Upgrade advice please. Last upgrade 2017

[outwit]

Hi all,

I'm here for some advice please. I used this forum back in 2017 and got great advice and upgraded my build and it's been fine for me since. I've recently been trying to get back into gaming, the only stuff i really play is CS2 and escape room games with the odd simulator game.

However over the weekend i had PC issues, i lost all displays and the pc was in a recycle loop. I've had it checked out and apparently the windows install failed and needed formatting. I've had it reformatted and am back online, but i think it's due an upgrade.

My current setup -
Case - Bit Fenix NEOS mid tower
PSU - Seasonic focus gold 650+
Mobo - Asus Z97-K intel DDR3 atx mobo
CPU - i5 4690 @ 3.5ghz
CPU cooler - Coolermaster hyper 212 evo
Memory - Corsair vengeance pro 16gb
Graphics - Nvidia gtx 1060 6gb
HDD: 120gb SSD (windows) and a 500GB SSD for my games.

I appreciate a lot of this is old tech now, but the performance of it suits what i need to use it for. But i'm not adverse to upgrading it, and if i am going to do so i'd just like to make sure i'm not wasting my money if it could be used better elsewhere.

I've done a little bit of research, and i was thinking of getting a second hand i7 4790k, a new 1tb SSD, upgrading the ram to 32GB and upgrading the graphics card. The reason for the i7 is this is apparently the best CPU i can run on this motherboard.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this, is this a good plan or would i be better off investing in a newer mobo/CPU combo?

If this is a good plan, what mhz RAM would i be best off getting for this mobo? And any thoughts on what graphics card i should consider? I'd say i have a budget up to £300.

Thank you

Dave

 

[throwaway4372]

Not worth spending money on that, put money towards a new pc.

 

[Tetras]

Do you guys have any thoughts on this, is this a good plan or would i be better off investing in a newer mobo/CPU combo?

I would change it out, because ultimately the capability of what you have is not going to be that different. You can consider the Xeons too, by the way, if they're cheaper.

upgrading the graphics card

And any thoughts on what graphics card i should consider? I'd say i have a budget up to £300.

A 1060 is pretty dated by modern standards, even a RX 6600 would be a nice upgrade.

I'd say i have a budget up to £300.

This is over budget, but would do everything for you (CPU cooler in the CPU box):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £98.99
• 1 x MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03383) = £59.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £55.99
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AD-PC) = £209.99

Total: £424.96 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

If this is a good plan, what mhz RAM would i be best off getting for this mobo?

What does CPU-Z say for what you have?

From what I can see in the manual, 1600 or 1333 is the stock speed and the CPU supports either 1.35v (DDR3L) or 1.5v.

 

[tamzzy]

honestly wouldn't bother buying new stuff for your current pc.
does it do the job currently? if it does, leave it alone and save that £300 for later
if you wish to upgrade, then fine, but £300 isn't going to stretch far if you don't want to buy used parts...for £300 you can upgrade your cpu+base build or gpu, not both at the same time

 

[outwit]

I would change it out, because ultimately the capability of what you have is not going to be that different. You can consider the Xeons too, by the way, if they're cheaper.



A 1060 is pretty dated by modern standards, even a RX 6600 would be a nice upgrade.


This is over budget, but would do everything for you (CPU cooler in the CPU box):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £98.99
• 1 x MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03383) = £59.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £55.99
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AD-PC) = £209.99

Total: £424.96 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

What does CPU-Z say for what you have?

From what I can see in the manual, 1600 or 1333 is the stock speed and the CPU supports either 1.35v (DDR3L) or 1.5v.

I appreciate the advice.

Cpuz says my current ddram is 666.6mhz so looks like 1333mhz total. ?


Regarding this mobo/cpu/ram combo, would you say this is a decent improvement on my current setup if it was coupled with my current gpu, or kind of redundant if I don’t upgrade the gpu at the same time? Tempted to go with that build and upgrade the gpu in future.

Thanks

 

[Tetras]

Regarding this mobo/cpu/ram combo, would you say this is a decent improvement on my current setup if it was coupled with my current gpu, or kind of redundant if I don’t upgrade the gpu at the same time? Tempted to go with that build and upgrade the gpu in future.

It is hard to say.

I don't think there's much more to come from a 1060, but if you mainly play older (and I assume less demanding?) games which are more CPU than GPU-bottlenecked, maybe you'd notice the difference.

 

[outwit]

It is hard to say.

I don't think there's much more to come from a 1060, but if you mainly play older (and I assume less demanding?) games which are more CPU than GPU-bottlenecked, maybe you'd notice the difference.

I’ll trust your judgment and go with your recommendation and get the graphics card at the same time. Would you be able to recommend me a 1tb ssd to go with it please? I see I’ll have an m.2 slot so would it be best to go with one of those?

It’s been a while since I’ve built so forgive me for asking, but all I’d need is some thermal paste too and then I’d be good to go?

Thanks

 

[hornetstinger]

Could reuse the case and PSU but that's about it.

That 500GB SSD could be used for the Windows drive.

 

[Gray2233]

I’ll trust your judgment and go with your recommendation and get the graphics card at the same time. Would you be able to recommend me a 1tb ssd to go with it please? I see I’ll have an m.2 slot so would it be best to go with one of those?

It’s been a while since I’ve built so forgive me for asking, but all I’d need is some thermal paste too and then I’d be good to go?

Thanks

Given how old your setup is, you'll probably need to find a CPU bracket for your current HSF. You might be able to order one online, but a Thermalright Assassin King 120 for around £15 would offer similar/better performance to your current if not.

Edit:

Decent NvME options (I'd probably go for the G50) and a link to the HSF mentioned:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE CPU Air Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-03267) = £17.99
• 1 x MSI SPATIUM M450 1TB SSD PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-MSI-00812) = £59.99
• 1 x Team Group G50 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03131) = £59.98
• 1 x Corsair Force MP600 CORE XT 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F1000GBMP600CXT) (SKU: HD-06U-CS) = £56.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00540) = £54.95

Total: £253.90 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

 

[Tetras]

Would you be able to recommend me a 1tb ssd to go with it please? I see I’ll have an m.2 slot so would it be best to go with one of those?

If it was me, I wouldn't bother. What you have right now is fine, SATA SSDs are not noticeably slower for most games.

 

[outwit]

Given how old your setup is, you'll probably need to find a CPU bracket for your current HSF. You might be able to order one online, but a Thermalright Assassin King 120 for around £15 would offer similar/better performance to your current if not.

Edit:

Decent NvME options (I'd probably go for the G50) and a link to the HSF mentioned:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE CPU Air Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-03267) = £17.99
• 1 x MSI SPATIUM M450 1TB SSD PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-MSI-00812) = £59.99
• 1 x Team Group G50 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03131) = £59.98
• 1 x Corsair Force MP600 CORE XT 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F1000GBMP600CXT) (SKU: HD-06U-CS) = £56.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00540) = £54.95

Total: £253.90 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

Thank you for the advice. I’ve ordered the assassin king and the g50.