upgrade advice needed

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:07

Hi guys,
Been a while since i upgraded and haven't kept up with the last few generations of hardware.
current specs:
i7 4790k
8gb ddr3 ram
corsair h80i aio cooler (i think)
gigabyte gtx 980 ti windforce edition

Ill be keeping the gpu until the 3xxx series is more available
If i just upgraded the ram would the cpu be a bottleneck or should i bite the bullet and build a whole new system

mickyflinn · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:11

Hi

What resoloution you gaming at l, do you have an ssd and have you checked your ram usage ?

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:16

depending on the game either 4k or 1080p, i have a 128gb ssd for the OS and 2 1tb drives for storage, ram is definitely a bottleneck atm though so that will definitely be getting changed soon.

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:18

memory is currently at 50% usage with 3 tabs on chrome, spotify and mod organiser 2 (skyrim) open

Gray2233 · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:24

What's your budget?

What sort of games do you play?

Do you use the PC for anything else?

You could either get another 8GB of DDR3 second hand, or sell your current cpu/mobo/ram and look at something such as the following:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G320C6K)= £74.99
1 x MSI B460M PRO-VDH WIFI (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £96.95
1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £85.99
1 x Intel Core i5-10400F 2.90GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £139.99

Total: £397.92 (includes shipping: £0.00)

This is assuming your main usage is gaming, as it's the bare minimum I'd be looking at. I'm assuming that you can reuse your current case and PSU. Since you're considering upgrading to a new 3000 series GPU I would consider a platform upgrade prior.

mickyflinn · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:26

Having your games on the fastest drives would help in loading times so maybe an ssd abd another 8gb of ram.

You could do a cpu motherboard and memory upgrade depending on budget , you would get a performance boost.

I would do the ram and ssd if needed then get a 3000 series gpu.

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:36

budget is about 800 for a full system (minus gpu)
currently using m-itx so id be looking to do a whole new build if i end up changing the cpu
assuming the full upgrade route is more sensible am i gonnja get better performance out of amd or intel for gaming at this price?

mickyflinn · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:50

cyborgstarfish said:
budget is about 800 for a full system (minus gpu)
currently using m-itx so id be looking to do a whole new build if i end up changing the cpu
assuming the full upgrade route is more sensible am i gonnja get better performance out of amd or intel for gaming at this price?

I would wait on the full upgrade as new Cpu from intel are due for release march which will support pcie4. Amd already support pcie4 thats something you should look into.

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 22:58

pcie4 shouldnt have a noticeable difference for gaming from my understanding? unless youre going 8k/multiple monitors/ 144 ffps and running a 3090

mickyflinn · 16 Feb 2021 at 23:06

cyborgstarfish said:
pcie4 shouldnt have a noticeable difference for gaming from my understanding? unless youre going 8k/multiple monitors/ 144 ffps and running a 3090

That may be true at present but going forward new gpus, etc and pcie4 is also m2 speeds. Wether you decide to take advantage of that in the future is your option.

cyborgstarfish · 16 Feb 2021 at 23:17

think ill just live without for now, just thrown a quick build together within the budget
patriot viper steel 16gb dual channel ram £75
WD blue sn 550 1tb nvme £86
ryzen 7 3700x £300
msi b450m mortar £80

with a case, psu, cpu cooler comes up to 792 with shipping
could i do any better for the money?

mickyflinn · 16 Feb 2021 at 23:43

Looks good but i would get the 5600x if i could find it for £300, motherboard bios would also need updating if getting a 5600x.

Bios flashback is the feature needed to update the bios without an older cpu which i think b450 mortar has but check it out.

cyborgstarfish · 17 Feb 2021 at 00:09

had a quick look and the only places that have the 5600x in stock are around an extra £40

the 3700x still supports pcie4 as well but id be waiting for mobo prices to drop before looking in to that

gonna do some more research and shopo around for better prices but think this is the best build im gonna get for the money