Cheapest upgrades for my ageing system (BF2042, WZ2)

spiki

spiki

spiki

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What's the cheapest I could upgrade my system to be able to play 2042 and WZ2 smoothly? I can play both on med/low settings at present at 1080p and get somewhere between 45-60 fps depending on the map or part of the map. It's just about bearable but it's given me the upgrade itch.

It's been about 5 or 6 years since I've been down the upgrade road so I haven't a clue what to look for these days.

I'd hope to keep some components, as in my sig.

Money is an object, so looking at cheapest/best bang for buck parts.

Thank you for looking.
 
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With a bios flash you could drop in a second hand i7 7700k according to your boards cpu support list. What speed is your memory because from Intel's 7000 series cpu's fast memory gave a decent boost in games (up to 20% extra fps depending on the game). GPU wise you should be able to get a second hand GTX2070 super for around £190-220 but I reckon you would have to upgrade your psu as well for that but I don't think that anything less is a worthwhile upgrade. How much do you want to spend?
 
Thanks PM. I'm not sure of the budget, but possibly between £400-500 max.

Ram speed is at stock: DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
 
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Should you decide to drop a 7700k in your current motherboard I would be replacing that memory with a 3200mhz kit, 2400mhz is too slow. However, there are some cracking deals on AM4 platforms at the moment and in my opinion would be money better spent as something like a 5600X in a B550 motherboard with a decent memory kit would be a substantial increase in performance over your 6600k.

Something like this would be good:-

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £400.43 (Includes shipping: £10.50)​



​


You could then sell your current mobo/cpu/memory and put the money towards a replacement gpu.
 
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If you have a CPU bottleneck, you could try overclocking the memory. If I recall, even the older DDR4 kits usually clocked pretty well (3000+), if given proper voltage.

Anything around a 3060 Ti would be a big jump from a 1060. RX 6600 is between a 1080 and 1080 Ti, so it is decent, but personally I'd be aiming for a 6700 non-XT (330) or FE 3060 Ti (370).

Z170 boards can be modded to fit 8th/9th gen CPUs (Asus is one of the more common).
 
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spiki said:
What's the cheapest I could upgrade my system to be able to play 2042 and WZ2 smoothly? I can play both on med/low settings at present at 1080p and get somewhere between 45-60 fps depending on the map or part of the map. It's just about bearable but it's given me the upgrade itch.

It's been about 5 or 6 years since I've been down the upgrade road so I haven't a clue what to look for these days.

I'd hope to keep some components, as in my sig.

Money is an object, so looking at cheapest/best bang for buck parts.

Thank you for looking.
Click to expand...
If you're looking to upgrade your system to be able to play 2042 and WZ2 smoothly, the cheapest option would be to upgrade your graphics card. A mid-range card such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT would be a good choice. These cards should be able to handle both games at 1080p with high settings and get you a smooth 60+ FPS. You may also want to consider upgrading your CPU to a more powerful model, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10600K, as this will help with overall performance.
 
Thanks for the advice, White_Widow. I'm going to leave it to the new year. Both games play reasonably well, esp. if I avoid 128-player servers on BF. I think that's too many for many of the game modes anyway, so don't feel I'm missing too much. WZ2 seems to have some issues for players even with more powerful machines, with stuttering, so it may be in-engine.
 
That upgrade itch needs a scatch!

I've been looking in more detail and have a few questions:

Is there much difference between these two boards and is one superior to the other? I have selected the ASUS as I am familiar with the brand, haven't had any issues with my current board and have a reasonable knowledge of the BIOS.

www.overclockers.co.uk

MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard

Order MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

or

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Is there a popular ASUS board in the same price range as the MSI B550 above?

Also, if I went for the Ryzen 5600X could I use my current cooler?

Finally, will there be any issues with nVidia card and an AMD processor? If I were to upgrade the gfx card, should I go for an AMD or does it not matter. Is my PSU enough for more recent GPUs?
 
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I have to admit that after owning several Asus boards over the past couple of decades that they do have the best bios layout by far. Saying that, my current MSI board's bios isn't bad and is much better than the awful Gigabyte before it. The problem with Asus is the premium they want these days especially on so called "gaming" and the ROG series boards most of which aren't remotely a enthusiast board which used to be the only boards labelled ROG. If you prefer Asus then snap that one up while it is on offer.

You will need to check your coolers box to see if it has AM4 fittings in it.
 
Thanks for the advice PM. According to the specs it should fit but I need an upgrade kit. : https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/cpu-air-coolers/hyper-212-evo/

Although I checked the box and I do have 2 additional brackets, screws etc. I might be better off just buying something new.

Here's my latest proposed purchases. Not sure if I should stretch my budget to the 5700x. The plan is to upgrade cpu/mb/ram now, then look to change the GPU and the PSU if necessary (which seems likely from all the research I have been doing this week):

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail

Order AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

www.overclockers.co.uk

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMK16GX4M2D3600C16)

Order Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMK16GX4M2D3600C16) now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

www.overclockers.co.uk

Cooler Master Hyper H412R CPU Cooler - 92mm

Order Cooler Master Hyper H412R CPU Cooler - 92mm now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
 
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The clearance section is always worth checking for heatsinks as you can often pick up a bargain and end up with a much better cooler than you otherwise would have. There is a BeQuiet Shadow Rock 3 in there for £34.99 saving a tenner over brand new. It can cool up to 190w tdp and has a quiet 120mm fan so if it fit's in your case (it's 163mm tall) that would be my choice unless you want to spend a little extra for the excellent Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE 120 at just under £40 or just under £44 for the ARGB version (OCUK really needs to stock these). Nothing wrong with your other choices but one thing I would say is if you are going to buy them remember that offers usually run from Wednesday to Wednesday and get replaced around lunchtime so if you want them snap them up before then.
 
Cheers PM. Your advice and insight is invaluable.

I was using another website earlier to spec my system with these new parts and a couple of issues popped up.

The most concerning was this:

'The Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard has an additional 4-pin ATX power connector but the Super Flower Leadex III Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply does not have any available. This connector is used to supply additional current. While the system will likely still run without it, higher current demands or extreme overclocking may require it.'

Any suggestions on how I get around that or would you advise a reasonably priced alternative?

I also added in a RX6700 just to get an idea of power draw and it is estimated for the entire system based on the 5600X, of around 439W. Is that likely to cause system instability?

Another question! Does that ROG Strix board support USB front ports? If not, are there any other ASUS boards you would recommend?

Thanks again for all your help.
 
You do not need the extra 4 pin connector. That is there if you want to do extreme overclocking and is not necessary for a 65w cpu like the 5600x. This gets asked all the time.
 
Thanks Haz123. I haven't much of a clue about this sort of technical stuff. I've only done two self-builds before and it's been such a long time, it's a steep learning curve!
 
About the front ports.

Front USB Port (Total 6)
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port(s) (2 x Type-A)
4 x USB 2.0 port(s)(4 x Type-A)

Only connectors for Type A , none for type C.
 
spiki said:
I also added in a RX6700 just to get an idea of power draw and it is estimated for the entire system based on the 5600X, of around 439W. Is that likely to cause system instability?
Click to expand...

5600X is under 100 watts and 6700 non-XT is under 200 (usually more like 150, excluding spikes). If I was buying new, I'd probably go for a 750 PSU with a midrange build, but a decent 550 should handle something like a 3060, 6600 or 6700.
 
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