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[TouchMyBox]

Hey GAF Buddies.

When card makers like gigabyte quote graphics card length, is that the PCB length, or does it include the bracket?

 

[The Llama]

What is the opinion of higher clocked DDR3 around here? I see alot of people using 1600, but then I came across this article:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/march/haswellrealworld

I've got the 4790k and am eyeing some DDR3-2133 on newegg for like $60. Good idea or not worth it?

The general conclusion is that faster RAM is definitely better and you should get it when its only a little more money, but in 99% of gaming, you'll never notice the difference.

 

[thespot84]

What is the opinion of higher clocked DDR3 around here? I see alot of people using 1600, but then I came across this article:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/march/haswellrealworld

I've got the 4790k and am eyeing some DDR3-2133 on newegg for like $60. Good idea or not worth it?

i've got the g.skill 2133. Had a problem where it was a lower clock, fixed it with one of the XMP profiles and got about a 20% boost to my fps in battlefield 4. No reason not to get faster ram IMO

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2013/october/battlefield-4-loves-high-speed-memory

 

[Sky Chief]

I can't post the link from mobile but The Verge has am article about curved monitors at Computex and they are reporting that the Acer Predator X34 curved ultrawidescreen 34" IPS 3440x1440 Gsync monitor now has a maximum refresh rate of 100Hz not 75Hz as was previously stated

 

[Sickbean]

Installed EVGA ACX 2.0+ Coolers on my Titans X.

In W3, I was hitting high 80s with lots of throttling with the stock fans. With these, even with a +100 core & +200 memory, hitting low 80s and hardly any throttling. And, they are much more quiet under load.

Mind giving a full run-down of all your components? That's a super tidy build. Fancy moving my Fractal R3 build into something smaller.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

So I finished building it and I installed Windows 8.1 but I noticed my "disk usage" is always super high (like near 100%). Have I connected something wrong?

Edit: nvm, think it was just a startup process.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Would anyone have interest in watching me and a buddy do a system build tonight, live?

I just have a couple hours - but I offered to help him move over his parts from his 900D and add some stuff to a new H440 Razer NZXT.

If so, I could maybe throw up his Twitch link at ~5:30pm CDT for a couple hours.

Specs are going to be, roughly:

H440
Haswell-E 5960X
2x Titan X in SLI
500GB SSD
Some AIO cooler we pick out at Microcenter
Corsair 1500i
32GB DDR4
Hopefully green fans from Microcenter
Green cables if they arrive

etc, etc...

 

[mkenyon]

Would anyone have interest in watching me and a buddy do a system build tonight, live?

I just have a couple hours - but I offered to help him move over his parts from his 900D and add some stuff to a new H440 Razer NZXT.

If so, I could maybe throw up his Twitch link at ~5:30pm CDT for a couple hours.

Specs are going to be, roughly:

H440
Haswell-E 5960X
2x Titan X in SLI
500GB SSD
Some AIO cooler we pick out at Microcenter
Corsair 1500i
32GB DDR4
Hopefully green fans from Microcenter
Green cables if they arrive

etc, etc...

weaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak

one of us one of us

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

weaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak

one of us one of us

Bruh, I know... I know. Can't believe he doesn't have a desire to put them under water.

That said, he does switch out parts way more often than I do. Regardless, these specs are begging for a trip to EKWB...

 

[Quote]

Those are rather expensive, lol. I'd rather keep it at 15-20$ a fan. Any cheaper alternates in mind?

I don't sorry, I was only spouting stuff I read while researching cases and AIO coolers.

I have the H105 coming in tomorrow and I hate fan noise. Can you tell me how audible they were when gaming in your experience?

 

[Fourth Storm]

The general conclusion is that faster RAM is definitely better and you should get it when its only a little more money, but in 99% of gaming, you'll never notice the difference.

i've got the g.skill 2133. Had a problem where it was a lower clock, fixed it with one of the XMP profiles and got about a 20% boost to my fps in battlefield 4. No reason not to get faster ram IMO

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2013/october/battlefield-4-loves-high-speed-memory

Thank you both for the replies! Yeah, I am looking at that G. Skill. Hopefully, I don't run into too many issues with it.

 

[knitoe]

Mind giving a full run-down of all your components? That's a super tidy build. Fancy moving my Fractal R3 build into something smaller.

