Another new gaming rig.

[Parmenides]

At some point this year I want to upgrade. Looking for thoughts on what to do. Tempted to just go with a cheaper DDR3 base build, but wondering if it's worth waiting on decent DDR4 prices with a next gen CPU. My Q9950, G.SKILL 4GB 1066 DDR2 isn't too bad for a lot of semi-modern games at 1080p. I just hate the idea of spending $100 more for 4 more GB of DDR2. The lack of memory and the heavy use of the pagefile is horrendous.

Here are the basic questions.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (Witcher 3 level), a little bit of visual studio programming, I have a bad habit of going overboard on browser tabs.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
If future proof is a joke, maybe $1000 tax included depending upon which hardware I keep. Could maybe stretch higher if I knew it would last me a couple more years. My upgrade cycles can last a while and I don't always do it all at once.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
close enough to a Microcenter in Overland Park, KC
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
New case, CPU, RAM, mobo, SSD
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. I'lll probably keep my 1080p monitor and most likely will run my AMD 7970 for a while longer. Probably keep my corsair 850W power supply which is 3ish? years old.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Light overclocking at some point probably, especially if it helps me keep my hardware a while longer.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p, though at a later time I'll upgrade and go higher.. maybe at the same time I get a new GPU. So I'd like to buy with consideration that I will have at least 1440p.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Either soon, or could wait for the next gen CPUs to come out and DDR4 to be more common since I kinda want to future proof this and not have to swap out mobo, etc.. if I want to upgrade.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Maybe SLI? I'm really undecided on my next video card purchase. Hate to limit my options here. I will be upgrading my video setup, just probably not so soon.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I'll need to buy a new copy of Windows. I'll give away my current setup.



criticisms welcome.

 

[Dangman]

How long is that drive to Microcenter?
Which Corsair 850W?

Honestly, considering that you're starting from DDR2, you might as well skip DDR3 and go straight to DDR4. Future RAM upgrades will be cheaper. So wait until Intel's Skylake platform is released this year and ask for advice then.

 

[Parmenides]

Thanks, I can wait then. MC is about a 20 minutes drive. Power supply is CMPSU-850TX

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Honestly I think you'll be happy with a current generation Intel setup. I mean, sure it might only be DDR3 that's slowly being phased out, but you're most likely going to have to swap out the motherboard for a "real" upgrade anyway since most likely what will be holding you back will be the CPU and not the RAM.

Future proofing is a myth anyway.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

How long is that drive to Microcenter?
Which Corsair 850W?

Honestly, considering that you're starting from DDR2, you might as well skip DDR3 and go straight to DDR4. Future RAM upgrades will be cheaper. So wait until Intel's Skylake platform is released this year and ask for advice then.

Unless there's something intrinsically wrong with your system, I'd actually agree on this.