Technically gen2.0 x8 is still pretty acceptable for today's standard, but SLI/Crossfire rarely provide decent experience than getting a new card,
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/I...Scaling/23.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/...Scaling/21.html

We don't usually suggest SLI/Crossfire unless for top of the line cards fresh at the market.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 3 2015, 06:06 AM

Broadwell should had landed by then.

Just throw in a GTX970/R9 290X and you are pretty much good to go (though for "maxed out", we can't guarantee you can max out on every game, certain game is really demanding for highest settings).

If you are rich, consider getting GTX980TI.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 6 2015, 03:42 AM

Another 5 years for a currently more than 5 years PC is pretty much impossible, both in terms of technology obsoletion and durability. Nowadays even an entry level office PC at RM1k++ can be more powerful and features packed than your PC.

The CPU and mobo platform had being long EOLed. You gonna swap out them all together. Also, the RAM too. If you want to "upgrade", it is pretty much a total overhaul already.

The only possible "upgrade" to current system I will recommend is a SSD. Since your mobo is SATA2, the speed gonna get capped, just get whatever cheapest with longest warranty one will do.

If you want to get a new system, you can potentially reuse back the HDD, DVD ROM and the case. The PSU also possible to be reused if it isn't too dated, but do check if it has Haswell compatibility first. Cooler is potentially reusable too, but you need to find the adapter mountings for it, which can be a real challenging work most of the time.

In short, give us your maximum budget willing to spend for a new PC and we try to work out something from there.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 6 2015, 04:10 AM

The one posted by mod_po above your post will do.
Just remove the monitor from the build, then add in a GTX960 instead of 750TI, SSD instead of DVD/HDD and find a mobo which have PCIE gen3.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 6 2015, 10:45 AM

No idea how much you can fetch with that.

At your budget, an Asrock H97 pro4 should be possible.

I googled bout your PSU and its model seems pretty dated, it is safer to get a new one in this case.

No, you need to install the mobo on your case first then only mounting other parts, especially GPU.

Since it is Z68, high chance it will have PCIE 3.0, which is still the best offer out there by today.

Even if it don't, PCIE 2.0 is still pretty good enough for GTX970. As for CPU, since it is Sandy Bridge, try some overclock to make it perform at the best it can.

Pre-haswell (Ivy and Sandy) CPU support locked overclocking (on Z platform mobo) up to the maximum turbo clock.

In other words, you can lock it at 3.7Ghz (I assume yours is 2500?)

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 6 2015, 01:26 PM

Yes, 970 offers pretty surprisingly great performance for the bucks it ask for (particularly from Nvidia, which is a rare sight), which is also a reason why it is so popular. But again, it is a mid high end card at best (and there's the 3.5GB VRAM fiasco just incase you didn't update bout it).

980TI on the other hand is not too shabby either. A 2x GTX970 SLI which cost the same (on paper, but practically 980TI will cause more due to being new and super rare) to a 980TI only offer bout 10% more performance. For people who can afford to pay over 3k for a GPU, they will prefer a GTX980TI despite the "10%" less performance cause:

1st, single card is hassle free than multicards. SLI require compatible mobo, PSU, drivers and bla bla bla to work, while sometimes it still stutter in performance despite high FPS. Single card of about the same performance is a winner here.

2nd, bout the VRAM part. 4GB (or precisely speaking 3.5GB) is pretty impressive amount of VRAM for last year standards, but with ever growing details and resolutions, it will soon be a norm or even a minimum. On the other hand, 980TI come with 6GB VRAM by default. Extra VRAM also make SLI rig more plausible, since SLI theoretically double (or at least 1.5x) the performance, but not the VRAM. You gonna require more VRAM when you are pusing games at a higher settings. The original 3.5GB VRAM is pretty sufficient for the game setting a single 970 will post (by today), but when double up the performance, it may not be enough.

Now, back to your rig part.

