What's worth keeping?

[Chickensoup23]

Hi guys, I'm running the computer in my sig, and I have been for 2 years now. It was my first build ever. I am by no means an expert at computers or really techy, but I've built 3 other computers since for my family, and friends.

Now as you may notice the parts are starting to age. I'm up for a massive overhaul of it, and I was debating what to keep and what to let go. First off, I plan on upgrading to full on water cooling to OC the shit out of it (push the 5GHz line). I have made extensive research and I am ready to jump the creek and go for it; cooling my GPU(s), CPU, and chipset via two separate loops. I also considered adding another GTX 570 HD, but as they are older cards (~2.5 years now) I thought about simply upgrading to the new 700 series coming this summer. I am also keeping my HDDs & SSD, for obvious reasons.

I'm changing the case, the motherboard, and adding some more ram on the new board, as well as a more powerful powersupply, as my old (~3ish) 650W might not be enough for what I want, including the power losses over the years. Now here's my question;

Is the 2600k worth keeping, or should I upgrade to the new Haswell architecture? I mainly play games and do a little bit of editing, but as of now, it is not slow in any kind, and I am mostly looking to future proof it. I was planning on swapping to a Z68 or Z77 board, as the one I have right now is small and doesn't fulfill my needs. I am wondering if it's still going to be good for what I need for in the next few years. Also, should I keep my GTX 570 HD (EVGA) and add a 2nd one, which SHOULD give the equivalent of an 680, if not even more (780? perhaps) -- enough power for a little while, or simply upgrade to the new line when it comes out?

Sorry for the wall of text! I simply haven't been following the industry lately and I'm unsure about some of these points. Also, I'll post back when the WC setup is done, parts are on their way from Frozen.

Thank you for the input,
Chicken

[Faithh]

I wouldn't upgrade your CPU or MB just nothing except your graphics card. Yes I would wait for the 700 series or grab a gtx titan which is its money totally worth it

[Chickensoup23]

Any particular reason for upgrading instead of spending more money (200$ vs 500$), why not slap a 570 in there, and get MORE performance for half the price?

Just curious

[Cyanotical]

you could get a 670 or 680, 500 series SLI support is not the greatest

@Faithh, you can't run around telling everyone to get a titan, sticker shock is likely going to make someone look elsewhere for help

[Chickensoup23]

you could get a 670 or 680, 500 series SLI support is not the greatest

@Faithh, you can't run around telling everyone to get a titan, sticker shock is likely going to make someone look elsewhere for help

Well, I knew about titan. But for the price of it I can build a new rig...literally.

& waterblocks for a 570HD are a bit*h to get, even EK is out of them. Settling for the new line. Is it just me or they get more and more expensive every time? 660ti is 300$, dafuq... Btw cyano, havent seen you in a while. God your sig PC is ridiculous.

[chazus]

I honestly don't see anything on your current setup that warrants upgrading beyond the GPU. Any newer GPU will likely use less power than the 570. Your CPU is fine. You have more than enough good ram. Do you really need more than 24gb 1600? It doesn't seem like you need more than 8 to be honest.

[Faithh]

@Op

I think you're just going too far extreme for your needs really. I mean you can have overclocks like 4.7-5GHz on air but 5GHz mostly is rare because you need to push extreme voltages behind it and that's never healty for that chip.

650W is even fine to run a gtx 680 in sli. During a stresstest I get 16A on the pci express cable so this means my card (single 680) is using 192W and it's heavily overclocked. WC is definitely not needed for 600 series unless you bought a very loud reference card but in that case the Arctic air coolers would have been more interesting. Mention as well that nvidia locked the voltage so WC'ing a gpu is getting kinda pointless. Also mind that you don't need a case with 40 fans to cool a single card. 600 series with a decent cooler such as Windforce 3 or DirectCU are doing their job imaginary good, keeping the card very cool around 60° & a very low noise production.

