Upgrading Stork's Thunderbolt Build: i5-3570K | GA-Z77X-UP5-TH | GTX 650 Ti

I’ve been running a variation of “Stork's Thunderbolt Build: i5-3570K | GA-Z77X-UP5-TH | GTX 650 Ti | Mountain Lion & Mavericks” for many years. Here’s a summary of my current setup:

Motherboard: GA-Z77X-UP5-TH
Processor: i7-3770K Quad-Core 3.5 GHz 6 MB Cache
RAM: 32 GB Memory (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Power Supply: Corsair 850 Watt HX850
Box: Corsair 500R
Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 680
Mac OS X El Capitan

Much of the work I do is heavily CPU intensive and I want to upgrade this machine. Does the following make sense?

Keep the same components, except:

replace motherboard with ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO

replace RAM with G.SKILL TridentZ Series 32GB (4x8GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory

replace CPU with Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz Unlocked Quad Core Skylake Desktop Processor, Socket LGA 1151 [BX80662I76700K] by Intel

In other words: can I convert my current setup into a variation of “Stork's MyHero Build: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO - i7-6700K - GTX 980” by replacing the 3 components above? (I haven’t been able to find a GTX 980 so I thought I’d try to keep using my GTX 680 for a bit.

Will this work?

Thanks in advance.

Do you still need Thunderbolt capability?

Make sure your PSU is rated Haswell "ready" or "certified" as the new CPU spec's are "tighter" for PSUs.

I bought my GTX 980 used from eBay. You just have to be patient to find one at a good price. But, if you have processor intensive work and not GPU intensive, then even an olde (used) 760/770 or 950/960/970 will also work. (You didn't say if you are using more than one monitor or if you plan to use a 4K monitor.)

BTW, I used a modified BIOS on my Z77 TH motherboard and now have a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 (with a PCIe adapter). Boots up very quickly, and applications load fast - like "POOF!" See https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/success-booting-950-pro-nvme-on-gaz77xup5-th.201508/

Stork said:

Do you still need Thunderbolt capability?

Make sure your PSU is rated Haswell "ready" or "certified" as the new CPU spec's are "tighter" for PSUs.

I bought my GTX 980 used from eBay. You just have to be patient to find one at a good price. But, if you have processor intensive work and not GPU intensive, then even an olde (used) 760/770 or 950/960/970 will also work. (You didn't say if you are using more than one monitor or if you plan to use a 4K monitor.)

BTW, I used a modified BIOS on my Z77 TH motherboard and now have a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 (with a PCIe adapter). Boots up very quickly, and applications load fast - like "POOF!"

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding so quickly (and for moving my message into the correct forum)!

I'll try to keep this brief. All I want to do is make my current machine as fast as practical. And yes, I would LOVE to keep Thunderbolt as my Drobos are Thunderbolt. Am I correct that this will involve a motherboard/CPU/RAM replacement? And apparently the power supply? (I didn't know about the whole PSU/Haswell Compatibility thing.)

I've spent hours looking at the golden builds and other builds but keep getting overwhelmed with all the variables.

I have two monitors. I do photo editing and batch manipulation of thousands of images. No need for 4K.

The HERO motherboard has a Thunderbolt header that is compatible with the PCIe ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 card which is Thunderbolt 3. However, I don't have any experience with this card; you may have to install Windoze to load the ASUS TH drivers. However, the good news is that Gigabyte Z270X-UD5 TH doesn't require Windoze for working TH. (But, let me confirm this.) Then, you'll need a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 1 adapter like the StarTek adapter. The bad news is that the Kaby Lake systems are not yet supported in macOS although there are work arounds as show in the sticky thread > https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...cpus-200-series-motherboards-in-macos.211743/

Good news! Your PSU is Haswell compatible > http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2013/may/haswell-compatibility-with-corsair-power-supplies

As for a graphics card, you should use a GTX 980 although I don't use the Adobe products. The AMD RX 480 would (probably) be ideal, but it's not yet supported.

So, if you can, I'd hold off buying the a new system until Kaby Lake is mainstream (in a couple of months) as we're right in the middle of a change over in technology.

You, sir, are outstanding. I really appreciate the awesome service you provide here. I will carefully read your most recent advice and will likely follow your guidance and wait a bit longer (despite my "I want it tomorrow!" mentality.)

I'm pushing 60. Reading all of the options makes by brain hurt. You have helped a lot.

Thanks!

Burbank said:

You, sir, are outstanding. I really appreciate the awesome service you provide here. I will carefully read your most recent advice and will likely follow your guidance and wait a bit longer (despite my "I want it tomorrow!" mentality.)

I'm pushing 60. Reading all of the options makes by brain hurt. You have helped a lot.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Youngster

I moved the newer posts by L3rd and Burbank to the Thunderbolt Build Description thread as the posts were more appropriate for that thread.