Gaming PC Upgrade

[botternub]

I am looking to upgrade the motherboard and possibly the cpu and the ram. My PSU is also 6yrs old, and I'm not sure if I should replace that aswell. This is a pc for gaming.

Budget: 500-800usd, I just want better performance out of my system because I plan on getting a 1440p gsync as my main monitor in the near future and I want to be able to take full advantage of my hardware.

I saw some sale posts and saw these, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1242293-REG/intel_core_i7_6700k_4_0_ghz.html and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...040516-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20233849-S2A3C

I want to upgrade to something, but I have no idea what I am looking for, if anyone has any recomendations or thoughts, I would like to hear them.

Current build:
Motherboard: Intel Z68A
CPU: i7 2600k oc to 4.0ghz
RAM: 16gb ddr3 1333
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 04G-P4-2983-KR 4GB SC GAMING w/ACX 2.0
Hard drive: 240gb SSD
Power supply: rx1000ae 1000 watts 80 gold plus
Monitor: ASUS VG248QE 144hz (1080p) + Standard 60hrz monitor

 

[mnewsham]

Why do you want to upgrade your CPU and RAM? Are you noticing any problems?

Nothing you could buy right now would give you significant performance increases for gaming.

 

[botternub]

Why do you want to upgrade your CPU and RAM? Are you noticing any problems?

Nothing you could buy right now would give you significant performance increases for gaming.

A lot of the hardware that is in my current rig is getting to be able six years old. I just assumed that I could get more performance by upgrading to current tech. I plan to run a monitor that is 1440p at 144hz gsync.

 

[mnewsham]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/287?vs=1543

Well you're right in that you can get more performance from upgrading, but it isn't worth it for gaming, the biggest factor for that is your GPU, which since you already have a GTX 980 you should wait for the next gen GPUs anyway before upgrading that.

 

[Ken g6]

What's your CPU cooler? 4ghz for a 2600k is a little on the low side. With a good cooler you should be able to push it a little more.

 

[botternub]

What's your CPU cooler? 4ghz for a 2600k is a little on the low side. With a good cooler you should be able to push it a little more.

It's got a water cooling setup. I used to have it at 4.3 but it had some stability issues, I've had no problems at 4.

 

[UsandThem]

Agree with the others. I'd wait at least one to two more cycles to upgrade.

Gaming wise, you wouldn't see much of a jump, and Skylake (outside of the efficiency) has been very meh.

I'd wait at least until AMD releases Zen to see if it is all hype or competitive, and for Nvidia and AMD to release their new GPUs this year. At least you can see what your options are.

 

[daveybrat]

Agree with the others. I'd wait at least one to two more cycles to upgrade.

Gaming wise, you wouldn't see much of a jump, and Skylake (outside of the efficiency) has been very meh.

I'd wait at least until AMD releases Zen to see if it is all hype or competitive, and for Nvidia and AMD to release their new GPUs this year. At least you can see what your options are.

^^ What he said....too much new tech coming out this year, wait it out.

 

[DigDog]

+1 here, your pc doesnt need upgrading. any money you throw at it would result in minimal gains.

 

[Denithor]

I'll suggest something a little different. Go ahead and get the new higher resolution screen. See how your system handles the more demanding load. If there's no noticeable reduction you're good to go. If it chokes, figure out what is holding you back (most likely GPU) and upgrade that part.

Keep in mind what others have mentioned, new generation video cards coming out soon, likely best to wait for those before dropping a pile of cash.

 

[Danno21]

I'll add my two cents in, since I recently upgraded to a 144hz 1440p g-sync monitor (Acer XB270HU).

Have you seen this video Digital Foundry did on whether people should finally upgrade their 2500k? LINK. I know you have a 2600k, but it still applies a little to you since it's still Sandy Bridge, and you have a rather low overclock. The video does show that a 3770k does perform almost as well as the i5 Skylake, so the 2600k still has an edge over the 2500k obviously. Need to also keep in mind that they are also using a Titan-X to try to eliminate GPU bottlenecking.

I had a 2500k at 4.6Ghz and when you're trying to get as many frames as possible with your monitor, I upgraded and saw a good improvement, even with a 5820k at 4.4Ghz. Although, I have a 980 Ti, so that helps push the frames a little more than your 980.

As the person above me mentioned, maybe get the monitor, see what your maximum frames are and see if the GPU is full load when playing games without vsync (will never want it on anyways with that 144hz 1440p monitor). If your GPU is not at full load, then you know you're CPU is bottlenecking it.