What to upgrade for PC gaming (if possible)

electrolite

electrolite

electrolite

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16 Feb 2020
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Hi Guys,

New here. Hoping you can help.

I built the PC below a while back (around 2013 if I was going to hazard a guess).

I'm wanting to get back into PC gaming. I just bought Hell Let Loose and would like to play that and other similar games at high spec if possible.

Here's my current spec:

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 4670K @ 3.40GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 801MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z87-A (SOCKET 1150)
Graphics
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 (MSI)
Storage
238GB TOSHIBA THNSNH256GCST (SATA (SSD))
3726GB TOSHIBA HDWE140 (SATA )
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 (SATA )

Is it possible to upgrade this to something that can run modern games and if so, what do you recommend. Or is it a case of new everything?

Thanks
 
The obvious things would be to upgrade your GPU from that ancient (and not so great even when it came out) GTX650 and overclock your CPU.

Regardless, what sort of budget do you have and as mentioned by alex, what resolution do you game at?
 
@Gray2233 @alex h

Thanks for your replies.

Would you say GPU first then? If i was to do 1 at a time?

Alex, is this what you're talking about? Would this fit with my current Motherboard? Could I also go for a second hand GPU?

If I do go second hand, what should I look out for?

I haven't PC gamed since the original CoD's back in 2003-05. I presumed I would set the res to 1920x1080, but as you both asked about res, it sounds like there are pros and cons to gaming at different resolutions?

Budget wise I'd say less than £400. If I can get both CPU and GPU second hand this should be doable, hopefully!

Cheers,
 
Any CPU upgrade should cost only pocket money/what you would be ready to spend on some candy without second thought.
Because that motherboard doesn't support anything, which wouldn't be really low end by todays standards and doesn't get curb stomped by next-gen consoles coming in fall/before Christmas.

That graphics card again was that basic "Morris Mini" already when new and now smartphone GPUs no doubt crush it.
While right now is about historically bad time to buy expensive graphics card, good news is that even very mainstream card would be insane amount better performing.
 
electrolite said:
@Gray2233 @alex h

Thanks for your replies.

Would you say GPU first then? If i was to do 1 at a time?

Alex, is this what you're talking about? Would this fit with my current Motherboard? Could I also go for a second hand GPU?

If I do go second hand, what should I look out for?

I haven't PC gamed since the original CoD's back in 2003-05. I presumed I would set the res to 1920x1080, but as you both asked about res, it sounds like there are pros and cons to gaming at different resolutions?

Budget wise I'd say less than £400. If I can get both CPU and GPU second hand this should be doable, hopefully!

Cheers,
Click to expand...
Yes that would fit but is too expensive to be honest and you would be better off selling your stuff and buying a amd ryzen based system than paying that sort of outlay as for graphic card yes it needs upgrading is your 400 pound budget including selling any of your present stuff
 
Next-gen games will certainly need whole new platform with modern CPU.
Those consoles come with pretty much Ryzen 3700X underclocked for energy efficiency making 8 cores/16 threads that base level for which games are developed.
(and 4670K is 4c/4t)
6 core/12 thread Ryzen 3600 would be basically minimum for hoping to properly run next-gen games.

Though if you want longer high end endurance without upgrades would put that level to 8 cores/16 threads considering how PCs are bogged with bloatware starting from OS.
Assuming new Zen3 architeture comes around summer 3700X could drop to £200 level during fall.

Anyway also new memories are needed.
DDR3 got replaced by DDR4 couple years after that PC.
 
Thanks for all the info so far.

I'm happy to sell my old stuff. I also have 2 other PC's I could sell and a bunch of monitors. I don't expect to get a lot for it, but could put the money towards the upgrade.

@MissChief those recommendations look decent. Is that CPU in line with what @EsaT suggests?

What GPU do you guys recommend. Preferably second hand.

Also, will a Ryzen system still be good for day to day work use (Adobe CC, etc).

Feeling like a dinosaur. Been out of the game so long!

Thanks again
 
electrolite said:
Thanks for all the info so far.

I'm happy to sell my old stuff. I also have 2 other PC's I could sell and a bunch of monitors. I don't expect to get a lot for it, but could put the money towards the upgrade.

@MissChief those recommendations look decent. Is that CPU in line with what @EsaT suggests?

What GPU do you guys recommend. Preferably second hand.

Also, will a Ryzen system still be good for day to day work use (Adobe CC, etc).

Feeling like a dinosaur. Been out of the game so long!

Thanks again
Click to expand...
Ryzen 3600 would be better, but is another bit more expensive over the chip I recommended.
 
electrolite said:
Thanks for all the info so far.

I'm happy to sell my old stuff. I also have 2 other PC's I could sell and a bunch of monitors. I don't expect to get a lot for it, but could put the money towards the upgrade.

@MissChief those recommendations look decent. Is that CPU in line with what @EsaT suggests?

What GPU do you guys recommend. Preferably second hand.

Also, will a Ryzen system still be good for day to day work use (Adobe CC, etc).

Feeling like a dinosaur. Been out of the game so long!

Thanks again
Click to expand...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £282.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

The CPU listed is just a placeholder for the ryzen 5 1600AF variant which is a lower clocked ryzen 5 2600 and can be had for 85 quid. YD1600BBAFBOX is the CPU product code your looking for, very important. In terms of value this is the best CPU on the market today.

Then you could sell your old cpu MB and ram and put this towards the money left over for the GPU
in the £200 range

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £219.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​
 
2700X is 2018's model with step slower Zen+ architecture, so it's not exactly great.
Single core/thread performance increase wouldn't be that big. (Zen2 increased that good amount)
Though multithreaded performance is lot better with double the cores and extra threads.
(though "only" 6 core/12 thread Zen2 can be quite close because of architectural improvements)

But at least it's cheap thanks to AMD's policy of actually lowering prices of outdated models and there would be update path to this year coming Zen3 architecture.
That could give toward 40% single core improvement to Zen+ and prices shoudl be similarly discounted in two years.
 
I'm thinking of going for something like this. What do you think?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £604.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)

​
Suggestions on a cheaper GPU would be great though!

Thanks
 
Last edited:
electrolite said:
I'm thinking of going for something like this. What do you think?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £604.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)

​
Suggestions on a cheaper GPU would be great though!

Thanks
Click to expand...
No point in a Vega64 when a 5700XT is the same or less.
 
 
You do NOT want a Vega GPU, although the fact you keep listing them is partly the fault of OCUK. For some reason they've models listed in the 5700 sections.

Take a look at this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £348.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​

I'd also make sure the 1600 you get definitely is an AF and it's priced closer to £85, for £100 you could get a 2600 if you shop around. Speaking of shopping around, I'm confident you can get 16GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport LT for £50 at the moment.
 
But do I really need to push to a 5700 XT and a 2600?

If I just want to play games from the past few years in HD and fairly decent specs, is this necessary?

I could always upgrade again if I find it's something I want to spend more time doing.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks
 
what monitor and resolution are you playing at? If your at 1080 resolution a 1660 super (look at the Zotac twin fan) should do the trick. I would try the card with your current CPU/mobo/ram combo first to see if it does what you want first before upgrading those. I'm running a 10 year old I7 quite happily with recent games.
 
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