8 year old PC, which bits to upgrade ?

[Medic-one]

Been thinking of upgrading my current PC for a while now, and after just going through some old photo's I realized that my last big upgrade was in December 2012, so it's probably time to get some new components...

The thing is, it runs ok, my games run fine (mainly play GTA V, Ghost Reckon, Assasins Creed etc) and it's not really laggy or slow or anything like that, but I wouldn't mind it being a little faster and maybe ready for current/new games that are (about to come onto) the market.

Do I just get some more memory and/or a new graphics card, or do I need to upgrade the whole shabang ?

Current specs :

Mainboard : Gigabyte Z77X-D3H

CPU : Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.4 Ghz

Memory : 16 GB DDR3 dual channel (2x 8 GB PC3-12800 800 MHZ)

Graphic card : AMD Radeon HD 7900 3072 MB

PSU : Corsair TX750

 

[Sparx]

Personally I would upgrade the whole thing... It's nearly 8 years old now

If you upgraded just the MB/CPU/RAM for a Ryzen bundle, your GPU is going to hold you back massively being an 8 year old card. On the flip side, if you upgrade just to a beefier GPU - your CPU will hold you back immensely too

Do you have a budget to work with? You could always sell off your old PC after to offset some of the cost.

 

[Medic-one]

Cheers. So looks like most parts could do with an upgrade then.

Not really looked at a budget yet, guess it really depends on what anouncements they are gonna make on the 29th of this month regarding holidays and air bridges. If we can go abroad without quarantine I might spend all my money on big fat holiday. If not I might upgrade every component including my monitor!

 

[Sparx]

Haha, sounds fair Do you have a relatively new(ish) SSD in that rig you could re-use at all? Could help save some cost...

If not, then yeah you'd be looking at a full rebuild really anyway. Something like a 3600, 5600 XT, 16GB RAM, 1TB NVMe with case psu etc prob set you back ~£1100 region + the big fat monitor cost

 

[Joxeon]

Not sure what sort of budget you have but this would be a nice upgrade.

Personally I would probably wait for next gen GPUs before doing the build although the monitor might be worth snagging now at this price.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £129.95
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER WindForce OC 3X 8G 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £479.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £179.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £289.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £134.99
• 1 x LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monit= £379.99

Total: £1,608.10 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

 

[Sparx]

Depends what OP decides to budget, could shave ~£300 of that quite easily for barely any noticeable performance loss (or go on holiday )

• 5700XT would do just an almost identical job for £120 less (and that's from a 2070S owner)
• 32GB is overkill for just gaming, could save £90 with 16GB
• Gaming only the 3600 CPU would suffice for £110 less

Also would prob need a new case and PSU as well, I wouldn't want all these nice new goodies running on an 8 year old PSU and archaic case

 

[Medic-one]

I've got a couple 2 TB harddrivers, but only one SSD day (which is only 256 GB) so I'd probably get another SSD as well.

I quite like my case so hoping to reuse that, it's a Thermaltake Overseer RX-I VN700M1W2N (Full Tower) with a couple fans on the top and in the side. Was also hoping to resuse the 750 watt PSU unless that really needs replacing as well then.

 

[Sparx]

Crikey that case is a blast from the past No harm re-using it though I guess *shudder*

PSU wise, again you could re-use it in the interim... But I wouldn't trust an 8 year old PSU powering a new £1k rig either. The capacitors can wear over time and in turn make the PSU less stable. It could well run fine for another few years, your call really

 

[Medic-one]

Ok new PSU it is as well then

I don't think I can emotionally part with this case yet, I was so excited when I found out after weeks of searching for the right case back in 2012

 

[Sparx]

You could always keep the case, build a shrine for it? Then sell the components? (and buy an actually good looking case for this modern age of PCs )

Well, let us know when you decide and what your budget is... We can help you spec something up, unless your holiday gets allowed! Tbh I can't see travel restrictions easing off that soon, or certain countries allowing us Brits back in

 

[Medic-one]

Good plan

I'm actually Dutch (but have lived here for the past 14 years now) and been following their news, and they have lowered their travel restrictions a few days ago (on the 15th) with the advise going from 'travel only when necessary' to 'be careful when traveling', meaning they don't have to go in quarantine for 14 days when they come back from holiday anymore, so hopefully we'll follow soon over here.

Or even if there's gonna be these 'air-bridges' with countries like Portugal, so we can go on holiday without having to quarantine on return that would be awesome.

 

[Medic-one]

Been reading the various topics on here and have kinda got myself excited about VR now...

Could anyone spec me some hardware upgrades that would make me able to play VR games on my pc, obviously wel also need a VR set to go with that.

Again still not sure about the budget as it all depends what holiday options there are gonna be for July/August. Maybe a low spec and a mid range spec for VR gaming?