Monitor: Acer XB280HK 4K Gsync
Case: Corsair 540 with 5x Corsair AF140 fans
Cooler: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate
CPU: 5930K@4.4GHz
MB: Asus X99 Deluxe
RAM: 16GB Vengeance LPX 2800MHz
GPU: 2x Titans X SLI
PSU: EGVA 1300W G2 with threaded white cables
Sound: X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

Storage:
2x 256GB Samsung 850 Pro Raid 0 (OS)
2x 256GB Samsung 830 Raid 0 (Games)
5TB Seagate (Media)
2x 4TB Seagate Raid 1 (Backup)

Bay:
Panasonic Slot Load Blu-ray Writer
Matrix Orbital Front Panel LCD

 

[Sky Chief]

Monitor: Acer XB280HK 4K Gsync
Case: Corsair 540 with 5x Corsair AF140 fans
Cooler: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate
CPU: 5930K@4.4GHz
RAM: 16GB Vengeance LPX 2800MHz
GPU: 2x Titans X SLI
PSU: EGVA 1300W G2 with threaded white cables
Sound: X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

Storage:
2x 256GB Samsung 850 Pro Raid 0 (OS)
2x 256GB Samsung 830 Raid 0 (Games)
5TB Seagate (Media)
2x 4TB Seagate Raid 1 (Backup)

Bay:
Panasonic Slot Load Blu-ray Writer
Matrix Orbital Front Panel LCD

What mobo?

 

[knitoe]

What mobo?

Edited. Asus X99 Deluxe

 

[Kintaro]

I can't post the link from mobile but The Verge has am article about curved monitors at Computex and they are reporting that the Acer Predator X34 curved ultrawidescreen 34" IPS 3440x1440 Gsync monitor now has a maximum refresh rate of 100Hz not 75Hz as was previously stated

Mother of God.

 

[EmptySpace]

i came here around october 2014 when i wanted to build my first pc around the 970. decided to wait for the amd hbm gpu. depending on the price, i might build my first pc around the card.

cad and the 390x being 499$ us aren't helping, though. if rumours are true, 390x will be 620$ cad and that's for the reference version. just checked 980 ti earlier and it's a whopping 840-870$ cad.

 

[spannicus]

pretty sure this is the front panel audio connection

http://s7.postimg.org/b30t8zknv/asus_z97_a.jpg

Thanks!

 

[riflen]

Yeah, this is the reason I haven't jumped on the Acer hype train. ULMB @ 100Hz is not great, and yeah, I would just go with 144Hz despite having a less crisp picture.

The RoG Swift does ULMB @144Hz.

I love my Swift, but ULMB is not supported at 144 Hz. 85, 100 and 120 Hz only.

 

[Kayant]

Cooler: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate

How cool does it handle your 5930K? Reviews seem to have high praise of this cooler.

 

[knitoe]

How cool does it handle your 5930K? Reviews seem to have high praise of this cooler.

In gaming, like with The Witcher 3, temps are under 50C. With stress testing, low 70C.

 

[mkenyon]

I love my Swift, but ULMB is not supported at 144 Hz. 85, 100 and 120 Hz only.

derp derp, that's what I meant

 

[Kayant]

In gaming, like with The Witcher 3, temps are under 50C. With stress testing, low 70C.

That's damn good. I think that will be my future upgrade from my hyper 212.

 

[Pachimari]

I'm running out of space on my computer, and is thinking, is there any 3/4tb hard drive out there on the market, that is also super silent, and which I can install internally in my desktop?

 

[mkenyon]

I'm running out of space on my computer, and is thinking, is there any 3/4tb hard drive out there on the market, that is also super silent, and which I can install internally in my desktop?

You could install a couple TB SSDs, put them in RAID0.

Silent though? No. Every mechanical drive is going to be a bit wobbly. If your case has good HDD mounting for reducing vibrations, it'll be less so, but still a bit of noise as it spins up.

 

[Aranath]

I've been considering upgrading my 780 lately, but I'm thinking a Gsync monitor might be a better investment for the time being and I can grab a Pascal card when they're released.

I was considering the Acer Predator or the ROG Swift, but I'm a little concerned about the 1440p resolution, particularly in light of The Witcher 3 running like ass and GTA kicking my 780's ass at 1440p when I downsample. So I'm looking at grabbing a 1080p Gsync monitor instead.

I don't want to grab one of the monitors and actually be stuck at 1080p forever. I downsample from 1440p and 4k whenever I'm able to on my current 1080p monitor and I'd hate to lose that ability, particularly when I don't have to worry about framerates that much anymore.

My question is - are you able to downsample through custom resolutions with Gsync enabled? I obviously can't use DSR (not sure if that works with Gsync either) since I don't have a Maxwell card.

