Is a £600 upgrade possible?

Steve09 · Saturday at 11:50

Hi,

I made a post around 7 months ago asking about an upgrade for an i5 6600K/GTX970/16GB DDR4 RAM, with a budget of £1500. That didn't go ahead and things have changed, so was wondering if a £600 budget would allow me to replace those parts as well as getting a 1TB M.2? I'd like to play games such as Delta Force, Battlefield 2042, Helldivers 2, Hell Let Loose, Six Days in Fallujah, Ready or Not etc which run on my current system, but are unenjoyable to play. If it's possible, I'd like to get 2-3 years out of the new parts, which will be running on my 750w Superflower PSU and 24" Dell U2412M (1920x1200) monitor. I'm not bothered about max settings etc, as long as I could enjoy the games at a smooth framerate with some sort of decent settings, I'd be happy.

Thanks for any help!

Gray2233 · Saturday at 12:04

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B580 TITAN OC 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03779) = £259.99
1 x WD Black SN770 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58F-WD) = £62.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99
1 x Gigabyte B650M D3HP AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-03566) = £104.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO/XMP 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-00996) = £82.99

Total: £690.95 (includes delivery: £0.00)

The 7600 is a placeholder, you can get the Ryzen 7500F for around the £100 mark, but it does require you to import.

AM4 is easily doable but it means you're stuck on a last gen platform, AM5 at least will offer you an upgrade path.

There's technically quicker GPU's for the price (the 4060 for example), but they're also running on 8gb of VRAM which could easily become a limiting factor given you're looking for 2-3 years of use.

You might be better off adding the NvME down the line as it's an easy drop in upgrade.

You might have some luck if you're willing to go second hand, you should have access to the members market? Pop in a request for a mobo/cpu/ram bundle and a GPU and try your luck.

GreatAuk · Saturday at 12:28

It means making some compromises on components, but you can just about get a ryzen 7600, 32gb of RAM, a 1TB drive and an rx7600 (or an rtx 4060 for slightly more money), which will be a significant upgrade over your current system.
My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02786) = £89.99
1 x Gigabyte B650M D3HP AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-03566) = £104.98
1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £50.00
1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-02Y-AM) = £229.99

Total: £654.95 (includes delivery: £0.00)

hornetstinger · Saturday at 12:30

CPU/memory/board/SSD yeah doable for £600.

But once you add a GPU? GPU prices are a bit nuts now unless you go for lower end/ intel 580.

yeah agree with compromise bit, once you add a GPU, but without it you'd get a decent base system upgrade if you can reuse as many parts from old rig, ie psu, case, HD, or even heatsink fan (ie I used my noctua from intel 1366 to am5 so that saved £100 for new equal noctua, or less from thermelright etc)

BogEyes · Saturday at 20:23

With your post count you should have members market access, I'd consider a 2nd hand AM4 build with that budget.

mickyflinn · Saturday at 21:24

BogEyes said:
With your post count you should have members market access, I'd consider a 2nd hand AM4 build with that budget.

Probably not enough posts , 15 posts in areas outside MM over a 90 day rolling period to keep alive.

Threepwood · Sunday at 01:18

GreatAuk said:
ryzen 7600

out of stock/preorder almost, but not quite everywhere though!

Steve09 · Sunday at 11:47

Thank you for the replies, some good ideas, I hadn't even considered an Intel GPU. Yeah, I don't have enough posts over the rolling period for MM access at the moment, but for me, I'd prefer new rather than used parts. I'll have a think over things but looks like if I do go for it, it'll be nearer £700 rather than £600. Thanks again!

Gray2233 · Sunday at 13:04

Steve09 said:
Thank you for the replies, some good ideas, I hadn't even considered an Intel GPU. Yeah, I don't have enough posts over the rolling period for MM access at the moment, but for me, I'd prefer new rather than used parts. I'll have a think over things but looks like if I do go for it, it'll be nearer £700 rather than £600. Thanks again!

Intel are a surprisingly good option right now with their new 580's tbh, the 12gb of vram in that performance/price bracket is a solid choice. But given what you're coming from you'll see huge uplift with almost anything, I do know a lot of people struggling with 8gb of vram even on AMd 6600's at 1080p however, I had similar issues on a Nvidia 3060ti.