Upgrade vs New Build: Old and older m-ITX!

Jake_UK

Jake_UK

Jake_UK

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UK
Hi folks,

I'm looking to upgrade or replace two m-ITX PCs in a few months time (as the weather starts to turn bad) so right now I'm looking for high level advice to set budget requirements/expectations or perhaps to keep an eye out for 2nd hand parts for the older machine... if that's worthwhile!

Use-case: I'm looking to upgrade or build for gaming at 3440x1440 with settings on max. quality. I don't feel the need for FPS >60. Examples of games currently in Steam wishlist or regularly played: RDR/RDR2, Atomfall, HoI4, TW series, OMD3/4, KCD1/2. My intention, after dual booting for >10 years, is to finally ditch Windows completely and solely use Linux (thanks to what seem to be really solid advances driven by Valve and others). Perhaps this means a little more grunt is asked of the system though for some games?

Machine 1: B550M-ITX/ac mobo with Ryzen 7 3700X, 16GB RAM and RTX 2060 SUPER. Housed in NXZT H1 with a 650W PSU.
Machine 2: i5-3570K, 8GB RAM and GTX 670 FTW. Housed in a Shuttle FZ77 (SZ77R5) with a 500W PSU.

Both systems have (SATA) SSD for OS and HDD for games.

Perhaps an M.2 SSD for Machine 2? Would I see a worthwhile difference if dropped ~£250 on a replacement GPU for this?

What are folks thoughts on Machine 1 - simply too old to upgrade to perform the use case described or is there life in the old dog yet?

TIA
 
Jake_UK said:
Hi folks,

I'm looking to upgrade or replace two m-ITX PCs in a few months time (as the weather starts to turn bad) so right now I'm looking for high level advice to set budget requirements/expectations or perhaps to keep an eye out for 2nd hand parts for the older machine... if that's worthwhile!

Use-case: I'm looking to upgrade or build for gaming at 3440x1440 with settings on max. quality. I don't feel the need for FPS >60. Examples of games currently in Steam wishlist or regularly played: RDR/RDR2, Atomfall, HoI4, TW series, OMD3/4, KCD1/2. My intention, after dual booting for >10 years, is to finally ditch Windows completely and solely use Linux (thanks to what seem to be really solid advances driven by Valve and others). Perhaps this means a little more grunt is asked of the system though for some games?

Machine 1: B550M-ITX/ac mobo with Ryzen 7 3700X, 16GB RAM and RTX 2060 SUPER. Housed in NXZT H1 with a 650W PSU.
Machine 2: i5-3570K, 8GB RAM and GTX 670 FTW. Housed in a Shuttle FZ77 (SZ77R5) with a 500W PSU.

Both systems have (SATA) SSD for OS and HDD for games.

Perhaps an M.2 SSD for Machine 2? Would I see a worthwhile difference if dropped ~£250 on a replacement GPU for this?

What are folks thoughts on Machine 1 - simply too old to upgrade to perform the use case described or is there life in the old dog yet?

TIA
Click to expand...

Honestly I'd not bother with the 3570K system at all.

Easiest thing you could do with the AM4 would be to grab a 5700X3D for around £180-200 and then upgrade the GPU to a minimum of a 9060XT 16GB, faster budget allowing but that would be the bare minimum I'd consider.

Probably worth upping the RAM to 32gb too.

Do you know the exact models of the PSU's? The wattage alone doesn't tell us much as quality between units can vary greatly, your overall budget would be helpful too.
 
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Gray2233 said:
Do you know the exact models of the PSU's? The wattage alone doesn't tell us much as quality between units can vary greatly, your overall budget would be helpful too.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gray.

The PSUs both came with the cases. Machine 1 is 650W 80 Plus Gold, Machine 2 is 500W 80 Plus - some more description on links but no brand name or anything like that.

Historically I'd probably spend something like £1-1.2k on a new build, e.g. to replace #1 (just the machine, no monitor/peripherals) and am essentially I'm wondering if it's worth spending a few hundred on upgrades to delay that for Machine 2 or whether it's better to start from scratch with both machines. A 5700X3D plus a 9060XT 16GB look like they'd be around £500-550.... consideration is best bang for buck more than actual number of bucks.
 
Jake_UK said:
Thanks Gray.

The PSUs both came with the cases. Machine 1 is 650W 80 Plus Gold, Machine 2 is 500W 80 Plus - some more description on links but no brand name or anything like that.

Historically I'd probably spend something like £1-1.2k on a new build, e.g. to replace #1 (just the machine, no monitor/peripherals) and am essentially I'm wondering if it's worth spending a few hundred on upgrades to delay that for Machine 2 or whether it's better to start from scratch with both machines. A 5700X3D plus a 9060XT 16GB look like they'd be around £500-550.... consideration is best bang for buck more than actual number of bucks.
Click to expand...

AM4 is still a strong platform and going with the 5700X3D would see serious uplift, it's difficult to manage that with an ITX build especially so upgrading to AM5 is off the table.

For 1.2K I'd do the following:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £897.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

It's not worth spending more as it would require you to do a total rebuild, the PSU you have is competent for a 5070ti, worst case scenario you'll need to undervolt it.

As mentioned earlier up to 32gb of RAM too.

Make sure the card will fit your case.
 
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System 1 well worth upgrading and the options above are great.

I was all for upgrading to a 4090/5090 and even had a case and PSU waiting. Then DLSS (FSR is also improving) got so good it just doesn't seem worth upgrading beyond my RTX 4080 except maybe get a 5xxx/6xxx series card that can do multi-frame insertion.

I'd rather spend £700-900 on a good OLED HDR monitor than £2K on a GPU and not get the best out of it.
 
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Thanks for the advice so far folks.

In looking at the card Gray found (looks like a good price with the discount on it right now) I noticed that the link to the H1 case is for the v2 whereas I have the v1. I found a review of the v1 here but also dug out the leaflet that came with it and:
  • The 650W PSU is correct for my v1 (the v2 has 750W). Mine has model info NZXT NP-S650M.
  • The max. GPU size is different for v1 and v2 though, with a max. length of 302mm for mine. Doing a quick search this shorter length restriction pushes the price for that 5070 Ti right up! :(
There seem to be a few more options for the 5060 Ti though... e.g. this one for £400 vs the 5070Ti for £680... is the performance change really as dramatic as that price drop?
 
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