Watercooling the chipset, why would you? The heatsinks on the boards do their job well and on the vrm as well.

Graphics card choice, if your 570 is doing your job keep it but if it isn't upgrade it. The 700 series isn't coming out in the summer but in the end of this year

[Chickensoup23]

To the poster above;

I do play high-end games and make use of 3D vision. Crysis in 3D was a blast. Also, I could say that its a passion, kind of like for cars. Why do people drive Porsches? Not because they need to...for some reason, they just, want to. Kind of the same for me. Shh, if anything, Cyano's system is overkill!

[chazus]

It's good to have passion and all, but upgrading your CPU, or RAM, would not help with any of those things. Really only upgrading the video card would.

And most people get Porsche's because of soul crushing confidence problems. >.>

[constantduty]

It's good to have passion and all, but upgrading your CPU, or RAM, would not help with any of those things. Really only upgrading the video card would.

And most people get Porsche's because of soul crushing confidence problems. >.>

Hey now! Most Porsche buyers and collectors are enthusiasts. They pay a premium for the extra performance. There's nothing rational about it, but there isn't supposed to a *reason* for a car like that - its a precision machine. I imagine when it comes to CPU components there are many that feel the same way. You tinker with your car - you tinker with your comp. Grab a beer (or coffee) open your side panels and you and your buddies can stand around looking at it like Hank Hill and Co. "yep" "yep" "yep" "some nice dag'on ram man"

[Deleted]

GFX card is only thing you "need" to replace. Everything else is perfectly fine, and will be fine for another couple of years.
Even then, you dont need to replace it

[chazus]

They pay a premium for the extra performance. There's nothing rational about it, but there isn't supposed to a *reason* for a car like that - its a precision machine. I imagine when it comes to CPU components there are many that feel the same way. You tinker with your car - you tinker with your comp.

See, that makes sense.

Stacking on RAM... You pay a premium for... nothing. No performance. No precision aspect. It's more "I don't like money, I desire to be rid of it"

[Faithh]

To the poster above;

I do play high-end games and make use of 3D vision. Crysis in 3D was a blast. Also, I could say that its a passion, kind of like for cars. Why do people drive Porsches? Not because they need to...for some reason, they just, want to. Kind of the same for me. Shh, if anything, Cyano's system is overkill!

You have a point but you are struggling now and making everything just harder than it is. As I said earlier going water is optional but not necessary, this isn't 2004 where everyone was running at water. Air cooling is filling like 90% of all the pc gamers their needs and the performance/noise is minor in benches considering you're limiting yourself to the max Vcore (Sandy 1.40V).

A pump/res ~100$
Rad ~100$
Cpu block ~80$
Gpu block ~100$
new psu ~150$?
new case ~140$?
Chipset block ~60$?
VRM blocks ~60$?

That money could be used for a gtx 680 or 2x 7970's whatsoever while any kind of heatsink will do its job fine handling your i7. Now about the porsche stuff, what's so premium about having a PSU with more wattage only? Nothing. Pretty sure your case will be even more than enough to cool your graphics cards so there is barely any need of more airflow especially with the 28nm cards.

As I mentioned earlier, upgrading your 2600k is pointless just because this chip will feed 2x 680's easily and you can't do much more to get more FPS if your CPU did its job fast enough to feed the cards. That's the moment you just need better cards which is just now from practice. Look up at bottlenecks so you get my point.

Crysis 3 is just a buggy/stability lacking game and I have an evidence -> http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/25/cr...ropey-physics/

Like Chazus said, start off buying a new card or waiting for the new 700 series.

[Cyanotical]

And most people get Porsche's because of soul crushing confidence problems. >.>

eh, no, that is in fact a statement made to make those who are jealous feel better, i could write a whole paper on this, but essentially if you believe that anyone who has nice things is really crying inside, you are the one who is actually upset

[chazus]

It was sarcasm, but the point still stands that upgrading ram will not provide any benefit, and the CPU next to none.