"Black Friday" Tech Sales

[DjPim]

Originally Posted by Fat Ninja

Someone offered to help figure out upgrades so here we go.

I built this rig in 2014 for the purpose of gaming on 1080P @ 60Hz. It served its purpose well back then, now I've moved on to gaming at 1080P @ 144Hz and it is definitely struggling to keep up with AAA games. The most obvious bottlenecks are the GPU and the Hard Drive, would I need to upgrade other things as well? What would be a good GPU for 1080P @ 144Hz?

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X Motherboard
Processor Inter Core i5-4440 3.1 GHz
Hard Drive WD Black Series 1 TB 64MB cache
RAM G.Skill ripjaws x series 8gb (2x4GB)
GPU ASUS GTX 770

If you're wanting high-ultra settings for AAA at 144hz, you'll probably need at least a 1070 / 1070ti. What's your budget for upgrades? I would also suggest adding another 8gb of RAM. An SSD will definitely speed up boot times and load times, but won't affect in-game performance (I still highly recommend). Upgrading the CPU is harder because that requires a new motherboard, which may mean your current RAM won't work on that either, and depending on your windows license you might need to either buy a new license or call microsoft to get them to unlink your current license so you can reuse it on a new mobo. However, if these are all things you're willing to go through with, you'd be looking at:

~$400 for 1070ti or $450 for 1080
~$60 for another 2x4GB DDR3 RAM
~$70 or $140 for 500gb or 1tb SSD

CPU can vary a lot depending on what you want, but if go with the i5-9600k, that's about $270, plus around $100 for a standard mobo for that cpu, plus $100-ish for new/more RAM. I would definitely use pcpartpicker to check prices and browse parts, unless you get special promo code emails from places like newegg that can get you better discounts around this time

[Arroway]

Definitely need more RAM -- would get to at least 16GB
GTX 1070 is probably enough GPU, 1080 would be good too. Any chance you'll be going 4K any time soon? Or even 1440p? I would probably err on the side of the GTX 1080 over the 1070.
I definitely agree, upgrading to SSD will make a big difference.
Processor is not a deal breaker, but could use an upgrade to i7 and/or faster speed. There are tons of motherboards that start with ga-z97X, so I'm not sure which specific one you have to know if it'll take an i7 or not. If you'd have to replace the mobo too, I'd probably just do the other things first and see if that solves your problem.

[DjPim]

Originally Posted by Arroway

Processor is not a deal breaker, but could use an upgrade to i7 and/or faster speed. There are tons of motherboards that start with ga-z97X, so I'm not sure which specific one you have to know if it'll take an i7 or not. If you'd have to replace the mobo too, I'd probably just do the other things first and see if that solves your problem.

If he doesn't replace the mobo, his only CPU options are ones that share the same chipset/socket as his current one, which are limited to that generation of intel. Theoretically he could upgrade to a 4th gen i7, but I don't think there's much of a point in doing that. The only problem with upgrading everything else first is that any additional RAM he buys should match his current RAM (in speed ideally*, but needs to be DDR3), and if he later upgrades mobo/cpu, would need to ditch that RAM and get DDR4. Just something to keep in mind

*ETA - Applies if adding another 2x4 sticks to current 2x4. If mobo only has 2 slots, or you decide to go for 2x8 anyway, then only need to make sure it's DDR3.

[Arroway]

PS - I'm pretty sure the PC we built my son has one of the many Gigabyte GA-Z97X variants in it. I've been happy with it.

[PapaSmurf58]

Originally Posted by Arroway

Snagged one -- thanks!

Awesome! Let me know how it works out

[Arroway]

Originally Posted by DjPim

If he doesn't replace the mobo, his only CPU options are ones that share the same chipset/socket as his current one, which are limited to that generation of intel. Theoretically he could upgrade to a 4th gen i7, but I don't think there's much of a point in doing that. The only problem with upgrading everything else first is that any additional RAM he buys should match his current RAM (in speed ideally*, but needs to be DDR3), and if he later upgrades mobo/cpu, would need to ditch that RAM and get DDR4. Just something to keep in mind

*ETA - Applies if adding another 2x4 sticks to current 2x4. If mobo only has 2 slots, or you decide to go for 2x8 anyway, then only need to make sure it's DDR3.

Good catch -- I am vaguely familiar with that mobo, but there are so many variants of it I didn't want to try to guess which he had or if any of them had the newer socket. I'm guessing any mobo with the newer socket would have a different model number, but I wasn't sure where they parse the model numbers (although looking at the current processor shoulda been a clue, oops). Assuming his is 4th gen, I am in total agreement with you, it's not worth the cost to go to i7/4th gen (and maybe harder to find anyway?)

So it comes down to budget -- RAM, SSD GPU or almost a complete redo at roughly double the cost.

[Arroway]

Originally Posted by DjPim

*ETA - Applies if adding another 2x4 sticks to current 2x4. If mobo only has 2 slots, or you decide to go for 2x8 anyway, then only need to make sure it's DDR3.

I believe the mobo we have that's the "same" model has 4 RAM slots.

EDIT -- Any value to adding 2X8 to the 2X4 and having 24? Everything I've read says no, but what's your take?

[DjPim]

Originally Posted by Arroway

I believe the mobo we have that's the "same" model has 4 RAM slots.

EDIT -- Any value to adding 2X8 to the 2X4 and having 24? Everything I've read says no, but what's your take?

I would always keep the sticks the same size. Any time you mix and match memory (even of same capacity but different speeds), you increase the risk of blue screens by quite a bit. I would either get another 2x4 of the exact same you have, or for a bit more get 2x8 (probably of a higher speed) and replace your current sticks with those. Less hassle and headache

[Incredible Hulctuary]

Originally Posted by Fat Ninja

Someone offered to help figure out upgrades so here we go.

I built this rig in 2014 for the purpose of gaming on 1080P @ 60Hz. It served its purpose well back then, now I've moved on to gaming at 1080P @ 144Hz and it is definitely struggling to keep up with AAA games. The most obvious bottlenecks are the GPU and the Hard Drive, would I need to upgrade other things as well? What would be a good GPU for 1080P @ 144Hz?

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X Motherboard
Processor Inter Core i5-4440 3.1 GHz
Hard Drive WD Black Series 1 TB 64MB cache
RAM G.Skill ripjaws x series 8gb (2x4GB)
GPU ASUS GTX 770

That CPU is OK unless you want to do Oculus Rift or other VR.

#1 thing to replace here is the video card. SSD is cheap so do that too.

But if you're going to change the CPU and mobo (and consequently the RAM), you might as well just build or buy a whole new PC, and keep this one as is but repurpose it for something else or somebody else.

[DjPim]

Originally Posted by Incredible Hulctuary

If you're going to change the CPU and mobo (and consequently the RAM), you might as well just build or buy a whole new PC, and keep this one as is but repurpose it for something else or somebody else.

This has been my take usually. You pay an extra $200-$300 for the extra case, power supply, and windows license (and maybe hard drive) and it lets you keep or sell your old rig. Depending on the specs, you might make a little extra back, but PC's don't hold value too well after the first two years.