Time to upgrade - stick with ATX?

[Skidro]

I've been interested in getting my old gaming rig back up to par, I didn't realize it's 10 years old though!!
I have a really nice Lian li case that's brushed aluminum that id like to keep using and make a budget upgrade build, but it's medium size.
Basic specs are:
Q6600 quad core
Intel extreme mobo
8 gigs of ram ddr2
ATI Radeon hd 4850 in crossfire
Ancient hd

My question is this- if I keep the case will I have problems getting good/great performance?
I've been mostly an Intel guy, would going the amd route with 6/8 cores be worth it or do games still run 1 or 2 cores?

Thanks for reading

[revelations]

It depends on the airflow properties of the case. Do you have an image you can reference?

[Skidro]

This is the case but in black

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16811112051

[revelations]

Looks OK for your setup, but it is basic.

[Gman.45]

You can get an excellent mid sized case for well under 100$ now, hell, there are some great Corsair/Fractal/CoolerMaster/etc/etc/etc cases for 50 to 90$ if you look for them on sale at MemEx. Don't skimp on this, it's the chassis that holds together the whole works, and airflow is very important with graphics cards these days, CPUs as well.

Broadwell E just came out, depending on your budget, lots of options between that, Skylake, or even older yet still great performing stuff. The new 1070 card will be as fast as the Titan/980ti, or close enough to not matter, and it'll be in the 400$ range.

Good time to get back into gaming.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I started buying the fully insulated silent cases and it's actually been one of the best PC related purchases I've ever made. On top of that they have cable guides, quick release everything, and are dead simple to work in/on. I can never even hear my PC except sometimes during a game if it's really quiet I can hear my VC fan, however it's old and most new VC's are way quieter/cooler.

AMD just released a $199 card (RX480) and they claim 2 of them are faster than the Nvidia 1080 in some games. Might be the new bang for the buck champion but I haven't read much else on it yet. The 1070 is probably an equally good bargain.

[Xtrema]

As long as you are not looking into water cooling, should be ok.

But that's all you can salvage, you'll need new PSU.

If you can wait, I think Zen processors should be able to bring some price fight with Intel procs especially if you are a AMD fan. I think a equally priced Zen proc vs Skylake/Kabylake processors will give you twice the cores/threads because AMD isn't wasting 1/2 the die on integrated graphics like Intel is. The problem with Zen is early rumor is it may lag behind Skylake on IPC.

DX12 games will be able to utilize mutli threads better. So having more cores actually helps gaming now. That's why all AMD GPUs get a perf bump going from DX11 to DX12.

If you can wait, don't bother with current gen 9**/3** series GPUs. The new stuff 10**/4** are way more power efficient so you don't need to buy bigger PSU/UPS.

BTW, if you have not build one in 10 years (like I did), make sure you don't use your old AVR UPS with new PSUs. You need PFC rated UPS or you may risk PSU damages.

http://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=5553

[Skidro]

So I'm starting to believe I should just get new everything.
After looking at all the zen processer news, I might as well wait and set a higher budget for an am4 motherboard, ddr4 and all the good stuff. Or atleast the prices might be a bit more competitive.

Until then I'm probably just gonna get a SSD. It's crazy how much the technology has seemed to change in the past few years

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Skidro

Until then I'm probably just gonna get a SSD. It's crazy how much the technology has seemed to change in the past few years

Other than price drop SSD, everything else was actually pretty stale since 2014.

With new GPUs this year and AMD procs finally good again after falling behind Intel for almost 6 years. 2016/17 is exciting for PC gaming.

[Skidro]

So is it just a lot of hype for the AMD releases? Is DDR4 worth getting? The clock speeds look pretty beastly.
Prices seem to have fallen for everything but CPUs and GPUs

[Mitsu3000gt]

Samsung has new SSDs out this month that are as big as a postage stamp and good for 1,500 MB/s. Not sure what the cost is yet though.

[Gman.45]

M.2 drives aren't bad for the $, I have a couple of the Samsung 950s, pretty fast. Any SSD will do for most users though IMO.

Correct IMO about being stale since 2014, I've been waiting a LONG time to upgrade my 980 and 980ti boxes, especially the former. Broadwell E is out now, at last, I tend to upgrade yearly which is why this stretch seems so loongggg. So, next year if Kaby, Canon, or the new Skylake, or even AMD Zen are that much better than Bwell E, I'll just sell and upgrade. Again. And again.

[Crazyjoker77]

Originally posted by Skidro
So is it just a lot of hype for the AMD releases? Is DDR4 worth getting? The clock speeds look pretty beastly.
Prices seem to have fallen for everything but CPUs and GPUs

You can play the waiting game forever there is always something new coming around the corner if you want a new rig I say go ahead and get one.

I find its best to always buy one generation behind and avoid the "early adoption tax" that's always tagged onto the newest and best.

I've got two desktop setups both on msi krait MBs
-4790k, 32g ddr3, gtx 970, 2x 256gb ssd in raid0
-6700k 32g ddr4, gtx 980, 2x 960gb ssd in raid0

I really don't notice any performance difference between the two in regards to ddr3 vs ddr4. The only thing to note is that the ddr4 motherboards will support up to 64gb of ram instead of 32 on ddr3.

You really haven't said how much you hoping to spend or really what your goals are. If you only are going to be playing on a single 1080p 60hz monitor you really don't need anything extreme.

as for processors go My advice is always go for fastest clock speed over number of core/threads as that will have the biggest impact in games. 6600 or 6600(k) are very popular for budget gaming builds without sacrificing performance.

Once my 1080 shows up my 4gb gigabyte g1 windforce
970 will be up for sale. It was only purchased march 28 to tide me over.

[WhippWhapp]

That's still a great case, I can see why you don't want to get rid of it.

And don't do dual gpu, not worth the hassle if you aren't technically inclined and lack patience.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Crazyjoker77
You can play the waiting game forever there is always something new coming around the corner if you want a new rig I say go ahead and get one.

Usually I agree with you but so far the bang of the buck is so much better with new stuff, why run slower and hotter old stuff (Unless you can find me a 980 new for under $450)?

Pascal cards are hitting market now and Polaris will probably show up mid summer.

For GPUs, it's a giant leap generation change. For CPUs, not so much.

[Skidro]

I might have to increase the budget now looking at all the stuff... Hahaha
I'm thinking 4790k, 32gigs and probably the 1070

[Mitsu3000gt]

What uses 32GB of ram besides video rendering/hardcore photo editing? Can games use that these days? Then again it's cheap so why not haha.

[Crazyjoker77]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
What uses 32GB of ram besides video rendering/hardcore photo editing? Can games use that these days? Then again it's cheap so why not haha.


Modded games can get up there pretty quickly but 98% of games wont ever use anywhere near that much. I know for me I've seen GTA5 and Cities Skylines(with LOTS of mods/assets) north of 16gb.

If your into early access/beta/alpha your bound to run into memory leaks and it just gives you that much more time before you have to restart.

Also Virtual Machines are becoming more popular so its nice to have the overhead.