The thread that will never die, because I won't let it.
So, I never bothered with the upgrade previously, mostly due to advice I got ITT that it wasn't really worth it. Now as Black Friday approaches, and my system is much longer in the tooth, I think it's finally time for a significant upgrade. What I said in the OP about my use still applies, which was:
Quote:
My main uses for the computer are pretty run-of-the-mill. Outlook, Excel, Chrome, usually with plenty of tabs. I like to play DVDs on one screen while I work; preferably Blu-Rays. Any gaming I do is usually a few generations old, if not something from the 80s (hello MAME!) - I won't be taxing the system with the latest greatest games.
Although the second screen video is more often Netflix now.
I find that when I've had a lot of tabs open, I start getting errors on Chrome once in a while, and with a few applications open I'll get lag on iTunes once in a while - definitely feels like my system is overtaxed at times.
What I have now:
Quote:
MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Motherboard - using onboard video
Intel i5-3570K 3.4GHz Boxed Processor - overclocked to ~4.0 GHz
Patriot DDR3 8GB 1600MHz (2x4GB) Modules
Antec EA-380D PSU
SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB SSD
Samsung 840 128 GB SSD
Western Digital Black 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD
Decided I'm quite happy with the monitors I have; not feeling a pressing need to get any 4K for now.
Fine with the case, and PSU unless there's some reason I should replace a 5 year old 380 W unit. It's not like they're expensive, so I certainly have no issue doing so, but if there's no point, I'd prefer to save the extra hassle.
This is what I'm kicking around at the moment:
MSI B360-A Pro $80 USD/$114 CAD
Intel Core i5-8400 $240 USD/$290 CAD
Corsair Vengeance 16 GB 3000 MHz $125 USD/$175 CAD
Samsung 970 EVO 500 GB $117 USD/$170 CAD
$562 USD total, or ~$750 CAD - a little more than I had been thinking I might spend, but I don't mind, if I'm getting decent value for my money. Like many people, always looking for that "sweet spot" where you get the best performance before the big price jumps to the top level.
Would welcome advice both on the particular makes/models I've chosen, and especially for the specs. For example, I don't know that I need 16 GB, but it's not a lot more than 8 GB. For the CPU, it's not a lot more ($40) for the i5-8600K; not sure if it's worth it.
I think the SSD is where I'm going to see my biggest boost, and I was a little overwhelmed with the choices, but I'm getting there now. The 970 PRO is quite a bit more (+$200 CAD for 1 TB, +$80 CAD for 512 GB), and I don't think it's worth it. The other consideration is going for 1 TB for both the speed boost and the extra space. Don't really need the space, though (most of what I have over and above 500 GB is accessed rarely, so I can continue with my existing SSDs for that stuff), so it would need to be a significant speed boost.
Any thoughts would be more than welcome, as always.
Edit to add: Just had another look at the motherboard, and wondering if that's really the best fit for me. I wasn't planning on getting a separate video card, so I'm concerned with both how good the integrated video on the CPU is, and the suitability of the ports on the motherboard. I think I'd need to adapt something, as I have a pair of ASUS VP247H-P monitors with HDMI, DVI-D and D-Sub. Maybe I should be looking at something different? I see the B360-F has DVI-D & HDMI, but no USB 3.1 Gen 2; not sure if I care about that. Ugh. So. Many. Choices.