Upgrade or New Build??

[Renegade82]

Hey,

I used to be quite well versed in pc building and what was good and what wasn’t but it’s been a very long time since my last build and am now completely lost.

My last build was likely 15ish years ago with these specs:
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA1155 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500k 3.3GHz
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1333MHz RAM
XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB GPU
Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate Baracuda Green 2TB SATA
EVGA 600 W1 80+ PSU

All in a Cooler Master CM690 II case

Basically family life took over, I was single when I built that, I now have 4 kids aged 5-11 lol after spending nearly 10 years in storage my eldest now uses this PC but wants to get into the world of PC gaming, but isn’t fussed on all this fancy RGB stuff haha

As I am completely out of the loop and I don’t want to spend crazy money, is it worth upgrading this build with a new GPU to get him going, or am I just better off with a completely new build? I’d like to spend as little as possible but also don’t want to give him an absolute garbage experience of PC gaming and put him off for life.

I should also add he has a META Quest 3 VR headset and a PS5 so is most definitely a gamer so having something that works with the META would be great as an added bonus.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated to a rapidly aging dad trying to juggle 4 wild boys and a wife haha

 

[Minibiker]

I would say your better off Upgrading the lot, Throwing a GPU in the mix will just bottleneck, I'm sure someone will be able to shed some light on budget friendly upgrades for you

 

[Vidar]

Honestly, that system is too old now. A new GPU would be heavily bottlenecked. Old parts are also surprisingly expensive at times.

What's your budget and what monitor will he be using?

 

[deviation]

Upgrade, even if you're on a budget, you have a huge selection to choose from, be it secondhand or brand new, especially if you go last generation

 

[throwaway4372]

that's really old, new pc time

 

[Renegade82]

Honestly, that system is too old now. A new GPU would be heavily bottlenecked. Old parts are also surprisingly expensive at times.

What's your budget and what monitor will he be using?

I’ll be getting him a new monitor, he’s not fussed on peak graphics resolution so not looking 4k but needs to be smooth, been looking at this one

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-27-mag-27cq6f-2560x1440-rapid-va-180hz-0.5ms-a-sync-curved-widescreen-mon-msi-02920.html?_gl=1*1n8v6i5*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwg7PDBhBxEiwAf1CVuyQGoc_aeuBRbPr6wK4IQvVm-6YErCGIs-e_IhrqJbc2_CBNYeOY_hoCMQkQAvD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAABRAesGG-gjjj1-GydwWavt9liRfe

Also thinking budget around £750 for the build itself, but not sure what that gets these days. GPU prices scare me especially as I no longer know what is needed or what is good

 

[Vidar]

I’ll be getting him a new monitor, he’s not fussed on peak graphics resolution so not looking 4k but needs to be smooth, been looking at this one on curry’s to make the most of finance options haha https://www.currys.co.uk/products/msi-mag-27c6x-full-hd-27-curved-va-lcd-monitor-black-10263296.html

Also thinking budget around £750 for the build itself, but not sure what that gets these days. GPU prices scare me especially as I no longer know what is needed or what is good

You may want to remove that link, competitor links aren't allowed here.

I always try to build to the monitor, so you'll want nothing less than a RX 6600 8gb. Obviously the better the budget the better

 

[deviation]

I’ll be getting him a new monitor, he’s not fussed on peak graphics resolution so not looking 4k but needs to be smooth, been looking at this one on curry’s to make the most of finance options haha *competitor link*

Also thinking budget around £750 for the build itself, but not sure what that gets these days. GPU prices scare me especially as I no longer know what is needed or what is good

You can't post competitor links here mate, sorry.
See if there's anything on overclockers.co.uk that suits your budget instead.

 

[Renegade82]

Yeah apologies didn’t realise, I’ve removed the link and I’ll have a look, as I said so out of touch don’t even know where to look anymore haha

 

[Gray2233]

For £750 you might struggle a little bit.

Something like this would work pretty well within the £750 range:

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 Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £109.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £49.99
• 1 x Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case (SKU: CAS-AER-00607) = £45.83
• 1 x Thermalright Assassin X 120 R Digital ARGB Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03757) = £14.99
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-05257) = £299.99

Total: £681.76 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

DDR4 seems to be like hens teeth on OCUK at the moment, so factor in another £40-50 for 2x16 (aka 32gb) of DDR4.

