6 yrs old and counting-is it time to build a new one?

HelloBear

HelloBear

HelloBear

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18 Jan 2020
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Hi all,

My friend built herself a gaming PC in 2013 then moved abroad and I bought it off her (my preface to saying I have no experience of shopping for, or building a gaming rig).

It's served me well and to be honest, continues to do so now but it is getting old. I was wondering if it was worth upgrading any parts of it, or whether everything but the drives, case and power supply need upgrading:

Processor:
Intel Core 3820 3.60GHz @ 4.40GHz CPU

Motherboard:
MSI X79A-GD65 Intel X79

Cooler:
Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler

RAM:
Kingston HyperX Genesis Blu 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel

Graphics Card:
Sapphire HD 7970 OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-E

PSU:
OCZ ZX Series 850W "80 Plus Gold" Modular Power Supply

Drives:
Corsair Force 3 120GB SATA 6Gbs SSD
4TB Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM004 SATA 6Gbs 256MB Cache 5400rpm HDD (added last year)

Case:
NZXT Phantom Black Orange Stripe M/B Tray Full Tower Case

I think I done goofed by getting such a slow HDD- as the SSD is so small, only my OS is on there, whilst the HDD is partitioned, with one partition containing all games. I do get some slower load times on newer larger games (e.g. Total War Warhammer 2).

My MOBA and FPS days are behind me, I mostly want to play newer RPG and strategy games as beautifully and seamlessly as I can and for now I can cope with running things on slightly lower settings.

When I do upgrade, it would be nice for the next of components to last me as long as these have.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions. Have a great weekend, all.
 
Hello
If you could post a budget (How much you are willing to spend) then myself & others here can give you an idea of what parts to buy. If you are willing to build it yourself you could save some money
If it was me & didn't have a lot of money then I'd keep the case, the PSU (old but well reviewed) & the Seagate HDD because its still relatively new in comparison to your other old pc parts.

In the meantime I've put together a list of parts for around the £500 mark:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £558.05 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​

With this lot, you can Upgrade the CPU to more cores & a newer CPU when they are released, better GPU without bottlenecking the system & play most games at 1080p resolution at decent settings.
 
If you are not looking to spend too much. A simple upgrade would be just too buy another SSD, which your could use for games.

After that, upgrading your Ram and the gpu would keep your current setup chugging along and capable of playing current games.

Personally I would hold off on fully replacing the system.
 
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions

Grimley said:
Hello
If you could post a budget (How much you are willing to spend) then myself & others here can give you an idea of what parts to buy. If you are willing to build it yourself you could save some money
If it was me & didn't have a lot of money then I'd keep the case, the PSU (old but well reviewed) & the Seagate HDD because its still relatively new in comparison to your other old pc parts.
Click to expand...

In terms of budget for these components I was thinking around £800 but happy to spend a little less :)

JediFragger said:
If you don't play the latest and greatest I'd be tempted to make it last you another year or 2 then buy a fresh one :)
Click to expand...

And I am quite happy to save that £800 for another two years....which does make my question a little obsolete as I imagine things will have changed in 2 years.


EdwardTeach said:
If you are not looking to spend too much. A simple upgrade would be just too buy another SSD, which your could use for games.
Click to expand...

But in the meantime, maybe I could get a 2TB SSD for that?
 
JediFragger said:
I'd def splurge in a year or two and you'll get another good 5/6 years+ out of it!!
Click to expand...

Brilliant...I am going to continue lurking here for 24 months and then I'll post a clone of this question to see if those of you who understand what combos work well together can advise me again then!

Re an extra SSD, does it matter so much what I go for? Or just whatever gives me the space?
 
A 1 TB SSD will cost you under £100. Then spend as much as you care on as good a GPU as you want. The GTX 1660 Super and RX 5700 XT are both good cards.
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone, I really appreciate everyone's time. I'm going to add an SSD now and in about 2 years have a splurge. Looking at SSDs:


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £498.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)
​


Is there much in it? My uneducated brain says the WD is cheaper and usually more expensive so go for that one? I'd like to go for a PCIe SSD but I am unsure if my older motherboard will be compatible.

If they are, I was looking between these:


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £528.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)
​
 
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