Gaming PC Upgrade Help

[Wpod]

Hi guys,

Finally have both some money and time to upgrade! Will refit old components into a 2nd PC for friend. I put together the below specs in 2017.

My graphics card is on it's last legs so that will be need replacing (thinking rtx 4070)
I have no idea if anything else needs replacing along with that so I really need some help. I imagine motherboard + cpu, PSU, might be due an upgrade along with gpu (but honestly have no idea lol)
I don't want to go too crazy on budget, let's say max £1200 . Mostly used for watching videos / daily gaming, but I'm pretty interested in getting into some AI functionality too


Intel Core i5-7600K 3.80GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail
Asus Radeon RX 580
Team Group Night Hawk LED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Blue Light
Asus Prime Z270-P Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Motherboard

Cougar GX-S 550W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
EK Water Blocks EK-Cable Y-Splitter 2-Fan PWM (10cm)

Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST2000DM006)
Samsung 980 1 TB PCIe 3.0 (up to 3.500 MB/s) NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8V1T0BW)

Kolink Aviator Midi Tower Gaming Case - Blue
AOC G2460PF - 24 Inch FHD Gaming Monitor, 144Hz, 1ms, TN, FreeSync premium, USB Hub, Height Adjust 1920x1080 @ 144hz, 350 cd/m²

 

[gjbf1]

What resolution do you game at? What are your feelings towards upscaling and ray tracing?

A 6950XT could be another option but you'd need a new PSU. Which wouldn't hurt with a 4070 either tbh but you might get away with it on that card.

The CPU might bottleneck a but depending on Res. But you'd have to change socket, mobo etc. so you'll end up having a much more expensive rebuild as opposed to an easy upgrade.

 

[dfour]

You case can only house a 3700 mm long vga card so that is omething to watch out for.
The cpu is only 4 core and 4 threads so is going to be an issue in many newer games so a complete setup is probably the best bet.
Your monitor is 1080p so a good cpu will make a lot of difference although less if you plan to upgrade to 1440 or 4K.

amd and nvidia build.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £569.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5 Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £99.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £218.98
• 1 x AMD - Starfield Ryzen Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-00523) = £0.00
• 1 x Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BF-GI) = £189.95
• 1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C32 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29P-KS) = £128.99

Total: £1,207.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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You can use your old hyper 212 with an upgrade kit from coolermaster (should be about a fiver) or push your budget and buy an awesome peerless assassin (it will fit in your case).
You can also sell the free game for about £45 if you dont plan to play starfield.

Peerless Assassin – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

 

[dfour]

Intel and nvidia
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-13600K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AV-IN) = £299.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B760-Plus WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K8-AS) = £166.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5 Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £99.95
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £569.99

Total: £1,136.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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Again you will need an upgade kit for your gpu.
The psu can be bought from other outlets and have it instock.
Use your old memory to save money or spend another £40 for new 16gb 3600 mhz ram or £80 for 32 gig ram.

You could save £70 with a cpu with less cores

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-13400 (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BC-IN) = £229.99

Total: £229.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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With the monny saved you could upgrade the case as well.​

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My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Single Fan Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0CA-PT) = £54.95

Total: £54.95 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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[Tetras]

Not sure how much you're able to re-use, since you said you're donating the old components for a friend?

This is a build that assumes nothing (except for OS):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £155.00
• 1 x Gigabyte B660 DS3H AX - Intel B660 DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5AN-GI) = £124.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMK32GX4M2D3600C18) (SKU: MY-4D1-CS) = £79.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WindForce OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1G2-GI) = £619.99
• 2 x WD Blue SN570 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3B0C) (SKU: HD-589-WD) = £43.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0C0-PT) = £64.99
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-650 650W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06V-SS) = £94.99

Total: £1,239.92 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Use of stock cooler assumed.

This build is for re-use of case, PSU and SSDs:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 DS3H DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BX-GI) = £144.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMK32GX4M2D3600C18) (SKU: MY-4D1-CS) = £79.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WindForce OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1G2-GI) = £619.99

Total: £1,212.95 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

It does come with a cooler, but I don't think I'd recommend it for an i7, so I'd suggest this instead (under £50).

