Can her rig take my old parts or should I go new?

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 08:24

I built a new PC for myself a year ago and have the itch again for new.

I have an unusual challenge now though, my girlfriend who games with me side by side, has reported slower and slower performance in games and I need to decide if I should either give her my 1 year old rig and build again or upgrade key components from my rig and hand her down my old parts, which should still boost her.

I have the funds to do either but it makes no sense to spend more if she can take my parts. But if she can’t, then it will dictate what I do next.

Please can I have some advice on some key questions I have, as well as any overall recommendations you have? Thank you

——————
MY RIG
Ryzen 7 2700 8-core
16GB (2x8) DDR3 RAM (1066mhz)
MS-7B89 Motherboard
8GB Radeon RX Vega 580 Red Dragon GPU

HER RIG
FX-4300 4-Core
8GB (1x8) DDR3 RAM (803mhz)
970A-SS3P Motherboard
2GB Radeon R7 370 GPU

1.) Is her mobo capable of taking my Ryzen 7? And if not, what are my options for a good CPU upgrade for her board?
2.) Is her mobo capable of taking my ram?
3.) Will her mobo support my GPU?

What will swing it is less about the cost of building a new rig vs an upgrade for me, but more if I can adequately upgrade hers with my parts. If I can’t, because her mobo isn’t new enough to take them, it may drive my decision as to give her my old rig complete and start from scratch.

I bow to your infinite wisdom, I have no doubt you will have the answers I seek

StarShock · 2 Oct 2019 at 08:40

1. No. Could get a 2nd hand fx6350 for around £30, but its still not great. It would give more consistent frame rates with its extra cores. But still kind of slow and ******
2. No, you've listed yours as DDR3, but its DDR4 as both your motherboard and CPU don't support DDR3

3. technically yes, but would likely be pretty badly bottle necked by the CPU, even with an upgrade to a faster FX chip.

As it looks like the only thing you're planning on keeping of your core rig is the motherboard, and the mortar is a relatively cheap board. I would just move your whole lot over and just add another motherboard to your upgrade.

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 08:48

In that regard it isn’t that much cost to just add a case and psu as well, and give her my complete unit. Saves me building anything more than I need to and trying to mess about with her old rig.

If there was a transition I could manage that made sense, then I’d do it.

This is helpful.

Guess I’m up for some component shopping. Had my eye on an RX 5700, and Ryzen 7 3700x.

Are these upgrades worthwhile for the dough? Are there any (amd) options that are good bang for buck in the range of what I am looking to spend?

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:02

Is this an effective build based on what I am looking for?

Happy to consider alternatives, or any value for money modifications from the build

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £338.99
1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £349.99
1 x CoolerMaster MasterBox Q300L Micro-ATX Case - Black Window= £44.99
1 x ASUS PRIME B450M-A (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £74.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B32= £82.99
1 x Kolink Enclave 700W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £74.99
1 x TeamGroup 1TB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £98.99

Total: £1,079.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)

orbitalwalsh · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:04

If your wanting cheap, go ryzen 2600+ b450 for her and wait till Navi 5500 XT comes very soon for yourself

Blower card will do your head in, cAse is aweful for airflow

Getting bios to work on that mobo would require you to use your current CPU to update bios

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:08

orbitalwalsh said:
If your wanting cheap, go ryzen 2600+ b450 for her and wait till Navi 5500 XT comes very soon for yourself

Blower card will do your head in, cAse is aweful for airflow

Getting bios to work on that mobo would require you to use your current CPU to update bios

Not concerned with spending money, more concerned with going too enthusiast than I have to. I’m not the guy that needs a 1,000£ GPU but then I’m also not keen on entry level either. Happy to spend £300-400 on a GPU and same for a CPU, happy to get gold PSU and a mobo that can cater for it, don’t need blazing fast ram but spending 50-100 on ram is fine. Case doesn’t need to be top end, £50 for a simple mAtx box is fine, don’t care if it is pretty

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:10

Not married to a specific case, something good for airflow that isn’t terribly expensive and the right FF. will get any relevant fans for it too... Case is always an after thought and the one I have in the build above runs fairly quiet as it’s what I have right now.

No plans to overclock, run at stock most of the time and although I might look at it, unless there is a significant improvement or reason to do so, usually not needed and doesn’t run too hot.

Open to recommendations

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:23

One last thing to add, my intention is to run this with a 1440 144hz MSI screen. So, getting the best FPS at these levels is my target.
I get good FPS but it doesn't always take full advantage of the high refresh rate of the monitor and hoping this could be better for me

Quartz · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:26

Vadersoul said:
In that regard it isn’t that much cost to just add a case and psu as well, and give her my complete unit.

Just make sure you give her a clean SSD / HDD! And go the extra mile and get a case for it that she likes and transplant your system into it.

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:36

Quartz said:
Just make sure you give her a clean SSD / HDD! And go the extra mile and get a case for it that she likes and transplant your system into it.

Sounds like a lot of work...

Just thinking of giving her my whole system and start from scratch.
Doesn't make sense to try and move it into her case, after all I am only saving myself on a few components and she is getting a much better upgrade overall.

Sure, there is something to be said about not spending £1K on a system one year and then giving that to your partner and spending another £1K on a system the next year but happy to spend the money. Just want to make sure I am getting value for money.
Unless I am missing something, an upgrade for her / me doesn't make sense based on how far she can take her current system.
Makes more sense to pass my old one on and get a new one, right?

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:40

I will move this post into the new build section, makes more sense. Thanks.

Quartz · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:41

Vadersoul said:
Sounds like a lot of work...

It's showing you care.

Just thinking of giving her my whole system and start from scratch.

Do you really want her seeing what's hidden in the dark corners of your HDD?

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 09:42

Quartz said:
It's showing you care.

Do you really want her seeing what's hidden in the dark corners of your HDD?

Reformating before was automatic lol...

Quartz · 2 Oct 2019 at 10:00

Actually, you might just get away with tranplanting her SSD from her old PC into your one.

Vadersoul · 2 Oct 2019 at 10:09

Quartz said:
Actually, you might just get away with tranplanting her SSD from her old PC into your one.

She is running on an HDD

She needs a good reformat anyway, so makes sense to use my external drive to store files, wipe them both down and redo the windows on them