Cheapy Upgrade

Hey guys,

Looking to gut my tower and upgrade. Nothing fancy. Just playing FM, Total war... the old ones.

Haven't built a system in 6/7 years so no idea what good bang for buck.

Keeping case, PSU, DVDrw, HDD so just the guts needed.



Looked at a few bundles....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079Y9H3...00F44PUI4?th=1
£259.99

awd-it.co.uk/intel-i5-7400-3.0ghz-kabylake-quad-core-cpu-asus-b250m-k-motherboard-ddr4-bundle.html
£271.98 with 8GB Corsair Vengeance 2400Mhz DDR4

Just something quick and easy. Dunnno these days where Intel v AMD or Nvidia v ATI stands but and open to all possibilities... any recommendations appreciated!!

As ever... muchos gracias amigos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and maybe a Graphics card on top of those... lmao... nearly forgot! :stupid:

What the the GPU requirements for the games you want to play?
Perhaps get something Ryzen based with half decent iGPU if that does the job...

Not sure tbh.. maybe end up playing one of the new Total War games, decent resolution. Not be running 4k monitors or anything so bit juice but nothin serious. Kind of want to get the guts for £300-400 range. Little flexible!

RAM:

Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 Enthusiast RGB LED Illuminated Memory Kit - Black

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D1XCK..._p-uFDbY7W2JPP

£96.83

------------------------

MOBO:

MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4/B450/DDR4/S-ATA 600/ATX)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VB2BG..._WavFDbD43E4EY

£108.16

-------------------------

CPU:

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler - YD260XBCAFBOX

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B428V..._GbvFDb5EKMRGH

£128.99


... so this leaves me in need of a GPU and the cost is already £340+.

Whilst you can go budget on the GPU, this one seems recommended quite a bit....

EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Black Gaming, 6GB GDDR6, HDB Fan Graphics Card 06G-P4-1261-KR

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NQGB8..._jdvFDb1B25CYP

But at £279.99, the price almost doubled.

Can anyone recommend a good budget option to do the job? Or is it a case of weakest link?

Have a look at the RX 570 and 580 - they're last gen, but with lots of stock in the channel so there's some really good deals going (eg a 580 for £155 here or a 570 for £125 here). The 570 is a semitone lower, and also available for very good prices; the 590 is a clock speed bumped 580 (~10% faster), but a bit more recent so not as cheap (~£200). The 580 is a ~60 fps @ 1080p with all details class GPU, so it'll be a very playable system.

This hexus review goes through the budget options:
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graph...650-stormx-oc/

finally, the cheapest option (if you're happy with very reduced detail settings in modern games) is an APU like the 2400G or 3400G. I'm not sure what you're upgrading from, but it might not be an upgrade - an APU like that will be a bit ahead of an old GTX 650 ti or GTX 560 (going by 3dmark firestrike numbers). It's naff, but will cost about the same as your 2600X!

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£117.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£72.70 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£63.12 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card (£269.99 @ Box Limited)
Total: £523.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-17 14:33 BST+0100