on, the brands that make the vast majority of the actually graphics cards, like ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, put their own, better coolers on the cards, to allow for better cooling, quieter operation, and higher overclocks. These "non-reference" coolers are still stock on the card, they don't require modification as they are actually what the card is assembled with, but they are almost unilaterally superior to the reference cooler. They usually aren't as good as, say, an aftermarket cooler, but they're good enough to do the job, and the card prices are rarely significantly higher than for the standard card (though occasionally extremely high stock-clocked cards with better PCBs and VRM circuitry, such as MSI's Lightning Edition cards, may be priced significantly higher than the standard card).

Well, I believe that DDR4 will technically be released in a month or three, but I don't believe that compatible motherboards will be on the market until the second quarter of 2014.
You would need to swap out both your motherboard and processor to the latest offerings to use DDR4, should you chose to do so.

A mathematician suggested an alternate password creation system whereby you take four random words and make a sentence with them. He argued it was harder to crack and easier to remember. Seems reasonable to me, but I just can't bear to make my password for something "Aggressive Walrus Hijack Yardarm".

I should note, you'd get more return for your money by putting the money you would otherwise spend on liquid CPU cooling into a second GPU, as a general rule. Unless you intend to overclock your CPU, the stock cooler on it will be fine, in fact.
The non-referenced cooler 290xs should be around the same price as the reference cooler models. At most, I'd expect $20-30 more.

It's your call, mostly. The main thing is, statistically speaking, quantity of content gets subscribers. Now, I can completely understand not wanting to do Let's Plays (although I do them myself), but at the end of the day, if people don't see a decent output rate, they may well not subscribe. If you want to maintain integrity of content while still making things more rapidly, however, you might consider reviews and VLOGs/news content, which can be produced more quickly than "best ofs", but still maintains a degree of respectability.

Regarding your edit, I don't know what you're referring to. Did you mean to link something?
Regarding value for money, the primarily ways you could distribute your funds would be (in my opinion) 1: pair of 290s and a new PSU, and potentially a new case ($1000). That would restrict you to a relative cheap case, but with some good deals and a little budget stretching, you could easily fit a Phantom 630 into that. Option 2 would be to add a second 7970, a new PSU, a new case, and (should you wish to) a new CPU, CPU cooler, and motherboard. That could be anywhere from $550 at the cheapest to the full $1,000, depending on the choices you made. A third option would be to get a new case, a new PSU, a 290x, and potentially a CPU cooler, which could also range from around $800 to $1,000, depending on your exact choices. Another factor which impacts efficiency is whether you think you would be able to sell your old 7970. If not, I would actually recommend simply adding a second 7970, as a 7970 CrossFire outperforms a 290x for lower cost.

I actually have a budget of $1,300... If that changed anything. Should we do 1 290x or 2 290s, 1 7990... And what CPU should I get? I don't think I'll wait so long until Q2 of 2014.. I'll probably want to OC my CPU, and so that's why I would get liquid cooling, I don't really want to OC my GPU, too hard and I don't want to lose my warranty.
I did mean to link something, but it seems as I didn't and I know don't know what It was.
Does having a bigger budget open up some more options? Or do you think I should just quit this project? Because I do have a pretty good PC right now. I'm not sure.
I actually have a like $1,500 budget but i really don't want to spend it all.
For the motherboard, should I get a asus rog rampage VI? It's a pretty god motherboard..

As for youtube, I just don't like let's play. I just want subscribers that will watch my videos really, but let's get back into subject

Thanks!

 

[Jack Revenant]

I actually have a budget of $1,300... If that changed anything. Should we do 1 290x or 2 290s, 1 7990... And what CPU should I get? I don't think I'll wait so long until Q2 of 2014.. I'll probably want to OC my CPU, and so that's why I would get liquid cooling, I don't really want to OC my GPU, too hard and I don't want to lose my warranty.
I did mean to link something, but it seems as I didn't and I know don't know what It was.
Does having a bigger budget open up some more options? Or do you think I should just quit this project? Because I do have a pretty good PC right now. I'm not sure.
I actually have a like $1,500 budget but i really don't want to spend it all.
For the motherboard, should I get a asus rog rampage VI? It's a pretty god motherboard..

As for youtube, I just don't like let's play. I just want subscribers that will watch my videos really, but let's get back into subject

Thanks!

$1,300 would definitely open up options. That being the case, two 290s ($800 total), a bigger PSU (likely between $100 and $150), a new case ($130-220), a CPU cooler (there's a good one on Newegg at the moment for $55 counting the rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CNTUmKH2-boCFU7ZQgodOlYANg&Item=N82E16835106190&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Water+%2f+Liquid+Cooling-_-N82E16835106190&ef_id=UpAbRQAABGvvzKw7:20131123030437:s), and a new motherboard which would be better for OCing/CrossFire ($100-160) should all just about fit in budget, and give you a significant increase in performance.

If you intend on a CPU OC and plan to have hot-running GPUs like 7970s or 290s in CrossFire, liquid's a good way to go for sure. I was basing my comments on your original post, where you stated a lack of interest in overclocking.

Well, as said, you can quit the project at any time. Your PC is good as stands. However, as said above, you can also definitely make it better. The tricky thing about computers is, they can always be improved. Have the absolute highest-end GPU? You can still add more in CrossFire/SLI. Have the highest-end CPU? You can still throw hundreds into a good liquid loop for that optimal OC. Have tonnes of storage? SSDs are cheap, you could swap to pure solid state. So on and so forth. Any amount of money can theoretically be sunk into improving your computer, so you have to find for yourself the right balance between invested money and returns. For some people, that means a cut-off of $800 or so for their system. For others, like myself, it basically means that your computer is your hobby. When I get money I don't have anything else to spend on, I tinker with my system. New fans, more storage, whatever. In the end, you need to make the call as to how much time and money you want to put in, because you will always be able to theoretically get something back for it (though obviously the returns do diminish).

The Rampage IV Extreme definitely isn't my favourite board. It has amazing specs, but the sheer cost pretty much crushes the utility. If you want an LGA 2011 board (which, by the way, would require you to buy a new processor, the cheapest of which is over $280 by itself and doesn't meaningfully outperform your current CPU), the ASRock Extreme6 is half the price and 90% as good.

Yep, sorry to get derailed into YouTube theory. I find the statistics surrounding how channels succeed or fail fascinating, but that's not relevant to the help you need here. Apologies about that.

 

[Razerium]

I actually have a budget of $1,300... If that changed anything. Should we do 1 290x or 2 290s, 1 7990... And what CPU should I get? I don't think I'll wait so long until Q2 of 2014.. I'll probably want to OC my CPU, and so that's why I would get liquid cooling, I don't really want to OC my GPU, too hard and I don't want to lose my warranty.
I did mean to link something, but it seems as I didn't and I know don't know what It was.
Does having a bigger budget open up some more options? Or do you think I should just quit this project? Because I do have a pretty good PC right now. I'm not sure.
I actually have a like $1,500 budget but i really don't want to spend it all.
For the motherboard, should I get a asus rog rampage VI? It's a pretty god motherboard..

As for youtube, I just don't like let's play. I just want subscribers that will watch my videos really, but let's get back into subject

Thanks!

$1,300 would definitely open up options. That being the case, two 290s ($800 total), a bigger PSU (likely between $100 and $150), a new case ($130-220), a CPU cooler (there's a good one on Newegg at the moment for $55 counting the rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CNTUmKH2-boCFU7ZQgodOlYANg&Item=N82E16835106190&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Water+%2f+Liquid+Cooling-_-N82E16835106190&ef_id=UpAbRQAABGvvzKw7:20131123030437:s), and a new motherboard which would be better for OCing/CrossFire ($100-160) should all just about fit in budget, and give you a significant increase in performance.

If you intend on a CPU OC and plan to have hot-running GPUs like 7970s or 290s in CrossFire, liquid's a good way to go for sure. I was basing my comments on your original post, where you stated a lack of interest in overclocking.

Well, as said, you can quit the project at any time. Your PC is good as stands. However, as said above, you can also definitely make it better. The tricky thing about computers is, they can always be improved. Have the absolute highest-end GPU? You can still add more in CrossFire/SLI. Have the highest-end CPU? You can still throw hundreds into a good liquid loop for that optimal OC. Have tonnes of storage? SSDs are cheap, you could swap to pure solid state. So on and so forth. Any amount of money can theoretically be sunk into improving your computer, so you have to find for yourself the right balance between invested money and returns. For some people, that means a cut-off of $800 or so for their system. For others, like myself, it basically means that your computer is your hobby. When I get money I don't have anything else to spend on, I tinker with my system. New fans, more storage, whatever. In the end, you need to make the call as to how much time and money you want to put in, because you will always be able to theoretically get something back for it (though obviously the returns do diminish).

The Rampage IV Extreme definitely isn't my favourite board. It has amazing specs, but the sheer cost pretty much crushes the utility. If you want an LGA 2011 board (which, by the way, would require you to buy a new processor, the cheapest of which is over $280 by itself and doesn't meaningfully outperform your current CPU), the ASRock Extreme6 is half the price and 90% as good.

Yep, sorry to get derailed into YouTube theory. I find the statistics surrounding how channels succeed or fail fascinating, but that's not relevant to the help you need here. Apologies about that.

I'm thinking maybe 1 290x (how many fps would that be?) Because I obviously want as much fps as I can get. I'm really un-sure of what to do honestly...

