I built my current machine a few years ago and I'm looking to upgrade across the board. It does what I need it to do pretty well, but I usually can't run games at max settings and maintain 60fps and using xsplit to stream tends to cripple my performance as well, so I'm looking for something pretty beefy that will solve these issues. Here is my current build:
Motherboard- MSI P55-GD80
CPU- Intel i5-750
CPU Fan- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Video Card- Sapphire Radeon HD 5830
Memory- G.SKILL Ripjaws 16GB
Power Supply- OCZ ModXStrem Pro 700w
Case - Azza Helios 910
Monitors - 2x Acer S231HLbid
I have a handful of SSDs and storage drives, so I'm solid on those for a while.
New Build Ideas
I need a CPU, video card, motherboard, power supply (possibly), and some type of cooling.
My budget for the remaining items is around $1000. I'm willing to go up or down a bit if there is a compelling reason.
I plan on using the same monitors and memory in my new build. If possible, I would also use the power supply, but I'm not too worried about that if it means I have to limit the capabilities of the machine. I plan on using this case by Fractal Design.
For the CPU, I'm stuck between the Ivy Bridge i5 and i7, and the Sandy Bridge i5 and i7. A lot of the reviews are showing that IB is only outperforming SB at stock settings, and I do plan on overclocking. I want the best performance possible but I don't want to spend a lot of extra money on something that won't give a noticeable improvement.
I don't know much about current motherboards and video cards, so I'm definitely up for suggestions. If my power supply won't work with the newer stuff then I'll be getting one.
How easy is it to install your own liquid cooling? The idea of an even quieter machine sounds really nice, but I've never done it before and wouldn't want to screw anything up.