• Notice regarding image hosts and attachments. See here.

PC Upgrade Advice

Dantr01

Dantr01

Dantr01

Associate
Joined
24 May 2025
Posts
14
Location
UK
Hey,
I have a budget of around £1000 to upgrade my PC.
PC is used for most modern games (does not have to be for max graphics settings, high-very high is good enough), 1440p, 100fps while using other screen for watching YouTube or Twitch at same time.

I currently have and will keep:
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 9060 XT Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W ATX 3.1 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
Team Group MP33 PRO 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive
Kolink Punisher Midi-Tower (CPU cooler clearance maxes out at 160mm)


This is what Google AI recommended I buy to complete the build:

Your basket​

1x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £139.99
SKU: CP-3DG-AM
1x Asus TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £200.00
SKU: MOT-ASU-03844
1x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black - £449.99
SKU: MEM-KLV-07036
1x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm - £36.95
SKU: COO-TLR-02721
1x KIOXIA EXCERIA G3 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 Solid State Drive - £249.95
SKU: STO-KIO-07152

£1,076.88


Would appreciate any feedback, Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Dantr01 said:
1x Asus TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £200.00
Click to expand...
You can get away with a cheaper board


Dantr01 said:
1x KIOXIA EXCERIA G3 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 Solid State Drive - £249.95
Click to expand...
You already have a 1tb SSD (I know it's gen 3) do you really need/want a new drive?
For games going for a gen 4/5 SSD over a gen 3 does not improve performance by any significant margin, and prices are more than double right now. If you don't need a drive I'd just avoid buying one if possible.

The rest are fine. Though that being said, you could get a x3d chip with the above changes to the build
 
Thanks guys,

Yeah I guess I could hold off on the SSD for now as it's not vital.

The AI's reasoning for the TUF GAMING B850-PLUS was that it would be better for when it comes to upgrading from the Ryzen 5 7600X in a few years time?

This is what it said about the CPU:
  • CPU-Bound Uplifts (1080p): At low resolutions where the processor dictates the ceiling, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D destroys the 7600X. It posts staggering jumps like +53.8% in Dota 2 and +59.4% in PUBG.
  • The 1440p / 4K Reality Check: As soon as the reviewer switches to heavy graphical configurations, the bottleneck completely transfers to the graphics card. In visually intense titles like Black Myth: Wukong, the 9800X3D only gains a tiny 1.2% benefit over the 7600X. In Forza Horizon 5, the delta is just 1.3%.
  • YouTube·Hardware Tested

    "Because your specific goal is 1440p gaming at a 100fps target, this video solidifies the best value path. Since you are playing at a higher resolution, you are heavily GPU-bound. Spending an extra £240 premium on the 9800X3D right now won't give you significantly more frames in heavy single-player titles."
 
Tetras said:
What are you upgrading from?


I agree with the above about the board, £200 is too much to spend relative to your budget.

I'd go with some slower memory too.

With the savings on the above, get a better CPU.
Click to expand...
Thanks,

Upgrading from:

Asus TUF Z370-Plus Gaming
Intel Core i5-8600k
DDR4-2998 / PC4-24000 DDR4 SDRAM 16GB
 
Dantr01 said:
The AI's reasoning for the TUF GAMING B850-PLUS was that it would be better for when it comes to upgrading from the Ryzen 5 7600X in a few years time?
Click to expand...
The TUF Plus is one of the best performing boards thermally, but it is way overspec for gaming CPUs. Would make more sense spending that on the board for heavy multithreading with a 12-16 core.
 
Tetras said:
The TUF Plus is one of the best performing boards thermally, but it is way overspec for gaming CPUs. Would make more sense spending that on the board for heavy multithreading with a 12-16 core.
Click to expand...

Even then, there's sub £150 boards capable of handling 16 core processors under sustained workloads without a problem.

Dantr01 said:
The AI's reasoning for the TUF GAMING B850-PLUS was that it would be better for when it comes to upgrading from the Ryzen 5 7600X in a few years time?
Click to expand...

AI can be a useful tool when used right, but I'd be very wary of taking anything it says as gospel. Primarily it can be fantastic when used as a search engine vs the likes of Google or Duckduckgo, but when dealing with anything requiring reasoning you really need a strong understanding of the topic because it's very prone to mistakes and/or exaggerations, and even flat out hallucinations.
 
Honestly, for 1440p gaming, the 9060xt is going to be the bottleneck. It's still slower than a 6800 released more than half a decade ago.

That being said, I wouldn't get the 7600x, neither would I get that Asus board.

I would get a 7500x3d and a cheaper am5 board instead.
Heck, since there's no need for another SSD, I'd even sell the 9060xt and put that fund towards a 9070xt tbh.
 
Yes I was just using AI as a starting block really although in hindsight I should have skipped it and come straight here.

Unfortunately the MSI B850 Gaming Plus is out of stock.

I will hold off buying an SSD for now as it's not vital.

