What to upgrade? Torn between options

[wowmageadam]

Hello folks - I am looking to upgrade my build at some point between now and the end of the year. Budget for upgrades is around $1000.
The PC is used for work/productivity/development, some video editing and music production, and gaming. (PUBG, Overwatch, WoW, Diablo 3, and planning on playing Destiny 2).
Here are my current specs:

- ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard

- AMD FX-8350 @ 4.00 GHz (stock)

- 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM

- GTX 970 graphics

- 480GB Radeon SSD

- Running Win10 and pushing 27" and 24" 1080p monitors.

I am interested in possibly upgrading to 144hz but not sure about the tradeoff of losing 1440p or better performance in games if I spend that much on a monitor. I've never experienced 144hz so unfamiliar with the real world feel of the advantages, although I have a 4K television so I understand the beauty of higher resolution.

Anyway, with the inflated prices on GPUs currently, what would you guys suggest? I've thought about
1) Hold off until Vega prices drop
2) Buy a 1070 and a better monitor
3) Upgrade motherboard, CPU and monitor and wait on upgrading GPU

Any other ideas? Much appreciated.

 

[mbilal2]

So first thing, you'll have to upgrade your mobo, ram and CPU since you can't upgrade one without the other. There's no question in that. Since you'll be using the build for production, you'll benefit from the extra cores in Ryzen, hence making it a perfect choice. An X370 mobo is great as it'll give you the option to upgrade and add another graphics card in the future. For now I would keep the GTX 970. CPU is what you need for production and the 970 can handle most games on mid-high settings. Same thing with the monitors, save up for a good IPS monitor.

Here's a build:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JyGHyf
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JyGHyf/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.65 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X370 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($85.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $755.35

 

[Eximo]

I would go for the R7-1700 at least.

Doesn't seem like another SSD is required. Power supply and case should still be fine, unless a change is desired on the case.

Any remainder could easily go into a graphics card. GTX1070 would be a pretty big improvement over a GTX970. Vega 56 is a tad faster than GTX1070, but the power consumption isn't worth it. It appears most aftermarket cooled GTX1080 will out perform a Vega64, and really win on power consumption.

 

[wowmageadam]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JyGHyf
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JyGHyf/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.65 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X370 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($85.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $755.35

Ok this looks very appealing for sure. However I won't have to buy any more storage, case, PSU etc - those are already covered. So I would just in this case be getting mobo, CPU, memory which adds up to ~$440. So supposing I go ahead with those items, which do you think is better to upgrade. The graphics card to a 1070 or something and use the existing 1080p monitors? Or go with 144hz or 1440p (or both) and spend the remaining chunk of change on a really good monitor and hold off on the GPU?

Thanks for the help.

 

[mbilal2]

Ok this looks very appealing for sure. However I won't have to buy any more storage, case, PSU etc - those are already covered. So I would just in this case be getting mobo, CPU, memory which adds up to ~$440. So supposing I go ahead with those items, which do you think is better to upgrade. The graphics card to a 1070 or something and use the existing 1080p monitors? Or go with 144hz or 1440p (or both) and spend the remaining chunk of change on a really good monitor and hold off on the GPU?

M.2 SSDs are faster than the sata III ones but yeah you can save the money with the storage and the case like you said. (You didn't mention what PSU you have) A GTX 1070 is the best card to run a 144Hz 1080p monitor with games at high settings. For 1440p, you need to get a GTX 1080 and the prices add up significantly. My recommendation would be to get a GTX 1080 and keep your current monitors for now (or wait for prices to drop though the GTX 1080 wasn't affected much. You'll have to wait a good few months to get your hands on a VEGA card). Buy a 1440p, 144Hz monitor in the future. 1440p@144Hz is a huge leap from your current 1080p@60Hz(?) monitors and you won't go back once you experience games at 2k@144Hz. And it is very well worth it. Unfortunately these monitors cost well over 500$.

 

[wowmageadam]

Ok this looks very appealing for sure. However I won't have to buy any more storage, case, PSU etc - those are already covered. So I would just in this case be getting mobo, CPU, memory which adds up to ~$440. So supposing I go ahead with those items, which do you think is better to upgrade. The graphics card to a 1070 or something and use the existing 1080p monitors? Or go with 144hz or 1440p (or both) and spend the remaining chunk of change on a really good monitor and hold off on the GPU?

M.2 SSDs are faster than the sata III ones but yeah you can save the money with the storage and the case like you said. (You didn't mention what PSU you have) A GTX 1070 is the best card to run a 144Hz 1080p monitor with games at high settings. For 1440p, you need to get a GTX 1080 and the prices add up significantly. My recommendation would be to get a GTX 1080 and keep your current monitors for now (or wait for prices to drop though the GTX 1080 wasn't affected much. You'll have to wait a good few months to get your hands on a VEGA card). Buy a 1440p, 144Hz monitor in the future. 1440p@144Hz is a huge leap from your current 1080p@60Hz(?) monitors and you won't go back once you experience games at 2k@144Hz. And it is very well worth it. Unfortunately these monitors cost well over 500$.

Ok that makes sense. Are there sections here on TomsHardware that cover the best 1440p/144hz monitors for the money? Or is it more something where the technology keeps evolving and newer models come out to replace the old, like GPUs? Sorry for my lack of knowledge on that.

 

[mbilal2]

Here's a list of all 1440p, 144Hz monitors

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#W=2700,4251&H=144,240&r=256001440

I recommend the Asus PG279Q with the IPS display. It's simply one of the best ones out there. Also 27" will be a great size as you might already know since you own one. Don't buy a FreeSync monitor if you own a Nvidia card and don't buy a G-Sync monitor if you own an AMD card.

Ultra wide monitors is another thing you might want to look into. The Acer Predator would be the best choice in that case.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WDcMnQ/acer-monitor-umcx1aa002

Asus MG279Q is not a bad choice either though it is a FreeSync monitor.. You'll just be spending a bit more for an option you won't be using.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/c298TW/asus-monitor-mg279q