 

[Wpod]

Thanks guys, very helpful These build ideas are really useful, appreciate everyone's posts!


To answer some q's ..

I can re-use as much as I want but I can see I do need to change over a lot of components
1080p resolution is fine, I don't plan to push to 4k, ray tracing / upscaling aren't too high up there for me
A stable 1080 60fps or even up to 120FPS that the monitor supports would be great, tend to favour perfect performance over shiny graphics (but if you can have both..)

Case I'd really want to stay, love the design of it (unless any of you have another awesome black/blue case you'd recommend)

CPU I'm seeing is the other thing that definitely needs upgrading to 13th gen - is it worth the price grab an i7 over an i5?
Seeing a new motherboard in every build - can someone pretend I'm an 8 year old and explain exactly why I need a new one? lol
Is there too much difference between 16gb v 32gb ram? I do tend to be doing a lot at once on PC and have dual monitors, so I can see the appeal and then could reuse old RAM in another build

 

[Wpod]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £569.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £119.98
• 1 x Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BF-GI) = £189.95

Total: £1,247.90 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Bit of a push here but DDR5 and i7 included. I expect to re-use PSU and case. Any thoughts, is this overkill / is it worth pushing the graphic card up a little more with this setup?

 

[gjbf1]

FYI the Gigabyte B650 Gaming X is out of stock no ETA.

 

[Tetras]

Seeing a new motherboard in every build - can someone pretend I'm an 8 year old and explain exactly why I need a new one? lol

big cpu no fit in small socket

CPU I'm seeing is the other thing that definitely needs upgrading to 13th gen - is it worth the price grab an i7 over an i5?

If you're getting a 4070 then the 12th gen i5 (13th gen i5 is technically 12th gen too, except for the 13600K) is fine, especially if you're happy with 1080p/60.

If you want the system to take another graphics upgrade (say, in 2-3 years time) then I'd get a proper 13th gen CPU (13600K and up). You don't 'need' the i7, but an 8 P-Core raptor CPU is going to last you awhile.

Bit of a push here but DDR5 and i7 included. I expect to re-use PSU and case. Any thoughts, is this overkill / is it worth pushing the graphic card up a little more with this setup?

Motherboard is incompatible with your CPU. Intel 13th gen needs B760 or Z790 (though you can also update BIOS on B660 or Z690, but only if they have flashback).

According to OCUK the Palit only has a 2 year warranty, just a heads up.

 

[dfour]

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £569.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £119.98
• 1 x Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BF-GI) = £189.95

Total: £1,247.90 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Bit of a push here but DDR5 and i7 included. I expect to re-use PSU and case. Any thoughts, is this overkill / is it worth pushing the graphic card up a little more with this setup?

This wont work as your psu is not good enough to power all that.
Also the chip is an intel and the motherboard is AMD so wont work at all. You would need one of these (the gigabyte is in stock elsewhere)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus Prime Z790-P WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JR-AS) = £220.00
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BU-GI) = £199.99

Total: £419.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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As tetras said you dont need a i7 for just gaming a 12600 or 13600k wil be fine.

5800X3D build.
Still a stonking chip to use especially for 1080p gaming (yes i know its a dead platform but it doesnt look like the OP upgrades to often)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Cache Eight Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D0-AM) = £319.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-593-GI) = £139.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4CL-CS) = £80.00
• 1 x MSI MAG A850GL 850W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-012-MS) = £119.98
• 1 x Asrock Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-00B-AK) = £500.00
• 1 x AMD - Starfield Radeon Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-00542) = £0.00
• 1 x Jonsbo CR-2000 GT Dual Fan ARGB 120mm CPU Cooler - Black (SKU: HS-005-JB) = £34.99

Total: £1,194.95 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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The jonsbo cooler seems decent for the money although the peerless assassin is about the same money and a proven beast cooler for the only a few pounds more.

