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I beg your pardon if this the wrong place for this. However I do build my own systems and plan on doing so in the future so...

I built my current system almost two years ago. Here are my specs:

Dell 3014 30" 2560x1600 display
16 GB of 1600 memory
i5-4670
GTX 760 w/4 GB of memory
2x Crucial 960 SSDs
Corsair 300R case
Seasonic 550W PSU
ASrock motherboard
DVD-+RW
Windows 8.0(hardly boot into anymore)
Xubuntu 14.10

I'm thinking that other then maybe the video card I'll be good for at least another three years, with the display even longer. Am I right? I notice that a lot of folks are still using five year old (quad core)CPUs to play modern games. So at least CPU and memory wise I shouldn't need to upgrade for awhile then?

Thanks.

you upgrade when you find you need more power

cpus last a long time nowdays since the sandy bridge came out or even core2 there hasnt really been much increase in performance
sure there has been 5% here and 10% there but nothing spectacular like p4>core2 and nehalem>sandy bridge

so your cpu should be plenty for many many years (im running an old 3930k@5ghz and its still plenty more power than i need for games)

up until sandy bridge i was actually running an old core2quad qx9650 and it ran battlefield 3 without any problems at all and imo it would still be running most games fine even now if i still had it but i sold it

as far as displays go i find a 120hz+ monitor to be freaking awesome, i can really tell the difference in smoothness with a high refresh rate monitor and lightboost
now its all about freesync/gsync though which apparently is even better than 120hz+ and lightboost so i cant wait to get my hands on one of those
then again if you dont play games much more pixels and ips is probably the way to go
imo if gaming then TN 120hz+ and lightboost - if doing absolutely ANYTHING else then more pixels and IPS is the better option


but looking at what you have you dont need to upgrade anything for a long while yet (except graphics cards which almost always need upgrading every few years at least)

as far as displays go i find a 120hz+ monitor to be freaking awesome, i can really tell the difference in smoothness with a high refresh rate monitor and lightboost
now its all about freesync/gsync though which apparently is even better than 120hz+ and lightboost so i cant wait to get my hands on one of those
then again if you dont play games much more pixels and ips is probably the way to go
imo if gaming then TN 120hz+ and lightboost - if doing absolutely ANYTHING else then more pixels and IPS is the better option

At the time the Dell 3014 30" was one of the best displays to get. So far I can play games just fine at 2560x1600.

but looking at what you have you dont need to upgrade anything for a long while yet (except graphics cards which almost always need upgrading every few years at least)

I was thinking of updating the video card. however the 960 is underwelming, and the 970 is more then I want to spend. Maybe next year...

whm1974 wrote:

as far as displays go i find a 120hz+ monitor to be freaking awesome, i can really tell the difference in smoothness with a high refresh rate monitor and lightboost
now its all about freesync/gsync though which apparently is even better than 120hz+ and lightboost so i cant wait to get my hands on one of those
then again if you dont play games much more pixels and ips is probably the way to go
imo if gaming then TN 120hz+ and lightboost - if doing absolutely ANYTHING else then more pixels and IPS is the better option

At the time the Dell 3014 30" was one of the best displays to get. So far I can play games just fine at 2560x1600.

but looking at what you have you dont need to upgrade anything for a long while yet (except graphics cards which almost always need upgrading every few years at least)

I was thinking of updating the video card. however the 960 is underwelming, and the 970 is more then I want to spend. Maybe next year...

i agree nothing wrong with your monitor at all i guess i was just speaking my mind on the subject

and with graphics cards i find i hold off on them until i need a new one - when i start getting less than 120fps on games i get a new one (i have 120hz monitor so 120fps looks silky smooth)

does your graphics card run all your games at an acceptable frame rate? if so then you dont really need a new one

although if you are from usa there are great deals on some radeon cards - too bad just about everyone else in the world has to pay much more for them
if you want to upgrade your graphics card (and are from usa) give a serious thought to the 290x which have some massive discounts atm

whm1974 wrote:

At the time the Dell 3014 30" was one of the best displays to get. So far I can play games just fine at 2560x1600.
I was thinking of updating the video card. however the 960 is underwhelming, and the 970 is more then I want to spend. Maybe next year.

The LG AH-IPS LCD panel in your UltraSharp U3014 monitor provides superior image quality. Playing at 2560x1600, you should not consider anything less than a Radeon R9-290 or 290X for $250 -30MIR or $302 or a GeForce GTX970 for $343. The rule for upgrading is always to hang onto what you have until it doesn't perform well enough in the games that you want to play. If that's an RPG or strategy game, then 40+ frames/second is usually acceptable. For twitch shooters, you would want 60+ fps.

although if you are from usa there are great deals on some radeon cards - too bad just about everyone else in the world has to pay much more for them
if you want to upgrade your graphics card (and are from usa) give a serious thought to the 290x which have some massive discounts atm

Well for now Nvidia has better Linux drivers then ATI does.

The LG AH-IPS LCD panel in your UltraSharp U3014 monitor provides superior image quality. Playing at 2560x1600, you should not consider anything less than a Radeon R9-290 or 290X for $250 -30MIR or $302 or a GeForce GTX970 for $343. The rule for upgrading is always to hang onto what you have until it doesn't perform well enough in the games that you want to play. If that's an RPG or strategy game, then 40+ frames/second is usually acceptable. For twitch shooters, you would want 60+ fps.

So far all the games I'm playing on Linux are not as a rule very taxing. That however could change as more AAA titles are ported over. Oh well until then I'll just wait for now.