Updated basket:

​

Your basket​

1x Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £159.99
SKU: MOT-GIG-03858
1x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £139.99
SKU: CP-3DG-AM
1x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black - £449.99
SKU: MEM-KLV-07036
1x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm - £36.95
SKU: COO-TLR-02721


£786.92
 
tamzzy said:
7500x3d

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D Six Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail

100-100001904WOF, 6 Core with 12 Threads, 4.00GHz base clock speed, Up to 4.50GHz Boost Clock, 5nm FinFet Process, 102MB L3 Cache, 3yr Warranty
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
Click to expand...
Cheers, I only see your recommendation just after I posted my updated basket.

Updated basket:

Your basket​

1x Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £159.99
SKU: MOT-GIG-03858
1x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black - £449.99
SKU: MEM-KLV-07036
1x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm - £36.95
SKU: COO-TLR-02721
1x AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D Six Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £209.99
SKU: PRO-AMD-06394

£856.92


Thanks for all the help guys
 
Dantr01 said:
1x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm - £36.95
SKU: COO-TLR-02721
Click to expand...

My basket at OcUK:
Total: GBP40.98 (includes delivery: GBP7.99)​

Cheaper HSF that will perform about on par, The Peerless Assassin isn't too far behind the Phantom Spirit and both will happily handle much higher end processors.

You also get a nifty screen on the above version to display things like temperatures and CPU/GPU load, or pictures of Goku, whatever your preference might be.

22Untitled.webp


I think it might be a bit taller than the standard version however, so double check it'll fit in your case.
 
Last edited:
Gray2233 said:
My basket at OcUK:
Total: GBP40.98 (includes delivery: GBP7.99)​

Cheaper HSF that will perform about on par, The Peerless Assassin isn't too far behind the Phantom Spirit and both will happily handle much higher end processors.

You also get a nifty screen on the above version to display things like temperatures and CPU/GPU load, or pictures of Goku, whatever your preference might be.

22Untitled.webp


I think it might be a bit taller than the standard version however, so double check it'll fit in your case.
Click to expand...
Just checked and it's 162mm, my case can take up to 170mm, looks very cool, i've added it! thanks.

Basket Update:

Your basket​

1x Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £159.99
SKU: MOT-GIG-03858
1x KLEVV FIT V EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz C30 DDR5 Dual Channel Kit - Black - £449.99
SKU: MEM-KLV-07036
1x AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D Six Core 4.5GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £209.99
SKU: PRO-AMD-06394
1x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Vision Black ARGB CPU Air Cooler - £32.99
SKU: COO-TLR-06834

£852.96
 
Although it's cheaper I'd probably not bother with those "vision" coolers.
You'd have to run additional programs (TRCC) and it's not well written and pretty buggy/hefty on the CPU workload/ram.
 
tamzzy said:
Although it's cheaper I'd probably not bother with those "vision" coolers.
You'd have to run additional programs (TRCC) and it's not well written and pretty buggy/hefty on the CPU workload/ram.
Click to expand...

I've not noticed any problems on my Frozen Warframe with TRCC, but it can be pretty hit and miss between systems admittedly.

That said, you can just not use the screen and it's oddly cheaper than the regular version on OCUK with actual in stock/current pricing.

There's also a couple of alternatives if you do run into problems and want to use the screen.

Edit: Hilariously, people are already vibe coding software for it with Claude which isn't all that surprising given people are literally doing the same for their TV o/s's to improve performance.
 
Last edited:
tamzzy said:
Honestly, for 1440p gaming, the 9060xt is going to be the bottleneck. It's still slower than a 6800 released more than half a decade ago.

That being said, I wouldn't get the 7600x, neither would I get that Asus board.

I would get a 7500x3d and a cheaper am5 board instead.
Heck, since there's no need for another SSD, I'd even sell the 9060xt and put that fund towards a 9070xt tbh.
Click to expand...
I bought that GPU for £318 on OC when it first launched just over a year ago.
Crazy prices now.
Could maybe get £400-£500 on ebay for it?
Or might just wait and upgrade in another year or something.
 
Gray2233 said:
I've not noticed any problems on my Frozen Warframe with TRCC, but it can be pretty hit and miss between systems admittedly.

That said, you can just not use the screen and it's oddly cheaper than the regular version on OCUK with actual in stock/current pricing.

There's also a couple of alternatives if you do run into problems and want to use the screen.

Edit: Hilariously, people are already vibe coding software for it with Claude which isn't all that surprising given people are literally doing the same for their TV o/s's to improve performance.
Click to expand...
Yeah i've seen TV's looking so much faster now after people removed the spyware / ads etc
 
Dantr01 said:
I bought that GPU for £318 on OC when it first launched just over a year ago.
Crazy prices now.
Could maybe get £400-£500 on ebay for it?
Or might just wait and upgrade in another year or something.
Click to expand...

Haha yes, those prices seem very reasonable nowadays :cry:
Oh wow 9070xt are now £800. Yeah you gotta wait out...I thought you could use your excess budget and selling the 9060xt for an upgrade to a 9070xt, but the margins are tight. Not worth the risk if you don't get as much for the 9060xt as you hoped.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom