Worth Upgrading or ?

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 02:26

So the lad turned 18 a few weeks ago and inherited some money and wanted to buy a new gaming pc, was looking at the R12 alienware as 'it looks cool' and another that I had pointed out. then we realised a relative had left his pc for the boy to have and tinker with...We dug it out and wondering if its worth upgrading. I reckon it will be close to £850 to get what he wants.

Now he will ONLY use this for gaming, not even for youtube..Its literally for playing games. He wants ray tracing capability but have suggested he waits and see if he needs it now or later. he plays red dead, farcry etc, not really any fast paced FPS

So this is the setup on the pc we have
Silver Stone Case--1 large cooling fan and 3 smaller ones-all the ports and connections you could want
Asus Z87 Deluxe/Dual motherboard
I7 4770k cpu
Be Queit cpu cooler
MSI N670GTX-2GB
Great Power X14s4p4 PSU
5 x 3TB WD HDD( and yes I did mean x5---15tb...what for I dont know)
Asus Bluray drive
Hp DVDR drive
HP lightscribe drive
No ram in at the minute
Acer CB270HU

Now we dont need the optical units and this case is a bit of a behemoth so my thinking was to add/change the below for now and he can do the rest piece by piece and learn maybe(although he did inherit a nice sum so will probably say get better stuff for it)

Corsair 16GB RGB PRO RAM
WD Black SN850 1tb SSD
New smaller case if possible to fit(although not necessary it would look better

So I have seen a number of options for the graphics card for now. TBH I dont want to go through the minute details, and he has no interest in doing anything else then having a pc that will turn on, be quiet and fast. So what does he actually need, these are available localy and not out of budget. Are they going to be good enough for modern games for the next 18-24 months or is he worth paying a little more and being able to forget about for ages?
Gefor RTX3060 x2 12gb-top of the 'budget' budget
RTX2060 6GB
1660 Super Dual(I see a lot of pre-builds with these)
GTX 1050TI 4gb

Going to swap the monitor out for a Asus 24" TUF 165Hz one
And going for K57 RGB keyboard and the harpoon RGB mouse.

So do I also HAVE to change anything else to make it good enough for gaming? The CPU is dated but is it ok?

Or am I better off just telling him to spend to get a new one....Budget for upgrade around £1000 but new system with peripherals would be around £1800 so what should I do hahah

Thanks in anticipation

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 07:55

Is it really that bad that the rest of it needs to go? Will the CPU not be ok for another year or so? Or if I upgrade the CPU now and the GPU will that not make it more current?

I appreciate the full build you have sent although the 2nd is a bit overkill for him I think lol.

My question really is then, is changing the CPU and GPU just not going to work? As i understood the motherboard was a decent one, more than enough for what he wants, all the case and power supply and CPU cooler etc, although a few years old are pretty much unused.

I know that I should go 'new' and shiny shiny but if I can upgrade for a similar price to what a new build would be like then Id rather not have more e-waste(Im also presuming no market for the bits I have)

He is only playing 1080p at the moment, but I really really would like to reduce the waste and money spent, plus its a little sentimental as his relative left for him.

BUT if its all really that trash then I suppose there is nothing for it

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 08:01

OK thanks. He will probably go for the alienware then although I will try and move him away from the 'fashion' choice

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 08:02

Could I use it as a streaming pc...really does seem a shame when it will just go to rubbish, the case still has the cellophane in places LOL

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 08:24

I know but if it will do what he needs it to do with some upgrades then I would rather have kept it...he will not know the difference between the motherboards etc, but will accept that it needs to go.... surprised that even the case is trash as its brand new pretty much.

Can I get any money back for any of it anywhere? Like the 3tb ssd drives?

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 08:28

I think if I go for a more futuristic case he will be ok and the monitor we have he can use for now as hes set on having 24", he prefers that size.

Thank you for all your help though

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 22:58

He says he wants Ray Tracing as that's the 'fad' I dont think he will notice that much and only if he had them side by side.

Plus he is getting the xbox and ps5 when stocks return

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 23:21

So next question is... What can I do to it now to keep it going for a little bit.

I dont think he will want ray tracing and if he does then when he gets his full inheritance in 3 years when hes 21 he can buy a top of the range pc.

Will the Mobo be ok for that long.

Im happy to get new mobo, gpu and ram now if that means will be good enough to use for gaming for next couple of years.

But would be easier for me to not replace mobo

David Foster · 27 Oct 2021 at 23:23

although I suppose if doing gpu and ram then makes sense to get new board

David Foster · 28 Oct 2021 at 00:58

What

Joxeon said:
If you wanted to keep the same stuff then try pick up a used GTX1070 for around 200 quid if you can and drop that in as it'll pair well with the 4770k.

I'm quite happy to spend a bit more now and upgrade bits and get some more use, and those parts can then be used for a future build maybe... As long as he can play the games he wants to, and doubt he will need above 1080p or 60fps then it will be fine with me. Then actually when he gets his full inheritance and buys a top of the line gaming set up, I can keep this one as I dont really game hah