Upgrade Check/Advice

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T22:52:04+0100

So its my sons 16th Birthday and I am looking to do a bit of an upgrade to his PC. Budget is around £500.

He currently has a Ryzen 3 - 2200G. This is where I think his PC is struggling the most. We have recently got him 32Gb RAM and a 2nd hand RTX2080 (free!!). Motherboard is a MSI B450 PRO-VDH. Power supply is a Coolermaster 650w. Only uses it for gaming (from Minecraft to Helldivers). All at 1080p.

I am thinking that a new GFX card is off the cards as its not within budget and the RTX2080 is fine for 1080p.

He has a storage issue as he bounces between 5 or 6 different games, so a 2Tb SSD is 100% required. That is around £100 so with £400 I was thinking:

- Ryzen 5 5600

- Arctic freezer Cooler

- New Mid Tower case rather than my very old and loud Antec

Is there a better option for upgrading. Happy to make savings so I can get him a game or a new Keyboard as well.

Gray2233 · 2025-10-15T23:05:51+0100

The 5600 would be a gigantic uplift over what he has, if the case supports it a £15-20 air cooler from Thermalright would be ample to cool it, but it's really not a hot running chip.

It seems like most of the changes are going to be aesthetic, but I would not overspend to the point it's a detriment to performance.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D2-AM) = £89.99
1 x Montech X3 Mesh Midi-Tower RGB Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CA-003-MO) = £49.99
1 x Gigabyte Aorus 7300 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-GIG-05732) = £119.99
1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99

Total: £289.96 (includes delivery: £0.00)

If you could expend another £100-150 you could rebuild this enough to fit in a 9060XT if you took your 2080 to CeX and sold it for cash, it'd be a better overall build but some parts would need to be reshuffled to fit.

Tetras · 2025-10-15T23:07:16+0100

freak2002 said:
He has a storage issue as he bounces between 5 or 6 different games, so a 2Tb SSD is 100% required. That is around £100 so with £400 I was thinking:

Can it be M.2? I think your board only has 1x M.2 slot.

freak2002 said:
- Arctic freezer Cooler

Which were you thinking? 36?

freak2002 said:
- New Mid Tower case rather than my very old and loud Antec

The new fishbowl style with shiny lights?

Quiet/insulated with no window?

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T23:09:32+0100

Tetras said:
Can it be M.2? I think your board only has 1x M.2 slot.

Which were you thinking? 36?

The new fishbowl style with shiny lights?

Quiet/insulated with no window?

1 x M2 yeah.
36 Correct. Always seen they perform the best!
Its hidden by a desk so doesn't need super RGB or anything!

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T23:13:52+0100

Gray2233 said:
The 5600 would be a gigantic uplift over what he has, if the case supports it a £15-20 air cooler from Thermalright would be ample to cool it, but it's really not a hot running chip.

It seems like most of the changes are going to be aesthetic, but I would not overspend to the point it's a detriment to performance.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D2-AM) = £89.99

1 x Montech X3 Mesh Midi-Tower RGB Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CA-003-MO) = £49.99

1 x Gigabyte Aorus 7300 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-GIG-05732) = £119.99

1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99

Total: £289.96 (includes delivery: £0.00)

If you could expend another £100-150 you could rebuild this enough to fit in a 9060XT if you took your 2080 to CeX and sold it for cash, it'd be a better overall build but some parts would need to be reshuffled to fit.

Thats perfect. Sounds like I am on the right track.

Interesting about the 9060XT. I thought a new Card would be out the question.

If I drop the case from the plan, then I think I may be able to fit it all in.

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T23:15:34+0100

Gray2233 said:
If you could expend another £100-150 you could rebuild this enough to fit in a 9060XT if you took your 2080 to CeX and sold it for cash, it'd be a better overall build but some parts would need to be reshuffled to fit.

Is the 9060XT a big uplift over the 2080? Some sites it only gives around 10% more fps.

Gray2233 · 2025-10-15T23:19:53+0100

freak2002 said:
Is the 9060XT a big uplift over the 2080? Some sites it only gives around 10% more fps.

It can be simply due to VRAM and games played, but it's a lot more than 10% even ignoring that.

Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT Pulse OC 16 GB Review - An Excellent Choice

The Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB sells close to MSRP, yet it features a factory overclock and higher power limit. In our testing, its cooler remained whisper-quiet even at full load. Interestingly, this model uses Samsung memory, whereas all other cards we've tested so far use Hynix.

www.techpowerup.com

While this site doesn't list the 2080 itself, the 3060ti sits between the 2080 and the 2080S in performance. VRAM has become much more important too, running out of it tanks performance, and in some instances upscaling/frame gen matters a lot more to boot (and simply works better if at all on modern cards) and the 2080 is on the ancient side. If your son only plays low power indie games save the cash for a future GPU upgrade, but if he's wanting to try modern titles the 2080 might become frustrating for him.

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T23:22:41+0100

Gray2233 said:
It can be simply due to VRAM and games played, but it's a lot more than 10% even ignoring that.

Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT Pulse OC 16 GB Review - An Excellent Choice

The Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB sells close to MSRP, yet it features a factory overclock and higher power limit. In our testing, its cooler remained whisper-quiet even at full load. Interestingly, this model uses Samsung memory, whereas all other cards we've tested so far use Hynix.

www.techpowerup.com

While this site doesn't list the 2080 itself, the 3060ti sits between the 2080 and the 2080S in performance. VRAM has become much more important too, running out of it tanks performance, and in some instances upscaling/frame gen matters a lot more to boot (and simply works better if at all on modern cards) and the 2080 is on the ancient side now. If your son only plays low power indie games save the cash for a future GPU upgrade, but if he's wanting to try modern titles the 2080 might become frustrating for him.

The 2080 was a boost from the old 1600 super he had. It was free so no complaints.

If I can get £150 for it then that really gives me the funds to go for a 9060XT.

Thanks!!!

Gray2233 · 2025-10-15T23:24:05+0100

freak2002 said:
The 2080 was a boost from the old 1600 super he had. It was free so no complaints.

If I can get £150 for it then that really gives me the funds to go for a 9060XT.

Thanks!!!

It's worth seeing how much you can get for the 2080 if it boosts your budget for sure.

Just hold in mind you might need to alter other bits and bobs to make things fit.

freak2002 · 2025-10-15T23:24:29+0100

Gray2233 said:
It can be simply due to VRAM and games played, but it's a lot more than 10% even ignoring that.

Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT Pulse OC 16 GB Review - An Excellent Choice

The Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB sells close to MSRP, yet it features a factory overclock and higher power limit. In our testing, its cooler remained whisper-quiet even at full load. Interestingly, this model uses Samsung memory, whereas all other cards we've tested so far use Hynix.

www.techpowerup.com

While this site doesn't list the 2080 itself, the 3060ti sits between the 2080 and the 2080S in performance. VRAM has become much more important too, running out of it tanks performance, and in some instances upscaling/frame gen matters a lot more to boot (and simply works better if at all on modern cards) and the 2080 is on the ancient side. If your son only plays low power indie games save the cash for a future GPU upgrade, but if he's wanting to try modern titles the 2080 might become frustrating for him.

Ah, I was looking at the 8Gb, 16gb stacks the price up a bit but I think it may be worth it!

Tetras · 2025-10-15T23:27:24+0100

freak2002 said:
If I can get £150 for it then that really gives me the funds to go for a 9060XT.

It would also get you a card in warranty, which I assume the 2080 isn't. Though, can't beat free.

Gray2233 · 2025-10-15T23:32:25+0100

freak2002 said:
Ah, I was looking at the 8Gb, 16gb stacks the price up a bit but I think it may be worth it!

It is without a doubt worth having more than 8gb in current times even at 1080P if you want to play upcoming or even current games.

Jimbo · 2025-10-16T06:56:24+0100

I would just go second hand for the CPU and ram. The high street chain with 3 letters is good.

tamzzy · 2025-10-16T07:05:52+0100

Which antec case?
If the case is already hidden away, and was one of those high-airflow cases, and you don't need the aesthetics...then all you may simply need is to swap the fans out.

Re: CPU yes a 5600 is the way to go
Re: GPU yes you could in theory spend more to get the 9060xt 16gb but in all honesty as you already said, you can't beat free. I would just stick with the 2080 and if you kid is fine with it, then that's that.