Help with a mid range Gaming Build

[Mulberry Flame]

Hi all,

I thought after 8 years it was finally time to upgrade my previous gaming PC, which I built with the generous advice of everyone here on the forums!
(Core i5 2500K overclocked to 4.2Ghz, 8 GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, MSI Z68A-GD55-G3 Motherboard and an AMD Radeon 5870).

Does anyone think that there are any cost effective upgrade options available for my old system, or at this point is it better just to build a new one?

If its not worth upgrading the old one, rather than scavenge the case and PSU I think I will probably donate it to my fiancé and build a new one from scratch.

For a new mid range gaming PC with an £800-£1000 budget, the consensus currently seems to be Ryzen 5 3600 with 16GB of 3200 MHz Ram and an AMD RX 5700 XT graphics card, so I was thinking of the following components:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £69.95
• 1 x MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £94.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £188.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD= £64.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P350X Glass Digital RGB Midi Tower Case - Black/White= £49.99
• 1 x Corsair TX650M 650W 80 Plus Gold Semi Modular Power Supply (CP-9020132-UK)= £98.99
• 1 x Powercolor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £359.99

Total: £941.09 (includes shipping: £13.20)​

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Does the above list of parts look OK?

• Is it worth spending a little extra and going for a third gen Ryzen 7 instead if I want it to last me?
• Is it worth spending extra on an X570 motherboard to make future upgrades more realistic?
  
• is it worth spending the extra £50 on OCUK's recommended RAM with the better Ram timings https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3200mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08l-tg.html

Thanks!

 

[EsaT]

Phanteks AMP is better 10 year warranty PSU for less.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-amp-650w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-09q-pt.html

If you want to get away longer time in high end gaming without upgrades then Ryzen 3700X is better choise.
All heavier games will be no doubt designed for 8 cores/16 threads of next-gen consoles.
But AM4 has upgrade options, including Zen3 architecture CPUs coming at summer and AMD also actually lowers prices of older models.
That gives cheap upgrade options if you just wait for newer CPUs to come out before buying.

Unless definitely intending to upgrade to 12 (or 16 core) X570 doesn't really give much for the extra cost.
(in case of MSI X570 you don't even get proper CPU VRM but only copypasta from B450)
Maybe after few years PCIe v4 could make some percents of difference to higher end graphics card performance.

Price extra of Samsung B-die memories is far higher than performance advantage.
You could get 3600MHz CL17 kits for very cheap with that memory bus speed helping performance by increasing also speed of CPUs internal InfinityFabric bus.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...dual-channel-kit-pvs416g360c7k-my-104-pa.html
And Crucial Ballistix Sports would very likely overclock to 3600MHz CL16.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cruc...gb-kit-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-udimm-my-20b-cr.html

 

[Noughtboy]

Your basic spec is fine with ESAT's changes.

Just remember to add a couple of case fans like these https://www.overclockers.co.uk/two-...120mm-fan-radiator-performance-bu-002-pt.html

Or if you need less static pressure these ones https://www.overclockers.co.uk/thre...-spectre-plain-black-120mm-fan-bu-054-bx.html

 

[lee32uk]

The EVGA P2 650W is an excellent unit for £99.95. Also has a 10 year warranty.

The Gigabyte Gaming OC is also worth the extra £10 over the Powercolor as you get UK warranty support. If going with Powercolor I would opt for the cheaper Dual version.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EVGA Supernova P2 650W 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply= £99.95
• 1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £369.00

Total: £480.05 (includes shipping: £11.10)​

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