With that GPU, your current power supply might just scrape by, but I’d definitely start planning for a new one soon. You're pretty lucky that your CPU is one of the most efficient non-low-power i5 chips out there, I guess. 😉
I think this would actually fit pretty well in your build 😉
The Radeon RX 570 is definitely the way to go in this price range; the others listed here (GTX 750, GTX 750 Ti, R7 260X 2GB) seem a bit underwhelming by comparison.
I guess that cooler might not fit in your case 😬 ...it really depends on what you're running. Everything else is new—the GPU is maybe 2 to 2.5 times more powerful, but you’ll probably need to overclock the CPU to at least 4.2GHz.
It's a pretty weak motherboard, but you might still be able to push it to 3.5-3.6GHz. Just maybe don't go too crazy with the voltage—just one or two small increments at most.
It’s got 4 cores—though those i3 processors basically run on 2 physical cores and 4 logical ones. How much power you actually get out of it... I guess it really depends on what you're doing, but it sits somewhere in that lower-mid range. It does overclock pretty well, though...
I’d say you’re looking at an AMD Radeon HD 7770 or maybe an R7 250X at most for that CPU. Even if you push things to 4.5GHz with an overclock, you probably won't see any real benefit from an AMD Radeon R9 270. I guess it might be better to just grab a decent cooler and an R7 260X, then aim for a modest 3.8GHz overclock instead.
graniteharbor85 laid it all out pretty well, but honestly, this build's performance feels a bit behind dustyskipper77's third rig $2031. I guess the case and monitor aren't quite as nice, but the motherboard and GPU are definitely two tiers above, which is probably what matters most.
This is definitely the way to go. Anything listed below it seems like a bad deal and just isn't worth the headache. If you find this one a bit pricey, maybe just grab an extra $23, but I wouldn't touch anything cheaper. This card is easily three times more powerful than a GeForce GT 220, and honestly, probably twice as strong as an ASUS Radeon HD 5570.
Seagate BarraCuda (3.5", 1TB, 64MB, SATA III-600). WD10EZEX Intel Core i7 desktop processor (3.5GHz,16MB,125W,LGA 1366) box MSI MAG B550 motherboard EVGA 550W power supply, 80+ Patriot Signature, 1333Mhz, 8GB (1x8GB) PSD38G13332H Dell optical drive SATA Bulk Black 24x Zalman mid tower case black, ZAL-Z9 U3 EVGA GeForce RTX graphics card 3GB TRI-X, SAP-11221-12-40G Raijintek CPU Cooler Themis P/N: CPRT-002
Total: $1997+$27 shipping, free assembly at the shop
You've got a top-tier motherboard here along with a solid cooler that offers plenty of overclocking headroom (free upgrade included 😬). For the most part, the components seem pretty well matched. I guess if we swapped in a slightly weaker cooler, ditched the GPU and the optical drive, we could probably squeeze in a 120GB SSD—though that wouldn't really change much for gaming.
The real issue is that almost every socket is either dead end or looking pretty uncertain regarding new CPU support. We aren't quite sure yet if Z87 boards will actually support the newer Intel Skylake generation, and honestly, it might not even result in a massive performance jump on the CPU side anyway. The LGA 1366 platform used in this build feels somewhat frozen; right now, it seems they won't be making new processors for it, though maybe they'll revive it later. As for the Socket AM4 platform, it's just too expensive and isn't really worth it for gaming, so I'd steer clear of that too.
So, when it comes to future-proofing, I suppose just overclocking this processor is probably your best bet moving forward.
Honestly, you're fine sticking with Ereboss. I guess low-end liquid cooling usually ends up being worse than a decent air cooler anyway. If it were me, I’d go with the Z5+ for the case, and maybe just grab 4GB of the cheapest RAM available instead of what you have there.
With that OC, I guess you shouldn't have to worry about any bottlenecks, even when you start looking at upcoming GPU generations.