Need some advice on home upgrade

Hi All!

I've been away at work during our busy season - working lots of OT to catch up on bills and hopefully, finally upgrade my pc (currently using a pc that's more than 5 years old - dual  core with 4gb memory maxed).

Needless to say, this at times greatly breaks my immersion with GW2, and as i'm looking foreward to EQ Next, have decided to try to upgrade my entire pc and internet setup. I'm asking for some help and advice about which directions i should go in.

base setup:

right now, i'm using fl's brighthouse cable at a streaming 30mbps, (all i really can afford). this is going through their modem, (will need to update the model later), and a belkin N300 router wired with cat5 cable.

My first problem is in the router. I'm debating between re-wiring the home using either cat5e or cat 6 cable. Are there any advantages to either?

Next, i'm considering a router upgrade, (I REALLY don't like my current router).  I'm torn between the following routers:

1) ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router

2) D-Link DGL-5500 Gaming Router AC1300 with StreamBoost

can anyone give me an idea of which would be better from a gaming perspective with gw2, sto, and eq next (what little we know) in mind?

Next, there's my system, I have hope that i'll be able to get an entirely new PC built or brought during black Friday/cyber Monday. Which day would be the best day to buy?

As for the system, this is what I'm pinning my hopes on. (NOTE: I haven't decided on a video card, I may use my current half-height 900 series for a few months, but i'm open to suggestions as long as it's a nvidia card. just can't decide on the 600 or 700 series)

PC System: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1XfKH

CPU     Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler  Thermaltake Frio 101.6 CFM CPU Cooler

Motherboard     ASRock Z77 OC Formula EATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Memory     Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

Storage     Seagate 600 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Sound Card     Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card

Case     NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower Case

Power Supply     Corsair CX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply

Optical Drive     LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

Operating System  Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

As always, any and all help and advice is appreciated!

See in you in-game in December!

Killashandra

OK - was coming in here to speak on home construction - lol - I thought by the title you were doing some remodeling.  

Unfortunately there are far more knowledgeable people here on PC's and such than me.  So... good luck.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Y9Ol  $2173.24

Alterations:

CPU Cooler: Never heard of that, but I personally used the Cooler Master V6 GT for a year plus and it did an awesome job with my FX8530 rig (no easy feat considering I have a high end gaming rig stuffed into an HTPC case :P I'd still be using it except that I didn't want to cut up my sexy SilverStone case when I plan to switch to water cooling.)  It's also cheaper and looks way cooler imo.  Might want to double check it's performance with the i7 though, I honestly don't know how hot the intel chips run, but CoolerMaster also makes a V8 and a V8 GTS that cool better, a bit more costly but wicked looking. :P  

Storage: I despise Seagate, sorry  I've had more Seagate drives die on me than any other component in my system, HATE them... - So... Crucial SSD's are sweet, (I've got a 128GB myself)  I've also heard good things about Samsung and Corsair SSDs and they had a couple models that were price effective for ya alternately.  I also won't consider anything BUT WD for my standard drives (I've got some 10 year old 40gb drives that still run :P)  Meh I left in your USB Seagate cause I didn't feel like hunting down a "decent" USB drive :P  

PSU:  As much as I love Corsair, I have had way too much trouble with their PSU's over the years :(  I recommend a SilverStone for a few bucks more, 850W and modular which is always nice. 

GPU: uhm... yea... check out the Radeon 290x, smokes your 690 and it'll save ya what $350?  Buy another 16gb of memory and put that Windows 7 Pro 64 to work ;)

I didn't read into the MB, but it's ASUS and their boards are great (I've got a Sabertooth 990FX Gen3/Rev2 myself <3)  Case looks good; love the basement design, especially if you plan to water cool later.  LG has a good reputation for optical drives so should be alright there.  Corsair is good with memory from what I hear.  I'm afraid I don't know much about routers (I'm still running Linksys routers and gateways :P) still it's Asus and they are a great company.

If you plan on doing any wireless connections, you want the new 802.11AC router. I've tested at the advertised 500Mbit/s with some of these routers which is more than fast enough for streaming and gaming without wires (although wired is still better of course). I would stay away from the "gamer routers" as they usually aren't worth the extra money. Buffalo is my favorite brand; I've not tried any of the ASUS routers but they generally make good equipment (I have an ASUS Republic of Gamers laptop and always use ASUS motherboards).

Corsair is good memory usually, although I prefer G Skill followed by Crucial.