There might be better options out there, AM5 becomes viable if you import from a certain Chinese marketplace but I don't believe those chips are covered by warranty.

I'm not 100% on that PSU either, it should be okay but it's a bit of an unknown budget unit and I'd strongly recommend spending a bit more (£70-80) on something better such as the Phanteks AMP GH.

Edit: The 550w version actually seems to have reviewed well over on Toms Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/power-supplies/msi-mag-a550bn-psu-review

 

[Tetras]

As I am completely out of the loop and I don’t want to spend crazy money, is it worth upgrading this build with a new GPU to get him going, or am I just better off with a completely new build? I’d like to spend as little as possible but also don’t want to give him an absolute garbage experience of PC gaming and put him off for life.

I should also add he has a META Quest 3 VR headset and a PS5 so is most definitely a gamer so having something that works with the META would be great as an added bonus.

What you have now, is just an entry-level gaming PC that you'd buy for the kids to play around with.

It could play older games (at 1080p) just fine, anything from up to and around the release of Ryzen / 8th gen (approx 2010-2017).

Any big name game after that period, it will really struggle. Newer AAA games from the last few years will be unplayable.

Upgrading the CPU to a 3770K (or Xeon equivalent, if cheaper) and e.g. a RX 6600, would make many of those unplayable games now playable, but the gaming experience won't be great.

If they just want to play esports games with friends, then that is a viable option, but if they want to play the latest stuff I'd stick with something like Gray2233 has suggested.

 

[Renegade82]

For £750 you might struggle a little bit.

Something like this would work pretty well within the £750 range:

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 Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £109.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £49.99
• 1 x Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case (SKU: CAS-AER-00607) = £45.83
• 1 x Thermalright Assassin X 120 R Digital ARGB Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03757) = £14.99
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-05257) = £299.99

Total: £681.76 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

DDR4 seems to be like hens teeth on OCUK at the moment, so factor in another £40-50 for 2x16 (aka 32gb) of DDR4.

There might be better options out there, AM5 becomes viable if you import from a certain Chinese marketplace but I don't believe those chips are covered by warranty.

I'm not 100% on that PSU either, it should be okay but it's a bit of an unknown budget unit and I'd strongly recommend spending a bit more (£70-80) on something better such as the Phanteks AMP GH.

Edit: The 550w version actually seems to have reviewed well over on Toms Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/power-supplies/msi-mag-a550bn-psu-review

Thanks for that, to be fair looks pretty good from what I can see! Considering the GPU is nearly half the overall cost!

The case looks great but not sure if it would work in his room, but the internals are what matters! Would definitely entertain the 32GB memory option as well!

Definitely food for thought, I’d much rather build something that will let him have a decent experience of PC gaming rather than running a game on bare minimum settings stuttering along!

 

[Tetras]

I’d much rather build something that will let him have a decent experience of PC gaming rather than running a game on bare minimum settings stuttering along!

Do you know what he wants to achieve/experience? There's something to be said for retro gaming and you learn a lot about hardware from upgrading an old PC and even through getting by on low settings.

If the PS5 is available for the latest games, he wouldn't be missing out if there's a must-buy game.

 

[Gray2233]

Thanks for that, to be fair looks pretty good from what I can see! Considering the GPU is nearly half the overall cost!

The case looks great but not sure if it would work in his room, but the internals are what matters! Would definitely entertain the 32GB memory option as well!

Definitely food for thought, I’d much rather build something that will let him have a decent experience of PC gaming rather than running a game on bare minimum settings stuttering along!

That GPU is basically the bare minimum you should consider for an entry level modern gaming rig, GPU prices have been silly for a long time unfortunately.

Be 100% sure you go for the 16gb version too, the 8gb will run into problems if he wants to play a lot of newer games at 1440P, and that situation isn't going to get any better.

It's not a bad system and would run any current game out at decent settings/fps at 1440P, and will do for a few years to come as long as he manages his expectations. That said, the Intel platform in question is a bit of a dead end and has no real upgrade potential. Spending another £100-150 would get you onto AM5 which has platform longevity, but that hardly matters if he doesn't really get into newer games or the hardware scene going forward.