 

[riflen]

I've been considering upgrading my 780 lately, but I'm thinking a Gsync monitor might be a better investment for the time being and I can grab a Pascal card when they're released.

I was considering the Acer Predator or the ROG Swift, but I'm a little concerned about the 1440p resolution, particularly in light of The Witcher 3 running like ass and GTA kicking my 780's ass at 1440p when I downsample. So I'm looking at grabbing a 1080p Gsync monitor instead.

I don't want to grab one of the monitors and actually be stuck at 1080p forever. I downsample from 1440p and 4k whenever I'm able to on my current 1080p monitor and I'd hate to lose that ability, particularly when I don't have to worry about framerates that much anymore.

My question is - are you able to downsample through custom resolutions with Gsync enabled? I obviously can't use DSR (not sure if that works with Gsync either) since I don't have a Maxwell card.

DSR is supported on Kepler and Fermi too, I believe. It can be used together with G-Sync, but there are limitations. This is the state of DSR support:

 

[Darknight]

Hey guys I bought some Ram from ebay but not sure to keep or send back. Reason is its a 16GB set of 4x4. While that is not weird, its 2 sets of 2x4GB ram. So this person I guess bought 2 sets of dual channel ram and ran with it. He had barely any info so I said Ill buy it for $90, what the heck.

I thought it was 1 set of 4x4 for total of 16GB.

Here is the ram type: LINK

So my question is, would it be better to keep it or send it back? Having 2 sets of dual channel wont give me issues? Would it be best to have 2x8GB sticks? Im not gonna over clock but have an 4770k so Im not worry its gonna be incompatible. Any advice appreciated.

 

[TronLight]

Hey guys I bought some Ram from ebay but not sure to keep or send back. Reason is its a 16GB set of 4x4. While that is not weird, its 2 sets of 2x4GB ram. So this person I guess bought 2 sets of dual channel ram and ran with it. He had barely any info so I said Ill buy it for $90, what the heck.

I thought it was 1 set of 4x4 for total of 16GB.

Here is the ram type: LINK

So my question is, would it be better to keep it or send it back? Having 2 sets of dual channel wont give me issues? Would it be best to have 2x8GB sticks? Im not gonna over clock but have an 4770k so Im not worry its gonna be incompatible. Any advice appreciated.

Should not give you any issue.

 

[kennah]

What is this

Oh god

What have I done.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

What is this

Oh god

What have I done.

Game on!

Though, this is my buddy's build, not mine.

We're building LIVE right now @ http://www.twitch.tv/taintstagangsta for the next hour!

 

[kennah]

Why you gotta be a one upper.

 

[pantsattack]

Can someone point me to a guide to format my new WD Blue in Win8.1? It's showing in BIOS but not in Disk Management. The places I've seen this question asked restarting seems to solve it, but no such luck

How do I assign it a letter, etc?

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Why you gotta be a one upper.

I still rock a 3820 :-( So you're beating me.

But I do hit 4.6, so that's something, I guess.

 

[CreepingFear]

Game on!

Though, this is my buddy's build, not mine.

We're building LIVE right now @ http://www.twitch.tv/taintstagangsta for the next hour!

Smokey, someone commin' for your title!

 

[kennah]

I still rock a 3820 :-( So you're beating me.

But I do hit 4.6, so that's something, I guess.

All good Hoping to watch you guys a bit tonight

 

[Aranath]

DSR is supported on Kepler and Fermi too, I believe. It can be used together with G-Sync, but there are limitations. This is the state of DSR support:

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up. That's good news, I guess.

Time to wait and see what AMD do soon and then make my decision at the end of the month.

 

[mintyice]

So is the Strix 970 the one to get?

 

[opticalmace]

What is this

Oh god

What have I done.

Nice.

Planning on SLI?

 

[kennah]

Nice.

Planning on SLI?

Lol. No. This is going into an ITX system friend.

With a GTX 670 as the GPU.

 

[RGM79]

Hey guys I bought some Ram from ebay but not sure to keep or send back. Reason is its a 16GB set of 4x4. While that is not weird, its 2 sets of 2x4GB ram. So this person I guess bought 2 sets of dual channel ram and ran with it. He had barely any info so I said Ill buy it for $90, what the heck.

I thought it was 1 set of 4x4 for total of 16GB.

Here is the ram type: LINK

So my question is, would it be better to keep it or send it back? Having 2 sets of dual channel wont give me issues? Would it be best to have 2x8GB sticks? Im not gonna over clock but have an 4770k so Im not worry its gonna be incompatible. Any advice appreciated.