I've never been a fan of Seagate hard drives. They always seem to under-perform for me and die sooner than they should. I prefer Western Digital and Crucial. For solid state drive, Crucial and OCZ have been best, followed closely by Samsung. All three are pretty neck-and-neck for price-to-performance - just grab the best priced from these three. Intel, of course, usually trumps everyone but at a pretty steep price point. I would seriously reconsider the Seagate SSD.

The GeForce GTX-770 is your best bang-for-the-buck nVidia card at the moment; the 780 is only an incremental step up but if you can get it for a steal over the 770 obviously jump on it. As you are building a whole new computer with the latest and greatest, I would avoid the 600 series - it's old and you'll just regret it later when you compare it to the rest of your shinies.

The R9 290X from AMD benchmarks better than the GTX-770, but it's also priced $200 over the 770 and its not even available yet.

Also, I'd get an Intel i7-4820K over the 3770. It's only gonna cost you a couple bucks more for a chip that is benchmarking a good 10-15% higher. Although you'd have to change the motherboard and that will probably add another $50-100 there. Worth it in my opinion.

290x's are out, just Asus and MSI haven't pulled the trigger yet.  Sapphire, Gigabyte, and uhm the other one I won't touch cause of their warranty (lol) are out - though not in big numbers yet.

if yer not willing to build yer own, I would buy from cyberpowerpc.com...

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

They have some great deals, and do top-notch work. Never had an issue and I have owned several from them as well as building my own. No bloatware, and excellent shipping/care taken. Worth the coin if you do not want the hassle. You can usually get all the rebates from the individual components off of them too.

Definetely go Raedeon ove NVidia at this point, and check the 4820... worth it in the long run. their configurator has desktops with damn near yer specs for under a grand... dang, prices are in the dirt! my current rig is from them, but its like 4 years old and not lacking yet... longest I have gone without need of an upgrade!

BTW- they also overclock for you, and put a warranty on their work!

your system looks good but for one thing. DO NOT USE WINDOWS 7 OEM!!!!! if you use that you'll bind it do your motherboard and you'll never be able to use it on any other. get yourself the full retail version. 

and I also noticed you have a sound card and not a Graphics Card. get yourself a graphics card eather a Radeon 7000 series or a Gforce 600 series. I'm currently using XFX Radeon 7770

go here to see which one will work for you 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Unless you are big into a surround sound speaker system, the newer boards have integrated sound that works really well now days... even Creative Sound on some of them. ASUS Sabertooth integrated sound works awesome. Depends on how you use it. Gaming, if you are on headset 90% of the time, a soundcard is not going to make a huge difference. Especially with a quad-core i7... Might save you a few bucks, since the mobo has it integrated anyway.

Raven does have a point there, it looks like your board has at least 5.1, more likely 7.1.  Unless you plan on doing high end studio recording and what not I've found the onboard sound more than adequate.  I'm a bit of an audiophile so I've run everything from cheap speakers to Bose and Harmond/Kardon setups off my Asus' (would that be Asui? :P) and the onboard sound sound's great.  It's really just when you get into trying to record that I find onboard sound problematic.  

On the other hand it's $50 for the card so I suppose it's more a matter of if it's worth giving up a PCI slot for hehehe

Thanks for all the help - lots of good info found here, sorry it took so long to respond, working as much OT at work in order to buy a new system on either black friday, or cyber monday =)

Mystriss Freya: thanks for the tips, i have some concerns about the fan, but really, REALLY not in favor of a water-cooled system.

Raven & Valtyrian - thanks for the info on graphcs cards, this is the one part i'm worried ab out pricewise, and the first thing to be dropped in favor of price. I'm afraid i'm an NVIDIA guy though - untill ATI can give me anti-aliasing, i'm staying with NVIDIA, (Unless ati offers me some cool new games =D).

On the cpu: I was really looking at the 4 series itel chips untill i read this post on tom's hardware: (Sorry, forgot the original link, found this at break during work): (SOURCE: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1698327/3770k-4770k.html)

8350rocks
June 9, 2013 12:18:33 PMcbrunnem said:
8350rocks said:
3770k is better. PERIOD.

There is no "future proof" with Intel, they change sockets every 18-24 months. Plus the rumor is Broadwell will be a BGA only setup. So you won't be able to upgrade from "Hasfail" to "Broadfail". Your next upgrade will be a new MB + CPU @ Skylake in 2015.

Might as well get IB over hasfail. All they did for hasfail was increase performance by 1% in gaming and increase power consumption systemwide, plus go to a new socket so you had to pay more to buy IB v2 err...hasfail.

Don't waste your money...buy the 3770k.

