What do I need to add to my build next?

[Xl House lX]

Ok, so last year I bought an HP elite with these specs:

GPU: Radeon HD 5450
CPU: Core i7 930 @ 2.80 Ghz
RAM: 9GB DDR3
HD: 1TB (HP Stock)
Motherboard: Pegatron (HP Stock)
PSU: 460w (HP Stock)
Case: HP Elite (2011, stock)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

Here is what my computer is now:

GPU: EVGA GTX 550-Ti
CPU: Core i7 930 @ 2.80 Ghz*
RAM: 9GB DDR3
HD: 1TB (HP Stock)
Motherboard: Pegatron*(HP Stock)
PSU: Corsair Modular 750w
Case: Antec 900
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

In the now section of my post, the * indicates what I think I should upgrade next. I think I really need a new motherboard and CPU. The transistors on the board are tilted and don't look good, and the CPU is a little low on Ghz for what I want it to do (run games while livestreaming/recording video).

After I upgrade CPU to I'm thinking a Core i5 Sandy Bridge and motherboard to an Asus LGA 1155 6GB/s, I would want to upgrade my OS to Windows 7 Professional and my RAM to 24 Gb. Then the last thing I would want to do with this build is SLI another GTX 550-Ti or get 2 new higher end GPU's and SLI them together.

What do you guys think I should do next?

EDIT: By the end I would want my build to look a little like this:

GPU1: EVGA GTX 550-Ti
GPU2: EVGA GTX 550-Ti (2gb superclocked version)
CPU: Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge @ 3.2 Ghz
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 24Gb DDR3 RAM
SSD: Seagate 128Gb
HDD: 1TB
Motherboard: Asus 6Gb/s USB 3.0 LGA 1155
PSU: Corsair Modular 750w
Case: Antec 900
OS: Windows 7 Professional

---------- Post added 2012-07-07 at 08:33 PM ----------

73 views and no replies? Someone must have some kinda input

[Biernot]

First of all: Don't expect a miracle by upgrading your cpu/mb. Your current one isn't that bad. But if you think/know that it's the one part holding you back, then by all means, do it.

Now for your selected parts:

CPU: There is no Sany Bridge i5 with 3.2GHz. You can either get the i5-2400 (3.1GHz) or the i5-2500(k) (3.3GHz).
An if you get a new one, why not the current model: i5-3570k (Ivy Bridge, 3.4GHz)

Motherboard: With the limited information you gave i can not really say anything specific. "Asus 6Gb/s USB 3.0 LGA 1155" only tells me the following: It is not a H61 chipset. But it still can be: H67, P67, Z68, B75, Z77... (and few others that are not that common). That's like asking "How good is this car? It has 4 wheels and a 4 cylinder engine!"
Nevertheless, here are some suggestions of good motherboards:
Asrock z77 pro3 (cheap, but not SLI capable)
Asrock z77 extreme4
Asus P8Z77-V LK
Asus P8Z77-V

RAM: Your current motherboard/cpu supports triple channel memory. That's why you have such a "weird" amount of ram (3x2GB + 3x1GB = 9GB). But all socket 1155 motherboards/cpus (Sandy / Ivy Bridge) have dual channel. So the ram configuration should be always something like 2x2GB or 2x4GB or 4x2GB or 4x4GB. (There are also 8GB modules if you need absurd amounts of ram).
Which brings us to the next question: Why the hell would you need 24GB of ram? For the things you do, 8GB (e.g. 2x4GB) is more than enough. There is no current game which uses 8GB ram, and most even stay under 4GB. And even when you record/stream, you will not exceed 8GB.

SSD: Does Seagate even manufacture SSDs? I would advise to pick a model which has proven to be reliable. e.g. Crucial m4 or Samsung 830.

[Xl House lX]

First of all: Don't expect a miracle by upgrading your cpu/mb. Your current one isn't that bad. But if you think/know that it's the one part holding you back, then by all means, do it.

Now for your selected parts:

CPU: There is no Sany Bridge i5 with 3.2GHz. You can either get the i5-2400 (3.1GHz) or the i5-2500(k) (3.3GHz).
An if you get a new one, why not the current model: i5-3570k (Ivy Bridge, 3.4GHz)

Motherboard: With the limited information you gave i can not really say anything specific. "Asus 6Gb/s USB 3.0 LGA 1155" only tells me the following: It is not a H61 chipset. But it still can be: H67, P67, Z68, B75, Z77... (and few others that are not that common). That's like asking "How good is this car? It has 4 wheels and a 4 cylinder engine!"
Nevertheless, here are some suggestions of good motherboards:
Asrock z77 pro3 (cheap, but not SLI capable)
Asrock z77 extreme4
Asus P8Z77-V LK
Asus P8Z77-V

RAM: Your current motherboard/cpu supports triple channel memory. That's why you have such a "weird" amount of ram (3x2GB + 3x1GB = 9GB). But all socket 1155 motherboards/cpus (Sandy / Ivy Bridge) have dual channel. So the ram configuration should be always something like 2x2GB or 2x4GB or 4x2GB or 4x4GB. (There are also 8GB modules if you need absurd amounts of ram).
Which brings us to the next question: Why the hell would you need 24GB of ram? For the things you do, 8GB (e.g. 2x4GB) is more than enough. There is no current game which uses 8GB ram, and most even stay under 4GB. And even when you record/stream, you will not exceed 8GB.

SSD: Does Seagate even manufacture SSDs? I would advise to pick a model which has proven to be reliable. e.g. Crucial m4 or Samsung 830.

