Time for an upgrade/new build

[soulblighter666]

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC but to be honest not sure where to start. I've had a gotten a good few years out of my current PC, so the main thing I'm looking for is the next PC to last me again for a few years. My current PC specs are:

CPU:
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Motherboard:
MSI B350M GAMING PRO
RAM:
G.Skill 16GB DDR4 2400MHZ
Graphics:
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (EVGA)
Monitors
Hanns.G 27" HZ281 (1920x1200@59Hz)
Sanmusng 24" 27GL850 (2560x1440@144Hz)
Storage:
SSD 500GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
HD 1TB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0
HD 150GB SAMSUNG HD160JJ
Optical Drives:
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F
Audio:
Sound Blaster AE-7
Power Supply:
Silverstone 650w SST-ST65ZF
Case:
Phanteks Enthoo Pro

The PC is used for gaming, I play a wide range of games from Warzone, GTA 5, Total Warhammer Series, FM21 and going way back to 90s gaming. I'm also looking to play Cyberpunk but have decided I'll install it once I do my upgrade. The only things I would like to do is keep the dvd drive (I have quite a few games on disc), stay AMD and move back to ATX. Also I wont be looking to water cool the system at all and I don't mind RGB but it's not a priority . I have around £1000 to spend and I don't mind doing it gradually (I'm aware on the current stock shortage).

Thanks for you help

Chris

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably try plonking in a Ryzen 7 3700X into that motherboard:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/supp...RO#support-cpu

RAM is a bit on the slow side,but still it should be a decent upgrade. An RTX3060/RTX3060TI would be a decent upgrade,and probably the future RX6600/RX6700 but I would wait until prices get back to normal.

If you want a better upgrade,you can get a Ryzen 5 5800X bundle,and sell the CPU/motherboard/RAM:
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-7...pu-bundle.html

[rand0m]

Do you want to re-use parts from your old system, or a complete new build + the DVD drive?

For 1440p I don't think I'd go much higher than a R5 3600 cpu for a purely gaming build, add a 3060ti for a sensible price and you can just about build out a system around that for £1k

[soulblighter666]

Thanks for you reply CAT-THE-FIFTH, that Ryzen 7 5800x bundle deal looks interesting. Would I be required to get a new CPU fan, as I'm sure the current one is the stock version that came with my current CPU?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for you reply CAT-THE-FIFTH, that Ryzen 7 5800x bundle deal looks interesting. Would I be required to get a new CPU fan, as I'm sure the current one is the stock version that came with my current CPU?

It comes without a CPU cooler,so I would add one. I suspect a CM Hyper 212 would be enough if you are not overclocking the CPU. Also the prices of Intel CPUs are dropping too. A 10C/20T Core i9 10850K can be had for around £370,and an 8C/16T Core i7 10700KF for around £280.

[soulblighter666]

Do you want to re-use parts from your old system, or a complete new build + the DVD drive?

For 1440p I don't think I'd go much higher than a R5 3600 cpu for a purely gaming build, add a 3060ti for a sensible price and you can just about build out a system around that for £1k

Sorry rand0m for some strange reason I've just seen you message. I don't mind using my old system for parts or building a new PC from scratch. How long do you think I will get out of an R5 3600 before I have to upgrade?

Thanks for your reply

[soulblighter666]

It comes without a CPU cooler,so I would add one. I suspect a CM Hyper 212 would be enough if you are not overclocking the CPU. Also the prices of Intel CPUs are dropping too. A 10C/20T Core i9 10850K can be had for around £370,and an 8C/16T Core i7 10700KF for around £280.

No plans to overclock the CPU. So with the I9 and motherboard I guess you'll be paying the same as the Ryzen 7 bundle, so which one is best? I have had a quick look and their doesn't seem to be much difference between them

[rand0m]

Sorry rand0m for some strange reason I've just seen you message. I don't mind using my old system for parts or building a new PC from scratch. How long do you think I will get out of an R5 3600 before I have to upgrade?

Thanks for your reply

No problem - I think deciding whether you want to keep your old system or break it down for parts is important as it impacts the overall cost of the new build (e.g can reuse case, psu maybe, some hdds, maybe the mb and ram)

But if we were to assume a complete new build for £1,000

Based on: https://youtu.be/PSxuiWih_Z8?t=766 and https://youtu.be/eqmRvTz0kbA?t=866, you can see how little difference the cpu really makes at 1440p gaming. The first video shows you how close all the cpu frame rates are, and that is with a 6800 which is probably a bit over budget for a £1k system, unless you save money by re-using some parts. The second video shows how 'most' games are strongly GPU bottlenecked at 1440p, thus you'll see better results by moving up a step on the GPU scale than the CPU scale.

[wazzickle]

That's a nicely balanced starting system so there's no particular component letting the side down that I would be looking to upgrade first, if you're planning on going down the incremental upgrade route, which I'd recommend unless you have a good reason not to, e.g. reselling individual components vs being able to resell the system as a whole.

