Advice Please - Upgrade time max £600

Hello all,

It’s that time again , when I need the benefit of your wisdom to see what options I have to upgrade. Whilst AMD has served me well both CPU and Graphics , I am tempted to now go down the Intel/Nvidia path.


Current Kit:
GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz
XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Iiyama ProLite E2208HDD 22" Widescreen Monitor
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz
MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 Chipset DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5 inch Solid State Drive
Power Supply Corsair HX520 Modular
Mechanical Drive- 698GB Seagate ST3750640AS ATA Device


I don't need OS/KB or Mouse.
I have Windows 10, Keyboard, Mouse etc.

Regarding the Case , I am tempted to keep it as it has lasted ages , which is an Antec P120, though I open to suggestions if it is actually worth replacing since it is so big.

PC will be used for Gaming, I game at 1920*1080.

Does the power supply need replacing as well ?

Budget circa £600

Thanks

So basically just a new CPU, Mobo, Ram and GFX Card?

Mobium said:

Does the power supply need replacing as well ?

Click to expand...

If it works fine, it's your choice. Some like to get a new PSU for new components if the PSU warranty has expired, for example. As damage to other components would be harder to make claims on. Same goes for AIO liquid coolers. PSUs degrade over the years but some units can be exceptionally reliable, so your gut feeling based on your experience with it could also be a factor in your decision.

richthomuk said:

So basically just a new CPU, Mobo, Ram and GFX Card?

Click to expand...

Indeed , totally correct.

I am not entirely sure if that Corsair Power Supply is enough to cope with the newer graphics cards. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Has 40 amps on the 12v rails, plenty. New cards are using less power relative to performance. How old is it though?

Could easily get an i5 6600k, GTX 1060 or RX 480, 16gb (if needed) DDR4 and a new mobo for that budget and still upgrade the PSU if you felt you need to

richthomuk said:

Could easily get an i5 6600k, GTX 1060 or RX 480, 16gb (if needed) DDR4 and a new mobo for that budget and still upgrade the PSU if you felt you need to

Click to expand...

Thanks Rich, the Power Supply is quite old and I think I would feel more comfortable going for a new one.

Any ideas on what Brand or Watt , especially if I go for a 1060 etc.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600K 3.9GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £229.99
• 1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £194.99
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX316C10FBK2/8)= £35.99
• 1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR)= £43.99
• 1 x Asus H110-Plus Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £59.99

im sure someone can improve upon in, but you can stay well within budget on a build like that. Will have to check on the case you have, I think its full atx but you can spend a bit mopre money here on a better Mobo but will be fine if you dont

richthomuk said:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600K 3.9GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £229.99
• 1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £194.99
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX316C10FBK2/8)= £35.99
• 1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR)= £43.99
• 1 x Asus H110M-K Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £47.99

Total: £552.95
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​

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im sure someone can improve upon in, but you can stay well within budget on a build like that.

Click to expand...

Rich, the only thing that worries me is the 1060 only having 3GB etc , will that pose any problems with running games e.g Dirty Bomb/Overwatch/Battlefield 1 at full settings ?

Mobium said:

Rich, the only thing that worries me is the 1060 only having 3GB etc , will that pose any problems with running games e.g Dirty Bomb/Overwatch/Battlefield 1 at full settings ?

Click to expand...

not the same card but should give you an idea

Rich,

Thanks for the very quick responses and also the Youtube link. That was very useful indeed, especially as I only game at 1920*1080.

My thanks sir.

CPU cooler?

Good Point Danny,

Something quiet would be nice, does that Intel not come with a stock cooler, as you can tell it has been a while since I last upgraded ?

Mobium said:

Rich, the only thing that worries me is the 1060 only having 3GB etc , will that pose any problems with running games e.g Dirty Bomb/Overwatch/Battlefield 1 at full settings ?

Click to expand...

3gb of VRAM is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming, the GPU will run any game at that resolution, anything north of 3gb is mainly for 1440p, 4k or higher gaming.

Mobium said:

Good Point Danny,

Something quiet would be nice, does that Intel not come with a stock cooler, as you can tell it has been a while since I last upgraded ?

Click to expand...

The socket 1151 "K" ones don't. Drop one notch to the next i5 (non-K) in the pecking order and you'll get a stock cooler with it. Can't overclock on a H110 board anyway.

What's the CPU cooler clearance on the Antec P120? Can't find the specs on the web.

Re-checking that spec Rich put together, you'd need DDR4 RAM not DDR3.

I put this together but it's £50 over budget:


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 - Intel Core i5 6600K Bundle **£10 Saving**= £324.98
• 1 x Kingston Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (HX424C15FB2K2/1= £52.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express RGB Graphics Card= £199.99
• 1 x Super Flower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black= £55.99
• 1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm= £19.99

For the extra you'd get better PSU with 5 year warranty, 16GB RAM good price worth it, and overclocking possible.

Otherwise:


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express RGB Graphics Card= £199.99
• 1 x Super Flower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black= £55.99
• 1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm= £19.99
• 1 x Asus H110-Plus Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £59.99
• 1 x Intel Core i5-6600 3.30GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £209.99
• 1 x Kingston Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (HX424C15FB2K2/1= £52.99

With the latter, you could try the stock cooler first, see if it's quiet enough for you. Squeezed in 16GB memory too plus the better PSU.

Today, I would go for a GPU with 4GB minimum Vram, because I play games at 1080p with a GTX 970 with settings that use* 3.5GB.

*Or assign/reserve, which can often amount to the same thing - helps prevent temporary bottlenecks caused by Vram having to free up memory on the fly for new tasks, which can translate into stutter/ lower fps each time that happens.

But you may or may not come across that, depending what games you play/settings you like.

Thanks Danny,

Food for thought indeed , appreciate you taking the time !