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Offline MahoneyRed

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Rate my upgrade plan
« on: May 30, 2014, 08:57:42 AM »
I have a notion to upgrade the rig and I am looking for some input. In terms of budget, let's just say a Titan card is NOT happening. Here's what I am currently sitting on:

AMD FX-6100 Zambezi - Six core at 3.3GHz
GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Two GTX 580 (Thank you Twins) NOT in SLI because I am a Crap person with hand me down monitors of different resolutions that refuses to give up all that real estate
16GB RAM

Looking to change over to:
EDIT: PC Part picker link (thanks Shoctor)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($230.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Memory:  G.Skill Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($300.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card:  MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)
Video Card:  MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)
Total: $598.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-30 11:20 EDT-0400)

Looking to be used for Mine Sweeper, Video Editing (hence the RAM), Gaming, and pr0n.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2014, 10:23:11 AM by MahoneyRed »
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Offline Twinsfan85

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2014, 11:30:04 AM »
That mobo only has one PCI 3.0x16 slot. The next one is a 2.0x4. Why bother going CF with a MB like that?
If it were me I would either:
-Stick with the same mobo upgrade the CPU to an AMD 9370. That will save you a few bucks and you'll have better performance all around (esp in Minesweeper)

-Go with a single 780 TI and get a better MB and CPU. That will leave you slightly less now but give you room to get another 780ti down the road when they are cheaper without any worries

Just some suggestions worth checking out  :2thumbsup: I should say that it has been a long time since I looked at putting together a new rig. You should def. talk to the other guys about it. ZX is prob more familiar with the new hardware than I am. Duder can probably set you straight too.

« Last Edit: May 30, 2014, 11:37:58 AM by Twinsfan85 »
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Offline MahoneyRed

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2014, 11:51:09 AM »
I did not catch the Mobo being PCI 2.0 @4, good eye. I think I assumed it was a PCI 2.0 at full 16.

I was doing some research and the majority indicates that you can go as low as PCI 2.0 @8 for the second slot and not see any bottle necks.

My big reason to switch over to intel is computational power. Video render times really on RAM and on CPU power. I can GPU accelerate, but only certain effects and transitions really rely on the GPU. I've always been an AMD proponent, but some posted benchmarks out there are leaning me towards the transition.

I'm interested to hear some opinions on the 780 v 290 debate. I've also been a huge Nvidia follower and wouldn't mind sticking with them.
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Offline Twinsfan85

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2014, 12:39:18 PM »
Maybe I read the benches wrong but the AMD 9370 should crush the i5-3570k when it comes to rendering. Also, the 290 CF would obviously crush the single 780Ti. There is a lot to consider though when looking at 290 CF and potentially 780 SLI down the road. Power consumption, noise, heat, etc all play a huge role in the overall picture. FWIW, the AMD cards right are now are by far the best bang for your buck. Maybe go for the single 780 TI and start saving for a sweet 4k monitor  8)
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Offline MahoneyRed

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2014, 08:06:48 PM »
I don't think I had even looked at that one because I read that PCIe 3.0  is only supported by amd processors with FM2 sockets. But I should have noticed the trend that you don't really NEED a 3.0 slot. You can get full power out of a xfire with 2.0 so long as both are 16. It would be equivalent to two slots of 3.0 @ 8 (which is incidentally how any 2 slot 3.0 board is sold).

I am glad I posted this. I am now restrategizing.
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Offline duder

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2014, 02:21:36 PM »
If you can wait just a little while I'd highly recommend holding off until Devil's Canyon is out... those new CPU's are going to be the tits.

I've got a Z97 board at home I've been playing around w/ and the same CPU/memory config compared to Z87 is benching about 10% faster... factor in the new CPU and you're probably looking 15-20% better performance for the same money.

FYI the board is the ASRock Z97 Pro4, kind of the big brother to that one you were looking at.
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Offline MahoneyRed

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2014, 12:29:18 PM »
I'm still debating this one, but I wanted to give every one an update on my current research so that people can discuss and possibly learn something new.

1) If I go to Intel I feel I will have to go with an i7 or something in an 1150 socket. As much as the 1155 socket is powerful and established, the upgrade path for 1155 is fizzling out. If I am throwing down some bones now I want to make sure that throw down smaller bones later.

2) The newest cards are PCIe 3.0, but you can run them just fine on PCIe 2.0 slots. Optimally you would want to run them on 2 slots of 2.0 @ x16. Due to how PCIe is done this is equivalent to two slots of PCIe 3.0 @ x8. That's not a complete comparison, but it's close enough for the considerations of video cards. You can, reportedly but not demonstrated, go as low as PCIe 2.0 @ x8 and not see any hiccups.

3) If the future of PCIe 3.0 is something you are concerned about then know that for AMD processors you will currently need a socket FM2 board and processor. The AM3+ socket doesn't support PCIe 3.0.

And after all of this.... I still have no idea what I want to do yet. It certainly is nice to use parts I already have and keep going the AMD route, but if I change over I have a decent upgrade path and can use my old hardware as a NAS box.
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Offline zx2slow

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2014, 09:23:06 PM »
1) i5 is gud, hyperthreading does nothing for most applications.  The new chips are coming out, wait a few months for deep discounts or better CPU's at the same price point.

2)  PCIe 3.0 is RAWsome and needed for top end and likely next gen cards, you will be limited with available PCIe lanes on the 1150/1155 socket.

3) If you are concerned with the future stay clear of AMD unless you want to do a APU.  This really huirts me to say as a AMD fanboy BTW.
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Offline MahoneyRed

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Re: Rate my upgrade plan
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2014, 08:36:55 AM »
After reading and pondering I have decided that waiting might be best. But I'm still upgrading some things.

For now I am at least upgrading my displays to all matching resolution at 1920x1080. I've been sitting at 1600x900 for too long now. I also plan on still upgrading the video card soon. I am currently still pretty serious about the 290, but I've got some patience in me yet and will wait it out.

As for the eventual Mobo and CPU upgrade, I think Intel is in my future. Everything I have looked at makes it sound like Intel will fite my needs better. Which is sad since I too have been using AMD for a long time now.
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