In the absence of newest gen GPUs being available, the first component I'd probably consider upgrading would be CPU, then storage, depending on how you use it. When you upgrade the CPU you should strongly consider getting a good or great cooler with it.

[soulblighter666]

No problem - I think deciding whether you want to keep your old system or break it down for parts is important as it impacts the overall cost of the new build (e.g can reuse case, psu maybe, some hdds, maybe the mb and ram)

But if we were to assume a complete new build for £1,000

Based on: , you can see how little difference the cpu really makes at 1440p gaming. The first video shows you how close all the cpu frame rates are, and that is with a 6800 which is probably a bit over budget for a £1k system, unless you save money by re-using some parts. The second video shows how 'most' games are strongly GPU bottlenecked at 1440p, thus you'll see better results by moving up a step on the GPU scale than the CPU scale.

That's a nicely balanced starting system so there's no particular component letting the side down that I would be looking to upgrade first, if you're planning on going down the incremental upgrade route, which I'd recommend unless you have a good reason not to, e.g. reselling individual components vs being able to resell the system as a whole.

In the absence of newest gen GPUs being available, the first component I'd probably consider upgrading would be CPU, then storage, depending on how you use it. When you upgrade the CPU you should strongly consider getting a good or great cooler with it.

Thanks for your replies

The more I think about it I think it will be better to upgrade as I go, to be honest I'll be to lazy to sell the old parts and ended up sticking them in the loft. If I upgrade as I go the budget would increase but I wouldn't want to go mad (missus would kill me). Thanks for the videos links not the best watch if you don't like stats lol, but it is quite a eye opener. My only concern about the 3600 is how long would I get out of it, as I would like the next upgrade to be in 2 years 3 at a if possible.

I would be looking to get more storage, hopefully get some m.2 drives as I do like to waste space, think I've only got 100gb in total left.

Again thank you for your replies

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

No plans to overclock the CPU. So with the I9 and motherboard I guess you'll be paying the same as the Ryzen 7 bundle, so which one is best? I have had a quick look and their doesn't seem to be much difference between them

In gaming the Ryzen 7 5800X has the edge,but the Core i9 does have more cores which might help in the future. However,it does need more cooling than the Ryzen 7 IIRC.

Thanks for your replies

The more I think about it I think it will be better to upgrade as I go, to be honest I'll be to lazy to sell the old parts and ended up sticking them in the loft. If I upgrade as I go the budget would increase but I wouldn't want to go mad (missus would kill me). Thanks for the videos links not the best watch if you don't like stats lol, but it is quite a eye opener. My only concern about the 3600 is how long would I get out of it, as I would like the next upgrade to be in 2 years 3 at a if possible.

I would be looking to get more storage, hopefully get some m.2 drives as I do like to waste space, think I've only got 100gb in total left.

Again thank you for your replies

Your motherboard does support a Ryzen 7 3700X,and the Ryzen 7 3700X is comparable to your Ryzen 5 1600 in terms of power consumption:
https://static.techspot.com/articles...h/Power-p.webp

It also comes with a decent RGB stock cooler(although it can be a tad noisy apparently). OTH,you are looking at £100 more than the Ryzen 5 3600 for 33% more cores and a better stock cooler. The DDR4 RAM you have isn't ideal even for your Ryzen 5 1600 as its only running at 2400MHZ,but should suffice.

You will have to run a BIOS update on your motherboard unless it already has a Zen2 compatible BIOS beforehand:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/supp...50M-GAMING-PRO

Make sure you update to the latest AMD chipset driver before the BIOS update.

[DanceswithUnix]

It also comes with a decent RGB stock cooler(although it can be a tad noisy apparently)

First up, the 3700X does sound like a good match for the upgrade.

The box cooler isn't that bad a noise, but the smallish fan means it ramps up and down by a lot of rpm which I find annoying. Some people won't even notice. You can tune some of that out in the BIOS, but a £30 Arctic Freezer esports 34 tower cooler came with a single 120mm fan which I find is nicer to listen to and also upped my boost frequency a bit with the better cooling.

I still use the fan though (and the non RGB versions that came with the old Fx CPUs), they aren't *bad*, just not brilliant.

I have wondered about 3D printing an adapter for the box cooler to slap a 120mm fan on it. I expect that would fix the noise.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

First up, the 3700X does sound like a good match for the upgrade.

The box cooler isn't that bad a noise, but the smallish fan means it ramps up and down by a lot of rpm which I find annoying. Some people won't even notice. You can tune some of that out in the BIOS, but a £30 Arctic Freezer esports 34 tower cooler came with a single 120mm fan which I find is nicer to listen to and also upped my boost frequency a bit with the better cooling.

I still use the fan though (and the non RGB versions that came with the old Fx CPUs), they aren't *bad*, just not brilliant.

I have wondered about 3D printing an adapter for the box cooler to slap a 120mm fan on it. I expect that would fix the noise.

The OP has decided they want to gradually upgrade their system and re-use their motherboard,etc. Zen3 won't work in their motherboard so that is out of the question. Also they are using the stock cooler on their Ryzen 5 1600.

