27 votes

Upgrading my gaming PC or starting afresh

Hello everyone, my CPU died and I'm at a crossroads and hoping for some advice. I bought my rig 4 years ago second-hand. It was originally built in 2017 using high-end parts. It was not something I was looking for TBH, but at the time GPUs were hard to get and it was a crazy deal. Here is what's left of the rig:

  • Motherboard - ASUS x99 Deluxe II, fits Intel i7 LGA2011-v3 CPU socket
  • PSU - EVGA Supernova 850 T2
  • RAM - 32GB, 4 sticks of G.Skill Trident Z 3200 DDR4
  • GPU - EVGA 1080 Ti Founder's Edition 11 GB
  • Case - In Win 904 plus - large and spacious case
  • Storage - Couple of Samsung SSDs
  • CPU Cooler - Have ditched the Corsair AIO, picked up a lowest tier fan for $10 to keep it booting while I figure out what to do

Options I'm floating.

  1. Get a compatible CPU, but that socket is harder to come by for my MOBO and likely to be second hand + get a new CPU cooler, and upgrade GPU.
  2. Replace MOBO, GPU, and get a new CPU and CPU cooler. The PSU is 6 years old but it's decent quality and 850 watts should be enough?

Price range/goals:

  • Happy to spend a bit on something that is mid to slightly upper range, but not high end. Thinking $$ will go into the GPU and CPU (maybe $600-800 USD ea?), something reasonably good that's just before the latest gen to get a discounted price. If replacing MOBO, something simple and medium range would be ideal.
  • Play some current AAA games like Baulder's Gate 3 and Elden Ring decently, at medium-high settings (not ultra), and don't need super high FPS.
  • Ideally supports 4k resolution for desktop use but for gaming I'd be mostly sticking to 1440p/1080p.
  • I don't want to overclock (those days are over)
  • Likely to sell in 2ish years, don't need heaps of futureproofing
  • If replacing MOBO, open to going to the AMD ecosystem for price/performance ratio. I've only ever used Intel so know less about AMD systems.
  • Don't need raytracing, DDR5
  • For CPU cooler I don't mind AIO but if anyone has any non-water cooled recommendations I'm all ears

I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do, and there are not many PC-building threads here on Tildes, so I thought I'd ask for some advice. Anyone have opinions on option 1 or 2 above, or is there a third option I'm not thinking of? And does anyone have part recommendations? Thanks in advance.

17 comments

  1. [18]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [6]
      r_se_random
      Link Parent
      Adding on to this, I think waiting for GPUs is definitely the right choice at this moment, as long as it covers your requirements. Nvidia should ideally launch 50xx next year, which means you can...

      Adding on to this, I think waiting for GPUs is definitely the right choice at this moment, as long as it covers your requirements. Nvidia should ideally launch 50xx next year, which means you can get serious discounts on 30xx and 40xx. You will probably need to upgrade your PSU at that point as well, but spreading the cost out over a year should help even the budget.

      All of this is contingent on the fact that the current GPU is sufficient for your requirements.

      8 votes
      1. [4]
        vord
        Link Parent
        That existing GPU should be fine for many things, especially at 1080p. I'm still rolling with a 970GTX with 4GB of VRAM and it handles 4k desktop use fine. I'm finding I can still run high...

        That existing GPU should be fine for many things, especially at 1080p. I'm still rolling with a 970GTX with 4GB of VRAM and it handles 4k desktop use fine. I'm finding I can still run high graphics on many games at 1080p, but the lack of VRAM is really starting to hurt.

        5 votes
        1. [3]
          Venko
          Link Parent
          I'm also still rocking a 970 too. The £950 that I spent on my old gaming computer in 2015 is equivalent to £1400 today once you adjust for inflation. For that price I can't get build anything...

          I'm also still rocking a 970 too. The £950 that I spent on my old gaming computer in 2015 is equivalent to £1400 today once you adjust for inflation. For that price I can't get build anything remotely close in value to my 2015 computer.

