Need help deciding what to upgrade. (specs inside)

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BlueVyper

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Basically my question is what would you upgrade out of my current system spec.

CPU: i7 2600K (running @ stock)
GPU: EVGA GTX 970
Mobo: Asus P8P67PRO
Ram: Corsair DDR3 8 Gigs
SSD: Samsung EVO 256GB
HDD: WD Black 1TB
Monitor is a Gateway with a max res of 1920x1080

I mostly game on my PC, but I like to have my options open to play around in all aspects of PC related activity. At the moment I was looking at upgrading the 2600k, which of course would lead to a new mobo and I would go up to 16 Gigs of ram. Or I was thinking maybe a new monitor that could hit higher resolutions. 4K would be nice to future proof a bit, but then again I know that future proof does not exist, by the time I have hardware to run the 4K, better cheaper 4K monitors will be out there.

So I'm looking for opinions, I get an opportunity about once a year to make some changes, with a budget of "roughly" 500ish I can probably go a bit higher if need be.
 
Monitor always when you already have an ssd, then hardware to support it. Also, you didn't list the size of it but bigger is better (at least 27" 2560x1440 if your budget allows)
 
I'd maybe look at a new monitor, but I'd probably hold out until you can do a full system upgrade and swap out everything. None of your components really stand out as the one "weak link" that's going to give you a huge boost if you upgrade. Maybe wait a few months until Kaby Lake is out and pick up a Skylake build cheaper.
 
I'd overclock the CPU and hold off on upgrading until I could afford to do the entire system, as it all currently looks pretty well matched. If you upgrade one component, most of the others are still going to be holding it back.
 
What games do you play? While a higher resolution monitor sounds great, depends what you want to push. Not suggesting this because it starts you down the road but I'd wait and upgrade the CPU, MB, and RAM in the spring, after the Kaby Lake is out. Otherwise I think it is a catch 22 that may depend on the games you play. Monitor vs video card. My 1070 is tolerable for GTA V at 4k, and that is with me lowering some settings. Plays 1440 almost at the highest without issues. So while getting a monitor sounds great, be sure you will be happy with the performance of your games OR with lowering the quality of the graphics if you go the monitor route first.
 
I play stuff like Ark, GTA V, Watchdogs 2, Dishonored 2, and quite a bit of indie stuff as well.
 
Thats ok, I don't think I can afford a good 4K monitor right now anyway. What about the 1440 res? Will I see a big difference going from 1080?
 
Well, on the Monitor....I have on older IPS 2560 x1440 it was a big upgrade IMO.going from 1080..got mine shipped from Korea (Apple Lot-rejects at the time) it was about $300ish at the time.

Do not know what the prices are ATM..

I would go with Mobo ect upgrade
but if your looking for a quick boost how about just going from 8 to 16 Gig memory....really cheap.
 
AP514 said:
Well, on the Monitor....I have on older IPS 2560 x1440 it was a big upgrade IMO.going from 1080..got mine shipped from Korea (Apple Lot-rejects at the time) it was about $300ish at the time.

Do not know what the prices are ATM..

I would go with Mobo ect upgrade
but if your looking for a quick boost how about just going from 8 to 16 Gig memory....really cheap.
Click to expand...

Yeah going from 1080p to 1440p was a bigger jump than 1440p to 4k on a 28inch monitor IMO.
 
AP514 said:
Well, on the Monitor....I have on older IPS 2560 x1440 it was a big upgrade IMO.going from 1080..got mine shipped from Korea (Apple Lot-rejects at the time) it was about $300ish at the time.

Do not know what the prices are ATM..

I would go with Mobo ect upgrade
but if your looking for a quick boost how about just going from 8 to 16 Gig memory....really cheap.
Click to expand...

Cheap but virtually worthless for any boost for FPS or anything else meaningful unless VMs are in the mix. Maybe a slight increase in performance if it is a single stick of 8GB ram vs two 4GB sticks simply for throughput. It is also a waste of money if a system upgrade is in the works in the near future. Like throwing money away. Not a personal attack but it is throwing money away if you will be going to a DDR4 MB in the near future.

I'd get something I could do 1440 on (monitor, TV) and then upgrade to a 1080, then do the whole Mobo. At least you can reuse the monitor and graphics card.

My 2 cents....if it is even worth that.
 
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SSD, HDD and RAM, upgrade out of nessisity not just because.

Looking at you're specs, if it were me I would hold off a little longer on the entire rig but get a nice 1440p monitor to use. Upgrade the CPU, mono, gpu later when it's actually costing you game experience. Get you're money's worth out of it.

Unless you are in the business of synthetic benchmarks and the crappy games that offer nothing more than "pretty" I think you're hardware is fine. Seeing how you are still on a sandy bridge I think not, I'll bet you just enjoy gaming good games that are worth you're time.

I picked up a ASUS PB258Q 25" WQHD 2560x1440 IPS display a while back and have been really happy with it. It fit on my desk better than the Thunderbolt Display I use at work. But the gamers might chime in with better options, I guess 120hz is pretty nice now days.
 
SSD from HDD is a vast improvement, so I disagree with that. I will caveat it with the fact that while it does not help game performance, load times significantly improve. For example, I cannot stand playing Dark Souls (any one) on the PS4 any more due to the various load times between levels. When you are used to 2 to 3 second load time between levels and it gets bumped up to 30-45, it adds up.
 
I just put a 1tb SSD in my PS4, overkill? Yes but I don't want to worry about it being slow, ever haha
 
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