There's no difference between two kits of 2x4GB and one kit of 4x4GB RAM as long as it's all the same model. Getting 2x8GB might cost differently and if your motherboard has 4 RAM slots it'll leave more room in the future for more RAM, but most people don't have any need for more than 16GB RAM, now or in the near future.

Hey GAF Buddies.

When card makers like gigabyte quote graphics card length, is that the PCB length, or does it include the bracket?

It's the total length of the graphics card.

I only used the 4130T to lower the overall power draw of the system since the PSU isn't great and I wanted to reduce the risk of overloading it. I read pcper's An upgrade story and in one of their tests they ran a GTX 750 ti (60W TDP) + an i5 4440 (84W TDP) on a 300W PSU and that seemed to work fine. In my hypothetical build, it would be a GTX 960 (120W TDP) and an i3 4130T (35W TDP) with a 480W PSU. Only an 11W higher TDP compared to their build, and under gaming load their's used ~120W, so I would have thought my hypothetical build would not use too much more, although I dunno if it quite works like that.

Fortunately it's not a build I'm really thinking of getting, but I was just curious how strong of a GPU could be crammed into a budget PC for the same price (no rebates) as the $450 for the Alienware Alpha and still have the build actually work.

TDP is more a measure of heat than power consumption, but your estimates shouldn't be too far off.

I think the GTX 960 is quite powerful for the build, as far as I can see from the Dell (Canada) website, the Alienware Alpha comes with a GTX 860M which is somewhere close to the GTX 750 Ti.

 

[Quote]

Alright, the new system is up and running. Windows 8.1 found and installed every driver all on its own. So my question is, should I bother installing the Gigabyte software? I read there was a lot of bloat in it, but I kind of want to check on my fans and temps.

I have the GA-Z97MX motherboard if that helps!

Edit: I'll try some of the software in the OP


Edit 2: Old vs. New ))))))

 

[Veldin]

Hey, dumb newbie here that could use some advice.

I've been using a laptop for the past few years and want to build a proper PC. I've never actually built one from scratch before and I'm pretty ignorant of what the good/trustworthy brands are right now. It'll be primarily for video editing, but I want to be fairly up to date for gaming as well. The most I can spend on this is $2k.

Below is what I slapped together on PCpartpicker in a short amount of time, so some suggestions for price and efficiency would help a lot. Haven't picked a case or monitor yet, but I'm looking at mid towers and the highest resolution I need at the moment is 1080p.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($107.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.45 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($38.84 @ Amazon)
Total: $1261.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-05 23:38 EDT-0400

Thanks in advance.

 

[RGM79]

Hey, dumb newbie here that could use some advice.

I've been using a laptop for the past few years and want to build a proper PC. I've never actually built one from scratch before and I'm pretty ignorant of what the good/trustworthy brands are right now. It'll be primarily for video editing, but I want to be fairly up to date for gaming as well. The most I can spend on this is $2k.

Below is what I slapped together on PCpartpicker in a short amount of time, so some suggestions for price and efficiency would help a lot. Haven't picked a case or monitor yet, but I'm looking at mid towers and the highest resolution I need at the moment is 1080p.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($107.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.45 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($38.84 @ Amazon)
Total: $1261.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-05 23:38 EDT-0400

Thanks in advance.

Not bad for a quick build. I'd recommend getting an aftermarket cooler for the 4790K so you have headroom to overclock with, and physically smaller and maybe higher speed RAM as that Corsair RAM has unnecessarily tall heatspreaders that could interfere with CPU heatsinks. Definitely get a different power supply, that EVGA Supernova G1 isn't bad but that's not that good a price, the newer and better Supernova G2 at the same wattage has dropped to around $85 in the past. You could also drop the DVD drive if you won't be using it very often.

With a $2000 budget, you could opt for an Intel i7 hexa core processor and X99 motherboard with DDR4 RAM. Performance-wise it'll be better for video editing but not so much for games. Still, going with X99 means it's a little more futureproof because it uses DDR4 memory, and the hexa core processor will have a longer useful life than an Intel quad core processor (with overclocking, it'll take longer before it feels obsolete and needs to be replaced). Given that your first parts list only totals around $1300, does that mean you prefer to spend less or do you not mind spending up to $2000? And what sort of 1080p monitor are you looking for?

What sort of a case are you looking for? Do you have any details in mind? Gamer-aesthetic or more subtle look? Would you like a case window? Noise dampening cases lined with sound absorbing foam? Do you prefer the case or internal parts to be in any specific colors?

