Will directx 12 result in significant improvements on games utilizing it? How much percent in performance increase?
It's not exactly a clear cut percentage increase when it comes to performance. Many things have to be taken into account in regards to the game engine, coding, optimizations, drivers, hardware support, and whatnot. DX12 provides a better framework for developers to produce more efficient games, but it's still largely dependent on various factors. Simply making a game with DX12 doesn't necessarily mean it's automatically better than DX11.1. Early on some DX11 games were crap and didn't run as well as some games in DX9 mode, I'm sure. As developers learn more about how to best make use of DX12, better looking and higher performing games will become more efficient than older games.
I'm planning a new build, and I really want to reuse some parts to cut down on costs. I have a Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W PSU that I've been using since 2011 with zero problems. Is it a bad idea to reuse it?
Antec has marketed a few different versions of the Earthwatts 650 watt model. Can you tell me which one you have? The label on the side of the power supply will be useful, if you can take a picture of it. As far as I can tell, there were several different EA-650 models with 80 plus/bronze/gold/platinum level power efficiency ratings.
Speaking in general it should be just fine to reuse your existing power supply. It doesn't seem like any of them were particularly bad in any way.
For a budget I was thinking around the $500-$600 as soft maximum. Obviously would like to do it for less but I could be swayed to go even a little higher if there was a definite value in doing so.
For right now,
if you could spend perhaps $50 more, you would be at the perfect range to look for a GTX 980 Ti or AMD Fury X. We tend to recommend the former rather than the latter. Seeing as you have until April, you may want to wait for Nvidia's new Pascal line of graphics cards, perhaps more news will be available about the launch of those new models by then and you may want to hold off getting a graphics card.
How common is it for mobos to come with an out of date bios and having to manually update it? Found one for a decent price but I'd rather get a newer/pricier one if it means bypassing that hassle altogether.
Hard to say, it's up to the manufacturer and retailer for how often they receive new stock and refresh their old stock. If you have concerns about a specific model, look up recent user reviews to see if they mention what BIOS revision the motherboard comes with. Contacting the retailer to ask what BIOS revision the motherboard comes with is also an option.
Last time I checked, you were looking at a Z97 motherboard. You shouldn't run into any processor incompatibilities due to the BIOS being too old. It will be compatible out of the box with any compatible socket 1150 processor. Otherwise, updating the BIOS yourself is a slight hassle but not that big of a deal as long as you follow the steps.
Anyone have any experience with
Adata RAM? Never heard of them, but the price is good. Also looking at the
Kingston HyperX Fury but it's more costly, even with a price match. :c
The price is great, I'd jump on that deal. ADATA is generally trustworthy, I've recommended them in the past.
What's the word on ram mhz? I'm going with the Asus Z97-E, any reason to go 2400?
DDR3 performance doesn't matter too greatly as it's
generally maybe only a 5~10% performance improvement in some specific situations, but
occasionally there will be the odd game that does get influenced by RAM performance. Just in case you're wondering, 2133MHz isn't too far behind 2400MHz, so don't fret too much about the numbers or think that you absolutely need 2400MHz. Honestly for Z97 motherboards I'll recommend anything from 1866MHz to 2400MHz as long as the price is right and reviews/reliability is good.