Honestly, if you're on a SB system right now of any kind I would recommend you sit out this cycle and just upgrade later. Your performance isn't that bad that anything newer is much better at all.

everything you said is completely wrong.

1. broadwell high end cpus have already been said to still be lga cpus.
2. at this point you could make a cpu 10% faster but in gaming most of the time the gpu is the weakest link so the cpu being faster will not show.
3. the power consumption increase is negligible at worst.
4. the 3770k is slower at everything compared to the 4770k
5. you are obviously bias and brain washed.

OP if you are starting from fresh get the 4770k and z87. its a little more but they both have the same negatives of upgrade future except that the z87 board still has the possibility to be compatible with the next cpu lines.

1.) LGA is not PGA. LGA = Socket 2011, Intel has stated they will continue to support extreme line in LGA format.

Socket 1150 is PGA (Pin Grid Array, the same AMD uses), and there will be no PGA Broadwell.

2.) So the GTX 680/HD7970s of the world bottleneck your CPU is what you're saying? Rubbish!! The CPU is a bottleneck for the GPU...not the other way around.

3.) It's greater than 10% more power consumption at load. (112W vs 100W)

4.) Actually, the 3770k is only slower by 1 second or fractions of a second in ANY CPU bound benchmark...check Tom's Review buddy. Plus, the i7-3770k overclocks WAY better, so at the high end, the 4770k is slower than the 3770k. PERIOD.

5.) You are obviously uninformed. Read up on the reviews.

OP: Buy the 3770k, it's the same chip with lower power consumption and better overclockability. You don't need a 4770k because a new socket is coming in 18-24 months any way.

Benchmarks:

3770k is faster at 3dmark graphics here:

Here it is 2 seconds slower...2 SECONDS!!!:

You can't even tell the difference in cryptography:

Memory bandwidth is better for the 3770k:

3 SECONDS difference in Photoshop:

15 seconds in blender:

6 seconds in file conversion:

8 seconds in MSVS:

0.2 seconds better in WinRAR:

3 seconds better at 7zip:

2 seconds in TCS:

Higher power consumption on 4770K:

Quote:
The Core i7-4770K, specifically, is a bit faster than the -3770K it replaces—but only because of IPC improvements. It runs at the same 3.5 GHz and sports the same four cores otherwise. HD Graphics 4600 are a small step up, but not significant enough to overtake AMD’s $130A10-5800K APU in any meaningful way. The vaunted Iris Pro Graphics 5200, with eDRAM, is currently reserved for BGA-based SKUs. And although it appears we received fairly overclockable samples of the -4770K, industry consensus amongst the companies with hundreds of these chips on-hand is that, at safe input voltages, 4.3 or 4.4 GHz should be OK. The luckiest enthusiasts might get 4.5 or 4.6 GHz. Skill won’t get you far; Haswell is all about luck of the draw due to its integrated voltage regulator.

So, for the second time in a week, we’re disappointed. Haswell has a lot to offer, just not to desktop enthusiasts. Intel’s attention is fully in the mobile space, and we can tell.

Remember back to December of 2011, when we published Intel Core i7-3930K And Core i7-3820: Sandy Bridge-E, Cheaper? I gave the -3930K our Best of Tom’s Hardware award. Although the Sandy Bridge-E-based part was $600 at the time, power users who bought one have been enjoying it for the last year and a half—and, at its stock clock rate, it’s still faster than a Core i7-4770K in threaded workloads. That might have saved you a $300+ upgrade on Ivy Bridge and now a complete platform overhaul for Haswell.

For those of you on Core i7-2700K or older,Core i7-4770K makes sense as part of a two- or three-year upgrade cycle. Otherwise, I see little reason to spend money on a desktop processor upgrade, a new motherboard, and a compliant power supply. Save those few hundred dollars and put them toward a Haswell-based convertible, perhaps (or something based on Temash, if AMD’s partners can show us a compelling platform). In the meantime, we’ll be waiting on a manifestation of Haswell that more accurately shows off the spirit of Intel’s efforts.

Tom's review of it says exactly what I am saying...DON'T BUY HASFAIL!

EDIT: FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a game developer and specialize in hardware. This is what I do for a living...compare architecture and flaws and how it translates into performance.

any further discussion would be appreciated =D  My friends say i'm buying/building an overpriced pc, but i want a system that will chew through gw2 and eq next/landmark and ask "was that IT?" XD

....I also don't want to upgrade my pc for the next 5-10 years......

Thanks Again!

ok -the tom's hardware link and info did not post correctly, i'll post the link next time i have the time to search, (time for the tyrian adventure), and this may be the last one i can get in on untill after black fri. & my new pc (I hope).