Small or large upgrade?

[Razargh]

Hello all,

My pc is getting on a bit now the specs are in my signature. I am looking to upgrade to a new PC as mine now struggles with most new titles. I pretty much do a little bit of everything in terms of workload but nothing seriously heavy at the moment.

I am really stuck on what to choose to be honest or if i should wait a little longer for the AMD refresh before i decide. I am uncertain about staying on DDR4 although I don't think it will matter too much for the near future but i think it may become an issue once DDR5 is utilized and more optimized over the next few years.

I would prefer to go AMD and originally was eyeing the 5800X but due to Intels new release the 12600/700K becomes more compelling.

I am wondering if its worth just buying a cheap mobo, cpu, memory etc now and just re-purposing my old case as it is still okay to use. To then maybe do a full system upgrade including a GPU in 2-3 years time.

or should I spend more money now on the same said items to have a fresh build and just update the gpu later.

Budget ideally max would be about £1000 (this would include CPU, MOBO, RAM, SSD, CASE, COOLER) will be using PSU, GPU, Soundcard, WIFI from old machine.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 215 Midi-Tower ARGB, Tempered Glass Black= £79.99
• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - OEM= £244.99
• 1 x MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WIFI DDR4 - Intel Z690 DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £259.99
• 2 x Crucial Ballistix RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £74.99
• 1 x WD Black SN850 500GB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS500G1X0E)= £59.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AIO 240 D-RGB All In One CPU Water Cooler - 240mm= £92.99

Total: £887.93 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Usecase: Gaming, Music Production, Light Photoshop/Video Editing & Coding is the workload. I also stream from time to time.

 

[dfour]

whats your main use for the PC?

If its just gamihng then the 5600x is good enough for even the newest games.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £69.95
• 1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £129.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £269.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99
• 1 x Lian-Li Lancool II Mesh RGB Midi-Tower Case - Black= £96.95
• 1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £68.99
• 1 x MSI MPG A750GF UK PSU 750W, 80 Plus Gold certified, Fully Modular= £84.95

Total: £765.47 (includes shipping: £14.70)​

​

You coudl reuse your corsair H100 with an AM4 bracket (i would guess).

 

[dfour]

Micro-ATX with no rgb

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £69.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £269.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99
• 1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £68.99
• 1 x MSI MPG A750GF UK PSU 750W, 80 Plus Gold certified, Fully Modular= £84.95
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Mesh Micro-ATX Case - Black= £44.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B550M Bazooka (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £119.99

Total: £700.55 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

 

[Razargh]

Thanks for your replies. I forgot to add I dont need a PSU. I will be re-using the SuperFlower Leadex I have.

I have updated the original post with my original build plan if I went all out.

 

[JollyJamma]

Thanks for your replies. I forgot to add I dont need a PSU. I will be re-using the SuperFlower Leadex I have.

I have updated the original post with my original build plan if I went all out.

Either AMD or Intel would be great for your use case.

the 5800X is a bargain right now and it really depends on what you want to achieve.

A 12600K would be my go to for most scenarios including video editing and/or gaming.

what I’m saying is, go for either one. There’s no bad option.

 

[Razargh]

I pulled the trigger on the 12600K. Thanks for you help.

 

[JollyJamma]

I pulled the trigger on the 12600K. Thanks for you help.

Which motherboard did you get?

I just saw Buildzoid inbox his Z690 Apex and it’s amazing. It should be though at £590

 

[Craig_d1]

going ddr5 not worth it..one, out of stock so people paying scalpers now to get them, 2 when are in stock, more than double ddr4 for similar performance at the mo..couple that ddr5 mobo are bit more expensive, in 2/3 years when mainstream ram is ddr5, the money you save now will more than offset upgrading your mobo, and ddr5 in the future will be a lot better also, so you'll be upgrading that too.
I'd go 1tb nvme drive..from what i remember reading awhile back the larger drives have better read/write performance and ..i may be getting muddled on that so need to check...
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13760/the-western-digital-wd-black-sn750-ssd-review small diff in case of SN750, don't know if that actually means anything real world

 

[Craig_d1]

If you hadn't got mobo yet, you get £60 rebate if you buy an intel 12600k with proof of receipt..OCuk not the best for pointing these things out, even though they are included in the promotion

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WIFI D4 - Intel Z690 DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £279.95

Total: £290.45 (includes shipping: £10.50)
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[Razargh]

Ahh shoot! thanks for the information guys I actually went with the MSI board in the end. I was on going to choose the TUF but I'm not a big fan of Asus due to poor experiences in the past. Also wanted to skip Gigabyte as they seem to be skimping a lot these days. Heard good things about the MSI board though.

On the Storage front, I barely use anything I also have a 700GB Sata SSD. I was going to get the SN850 1Tb but £60 for the 500GB is all i will realistically need for a while. I can always grab more later if needed.