Peerless Assassin – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

 

[Wpod]

Oh man I can't believe I just did that.. it's been far too long

Tending towards this NVIDIA build, might go for the i7 anyway just to future proof a bit further. You hit the nail on the head, I don't want to have to upgrade for a while again haha

If we were to increase budget up to 1400-1500, is there anything significant that I could get with this setup (particularly gpu)
Is the DDR5 6000mz worth it? (I do tend to have a lot running whilst gaming) + would like to explore streaming, recording, AI stuff
I have a feeling a new PSU is needed with this setup judging by some responses. How do I actually know what kind of PSU I need (again.. pretend I'm an 8 year old lol)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-071-PL) = £569.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £119.98
• 1 x Asus Prime Z790-P WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6JR-AS) = £220.00

Total: £1,277.95 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

(+ peerless assassin.. have only heard amazing things about it so far)


Thanks for all the responses again. Has been Really REALLY helpful when coming back to this stuff

 

[Tetras]

If we were to increase budget up to 1400-1500, is there anything significant that I could get with this setup (particularly gpu)

I would change my build to the following:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 DS3H DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BX-GI) = £144.98
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMK32GX4M2D3600C18) (SKU: MY-4D1-CS) = £79.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse 20GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-3A7-SP) = £800.00
• 1 x AMD - Starfield Radeon Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-00542) = £0.00
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-14R-BQ) = £124.99

Total: £1,517.94 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

But, you'd need to check if you need or benefit from having nvidia if you're doing AI work (especially CUDA) and potential quality/time differences for your streaming and recording.

I'm not comfortable paying £800 for a 12GB card (4070 Ti), but I guess if needs must...

Is the DDR5 6000mz worth it? (I do tend to have a lot running whilst gaming) + would like to explore streaming, recording, AI stuff

You don't need it, but (@ OCUK prices) we're talking around £90 for the 'cheap' stuff (4800, 5200) and £100 - £120 for 5600 C36 to 6000 C36, so for the whole build together it is small beans. There's a video about memory scaling here, but keep in mind that if you don't have a 4090 and play at a higher resolution than 1080p, the results would show less difference.

I have a feeling a new PSU is needed with this setup judging by some responses. How do I actually know what kind of PSU I need (again.. pretend I'm an 8 year old lol)

RTX 4070 or RX 6800 uses around 200 watts when gaming (see here), but you want to cope with spikes up to 400 or so (see here). ATX 3.0 PSUs claim they are designed for this, but whether they actually are, I don't know.

The 13700K can use as much as 300 watts under full multi-threaded load (see here), but I haven't seen a review of the 13700F and it should have lower power limits and lower peak clocks (this is normal, being a non-K CPU). If you want to get this down, I'd suggest a build around the 7800X3D, or alternatively the 7700 or 7900 non-X (which both include coolers that you can actually use). Power consumption for 7700 and 7900 can be found here and in this review.

Most cards use 8 pin PCI-E connectors, the 4070, 6800 and 7900 XT all do (4070 FE excluded) and you're recommended to have each connector on a separate cable. The 4070 Ti and up (only nvidia, AMD don't) will use a 12/16 pin connector, which is usually described as PCIE5 on the PSU. You can also buy a 12/16 pin adapter, which uses 8 pins, OR a 'native' connector for a brand-specific PSU that you can plug directly into it (like the cable actually came with the PSU from new).

For a midrange build (i5 and 4070/6800), then I'd suggest you buy at least 750, but if you're thinking of going higher-end, with an i7 and 4070 Ti/7900 XT, then at least 850.

One thing to watch with PCI5 PSUs is that they tend to assume you're going to use the 12/16 pin, so if your motherboard needs 2x 8 pin EPS12v (or 1x 8-pin and 1x 4-pin) then you can have problems getting enough PCI-E 8 pins out of the PSU, especially with a 3x PCIE 8-pin card like the 7900 XT Nitro.

 

[mattyfez]

I've seen my 6800xt pull 260watts in cyberpunk, 165hz, uncapped frames, so I would say a 750w PSU is minimum.

Agree, with an i7, go 850w.