Christmas Upgrade

[ScottALot]

Hey Y'all

So here are my specs

CPU: i5-4670K
MOBO: Gigabyte M5 Sniper mATX
RAM: 8GB Corsair Platinum 1600MHz
GPU: EVGA GTX 760
PSU: XFX 750W
Storage
..........OCZ Vertex 3 60GB
..........Samsung 840 Pro 240GB
..........4TB of WD Drives
Monitor: Asus VS-248H

So Christmas is coming around the corner and I'm looking to upgrade. I've been out of the loop for a bit with college and all, so I'm not sure what the real deals are now. When I wasn't so busy, I'd usually have a designated part that I wanted to replace, but I don't have that in mind right now.

So what I'm asking is: What would you upgrade here?

My normal use is quite various. I game a lot, I'm programming quite a bit, lots of general internet use, ... but I want to be able to get into video editing.

I also like listening to music quite a bit, and the headphones I have now just aren't cutting it... they're these Razer Tiamats that I won in a contest. From what I hear, gaming headsets aren't really good for anything including gaming... that a quality all-around pair of headphones are going to outperform gaming headsets even in gaming situations. Maybe I've heard wrong, but I believe it.
So with that, does anyone have a good headset/headphone+mic recommendation?

I put this in General Computer Chat because I want it to be more casual than a troubleshooting or set answer thread.

Thanks! :good:

 

[ninjabubbles3]

For video editing, an i7 4790K would be nice, as well as a CPU cooler.

 

[C4C]

Your processor is pretty good but current means but yes, an i7 will do better in editing.

I'd recommend a RAM upgrade to 16GB or a swap to 2133MHz if the Mobo handles it (it should).

Your GPU is good, won't need upgrade there, and you seem to have everything else set.

RAM is probably your best bet for the least expensive upgrade in editing power.

 

[zeppelin04]

I had the audio texhnica ath-m50x headphones. They were great. Only reason i sold them was i baarely used them since i have a stereo.

 

[ScottALot]

For video editing, an i7 4790K would be nice, as well as a CPU cooler.

Your processor is pretty good but current means but yes, an i7 will do better in editing.

I'd recommend a RAM upgrade to 16GB or a swap to 2133MHz if the Mobo handles it (it should).

Your GPU is good, won't need upgrade there, and you seem to have everything else set.

RAM is probably your best bet for the least expensive upgrade in editing power.

Is it too early to be thinking about a motherboard upgrade as well?
The i7 sounds nice, but I'm kind of wary of spending the cash to upgrade the CPU when there are new generations out.

I had the audio texhnica ath-m50x headphones. They were great. Only reason i sold them was i baarely used them since i have a stereo.

I've heard good things about those, might have to do some research on them!

 

[ninjabubbles3]

Very true, you can probably use your i5 till Broadwell comes out in early 2015

If you are waiting for broadwell, dont get a new mobo, as broadwell will probably come with a new chipset

 

[beers]

There aren't 'new generations out' per-se, there are x99 components but they are also based upon the Haswell arch (the Devil's Canyon refresh aren't classified as a generational jump).

The i5 should be 'good enough' for now while you are acclimating to video editing. If you did it in a professional role it might be worth the upgrade to reduce encoding time, but otherwise you should be fine.

For gaming I'd just upgrade the GPU if you aren't happy with the current performance.

 

[PCunicorn]

How old is your PSU?

As everyone else said, an i7 will probably help a fair bit with video editing. What program are you planning on using?

If you're a gamer (I've never seen you talk about gaming on here, so not sure) then it might be a good idea to upgrade to a GTX 970 or R9 290, depending on your budget.

For headphones, I'd probably recommend Fidelio X1s if you can afford them. No idea what your budget is. From what I've heard on Head Fi (most of the people on here are really hardcore audiophiles and know they're shit), they're amazing for many types of music, and pretty great for gaming also. What type of music do you listen to?

 

[Darren]

+1 for the Audio Technica's. The ATH-M50 and the M50X are the same headphones, however the X's have a removable cable. If the removable cables doesn't matter to you just get the regular M50's as the drivers and sound are identical.