          So instead of replacing my computer I bought an Xbox Series X and maxed out years of Game Pass a couple of years ago. I recently topped up my Game Pass again to maximise the lower price from Xbox Gold conversion. I'm still very much a PC gamer at heart but nothing comes close to the value proposition of an Xbox and Game Pass right now.

          3 votes
          1. [2]
            r_se_random
            Link Parent
            To be fair, I think the Game pass can be extended on to PC as well? I'm not sure if there is a PC only version of it, but yeah Game Pass's value is quite phenomenal.

            To be fair, I think the Game pass can be extended on to PC as well? I'm not sure if there is a PC only version of it, but yeah Game Pass's value is quite phenomenal.

            1 vote
            1. Venko
              Link Parent
              Game Pass Ultimate covers both PC and consoles. It's just that most of the newer games aren't worth playing on my aging PC versus an Xbox Series X. A lot of indie games and some big games (such as...

              Game Pass Ultimate covers both PC and consoles. It's just that most of the newer games aren't worth playing on my aging PC versus an Xbox Series X. A lot of indie games and some big games (such as Age of Empires 4) do run well on older PCs though.

              1 vote
      2. Eidolon
        Link Parent
        Great point. I think the GPU is sufficient for now, but it can be hit and miss. Some games it just hasn't been able to handle very well even at the lowest graphic settings. Tyranny (2016) is an...

        Great point. I think the GPU is sufficient for now, but it can be hit and miss. Some games it just hasn't been able to handle very well even at the lowest graphic settings. Tyranny (2016) is an example. I just stick to games that it can handle at comfortable temps at 1080p (60-85 degrees C).

        2 votes
    2. [4]
      bitwaba
      Link Parent
      Get a ryzen 5600 for $100-125 instead of a 5800x3d for $350. You're not gonna saturate a 5600 with a 1080, so there's no point in going bigger. (You can probably get a 5600 used for even less as...

      if you want a simple "just buy this" recommendation:

      • Ryzen 7 5800X3D ($350ish). you can get 59xx CPUs with higher core counts, but the 5800X3D has a monster L3 cache, and for your typical desktop/gaming workloads, more cache tends to help more than more cores. if you plan to sell it in a few years that CPU should also hold its value relatively well.

      • and an ASRock Pro4 in either B550 ($115) or X570 ($210) variations (this shows the difference between the chipsets - the main one is that X570 gets you PCIe 4.0 GPU support, which you may want for future GPU upgradeability)

      Get a ryzen 5600 for $100-125 instead of a 5800x3d for $350. You're not gonna saturate a 5600 with a 1080, so there's no point in going bigger. (You can probably get a 5600 used for even less as people upgrade to 5800x3d). Even if you're going to sell the 5800x3d later you get nowhere near close to what you paid for it, so it doesn't matter how well it holds it's value. You're paying an extra $250 for performance you'll never use in hopes that you can sell it later.

      If OP wants to future proof and plan for GPU upgrades, then maybe it will make sense to go for a 5800x3d to squeeze more performance out... but even then you're getting into new build price territory, and you still dont need to look at PCIE gen4 as only the super high even graphics cards go over the gen3 bandwidth threshold right now. Gen3 can get you to 120 FPS on high/ultra right now no problem.

      Your suggestion is to spend ~$475 just on a new CPU and mobo. I'd say for the same amount of money they should:

      • get a 5600 and find a b550 mobo in the $75 range, which gets them out the door for $200 with a functional mid range PC today, leaving them with another $275 in their pocket.
      • spend the $275 saved towards a an Nvidia 4070 or Radeon 7700xt at a later date, which are in the ~$500-600 range.
      6 votes
      1. [2]
        BeardyHat
        Link Parent
        I feel like this is spot on, if only to validate my recent choices. I upgraded from a 2600x to a 5600 recently, because it was damn cheap and I figure down the line, if I need some more...