Obviously if we can't go away in August then I can just get some better bits.

 

[Sparx]

Well without a specific budget, here are 2 ideas to float - one with a slightly higher budget based on an X570 board (PCIe 4.0 support for newer GPUs if you upgrade, 2x M.2 NVMe slots etc, better future proofed), faster 3600MHz RAM

Then the second is a less powerful GPU (still solid for 1080p though), slower RAM, standard SSD rather than NVMe but still 1TB, an older mATX B450 chipset board (but still compatible with Ryzen 4000 CPUs, no PCIe 4.0 and only 1x M.2 NVMe slot) and a cheaper case.

Or you could look at a mix and match of both... Personally I wouldn't want to go anything lower performance wise than the cheaper build to enjoy gaming/VR at good FPS.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Powercolor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £359.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower DRGB Case - White= £83.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £86.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £134.99
• 1 x Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard= £199.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 16GB (2x8GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit= £109.99

Total: £1,155.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £86.99
• 1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED4= £68.99
• 1 x TeamGroup 1TB Vulcan SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £99.95
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER OC 6144MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £218.99
• 1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £99.95
• 1 x Thermaltake S100 Micro-ATX Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass= £44.99

Total: £799.85 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

 

[Medic-one]

Thanks a lot for that, the first spec sounds quite good, and I could even save £ 86, by keeping my current awesome case instead of replacing that as well...

I assume that SSD will be the for the VR games. I've got a current SSD which was bought with the rest 8 years ago, which is a SAMSUNG SSD 840 PRO, I was gonna keep that for my OS (want to install Win 10, currently on Win 8.1) but just saw the speed differences between my old SSD and that one you quoted, I take it i'll be better of buying a faster SSD for my OS as well then ?

What size SSD would you reckon just for Win 10 and a handfull of apps ?

 

[Sparx]

No reason why not if you really like your case I guess...

I wouldn't re-use an 8 y/o SSD for your OS on a new rig though, it's just 8 years closer to failing/degrading. Defo worth getting the NVMe as your main drive for a clean W10 install, programs and main games etc... I'd still chuck your 840 Pro in as a storage/games overflow drive though if you want the extra space.

That X570 board has 2x M.2 NVMe slots also, so you can chuck another in at a later point. I just love the fact using just NVMes (i.e. no HDDs or 2.5" SSDs) I don't need SATA cables or SATA power plugged in, keeps cable management so tidy.

You can save another tenner if you want the non-RGB version of the RAM here

 

[Medic-one]

Sounds like a plan then. I'll keep the old SSD for games (together with 2x 2 TB Sata 3 HD I've already got) and then that new NVMe (must admit first time I've seen them, I thought all SSD were still little box sized) for the OS and VR games.

Can you parition those NVMe SSD's like any other HD ? I won't need the whole 1 TB for the OS, so i guess i could create 2 partitions, for one OS and one for games.

 

[Sparx]

Yeah you can partition it like any other drive. Tech has moved on since! M.2 NVMEs are now the new improvement over SSDs now

We even have NVMe Gen4 (uses PCIe 4.0 lanes) drives now, which currently run in the region of 5000Mb read/write. But in the real world, the Gen3 is plenty of speed!

That mobo has 2x M.2 slots where you can quite literally slot NVMe drives in - no cables at all.

 

[Medic-one]

Looking at those 2 Graphic cards you listed, the cheaper GEFORCE GTX 1660 is listed as "VR Ready", whereas that more expensive RX 5700 hasn't got that. Would the 5700 still be better for VR games ?

 

[Sparx]

Yeah the 5700 XT will run VR very well, AMD has a page on it here. Just Nvidia have learnt to market the phrase more with their products.

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/vr-ready-premium

 

[Medic-one]

So I googled that Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon card, and found a link on hotukdeals where it's listed but I'm a little concerned about some of the comments I've read in there :

"These are still a decent rung above a 2060 super for money. Word of warning though, they don't do well in VR at all, if you're keen on that go nvidia (see babeltech's VR benchmarks, the XT drops a lot of frames in Alyx)".

"If you Google the 5700 xt driver problems you may change your mind. I'm after a graphic card myself for my build but all the issues with the 5700 is very off putting."

"My XT still has flickering issues in rome total war 2. I've tried nvidia cards in my rig, zero issues."

"The XT was a good 15-25% behind when all of them when OC'd out of the box. It was significantly slower than the other three, noticeably so in VR and Overwatch. It also had microstutter in assassin's creed."

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/po...xt-red-dragon-8gb-34999-delv-from-ccl-3490162

Though there are also a few comments for that card. Maybe I shouldn't have googled it, bit like googling your symptoms we you get unwell I guess, I always tell my patients off for that