Upgrading from old x58 build

[Higadeb]

Hi Friends,

It's been too long since I was last on here and even longer since my last PC upgrade. Sadly it's time for my trusty old i7 920 to be retired.

I've decided I'd like to upgrade and potentially give VR a shot. The main use of the PC will be for gaming. I'm currently thinking Ryzen 7 1700 but am more than open to 7700k builds etc. if people think that's the way to go.

My budget, I'd love to get this done for around £600 but am well aware that a little more invested now could be beneficial down the road, could potentially be persuaded to stretch to ~£850.

What I already have/will bring from my current PC:

• GPU: GTX 970 - think I'll keep this for a year or so still to free up some more money
• HDDs: 4x1TB WD Blacks for games et al.
• Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 - perfectly happy with this but will clearly need to buy new mounts
• Case
• Optical drive
• Peripherals (Monitors, keyboard etc.)

Things I'm not sure of:

• SSD: Samsung 840 Pro - Does M.2 Provide any real benefit?
  
• PSU: Huntkey 900W X7 (80+ Silver IIRC) - Been flawless all these years. Only thing that's making me think it might be worth a change is it's age.

Minimum I need:

• CPU - as above - thinking Ryzen 7 1700 but open to suggestions
• MOBO - I believe the x370 chipset might be the way to go due to the extra USB3 needed for VR (although I've seen B350 seems vastly more popular on here). Other than that I know nothing about AMD motherboards. Built in WiFi would be nice and as always the more ports the better.
• RAM - This is where I get even more lost. Ryzen needs very nippy RAM but sometimes doesn't work with the nippiest of RAM? Would appreciate guidance here.

I believe that covers it all & sorry for the mini essay!
Thanks is advance

 

[Higadeb]

Stick with what you have, just get a xeon cpu to replace that 920.

I considered that two years back but decided against it, I think there were potential issues with my motherboard's BIOS (GA-X58-UD5 Rev 1.0) not being able to recognise Xeon.

Edit: Having said that good old Google has returned this. Any ideas what Xeon performance is like relative to more modern CPUs?

 

[Higadeb]

Ryzen 7 is the best choice, would be a pretty big upgrade.

Yeah, I think most things would be an upgrade given the ago of the 920

I've got a matched pair of Xeon X5670's on the way (should arrive tomorrow/Friday)if you want one for £42+postage, I paid £84 for them...can't use both. It's such an easy upgrade if you read up on it, should have done it ages ago really.

Once that's done just upgrade your GPU for VR, I've got the rift and it runs everything fine at 1.5SS (old money)

Thanks for the offer. I'll read up on Xeons tomorrow. I'm leaning more towards Ryzen at the moment though, just quite like the idea of starting (relatively) fresh.

 

[Higadeb]

Thanks very much all for the advice. I've decided to go Ryzen 7 1700 as I like the idea of having something a bit fresher over Xeon. Born2BSlow thank you for the Xeon offer, good like finding someone for the second chip.

I'm now thinking B350 chipset - I don't plan on dual GPU and I can add my current USB3 PCIE card if I need more ports.
Looking at the Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3 at the moment. I have a been of a softspot for Gigabyte given my current motherboard has been an absolute champ.

So that just leaves RAM probably 3000 or 3200mhz - am I likely to see any difference between the two? Ryzen apparently is a bit weird with RAM(?)