looking for community upgrade opinions.

[Akrovah]

Hi all, just trying to ask, "what would you do?" I'm going to have the budget shortly a single hardware upgrade in my rig, and I am torn between GPU and SSD.

The particulars:
GTX970 to 980ti

Or

512gb Crucial mx100 to 1tb 850 evo

Thoughts?

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, hopefully viable for 5+ years at high or better settings

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$400 - Price difference with 980ti would be made up by selling 970.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Nvidia, Intel, WD, Corasir

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
MoBo - ASRock z97 Extreme6
CPU - i7-4790k
RAM - Corasir DDR3-1866 16 GB Doul Channel kit
HDD - 1TB WD Blue (Data), 1TB WD Black (Games)
Sound - Sound Blaster Z
PSU - Corsair 850tx
Case - Corsair Graphite 600t


7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Overclocking is a future possibility

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1080 - I know 980ti is overkill for this now, but I was considering at longevity

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
within the week

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
no

 

[Essence_of_War]

1080 - I know 980ti is overkill for this now, but I was considering at longevity

It doesn't make much sense to buy parts now in the hope of ensuring future longevity. Commodity computer parts don't really hold any value, and you pay a premium for diminished returns on high-end products. A much more effective use of your money would be to use the 970 now, save the $400, and do a GPU upgrade when you can no longer play the games you want to play at the settings you'd like to play them at, or possibly sooner if you upgrade your monitor resolution.

Unless you're out of space on your SSD, you'd get at best marginal gains from an upgrade there. Certainly nothing you'd notice in day to day use.

 

[Ken g6]

Neither sounds like a great value upgrade.

Overclocking is a future possibility

Got a heat sink on that CPU? Want to get a better one?

 

[Akrovah]

I had considered that route with the GPU as well. You're probably right. I guess I just needed to have someone else say it because I think the 980ti is sexy as heck.

But as for the SSD, I should probably just try to be okay with putting more on the mechanical than I have been. I've been putting any new releases on the SSD and between my Wife's Sims 4 (because Sims traditionally takes FOREVER to load) and then Alien: Isolation, Shadows or Mordor, DA: I, GTA V, etc the SSD is feeling tight.

As for the heatsink question. yes, I do have a Zalman CNPS 9900. A pre built liquid loop might be nice though.

 

[sm625]

It is pointless to spend more than $100 on a SSD. Sink it all into the GPU, and use a HDD for media and games. UNLESS you are absolutely sure you will not use more than 500GB over the life of the system! If you know for sure that you will stay under that amount, then by all means go for the 512GB SSD. But its just so easy to fill out 500GB.... I would not even consider a 1TB SSD yet.

 

[mfenn]

It doesn't make much sense to buy parts now in the hope of ensuring future longevity. Commodity computer parts don't really hold any value, and you pay a premium for diminished returns on high-end products. A much more effective use of your money would be to use the 970 now, save the $400, and do a GPU upgrade when you can no longer play the games you want to play at the settings you'd like to play them at, or possibly sooner if you upgrade your monitor resolution.

Agree. To paraphrase Ken, "the only way to future-proof a PC is to save money to spend on future parts".