 

[ScottALot]

Very true, you can probably use your i5 till Broadwell comes out in early 2015
If you are waiting for broadwell, dont get a new mobo, as broadwell will probably come with a new chipset

True... I haven't had it for very long, but the Z## architecture always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I wish I waited for the X## in this generation... I'll probably wait for next gen's X##.

There aren't 'new generations out' per-se, there are x99 components but they are also based upon the Haswell arch (the Devil's Canyon refresh aren't classified as a generational jump).
The i5 should be 'good enough' for now while you are acclimating to video editing. If you did it in a professional role it might be worth the upgrade to reduce encoding time, but otherwise you should be fine.
For gaming I'd just upgrade the GPU if you aren't happy with the current performance.

I haven't been awfully impressed by games lately, and I'm not sure if its framerate/settings (GPU stuff) or if my monitor isn't all that great... maybe you guys have some insight on which one is my gaming experience bottleneck?

How old is your PSU?

Not very old, like 1 year I think... last one took a $#!7, XFX replaced it last year with a slightly upgraded model.

As everyone else said, an i7 will probably help a fair bit with video editing. What program are you planning on using?

<-- Amateur: No idea, man. Just sort of a quarter-baked idea.

If you're a gamer (I've never seen you talk about gaming on here, so not sure) then it might be a good idea to upgrade to a GTX 970 or R9 290, depending on your budget.

Usually don't talk about gaming much on forums, I focus on playing 'em and finding Steam friends. I'm scottycatman on Steam, I think...

For headphones, I'd probably recommend Fidelio X1s if you can afford them. No idea what your budget is. From what I've heard on Head Fi (most of the people on here are really hardcore audiophiles and know they're shit), they're amazing for many types of music, and pretty great for gaming also. What type of music do you listen to?

Fidelios might be out of my price range, Amazon says $300 for 'em
Here comes the audiophile cringe... I listen to primarily electronic music... DnB and such.

+1 for the Audio Technica's. The ATH-M50 and the M50X are the same headphones, however the X's have a removable cable. If the removable cables doesn't matter to you just get the regular M50's as the drivers and sound are identical.

:good:

 

[PCunicorn]

Well your current system is pretty good for light video editing. You should make sure you like it before spending a good amount of money on an i7

Not surprised the ATH M50s were recommended here, especially by Darren. They're good headphones but from what I've heard (from audio pros), but they're soundstage kinda sucks. This doesn't mean they're awful for gaming, it just means they're not good for competitive playing. I can't really explain what a soundstage is, I recommend you Google it.

Are you afraid to buy used? It's not hard to get X1s for $200 or so on eBay. I asked basically exactly what you asked over there, "Headphones under $200 that are good at gaming and electronic music?" and multiple audiophiles recommended me the X1s.

If you're serious about getting headphones, I recommend you ask on Head Fi. I'll see if I can pull up my old thread, since there was another coupe pairs of headphones they recommended me but I forgot what they are. One of them seemed like a really good choice, like second to the X1s. Let me look.

 

[Darren]

Can confirm that M50's are great for electronic. That's about 60 percent of what I listen to and they work great. You could probably find something bassier but the overall sound quality across the spectrum on M50's is great. That's not to say they lack bass, far from it, it's just not quite as "forward" in the mix as some other headphones might sound like.

 

[ninjabubbles3]

Broadweel-E, the Xxx chipset, isnt scheduled to come out till the third quarter of 2015, if you are okay with waiting, be my guest.

Hooray for a fellow electrobic music listener, I primarily like Glitch Hop though

 

[ScottALot]

Can confirm that M50's are great for electronic. That's about 60 percent of what I listen to and they work great. You could probably find something bassier but the overall sound quality across the spectrum on M50's is great. That's not to say they lack bass, far from it, it's just not quite as "forward" in the mix as some other headphones might sound like.

So... I took all of your advice and pretty much discarded it (I would have gotten the M50x had I not seen this deal) and bought this
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/akg-k7xx-massdrop-first-edition-headphones