If you had $500, what would you upgrade?

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pimpin-tl

Senior member
Jan 24, 2010
293
2
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My current system specs are below. I have about $500 I can spend to upgrade my PC. I am pretty much out of space on my SSD in my machine now and was considering buying an 950 Pro to expand my system and put the games only on the 512gb EVO.

But I also was thinking maybe buy a regular HD, and upgrade the motherboard and processor to a i7 6700 series maybe and DDR4 memory.

Thoughts?


CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processo
CPU Cooler: Corsair h115i 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Compound: Arctic Cooling MX4 4g Thermal Paste
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO Series 512GB 2.5" SSD
Storage: Synology 1515+ NAS, 2 3TB Western Digital REDs and 1 4TB Seagate Barracuda
Video Card: EVGA 1080 GTX FTW 8GB
Monitor: LG34UM95 34" ULTRAWIDE 21:9 LED IPS
Sound Card: Creative Labs ZXR 24-bit 192 Hz Sound Card
Case: Phantek's Enthoo Evolv ATX Tempered Glass Edition
Power Supply: SeaSonic Platinum 1000W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive External: Asus 12X Blu-ray burner 2.0/3.0 USB
 
MongGrel

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,751
3,068
121
Mobo, DDR4, and CPU looks the thing to me if your itching to do it.
 
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pimpin-tl

Senior member
Jan 24, 2010
293
2
81
Okay, well I guess the answers are get an SSD because I'm out of space. Sorry but I have to upgrade it at least.
 
Chapbass

Chapbass

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,147
89
91
Charlie98 said:
I would add another SSD, not even fool with a spinner unless you just have to.
Click to expand...

This. With a rig that nice, don't muck around with a spinner, you'll just get frustrated every time you need to access it. Get a 1TB SSD or somethin.
 
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b-mac

Member
Jun 15, 2015
147
23
81
I agree with the others. Maybe drop some cash on another 512 SSD (I don't think you probably would notice a difference between the 950 Pro and a standard SSD) and bank the rest for another upgrade down the line.
 
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Thinker_145

Senior member
Apr 19, 2016
609
58
91
Buying more DDR 3 ram is a waste at this point. You are likely not going to need more than 16GB before you end up upgrading your platform since you seem like a high end user.

If you are having difficulty maintaining a 512GB SSD then that means you either like to keep a lot of games installed or access large amounts of local media from the SSD. So buying a 1TB SSD sounds like the best option, that is certainly not going to go to waste.

I am assuming your CPU is well over clocked so really no need to touch that for now.

Sent from my HTC One M9
 
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whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,460
1,570
96
Thinker_145 said:
Buying more DDR 3 ram is a waste at this point. You are likely not going to need more than 16GB before you end up upgrading your platform since you seem like a high end user.

If you are having difficulty maintaining a 512GB SSD then that means you either like to keep a lot of games installed or access large amounts of local media from the SSD. So buying a 1TB SSD sounds like the best option, that is certainly not going to go to waste.

I am assuming your CPU is well over clocked so really no need to touch that for now.

Sent from my HTC One M9
Click to expand...
I disagree about the memory. The OP system will be good for another three to 4 years maybe even longer. DDR3 is cheap right now so he get add another 16 GB now in case he does need it. And yeah I would get a 1 TB SSD as well.
 
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Thinker_145

Senior member
Apr 19, 2016
609
58
91
whm1974 said:
I disagree about the memory. The OP system will be good for another three to 4 years maybe even longer. DDR3 is cheap right now so he get add another 16 GB now in case he does need it. And yeah I would get a 1 TB SSD as well.
Click to expand...
Oh I absolutely agree but OP doesn't seem like someone who will hold on to it for that long if he is already thinking about Skylake.

And I don't see why he can't add more ram when he actually needs it. DDR3 isn't going extinct anytime soon.

Sent from my HTC One M9
 
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pimpin-tl

Senior member
Jan 24, 2010
293
2
81
Yeah, I won't keep this machine for another 3-4 years. Maybe 2 at the most. I did buy a 850 EVO 1TB drive and already installed it. Actually surprised I see a speed difference between the 500gb and the 1TB. Very noticeable. I am selling the 850 evo 500gb so I can recoup some of the cost on the 1tb.

I may get more ram for it as well, just later down the road. Thanks everyone!
 
bigboxes

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
38,605
11,977
146
Edit: you've got a fine rig. The only thing I could think of would be a couple more sticks of that 8gb ram and maybe another large HDD for the NAS.
 
D

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
If you're out of space, a second SSD makes sense to me. EVO is fine, no need to spend extra for the tiny speed boost (for a desktop in normal use) of a Pro.

My gaming system has a tiny boot SSD for the OS (80 GB) and a 750 GB SSD for Steam :)
 
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Thinker_145

Senior member
Apr 19, 2016
609
58
91
pimpin-tl said:
Yeah, I won't keep this machine for another 3-4 years. Maybe 2 at the most. I did buy a 850 EVO 1TB drive and already installed it. Actually surprised I see a speed difference between the 500gb and the 1TB. Very noticeable. I am selling the 850 evo 500gb so I can recoup some of the cost on the 1tb.

I may get more ram for it as well, just later down the road. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Not sure if selling is a good idea. If you ran out of 512GB you will eventually run out of 1TB. With the size of games getting bigger and bigger 1.5TB SSD space is certainly not overkill.

Sent from my HTC One M9
 
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piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
Sounds like you need to gut everything from the motherboard to the video card to the RAM. You could try just upgrading to the Best video card out there or something near the best. You cant upgrade the RAM unless you replace the Motherboard and CPU.
 
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