Considering the options, I’d choose to upgrade or begin anew.
Considering the options, I’d choose to upgrade or begin anew.
I’m not sure if this forum is the right place. If not, let’s redirect. I own an older setup from April 2014—based on the "Ultimate Video Editing Rig" video from that time. It’s mainly used for development, content creation (UE, Blender, 3DS Max, Adobe Photoshop and Premiere), and a bit of gaming (WoW, Crysis, SWToR, Star Citizen, etc.). My system runs an ASUS P9X79-E with an Intel Core i7 4930K at 3.40Hz, 32GB DDR3 RAM, an EVGA GTX 780 TI with two 250GB SSDs, a Western Digital WDC 2TB drive, and a HP LP3065 case. The CPU and GPU aren’t overclocked, and it’s cooled by a custom water loop. It cost around 4000€ including the water loop, still works fine, but I notice signs of wear—Unreal Editor or Premiere Pro are giving errors, and the BSoD is appearing more often. Sometimes I wish I could play newer games like Doom Eternal or Shadow of the Toomb Raider. My question: should I upgrade to a GTX 780 TI to RTX 2080/3080 (though those might be out of stock?), switch from HDD to NVMe M.2 (with a modded UEFI that can move the OS there), increase RAM to 64GB, replace the 32GB with a 32GB or 64GB HP LP3065, and get a new 32" 144Hz monitor (like the Samsung Odyssey G5/G7)? Or should I start over by building a brand-new rig? I understand this is very personal, but I’d appreciate your advice—what would you do if you were facing the same situation? Thanks, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Regards from DK Martin Moesby
I built a new setup, but any major overhaul will likely replace core components eventually. I’ll reuse and scavenge what I can. The budget plays a big role too, so giving an estimate would help. My plan is to pick between Intel and AMD first, focusing on the motherboard CPU and RAM since those parts can be adapted as the market stabilizes. Then I’ll upgrade gradually once it’s more feasible.
DK don't go! using a 250 GB SSD is just fine too for OS. Going to DDR4 would be great and new MB, CPU, GPU, RAM. Monitor, wouldn't want to say G5 as G7 is quite a bit different for the price? You could get better for the price than the G5, I think, although it might do "fine" too? Would deff wait if you can, for the 3000s to come back, unless you can find something like 2080 for much cheaper (doubt). so any of the 3000's series would do great, and 6800 from AMD (less features, but can have more frames).
Also consider allocating 32 GB of RAM is sufficient unless you aim for 64 GB. (for Intel they could release new CPUs soon) Actually, you're doing the right thing. Then Ryzen (AMD's processors) for Blender and similar tasks, higher core models like 5000 or 3000 series can help, or if you're interested in Threadripper? (maybe not necessary?)
With that kind of budget I would think you will be looking at a pretty high spec even if that includes the monitor. I would still take the start at the core approach and do the rest as convenient however I would wait till the next lake Intels are out unless you are already convinced about using AMD as even if those parts are not for you they may bring down prices on 10th gen. Whilst this is a great time to be upgrading from the point of view of all the new parts coming out that cycle hasn't quite finished yet so some patience which youu seem to have an abundance of might serve you well.
You don’t really need much: a fresh GPU is essential, boost the CPU overclocking works, add more RAM only for editing—gaming is fine. Back up everything and raid your matching SSDs and HDDs for a performance increase. If you see bluescreens, it doesn’t necessarily mean an upgrade is needed; it could indicate another issue.
I've been exploring some options to extend the lifespan of my system. Perhaps an upgrade could add another 3 to 4 years, pushing it to a decade or more. The current setup is solid, and I'm eager to add even more time. I've now connected the two SSDs in RAID0, moved the OS, profiles, and apps to the larger 500GB SSD. All remaining data fits into the 2TB HDD, leaving only 2TB to transfer to an SSD. Here are some suggestions: since the drives use SATA600, here are a few storage ideas—two 1TB SSDs in RAID0 for speed, two 2TB SSDs in RAID1 for safety, four 500GB SSDs in RAID0 for maximum capacity, or a RAID10 configuration with four 1TB SSDs for top performance and mirrored 2TB storage. My CPU is an i7-4390K at 3.4GHz, paired with an XEON E5 2697V2 at 2.7GHz—slower but more cores. I'm considering adding another 4x8GB DDR3 RAM for quad channels (64MB total). For the GPU, upgrading to an RTX 3070 Turbo seems feasible if I can source one. My PSU is an AX860i from Corsair, which should handle the workload. Any feedback?
I really enjoy Raid0, but I wouldn’t exceed two drives in a single setup. With modern HDDs being quite dependable and lasting many years, we can trade some reliability for better performance—but having four drives in Raid0 is pushing it too far. Two drives have kept me running reliably for about ten years, and they start failing once the system is no longer needed.