5-5.7k is still somehow limited for a 980TI rig. Reference 980TI from asus cost RM3.3k, which took more than half of your budget already and left you with under 1.7k for the remaining parts.

Unless you can preorder a cheap 980TI at sub 2.8k price, I will suggest you to go for a RM4k+/- rig with GTX970 for better price optimization.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 7 2015, 03:57 AM

Do note that 5820k have lower clock speed by default (not like you won't be OC what...), and I don't think there's much MMORPG out there which is hexacore and 12t ready?

Other than that 5820k have nothing inferior to 4790k.

Import your own DDR4 from other cheaper sources (taobao, pchome and others which do cheap shipping).
http://global.pchome.com.tw/prod/DRAC4S-A9...NPX?q=/S/DRAC5M

With the right overclocking, they can last pretty damn long.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 9 2015, 02:09 AM

Possible, cheapest GTX960 is the single fan (reference) one by Zotac, currently on a promo price of RM699 by Cyntrix Tech and other retailers (but that is last week, just now I check on their Facebook can't seems to find such info again, better double check if you interested).

If can wait, the best of both world is the upcoming Broadwell i7, unlocked, more powerful than Haswell and insanely powerful iGPU (can almost rival GTX750).

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 16 2015, 04:02 PM

No idea, but since it is officially announced in June, I guess won't take more than 1 or two months.

Get i7 then, in some way it is still more powerful than Xeon. Also, if there's anything insufficient at least can topup on GPU than need to change parts. But again I don't think GPU will be much useful in programs you stated.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 16 2015, 04:55 PM

It's a case, so if you hadn't have your own case, yes it is necessary (unless you plan to use your PC naked lying outside).

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 20 2015, 01:35 PM

CPU cooler? Since the CPU is locked and you can't OC on it, just find whatever aftermart cooler under RM150 and have the design which suit your taste and fit in your case.

For case fans, just grab some cooler master jetflo. I personally is a cheapskate which prioritize performance and value over aesthetic, so you will see me importing generic OEM fans from taobao instead of getting normal fans out there in the market.
http://s.taobao.com/search?q=12025+pwm&img...0150620&ie=utf8

As for the GPU, do note that Gigabyte's 970 priced at about RM1.6k, but if you have the money to spend, we won't stop you. But again, at 1.6k, I will rather wait for AMD's R9 390 which should offer better performance, 5.5GB more VRAM but still cost lower/about the same.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 20 2015, 02:02 PM

No, Intel only intend to launch 2 broadwells for desktop, one is i5 and another is i7, so no Xeon for that. Intel is launching broadwell for the LOL, their main efforts are with the skylake which rumored to come by late of this year.

Price slash? May be a little towards 4590k and 4790k since broadwells are direct successor to them. Others I don't think so.

Iris Pro is pretty much a GTX750 already, which pack a serious punch in workstation when you need them.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-...ell,4169-7.html

Hmm, 7-9 years, that's really hard. If that way, I certainly advice you to wait for skylake and DDR4. DDR3 is at its end of life already, it will be as rare and irrelevant as ddr2 of today in 3-5 years to go. H97 mobo also end here, and will be pretty much disappear from market in 2-3 years to come. Better invest on newer mobo and RAM, those two stuffs are hard to find replacement when it gets older.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 22 2015, 11:47 AM

Better voltage regulations and quality of components.

High end GPU can be a power guzzler, entry level PSU may not be designed to sustain such high load for prolonged period.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 23 2015, 12:06 PM

As long as your rig is not come with Xeon, just tell them you already had a GPU with you or didn't plan to get discrete GPU and ask them assemble it without GPU, don't see anything wrong with that unless their profit margins are too low till they don't bothered to serve you.

On the bundle price, practically every shops will have bundled price for complete rig. For the discount, I think it pretty much depend on their profit margins. If you buy less parts from them, they earn less, so naturally they can offer less discounts.

This post has been edited by Human10: Jun 23 2015, 07:37 PM