        I feel like this is spot on, if only to validate my recent choices. I upgraded from a 2600x to a 5600 recently, because it was damn cheap and I figure down the line, if I need some more horsepower, I can slap in a 5800X3D and get it second hand for cheap.

        3 votes
        1. bitwaba
          Link Parent
          Yeah, my old machine as a 2600 with an rxt2070, then I built a new one in March 2022 with a 5600 and moved the video card over to the new machine. In March this year I upgraded to a 5800x3d on the...

          Yeah, my old machine as a 2600 with an rxt2070, then I built a new one in March 2022 with a 5600 and moved the video card over to the new machine.

          In March this year I upgraded to a 5800x3d on the new machine, and slapped a 7900xt in it, then threw the 5600 in the old machine and put the rtx 2070 back in that I can use as my HTPC in the living room.

          I've got practically the best AM4 PC you can buy which should last me 5 years easy, plus a fantastic mid range back up PC hanging out in the living room that I'm eventually going to strip and turn it into my plex server.

          The 5600 is a fantastic CPU that's gonna last me well over half a decade in my home computer fleet.

          1 vote
      2. Eidolon
        Link Parent
        Thank you for suggesting these alternatives - I'll price these up alongside the other options. I only play one very CPU-heavy game - X4 (space simulation sandbox). I'll think on this!

        Thank you for suggesting these alternatives - I'll price these up alongside the other options. I only play one very CPU-heavy game - X4 (space simulation sandbox). I'll think on this!

        2 votes
    3. CptBluebear
      Link Parent
      Generally not even an RTX 4080 needs anything above 850w. You may even get away with it on a 4090 in some cases. PSU calculators tend to overrate by quite a margin. This one from Outervision has...

      Generally not even an RTX 4080 needs anything above 850w. You may even get away with it on a 4090 in some cases.

      PSU calculators tend to overrate by quite a margin. This one from Outervision has always served me well.

      4 votes
    4. [4]
      vord
      Link Parent
      I'll advise going AM5, and doing the jump to DDR5. AMD tends to have longer cycles for mobo sockets. A high end AM5 CPU will hold value longer than an AM4 one since they're not making new AM4...

      I'll advise going AM5, and doing the jump to DDR5. AMD tends to have longer cycles for mobo sockets. A high end AM5 CPU will hold value longer than an AM4 one since they're not making new AM4 chips.

      It'll give the biggest amount of headroom for future upgrades and not needing to do the rebuy again in 2 years.

      4 votes
      1. [3]
        Eidolon
        Link Parent
        I will add this to the options. It's possible that I may have to sell the entire PC in 2 years so will weigh up depreciation on AM4 vs AM5.

        I will add this to the options. It's possible that I may have to sell the entire PC in 2 years so will weigh up depreciation on AM4 vs AM5.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          Toric
          Link Parent
          If I may ask, why selling in 2 years?

          If I may ask, why selling in 2 years?

          1. Eidolon
            Link Parent
            Life stuff - likely big changes with career, family etc. Good chance I won't have time to game anymore.

            Life stuff - likely big changes with career, family etc. Good chance I won't have time to game anymore.

    5. [2]
      Eidolon
      Link Parent
      Thanks so much, your advice is hugely helpful. I think it's time for a new MOBO and CPU, so holding off on the GPU for now. The Noctua also looks fantastic. I forgot to mention case fans. As I...

      Thanks so much, your advice is hugely helpful. I think it's time for a new MOBO and CPU, so holding off on the GPU for now. The Noctua also looks fantastic.

      I forgot to mention case fans. As I didn't build my PC, I'm figuring things out as I go. I've got 2 corsair case fans that I was using previously and a couple sitting around unused. Any pointers on how I can find out if this is sufficient?

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. Eidolon
          Link Parent
          Thanks again. And yes the case is way too big for my needs...I'll think on this!

          Thanks again. And yes the case is way too big for my needs...I'll think on this!