Linux gaming is a dark undeveloped corner of a tiny niche market. You'd really be better off to dual-boot into Windows to play games.

whm1974 wrote:

although if you are from usa there are great deals on some radeon cards - too bad just about everyone else in the world has to pay much more for them
if you want to upgrade your graphics card (and are from usa) give a serious thought to the 290x which have some massive discounts atm

Well for now Nvidia has better Linux drivers then ATI does.

The LG AH-IPS LCD panel in your UltraSharp U3014 monitor provides superior image quality. Playing at 2560x1600, you should not consider anything less than a Radeon R9-290 or 290X for $250 -30MIR or $302 or a GeForce GTX970 for $343. The rule for upgrading is always to hang onto what you have until it doesn't perform well enough in the games that you want to play. If that's an RPG or strategy game, then 40+ frames/second is usually acceptable. For twitch shooters, you would want 60+ fps.

So far all the games I'm playing on Linux are not as a rule very taxing. That however could change as more AAA titles are ported over. Oh well until then I'll just wait for now.

if the games you are playing are not very taxing and nvidia works better on linux then you should definitely keep the 760 until the next generation of nvidia cards come out

i think you are fine right now with what you have for a few more years

Linux gaming is a dark undeveloped corner of a tiny niche market. You'd really be better off to dual-boot into Windows to play games.

I use Linux as my main OS. In fact I almost went Linux only when I put together my machine.

if the games you are playing are not very taxing and nvidia works better on linux then you should definitely keep the 760 until the next generation of nvidia cards come out

i think you are fine right now with what you have for a few more years

I think you are right.

You have years of life remaining in your system and some room to upgrade if you feel the pressure to upgrade.

The monitor is a keeper for awhile longer. I'd only replace it when 4K and 5K of similar quality come down in price and GPUs are out that can handle it reasonably. That's probably a good year or two from now.

On the CPU side of things, you picked up Haswell early. Since then, you'd basically be upgrading for clock speed and the need for that isn't high. Broadwell is around the corner, including a desktop model with L4 eDRAM cache. That'll be an interesting chip depending on its clock speed. Before Intel phases out socket 1150 which should happen in 2016 when DDR4 is cheaper, you may wish to pick one of those Broadwell's up for a good price. Not that you'd need to upgrade then but rather doing to so as the parts will be readily available: by the time you'd genuinely need to upgrade, finding this Broadwell chip could be hard several years later. Alternative you could put that money you'd spend on Broadwell chip toward what ever systems are on the market 4-5 years down the road.

16 GB of memory might be a limitation down the road, though by the time it is, it maybe worth upgrading the CPU along with it. Still, >3 years from now you'd be able to pick up 32 GB of RAM for this box rather easily. If you didn't just want to save that money toward a new build then.

You upgrade when a lack of performance or features pushes you to do so. Given your specs, it is unlikely that you'll need to replace the entire kit any time soon. However, it is impossible to know when the next game-changing technology will come out (e.g. SSDs, Adaptive V-Sync) and how much of your system said technology will render obsolete.

If gaming is your most taxing usage, then your upgrade scenario becomes clear: replace parts when their deficiencies cause your frame rate to dip or features to be unavailable. When that happens, I'd imagine that your most effective upgrade would be booting into Windows for better drivers and a larger game selection. A new GPU is the first place that I'd spend cash, but you'll get the most bang for your buck by waiting as long as possible (new GPU generations offer much larger improvements than their CPU counterparts). The new Adaptive V-Sync monitor tech is exciting, but your display is too gorgeous to toss away just yet.

To me your system looks good enough until DDR4 gets reasonable to buy. But then I don't game so I could use a system like yours for the next 15 years (ok maybe 10 for sure).

The new Adaptive V-Sync monitor tech is exciting, but your display is too gorgeous to toss away just yet.

I would think so, considing what I paid for my display. And it was on sale.

whm1974 wrote:

The new Adaptive V-Sync monitor tech is exciting, but your display is too gorgeous to toss away just yet.

I would think so, considing what I paid for my display. And it was on sale.

Definitely keep the monitor. Just wait for a GM200 GPU. If you want to play stuff on ultra i think GM200 will be a good upgrade for you when the 1080 or whatever they call the GM200 geforce comes out.

The 760 is pretty weak for 2560x1440.

You might also want to get a Broadwell i7, particularly one with the eDRAM L4 cache, assuming your motherboard will support it.

You might also want to get a Broadwell i7, particularly one with the eDRAM L4 cache, assuming your motherboard will support it.

I just did a firmware update a few a months ago. I guess I'm due for another one soon.

That's a badass system and you won't need to upgrade anytime soon, aside from maybe the GPU as 760 is a little weak for that kind of display. I suggest waiting a few months, given how underwhelming the 960 is and rumors of variants with much better performance it's quite possible there's a 960 Ti in the near-ish future. The 290/290X is a great deal right now if you don't care about power consumption, but if you got one you'd almost definitely need more than a 550 watt PSU.

The 290/290X is a great deal right now if you don't care about power consumption, but if you got one you'd almost definitely need more than a 550 watt PSU.

At the time I was thinking I got a good wattage PSU...

You did, generally speaking. 550W plays very nicely with almost any single CPU/GPU system, I use one myself. But 290X isn't "almost any GPU," it has notoriously high requirements even for flagship GPUs. Efficiency matters, though, so it will probably be the last of the gas-guzzlers. We already know that high-end Maxwell can outperform it for 50-100 watts less and if the R9 300 series doesn't close that gap it'll be the last desktop card AMD ever makes.

And the PSU is 80+ Gold.

80 plus is pretty meaningless. You need to know who actually makes the psu. Seasonic makes some of the best.

Seasonic makes some of the best.

Sorry i forgot. It is a Seasonic.