 

[Craig_d1]

If you can stretch that budget a little, I'd go to a auction site and pick up a ryzen 7500F for £110 (checked porices and good for that, and ocuk don't sell them) with something like below (with 7500f that just under £830..sure you can get a cheaper case or same a bit on cooler/cheaper psdu etc)
you'll be on the am5 platform so have plenty of choices for upgrading cpu's , and the b650 eagle ax more than enough to power future cpu, and with 32gb 6000c36 ram, close enough to the sweetspot of c30, you wont need to mess around with that. 750W psu gives you some scope for gpu upgrades if you want to go that way, and comes with 8 yrs warranty i believe, and fully modular
if you're not worried about fsr4 and just want a bit more grunt for straight raster performance, look at picking up a 2nd hand 7800xt..it'll still have 16gb vram, but in pure performance is 28% faster than the 9060xt...you should get one of those for similar money 2nd hand..

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Specs

AMD Navi 44, 3130 MHz, 2048 Cores, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 16384 MB GDDR6, 2518 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £49.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04561) = £79.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £23.00
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.94
• 1 x Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-03573) = £125.00
• 1 x Aerocool P500C Mid Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-AER-03692) = £54.94
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-05257) = £299.99

Total: £717.85 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Gray2233]

If you can stretch that budget a little, I'd go to a auction site and pick up a ryzen 7500F

The 7500F isn't much slower than the 7600, so roughly 5800X3D performance give or take (although some games really, really like the L3 of the X3D). That leaves a lot more room in the tank for GPU upgrades even without switching out the CPU, and with AM5 we have at least one upcoming generation of CPU's available.

I would try to stretch to an AM5 build personally, but it really depends on the budget constraints and how into the idea of gaming and upgrading within the PC ecosphere your son is.

 

[Renegade82]

Do you know what he wants to achieve/experience? There's something to be said for retro gaming and you learn a lot about hardware from upgrading an old PC and even through getting by on low settings.

If the PS5 is available for the latest games, he wouldn't be missing out if there's a must-buy game.

I’ve been trying to get out of him for a while what he wants to play so I have an idea the specs but it’s like talking to a brick wall!

On the PS5 he plays Fortnite, Spiderman & Mile Morales, and he’s just started playing GTA so will want to play the new one when it’s eventually released. He also at some point wants to get into video editing as he wants to make YouTube content - like all kids these days

 

[Gray2233]

I’ve been trying to get out of him for a while what he wants to play so I have an idea the specs but it’s like talking to a brick wall!

On the PS5 he plays Fortnite, Spiderman & Mile Morales, and he’s just started playing GTA so will want to play the new one when it’s eventually released. He also at some point wants to get into video editing as he wants to make YouTube content - like all kids these days

I'm assuming the son in question is the 11 year old? Does he do anything to earn money for himself, like a paper round or even chores around the house etc to get some pocket money?

I find that an excellent way to find out how serious a kid is about that sort of thing is to ask them to work toward it, not fully but at least partially. Tell them they need to cover a third of the budget, but then offer them jobs they can do where you'll pop X amount of money into the pot over time toward the goal. It's a lot of money to spend on something he's a bit whimsical over, especially when he's not super forthcoming about his interests. When I was a kid we bought yoyo's and Tamagotchi's etc . But the newer big things with kids are a lot more expensive with the online/digital age craze and streaming filling every facet of their lives.

As is a PS5 already offers game streaming/video capture and I think even minor editing, if he stuck to that platform you could get away with a cheaper desktop for basic post recording editing purposes.

 

[Tetras]

I’ve been trying to get out of him for a while what he wants to play so I have an idea the specs but it’s like talking to a brick wall!

On the PS5 he plays Fortnite, Spiderman & Mile Morales, and he’s just started playing GTA so will want to play the new one when it’s eventually released. He also at some point wants to get into video editing as he wants to make YouTube content - like all kids these days

Hmm, from the sounds of it, he is the kind of gamer that is easily pleased/occupied and just plays one game to death?

Maybe it is better to not buy anything until there's a clear need.

Alternatively, a cheap upgrade like a RX 570 and Xeon E3-1240 v2 would be under £100 and be plenty capable with older games.

 

[Gray2233]

Hmm, from the sounds of it, he is the kind of gamer that is easily pleased/occupied and just plays one game to death?

Maybe it is better to not buy anything until there's a clear need.

Alternatively, a cheap upgrade like a RX 570 and Xeon E3-1240 v2 would be under £100 and be plenty capable with older games.

Not only fitting but from the current games he's playing it'd be grand.

I used to play GTA5 on and offline on a 3570K and RX580.