Which upgrade path would put a bigger smile on an 11 y/o's face?

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Good evening all, may I have your advise, please.

It's the lads birthday coming up and I initially was going to get him a new GPU and SSD for a gift, however I have since thought that maybe a CPU RAM SSD and Mobo might have more impact and seems more logical in my price bracket of £350.00

His current set up is
i7 940
18GB DDR3 1600
GTX 1050Ti
650Watt PSU
500GB HDD

Should I upgrade to a Ryzen 5 System + M.2 and keep the 1050Ti or Keep the i7 System and upgrade to a 1660 Super + an SSD?

My concern is the 1050Ti will perform at similar performance on the Ryzen system due to it's limited capabilities and won't have that wow factor for him in Apex, PUBG, Warzone and Borderlands 3 if they all have to run at same settings, which are basically all low to get a decent frame rate.

All brand new components required and all refurbished will be passed on to family. Then what I don't upgrade this time I'll upgrade at Christmas.

Thanks :)
 
Soldato
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Grab him that 1660 super + an SSD and if he's got a decent motherboard then pick up a Xeon 6 core chip x5650-x5675 and overclock it to atleast 4 ghz for some great performance.
 
Soldato
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I had 1st Gen i7 860.

moved over to 6th Gen i5 and hit 5ghz overclock from stock along with the 860 clocked to 4ghz.

enough though both are 4 cores and i5 only had 4 threads vs 8... design changes from 2/3rd gen on wards in a big jump in performance (next jump like this will be Intels 11th gen!)

saw 15-20fps gains from gtx 660/980ti/gtx1080 at 1080p & 1440p.

GPU will make the MOST gains ! so as above upgrade BUT ! whack £full 350 on it, specially gaming at 1080p- you'll be losing out on 20fps + in performance because oof that CPU ( more if not OC)

even going xeon 6 cores.... Ryzen 3600 will beat it , 2700 as well second hand even .

if your son hasn't got a gaming monitor... 1080p+ and over 60hz ..

better gaming experience then 1660super and 60hxz 1080p monitor...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £360.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)


all freesync 144hz 1080p sold out at OCUK under £160​
 
Soldato
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I went from a x5670 at 4.4ghz to a ryzen 5 3600 @4.2 both with the gtx1070ti and even though I do love the ryzen system there wasn't much fps difference in games between the 2, for example in ffxv both would do around 70fps @1440p with the ryzen having slightly better 1% lows.

Being 6core 12 threads I would argue the Xeon performs better than i5 quad cores many generations infront especially for 1% lows.
 
Soldato
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I went from a x5670 at 4.4ghz to a ryzen 5 3600 @4.2 both with the gtx1070ti and even though I do love the ryzen system there wasn't much fps difference in games between the 2, for example in ffxv both would do around 70fps @1440p with the ryzen having slightly better 1% lows.

Being 6core 12 threads I would argue the Xeon performs better than i5 quad cores many generations infront especially for 1% lows.

able to try games like Tomb Raider, Assassins creed on both cores?

Ashes of Sing best game for testing core designs on both DX12/11- Just a shame no other game comes close to brilliant game coding :'(
 
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Thanks for the replies, some good input.

I forgot to mention I'm going to hand him down my 1080P G-Sync monitor.

I think the best route would be?

Xeon X5675 @ <£20
RTX 2060 (Twin Fan) @ <£310
240GB SSD @ £30/£35
 
Soldato
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Thanks for the replies, some good input.

I forgot to mention I'm going to hand him down my 1080P G-Sync monitor.

I think the best route would be?

Xeon X5675 @ <£20
RTX 2060 (Twin Fan) @ <£310
240GB SSD @ £30/£35
I think that will be a very solid upgrade for him.

Just make sure to update to the latest bios before dropping in the Xeon.
 
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that's just savage ! haha

£50 for 480gb

I'm the OP, just on my original account (I forgot my password and the reset link was being sent to a sub Ocuk folder which I had forgot about too...)

Anyway, I managed to obtain both the GPU and CPU of choice for a combined total of £310.00 so, I might get him a 480Gb SSD now or a 240 and a shiny new CPU cooler.

What brand of 480Gb SSD was in the £50 region?
 
Soldato
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I'm the OP, just on my original account (I forgot my password and the reset link was being sent to a sub Ocuk folder which I had forgot about too...)

Anyway, I managed to obtain both the GPU and CPU of choice for a combined total of £310.00 so, I might get him a 480Gb SSD now or a 240 and a shiny new CPU cooler.

What brand of 480Gb SSD was in the £50 region?

#https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-480gb-ssd-2.5-sata-6gbps-solid-state-drive-hd-00d-gi.html

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £61.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​
 
Associate
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Thanks again for suggesting the the Xeon, I installed it today and it clocked right up to 4.50Ghz @1.32V but I've settled for 4.0Ghz @ 1.26V due to the insufficient cooling. When using apps like Aida64/Cinebench R20 the temps would reach mid 90's for 4.5Ghz and high 80's at 4.0Ghz. Cinebench R20 core was 1486, although I've no idea if that's the going rate. In games it maxes out at 65c. I'll keep a watch but I'm happy.

I opted for the Gigabyte 240GB SSD in the end, really shocked at all the price increases on all components in the last 20 days. That SSD you linked has risen £8 and the GPU i bought, now costs £60 more.

Anyway, thanks you all for your input. I feel I have a nice little machine for him now.
 
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