Here's an example X99-based build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($372.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BL 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($162.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($177.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($679.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec HCG M 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1858.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-06 00:18 EDT-0400

That leaves about $140 for your choice of 21~24" 1080p monitor. The Fractal Define S case is a nice recently released mid-tower case that emphasizes airflow with a wide open interior but still has noise-absorbing capabilities. The GTX 980 Ti is a little crazy.. but does fit in your budget.

 

[appaws]

i came here around october 2014 when i wanted to build my first pc around the 970. decided to wait for the amd hbm gpu. depending on the price, i might build my first pc around the card.

cad and the 390x being 499$ us aren't helping, though. if rumours are true, 390x will be 620$ cad and that's for the reference version. just checked 980 ti earlier and it's a whopping 840-870$ cad.

You've been posting that sort of thing about waiting for some particular part or another for quite a while? Unless I am confusing you with someone else... Just decide what your budget is and build a PC, and enjoy PC gaming.

There is no holy grail part that is going to "future proof" you for 10 years or something.

So is the Strix 970 the one to get?

I don't think there is a "one to get." There are several good ones to choose from. The Strix is indeed quite good.

 

[Saprol]

You could be considered future-proof if in the near future after buying your parts, Intel/AMD/Nvidia all just spontaneously combusted and stopped making stuff.

Motherboard from Newegg was $20 cheaper than local options but they haven't even handed off the order to Canada Post yet after 2 days. I should have foreseen this. Gonna have a pile of components without a motherboard to attach them to.

 

[opticalmace]

The Canadian dollar is really screwing up computer prices up here. As someone in the market for parts it's kind of a kick in the balls. No particular end in sight either, may just have to accept it.

 

[RGM79]

I ordered a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB for $118 CAD taxes included from shop.ca, and a Crucial MX200 500GB for $235 CAD taxes included from Amazon.ca, you guys think those prices are alright? The former is for a friend, I'm keeping the latter.

 

[MrGerbils]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about upgrading my PC and have around $600 to spend. I could maybe go a bit higher if it'd really help a ton, but I'd rather not.

Here's what I currently run:

mobo: MSI 7759
CPU: i5-3570k
GPU: GTX 660ti
RAM: 16gb DDR3


What's the best bang for my buck here? Would it be silly to put in a 980 with that CPU as a bottleneck? Or is the jump in performance from an i5-3570k to say an i5-4690k not even really worth it anyway, so just throw as much money at a GPU as I can?

FWIW, my CPU is not currently overclocked. I'm not really suuuper technical so I've always been hesitant to do stuff like that.

 

[RGM79]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about upgrading my PC and have around $600 to spend. I could maybe go a bit higher if it'd really help a ton, but I'd rather not.

Here's what I currently run:

mobo: MSI 7759
CPU: i5-3570k
GPU: GTX 660ti
RAM: 16gb DDR3


What's the best bang for my buck here? Would it be silly to put in a 980 with that CPU as a bottleneck? Or is the jump in performance from an i5-3570k to say an i5-4690k not even really worth it anyway, so just throw as much money at a GPU as I can?

FWIW, my CPU is not currently overclocked. I'm not really suuuper technical so I've always been hesitant to do stuff like that.

Your processor is still great (especially when overclocked), and you have more than enough RAM. The best thing you can do is upgrade from the old GTX 660 Ti, your processor will not be a bottleneck for at least the next few years' worth of upgrades. And maybe get a better CPU heatsink if you're still using the stock Intel cooler so you can overclock with it.

Here's some links you can use as reference:
Simple OC guide
In-depth OC guide

Anyway, $600 (USD?) is enough to get you a GTX 980 as well as a good CPU cooler.

 

[MrGerbils]

Your processor is still great (especially when overclocked), and you have more than enough RAM. The best thing you can do is upgrade from the old GTX 660 Ti, your processor will not be a bottleneck for at least the next few years' worth of upgrades. And maybe get a better CPU heatsink if you're still using the stock Intel cooler so you can overclock with it.

Here's some links you can use as reference:
Simple OC guide
In-depth OC guide

Anyway, $600 (USD?) is enough to get you a GTX 980 as well as a good CPU cooler.

Really? Wow, that's great to hear. And thank you for the OC guides. I am using the stock heatsink, I'll look in to some alternatives.

I bought this CPU so long ago I figured it'd be far outclassed, but I guess they haven't made that huge of leaps and bounds.

Thanks again.