How's this for an upgrade?

I use my computer primarily for video and photo editing (Adobe Suite), and want to upgrade it for better performance. Gaming is not really an issue here.

Currently I am running an AMD Phenom II x4 965 Processor with a GTX660, SSD, 8gb RAM and a Corsair TX650M PSU.

I want to take advantage of the i7's hyperthreading for video editing, and I've got about a $5-600 budget for upgrades, so this is what I was looking at: Intel Core i7-3770, CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (8x2 or 4x4??), ASRock Z77, Corsair H50

How's this look? What would you guys change, if anything at all?

More ram good, Z77 mobo average, H50 waste of money unless you seriously OC.

Forget the liquid cooler and go with a better PSU such as SeaSonic USA SS-660XP which is hard to beat for the price. Higher effeciency PSU will make a world of difference in contrast to a lower performance PSU of near the same power rating. Not to mention a better PSU will generate less heat, live longer and your overall system will run cooler and more stable which reduces system crashes.

isoMorphic wrote in post #15546745
More ram good, Z77 mobo average, H50 waste of money unless you seriously OC.

Forget the liquid cooler and go with a better PSU such as SeaSonic USA SS-660XP which is hard to beat for the price. Higher effeciency PSU will make a world of difference in contrast to a lower performance PSU of near the same power rating. Not to mention a better PSU will generate less heat, live longer and your overall system will run cooler and more stable which reduces system crashes.

Hmmm Well I'd rather not change out my PSU as the one I have now is fairly new, and I haven't had any issues with it. I also don't really have the budget for that. And the H50 is only like $60, it's not that much more than a decent fan heatsink.

Do you have some recommendations for a better Mobo? I really like the value of the ASrock.

Going to amazon and putting a i7 3770, a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H and 2 8gb sticks of corsair vengeance RAM in the shopping cart brings the total to $498.79 right now. That leaves you with $100 in the budget. You could buy a small SSD, maybe 128gb, if you don't already have one this will astronomically boost the speed of your system or if you want more than stock cooling which you don't really need if you aren't going to overclock (and if you are, you should get the i7 3770K because of the unlocked multiplier and either a H50 or H60 or a cooler master evo 212) you could get a corsair H50 or H60 or a cooler master evo 212, the later probably leaving enough for a 64gb SSD (which, IMHO, isn't quite enough for a boot disk if you don't want to be redirecting your libraries and worrying about your inbox).

I've already got a 60gb SSD that I boot off of, but yeah it's small. Would 32gb Ram be overkill? Haha

Ainoko wrote in post #15546978
Hmmm Well I'd rather not change out my PSU as the one I have now is fairly new, and I haven't had any issues with it.

Well it's your choice but more efficiency in a PSU will pay for itself in a few years. As for motherboard you can get ASRock Z77 Extreme6/TB4 or go with the MSI Z77 MPOWER for like $10-20 more (retailers vary). I don't know if you wanted a lesser model but keep in mind a better board is not going to be obsolete as quickly as a cheaper board. For me it's a no brainer to buy the best i can afford and know that it's going to save me money over the life of my system.

For my taste EVGA and MSI are simply the best brands for motherboards based on when to comes down to needing actual support. In fact EVGA even supports/warranties overclocking and maintains a huge forum where you can get all sorts of assistance and advice. But lately EVGA has been dropping the ball when it comes to it's line of motherboards as they seem to be focusing more on video cards. Therefore MSI would be my prime choice at this point in time.

The Corsair is already a good PSU. The new TX series are 80+ Bronze, although the 80+ rating doesn't really matter. Those are hand picked units that get sent in for testing. Every manufacturer does this.

If you live near a Fry's, they recently had H50's on sale for $29.99. I have one in each computer. They're quiet and I've never had a problem with them. If your case doesn't have dust filters, see if there's a way you can put some in though. The radiator is a pain to clean when it gets dusty. Filters make life so much better.

For memory, just stick with DDR3 1600. Lower latency and any thing running at higher speeds than that don't really show any real world improvements in speed. If you're overclocking go with 2x8GB. Even if you're not overclocking, you might as well go with 2x8GB sticks anyways in case you get the urge to upgrade to 32GB later.

patrick023 wrote in post #15550017
The Corsair is already a good PSU. The new TX series are 80+ Bronze, although the 80+ rating doesn't really matter. Those are hand picked units that get sent in for testing. Every manufacturer does this.

If you live near a Fry's, they recently had H50's on sale for $29.99. I have one in each computer. They're quiet and I've never had a problem with them. If your case doesn't have dust filters, see if there's a way you can put some in though. The radiator is a pain to clean when it gets dusty. Filters make life so much better.

For memory, just stick with DDR3 1600. Lower latency and any thing running at higher speeds than that don't really show any real world improvements in speed. If you're overclocking go with 2x8GB. Even if you're not overclocking, you might as well go with 2x8GB sticks anyways in case you get the urge to upgrade to 32GB later.

I do live near a Fry's actually. $29.99? Damn how recent was this?

I remember seeing the posts about it last week on one of the computer forums I'm on. It looks like it's back to $65 now. At that price you might as well get the H60 which has a bit better water block.