Hello everyone,

Yes it's another one of these, but I could really do some help from folks who are far more experienced and knowledgeable than I. Anyway, I'm thinking about getting a GTX 1070/1080 once it becomes more available on the market but I'm realizing I could do with upgrading some components in my current system... maybe even a full clear out. Trouble is I've been out of the loop for a while since my previous build so have lost touch with what's great out there component-wise.

I'm currently running a Asus P6TD motherboard with a i7 920 CPU but I know these are VERY outdated by now and worry it'll possibly bottleneck the GTX cards. I have overclocked the i7 920 but there's only so far you can go with overclocking. Intel of course have new CPU's out now but to be honest I don't really know where to start. I know I'd need a new motherboard that support LGA1150 so a new motherboard is very likely but I don't know what's the best value/recommended motherboards of today.

I'm doing a fair bit of research but I'm still unclear, I should note play mostly at 1080p and the i7 920 as served me very well but an upgrade might be required at this point and could really do with some recommendations where to start looking. I want to go with Intel CPU's due to having more faith in the product but if you have any recommendations I'd be willing to listen. Same with other components such as the RAM.

Really appreciation this, and thanks.

You need a CPU update that is for sure. Anything pre Sandy Bridge is not powerful enough. I have an Ivy Bridge CPU which is the one after Sandy Bridge and even that is showing its age but it still is good enough for most cards but if you are getting a powerful card like a 1070 or 1080 they will certainly be bottlenecked by the CPU unless you got at least a Haswell.

I'd say get a 6700K or if it is too expensive a 6600K. As for motherboards any board over 100 dollars should be good. ASUS or Gigabyte are my recommendations.

Skylake's main upgrade over Haswell was in integrated graphics. Other than that they're pretty equivalent. You should be able to get a nice Z97 board and it'll still use your DDR3 RAM

I just went to a 4790k which is pretty baller but even a 4670 would probably blow your 920 out of the water.

Your CPU is fine. Unless one of the VR headsets flags it in some weird way as being underpowered.

Unless something drastically changes, I don't really see myself going towards VR as I remain rather unimpressed. That said, 4K gaming could be a real possibility in the future for me.

I've had some folks recommend the Z170 motherboards but I'm not sure, I get the impression the Z170 motherboards are real high end and to be honest I'm not looking for anything with extras I might not ever need or use. This is always the most frustrating part about upgrading/building PC's, knowing which components are best suited for my needs when there are so many options available and having not really kept up to date with it since my previous build.

Can I ask to what makes Z170 special? I'm doing research but every link I go on just tells me about the best Z170 motherboards?

It's just the newest chipset. Z170 also marks the change from DDR3 RAM to DDR4 RAM. Even though DDR4 has much higher clock speeds DDR3 has tighter timings so the performance is practically identical.

Also, H170, Q170, and Z170 all use the CPU socket going forwards with Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Cannonlake. A 170 board is the way to go and these days, and Z boards are often not so outrageously priced compaired to H and Q. You could go with a H97 or Z97, but as you said originally you were thinking of sweeping the decks clean with a whole new build. In that case get a new CPU and get a 170 board and build up with a architecture that will be around for the next few iterations of chips. JMO.

How much can you spend?

I would say dont get a gigabyte gaming 5 board it has caused me nothing but headaches with ddr4 ram and windows 10. Ive had to bios update 3 timea already. Asus boards gave me no trouble but i only used amd chipsets with them.

Thanks for the tips and advice, really appreciate this.

So I've been doing some research and a few components I'm looking closely at are the MSI Z170 A Pro motherboard, the Intel Core i5 6600K and for memory (being that these new motherboards support DDR4 probably either the HyperX Fury 2133Mhz or the HyperX Fury 2400Mhz. Of course money will always been a factor but I'm being pretty fluid on price right now given that it could still take a while before we see the GTX 1070 available in stock, let alone the custom cards. That said, I don't want to go spending money on a component with features/factors I just won't end up using. If I do go down the route of buying a new CPU, motherboard and new DDR4 ram, the GTX 1070 seems the most likely option and whilst it won't be as well future proofed I do mostly game at 1080p these days.

I'm still doing my research so these choices are still early. Whilst I do have a Antec 1200 case it's now a little scratched and worn, the days where I care about flashing lights and a window on the side of my case are gone so I've been looking at the silent cases or simply towers that just look smart.

Really appreciate the help.

Yeah I to have had a bad history with Gigabyte products so I tend to stay away from them. Have to admit the Asus P6TD as been a very solid motherboard, can't think of any problems I've had with it. Just sadly outdated these days.

6600k or 6700k, depending on your budget. The 6700k is quite a bit more money for the hyperthreading, but with the consoles running with so many cores, having 8 threads wouldn't hurt in the long run.

Z170 may have a lot of features you're not needing right now, but you may want it in the future. Pricing wise, it's not too bad. An Asus Z170 will run you $150 from Microcenter. Changing out a video card/ram is easy. upgrading a CPU? A pain, but not bad. A motherboard upgrade? Not only a pain physically, but you'll be sysprepping, reinstalling drivers, dealing with Windows reactivations.

X99 is what I would probably consider high-end. Even at that, while expensive, it starts at a fairly reasonable rate. The 5820k is something like $300. Real close to the 6700k in pricing. It's the motherboards that add on that extra $100 premium...

Then you are fine with your current setup. I would say just get one of the new GPUs. There are very few scenarios where you would benefit from a new CPU; with most new games you would only benefit from a switch to a high clocked memory bank, which is not worth migrating to a newer chipset for.