The Wraith Prism is selling for decent money on Ebay. Hence you can even sell the cooler and get some money towards a better one.

But the issue is the OP thinks they CBA selling stuff anyway. I would have probably sold the CPU,motherboard and RAM and put funds towards a Ryzen 7 5800X bundle,but the OP is uncertain they would get around to selling anything.

Looking at their budget it does appear they want a half decent GPU.

The Ryzen 7 3700X is the good match for the upgrade as the OP wants to not upgrade for a few years,and the Ryzen 7 3700X has 8C which should give it some longevity. It also has literally the same level of power consumption as their Ryzen 5 1600,and it won't stress the VRMs anymore on their B350 motherboard.

Also the box cooler will do the job,especially since the Wraith Spire which was included with the Ryzen 5 1600 is a significantly worse cooler anyway for removing a similar amount of heat. The fan and heatsink are just larger.It is a horizontal cooler which blows air over the VRMs,so for the motherboard they are using its should be an OK fit.

That is what Techspot/HUB found with a Ryzen 9 3900X:
https://www.techspot.com/articles-in...ench/clock.png

Comparison with the Arctic Freezer:

http://www.pureoverclock.com/wp-cont...rmal-Curve.jpg

Considering it comes included for free it isn't that bad. Also does appear to me the fan curve seems to be part of the problem with the cooler.

[soulblighter666]

Again I cant thank you enough for all the advice

Even though I'm happy to do it gradually I've always thought the MB and CPU would be the first upgrade. So I was thinking (which could be bad) maybe the best way for me to do it is:

1. Upgrade the CPU, CPU cooler and MB with a budget of up to £500 but I can push if I need to get the cooler separate
2. GPU & PSU/Memory (I'm assuming if I going for the latest GPU I will need to upgrade my PSU).
3. Storage get some M.2 and some more SSD
4. Then a new monitor as 24" is to small but that can wait for a while.

This could be totally the wrong way to do it.

Yeah I can be quite lazy when it comes to selling stuff on ebay, I just cant be doing with any issues arising ie post etc. After checking ebay though I think it should be something I should be considering after seeing the CPU can give me an extra £100, I always though it would only be around £30+.

I know the memory not the best, I upgraded from 8GB to16GB and I though it would do until I upgrade again. Also the reason behind the 2400MHZ was due to the specs on the MB saying "Supports DDR4 1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667(OC)/ 2933(OC)/ 3200(OC)+ MHz" so I assumed the OC meant over clocking and it's something I've never done. So I took the easy option.

Also since I m doing it this way I've realised I don't have the PWM HUB set up on my case. I'm missing the 4pin (to CPU_fan) and the Sata 12v power input so i have 3 redundant fans at the moment (struggling to find the cables as well, most cables seem to be extensions). I'm assuming this may be come necessary?

Thanks again

[rand0m]

Thanks for your replies

The more I think about it I think it will be better to upgrade as I go, to be honest I'll be to lazy to sell the old parts and ended up sticking them in the loft. If I upgrade as I go the budget would increase but I wouldn't want to go mad (missus would kill me). Thanks for the videos links not the best watch if you don't like stats lol, but it is quite a eye opener. My only concern about the 3600 is how long would I get out of it, as I would like the next upgrade to be in 2 years 3 at a if possible.

I would be looking to get more storage, hopefully get some m.2 drives as I do like to waste space, think I've only got 100gb in total left.

Again thank you for your replies

Hopefully the links to the videos took you to the summary average charts - so you can just look at those and not need to go through the whole video!

Based on that, personally I disagree with the 3700x for 1440p gaming on a budget, as it costs £100 more than the 3600, and you'll see fps gains of 1-2%, whereas if you spent the extra £100 on a 3070 vs a 3060ti you'd see fps gains of ~10%, so that would be where my money would go. I would think that the 3600 will easily last you 3 years, if not longer

Having said that, re-using motherboard/case/psu (how old is your current psu?), does free up some extra money from your budget, so this could allow you to get the better cpu as well

[soulblighter666]

Hopefully the links to the videos took you to the summary average charts - so you can just look at those and not need to go through the whole video!

Based on that, personally I disagree with the 3700x for 1440p gaming on a budget, as it costs £100 more than the 3600, and you'll see fps gains of 1-2%, whereas if you spent the extra £100 on a 3070 vs a 3060ti you'd see fps gains of ~10%, so that would be where my money would go. I would think that the 3600 will easily last you 3 years, if not longer

Having said that, re-using motherboard/case/psu (how old is your current psu?), does free up some extra money from your budget, so this could allow you to get the better cpu as well

Think it did but I watched it from the beginning, I had FM21 on the other monitor while it played. 3 years I'm surprised by that but that's easy to do, you would think I would of picked something up by now I've had computers since the 80's

I got the PSU when I built the system which I think was 2018. If anyone in to cable management they don't want to see my case, I have wires stuck in to empty drive trays as it has so many redundant wires.

Thanks again