Looking to upgrade my Computer which is used for Gaming, Image editing, Audio capture, Video editing & Recording.Current hardware:Processor: Intel Core i7-4771 Quad Core Socket LGA 1150 ProcessorMotherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI, Intel H87 MiniITX, Socket 1150Ram: 8GB DDR3 1600mhz Hard Drive: Seagate 2 TB Desktop 3.5 Internal SSHD Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPU, MSI ARMOR 2X Overclocked Edition Case: Zalman Z7 Power Supply: 550W Modular Powercool Black PSU 80 Plus 12cm Fan SATA PowerMicrophone: Blue Microphones Nessie USB MicrophoneCapture Card: Hauppauge HD PVR 2 gaming editionI am thinking of upgrading the Motherboard, Memory or adding a small SSD as a boot drive.Would a different motherboard better the performance of the CPU or GPU?Would faster, larger memory make a difference?Is there anything else I should consider?Budget: I upgrade part-by-part over time so budget isn't so much an issue but for each purchase I'd be looking at 100-150. Thank you for your time.
Recommended hardware upgrade for Editing/Gaming PC
graphics cards;processor;motherboard;memory
I don't think you need a better motherboard. It doesn't affect performance when not overclocked. Even if the best PCIe slot is only 8x it's good enough for the GTX 970.As of RAM I would personally add another 8 GB. I would go with the same DIMMs, but if you need new ones I recommend the Crucial Ballistics series. The DIMMs are cheap and have good performance and I never had mine fail before. With the extra RAM it can help get a smoother timeline for 1080P editing and photoshopping. As for gaming power 8GB should be enough.Definitely go for an SSD as it's a cheap way to almost always get a performance gain. I would personally go with an Samsung or Intel SSD. As for Samsung I can recommend the 850 EVO and Pro, and as for Intel, a 730 series SSD should be good. I would get 2 SSDs in my opinion though, or one large one as I would store my unedited video and primary games on it.By the way, just a handy tip. If you are serious about the video and photo editing it's handy to get a 10 bit screen with high color accuracy. 