Question Some questions on upgrade of PC (mobo, RAM, M.2 storage)

[kristijn]

Hi all

I am in the process of upgrading my self built computer. It is 5 years old and unfortunately it starts to act weird. So it is time to upgrade it.
My budget is +- 1000 euros. but it can be more if it would be a total rebuild with new graphics card.
My main use is gaming and lightroom. Games like europa universalis 4, total war series, world of tanks, league of legends. So not the most graphical demanding games but more Processor heavy (eu4 mainly).
Likewise for Lightroom it is more processor heavy than graphics card heavy.


Proposed Build:

new parts
Processor: Intel Core i7-9700K Boxed
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z390-F Gaming or Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT BLS2K16G4D32AESB

reused parts
Graphics card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Pearl Black
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
PSU: Cooler Master V550 Semi-Modular
SSD: Crucial MX100 512GB

My proposed build is a combo of old parts I want to reuse and a new base for future expansions. I have chosen the i7-9700K as my base for this build. I would reuse my GTX 980 as it is currently enough. But I would like to have options open for future upgrades when it is no longer sufficient. I am not planning on overclocking immediately, but it is something i might dabble with in the future.

My specific questions around the build are the following:

Motherboard choice, I feel like the Gigabyte z390 Aorus Pro is a great board. But I have read some stories that the bios is not great. On the other hand we have the Asus ROG Strix Z390-F, great bios but less reviews. So I am a bit uncertain which of the 2 boards to choose or if there are better alternatives that I did not find.
PSU: Would it be better to change the PSU while I'm at it, or would it still hold up with the new build? It is currently 5yrs old.
SSD/M.2: I would like to add some extra storage. the 500Gb is doing a great job for my windows partition. But I would like to add fast storage for my games and RAW photos for processing. I was thinking about 1Tb m.2 NVMe unfortunately I have no clue about what defines great NVMe storrage and what would work with my build. So tips are welcome

 

[deustroop]

That's a substantial upgrade. I suggest you save a few dollars by replacing the ASUS option with the ASUS Prime Z390-A (fewer unnecessary tech add-ons) and spend the $ on a better GPU, specifically the GTX 1080. This card will play all titles at high settings beautifully except those developed with ray tracing ( very few presently) or/and running @4k.

At 5 yrs service, the psu might be replaced and I'd move up to a 750w supply ( more headroom).

Overclocking, on an Intel/ Prime combo, is very simply accomplished on all cores these days (Intel has its own app for that) but you would need a better cooler. In that event I'd recommend the dual tower/ single fan Noctua NH-D15S.

The current lot of M.2 drives occupy a very competitive space and for your proposed uses there is really little need for the best performance drive . But I'll go ahead and suggest one anyways. Look at the Samsung 970 Evo Plus.There are less expensive items with almost the same performance, I just don't know enough to pick one out. You can check reviews on this site and there are experts here who might advise on value/performance choices.