Don't worry about youtube I'm interested on those kind of stats as well

 

[Razerium]

Also, I decided that I wouldn't upgrade it yet. I'm sorry to let you down like this but I wanna keep my $$ 😀 And my PC right now is okay. I'll vote you as a Best Answer though since you did really help me out!

 

[Jack Revenant]

I'm thinking maybe 1 290x (how many fps would that be?) Because I obviously want as much fps as I can get. I'm really un-sure of what to do honestly...

Don't worry about youtube I'm interested on those kind of stats as well

Well, as said, we don't have the properly-cooled 290xs yet, so I can't give you an exact figure, but based on current information, it would appear that you'd get around a 30-40% improvement over a 7970. Honestly, as said, a second 7970 would be cheaper and give better performance than a single 290x, though admittedly it would be less upgradeable.

Also, I decided that I wouldn't upgrade it yet. I'm sorry to let you down like this but I wanna keep my $$ 😀 And my PC right now is okay. I'll vote you as a Best Answer though since you did really help me out!

Hey, no worries. As I said at the start, you have a rock-solid PC at the moment, so there's nothing wrong with holding off on changing it. The longer you wait, the more value you get for your money, with a few exceptions (for example, the price of RAM has actually risen in recent months), but those exceptions are more than counterbalanced by the price drops on expensive components like GPUs, and the release of newer, better hardware. I'm glad I was able to help to the extent that I was, and I hope that you'll feel that you have a resource to return to if and when you do want to upgrade.

Cheers mate,
Jack

 

[Razerium]

I'm thinking maybe 1 290x (how many fps would that be?) Because I obviously want as much fps as I can get. I'm really un-sure of what to do honestly...

Don't worry about youtube I'm interested on those kind of stats as well

Well, as said, we don't have the properly-cooled 290xs yet, so I can't give you an exact figure, but based on current information, it would appear that you'd get around a 30-40% improvement over a 7970. Honestly, as said, a second 7970 would be cheaper and give better performance than a single 290x, though admittedly it would be less upgradeable.

Also, I decided that I wouldn't upgrade it yet. I'm sorry to let you down like this but I wanna keep my $$ 😀 And my PC right now is okay. I'll vote you as a Best Answer though since you did really help me out!

Hey, no worries. As I said at the start, you have a rock-solid PC at the moment, so there's nothing wrong with holding off on changing it. The longer you wait, the more value you get for your money, with a few exceptions (for example, the price of RAM has actually risen in recent months), but those exceptions are more than counterbalanced by the price drops on expensive components like GPUs, and the release of newer, better hardware. I'm glad I was able to help to the extent that I was, and I hope that you'll feel that you have a resource to return to if and when you do want to upgrade.

Cheers mate,
Jack

Upgrading my PC might be in a few months, or never. But with all the new releases of GPU's etc that will occur i'll make sure to PM you if I have any more questions. That depends if you're still on Tom's Hardware of course...

Thanks!
Razerium

 

[Jack Revenant]

I'm thinking maybe 1 290x (how many fps would that be?) Because I obviously want as much fps as I can get. I'm really un-sure of what to do honestly...

Don't worry about youtube I'm interested on those kind of stats as well

Well, as said, we don't have the properly-cooled 290xs yet, so I can't give you an exact figure, but based on current information, it would appear that you'd get around a 30-40% improvement over a 7970. Honestly, as said, a second 7970 would be cheaper and give better performance than a single 290x, though admittedly it would be less upgradeable.

Also, I decided that I wouldn't upgrade it yet. I'm sorry to let you down like this but I wanna keep my $$ 😀 And my PC right now is okay. I'll vote you as a Best Answer though since you did really help me out!

Hey, no worries. As I said at the start, you have a rock-solid PC at the moment, so there's nothing wrong with holding off on changing it. The longer you wait, the more value you get for your money, with a few exceptions (for example, the price of RAM has actually risen in recent months), but those exceptions are more than counterbalanced by the price drops on expensive components like GPUs, and the release of newer, better hardware. I'm glad I was able to help to the extent that I was, and I hope that you'll feel that you have a resource to return to if and when you do want to upgrade.

Cheers mate,
Jack

Upgrading my PC might be in a few months, or never. But with all the new releases of GPU's etc that will occur i'll make sure to PM you if I have any more questions. That depends if you're still on Tom's Hardware of course...

Thanks!
Razerium

Sure, feel free to PM me with questions, issues, whatever. I'm here to help.
I wouldn't worry about me leaving. I like this forum, and even when I'm not on "active duty" responding to posts, I tend to stay logged in.

Good luck and happy gaming!
Jack

 

[ace5968]

Buy An Avermedia live gamer portable capture card to record your gameplay.