Ahh thanks for the corrections on well, everything lol. Im still an extreme noob at building computers and specific models on parts never come to mind. Anyways, I would want 24gb of RAM simply to future-proof my computer. The whole purpose of me doing this, is not only to make my computer ridiculous for the year we live in right now, but so that its still a pretty good computer 6-8 years from now. Seagate probably doesn't make SSD's, but I just threw a name out there, although I am pretty sure they do... but they probably don't just to make me look even dumber.

And I really do think a new mobo/cpu is at this point required more than wanted, again my motherboard I am pretty sure does support SLI (since it does have 2 PCI-E x16 slots, or something like that) but just looking in there it really doesn't look like I could fit a new GPU even if I wanted to. I would like a faster processor just for "that much more power." Would I ever use it to its maximum capabilities? Probably not. But, if I ever did something more than I usually do I wouldn't have to worry about it. And for a faster processor, I would definitely need a new motherboard, preferably one with USB 3.0 (I have 2 USB 3.0 ports on the front of my case that aren't connected to the mobo atm, I'm sure there is an adapter I could get but I really want to get rid of all the HP parts that are still in it, I want this computer to be totally "mine")

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Most motherboards (except ITX) have more than one PCI-E slot. Doesn't mean they support SLI.

[Heltoray]

My opinion? get a 560TI at least. Because that should be the bottleneck right now in almost all games.

-You want to overclock a lot without water cooling? Get the i5 2500k
-You don't want to overclock? Get the 3570k. Better at stock, gets warmer when oc'ed

[Deleted]

24 GB of RAM will not "future proof" your computer, the other parts will be extremely outdated by the time you need that much RAM to play games. In six years a $500 (or less) computer will easily best what you're looking at getting and who knows if your hardware will still be compatible with modern software in 8 years.

Do you know what the differences between Home Premium and Professional are? I'd look it up because I really doubt you need the features it provides, and if you do I'm sure there's free software available that does a better job.

Unless you're looking to spend megabucks just get a single graphics card, and that's what I'd suggest you upgrade rather than your CPU since gaming looks to be your main use. Unless you're playing games like Supreme Commander or new Total War games CPU probably isn't the limiting factor in performance (unless it's WoW and you're running in triple digit frames anyway). Remember 2x GPU = twice the power, twice the heat but not twice the performance in all games.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Remember 2x GPU = twice the power, twice the heat but not twice the performance in all games.

And often games won't work with two graphics cards for a while after the game launch while drivers get updated with SLI/crossfire profiles.

[Biernot]

Ahh thanks for the corrections on well, everything lol. Im still an extreme noob at building computers and specific models on parts never come to mind. Anyways, I would want 24gb of RAM simply to future-proof my computer. The whole purpose of me doing this, is not only to make my computer ridiculous for the year we live in right now, but so that its still a pretty good computer 6-8 years from now. Seagate probably doesn't make SSD's, but I just threw a name out there, although I am pretty sure they do... but they probably don't just to make me look even dumber.

And I really do think a new mobo/cpu is at this point required more than wanted, again my motherboard I am pretty sure does support SLI (since it does have 2 PCI-E x16 slots, or something like that) but just looking in there it really doesn't look like I could fit a new GPU even if I wanted to. I would like a faster processor just for "that much more power." Would I ever use it to its maximum capabilities? Probably not. But, if I ever did something more than I usually do I wouldn't have to worry about it. And for a faster processor, I would definitely need a new motherboard, preferably one with USB 3.0 (I have 2 USB 3.0 ports on the front of my case that aren't connected to the mobo atm, I'm sure there is an adapter I could get but I really want to get rid of all the HP parts that are still in it, I want this computer to be totally "mine")

As the others already pointed out: You can't make a computer future-proof for more than 3-4 years.To give you a little lesson in (computer-)history:

Let's go back roughly 4 years to the middle of 2008. The best parts you could get at the time on the consumer market were:
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q9650: 4-core with 3GHz $500
RAM: 4x2GB DDR2-1066 $200
GPU: NVidia GeForce GTX280 $400
That is over $1000 for the core components.

And let's look what a comparable system would cost today:
CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE: 4-core with 3.4GHz $120
RAM: 2x4GB DDR3-1333 $50
GPU: Radeon 7770 $130
That's about $300.

While your original system can still play all current games, for some you have to reduce details and/or resolution to make it playable. I would call this the point were the system is no longer up-to-date and you would think about upgrading.
The whole system back then would probably have cost you about $2000. So you can see, that
1) There is no such thing as future-proof beyond 3-4 years in the computer world.
2) If you don't have a lot of excess money to burn, it is way more cost-effective to buy a mid-high*** system every 3 years for about $1000, then a high-end system for $2000 every 4 years. -> $333/year vs. $500/year


*** I don't have the exact prices, but a mid-high system at the time would probably consist of
- Core2Duo E8400
- GTX260 or Radeon 4870
- 4GB DDR2-800
with ~$600 for the core components.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

*** I don't have the exact prices, but a mid-high system at the time would probably consist of
- Core2Duo E8400
- GTX260 or Radeon 4870
- 4GB DDR2-800
with ~$600 for the core components.

I paid 670 euros 4 years ago for my

Core2duo E8400
Asus P5Q SE2
2GB DDR2-800 RAM
nVidia 9800GTX+
300GB harddrive
500W/550W PSU (can't remember brand and cba to go open the case up to find it out)
some 40 euro case

setup, which still plays WoW and D3 pretty well, plays Skyrim at medium settings and witcher 2 at low-mid settings at acceptable FPS.