Mid Range Gaming PC - Upgrade

[omniflow]

I posted on here a few months ago looking for advice on a new graphics card, and a number of the replies drew my attention to the fact that pretty much every component on my PC is over 10 years old. All I can say is that as you get older, time definitely does seem to pass an awful lot more quickly.

After several re-thinks I have come to the conclusion that I need to upgrade everything except the case.

I have done some basic googling and come up with the following list of components. None of them are baked in, I would be quite happy to change any / all of them for something else. I don't mind spending £200 or so more than the total I've reached, as long as that will be money well spent.

CPU - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus - £295
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 WINDFORCE MAX - £320
RAM - 32Gb DDR5 - Kingston Fury Beast - £420
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z890 EAGLE - £210
PSU - 850W Corsair - Fully Modular - £90
SSD - 1 TB Samsung 9100 Pro - £220
Cooler - BeQuiet - £80

Total - £1635

I have a single 32" 4K Monitor and mostly play games like Far Cry and Civ 6, but I am after a degree of future proofing and ideally would like this to last another 10 years.

Should I spend another £200 or so on the graphics card?

TIA

[Greedydog]

If you're looking for future proofing then you should go AMD rather than Intel. The CPU/motherboard you have choosen is a dead end with no future upgrade path.

You can get an AMD 7800X3d for less than the price of the Intel CPU you've choosen, and an AMD AM5 motherboard will receive support for future Zen 6 (Q1 2027) and Zen 7 (end 2028) CPUs, so you have an upgrade path for the CPU to far more powerful chips.

I would spend more on the GPU if you can. At the £5-600 point I'd be looking at an AMD 9070XT, although it should be pointed out Nvidia GPUs have the edge in software features. Whatever you do you MUST go for a 16GB GPU, 8GB isn't enough for current, let alone future games.

[Matty_]

That price is absolutely mental. Nothing against the spec, or your choices, but purely where we are in the world and at this point, but £420 for 32GB of RAM is beyond insane. As is £220 for 1TB drive. Good grief.

Greedydog said:

Whatever you do you MUST go for a 16GB GPU, 8GB isn't enough for current, let alone future games.

Agreed 100%. See if you can push for a 5060Ti, which is about £500.

Personally, I like nVidias software too much to move away, but AMD's offerings are much better value for raw power.
The 9060 XT 16GB is faster than the 5060Ti and about £100 cheaper.

[omniflow]

Matty_ said:

That price is absolutely mental. Nothing against the spec, or your choices, but purely where we are in the world and at this point, but £420 for 32GB of RAM is beyond insane. As is £220 for 1TB drive. Good grief.

As I said, I just did some quick googling and put together a random spec in an hour or so. It's been 10 years since I last did this, so I am out of touch. I've had another look, and the best price I can find for something that's in stock is £350 - is that the right level for 32Gb of DDR5 RAM, or is there a "new kid in town" when it comes to PC components? (Scan and Overclockers are the two places I check).

[AlexC1981]

Use pcpartpicker to check compatibility and prices. It's brilliant.

This website is good for checking benchmark results for different combinations of CPU and GPU.

https://www.3dmark.com/search?_ga=2.171231013.4641...

You can still build an effective gaming PC with a 14th gen i5 and used DDR4 for a lot less than current gen DDR5 system, though obviously you won't be able to reuse any of the components next time you upgrade.

The £300 you save by buying used DDR4 could be put towards a better graphics card. A 14th gen i5 with DDR4 RAM and a RTX 5070 graphics card will be better for gaming than a Ryzen 7 7800x3d (a great gaming CPU) with DDR5 RAM and a RTX 5060 card.

RTX 5060 and AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
https://www.3dmark.com/search?_ga=2.171231013.4641...

RTX 5070 and Intel Core i5 processor 14600K
https://www.3dmark.com/search?_ga=2.171231013.4641...

Benchmark results are not everything so it is worth crosschecking youtube where you can usually find a video of people testing actual games with various combinations of hardware.

[captain_cynic]

I'd also question why Intel?

Intel are where AMD was 10 years ago, lost. Might change in the future but that's the future and right now the best gaming CPUs are AMD, especially the x3D models which have additional cache that gaming can really take advantage of.

I just built a new gaming boxen (mostly new, the price of GPUs has made me put off getting a new one). The Ryzen 7 7800x3D is the best bang for buck CPU available right now, I used that in my gaming boxen with a B650 motherboard, Mobo was £130, CPU £290.

Sadly the price of NAND is insane thanks to the AI fad. I cant see it going down in the near future so the price of RAM, GPUs (because they use RAM) and SSDs are crazy.

As mentioned, PC Part Picker is brilliant. the guides are good but use the builder to find the best prices and to help figure out if anything isn't compatible.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/

omniflow said:

Should I spend another £200 or so on the graphics card?

Up to you but honestly, the easiest thing to replace is a GPU these days. So it might be worth holding onto that £200 for a future upgrade when the Geforce 6000 or 7000 are out.

omniflow said:

I need to upgrade everything except the case.

Might as well do that too. It's only £50 for a decent case like a Fractal Focus.

omniflow said:

RAM - 32Gb DDR5 - Kingston Fury Beast - £420

The price of RAM is high, but you can get it for about £100 less than that. Also, RAM these days are CPU brand specific, so make sure you get the one that's means for AMD or Intel.

This is what I built last weekend:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D
Mobo: Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX V2 WIFI
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)
Case: Focus Fractal G
Cooler: ID Cooling A620
PSU: Gigabyte 750w 80+ Gold (can't remember the model no).

I reused the video card (RTX 3070) and storage from my old PC as that was still good but it still cost the better part of £1,100 for the above with a few extras like a DVD drive and case fans.

[Matty_]

omniflow said:

As I said, I just did some quick googling and put together a random spec in an hour or so. It's been 10 years since I last did this, so I am out of touch. I've had another look, and the best price I can find for something that's in stock is £350 - is that the right level for 32Gb of DDR5 RAM, or is there a "new kid in town" when it comes to PC components? (Scan and Overclockers are the two places I check).

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a knock at you in any way, it's just a general moan at where we are with current component prices across the board

Fwiw, I find Overclockers very expensive these days, same with Ebuyer. Scan always worth a look though, as are CCL.

Consider checking in on Hotukdeals. Frequently posting good deals on there for PC parts.

It's also worth considering a pre-build. These days it can work out cheaper, and just sell the old case!

[Solocle]

Matty_ said:

omniflow said:

As I said, I just did some quick googling and put together a random spec in an hour or so. It's been 10 years since I last did this, so I am out of touch. I've had another look, and the best price I can find for something that's in stock is £350 - is that the right level for 32Gb of DDR5 RAM, or is there a "new kid in town" when it comes to PC components? (Scan and Overclockers are the two places I check).

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a knock at you in any way, it's just a general moan at where we are with current component prices across the board

Fwiw, I find Overclockers very expensive these days, same with Ebuyer. Scan always worth a look though, as are CCL.

Consider checking in on Hotukdeals. Frequently posting good deals on there for PC parts.

It's also worth considering a pre-build. These days it can work out cheaper, and just sell the old case!

I picked up a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro for £220 in May. Painful enough, but £200 for 1TB is insane.

[Sixpackpert]

Matty_ said:

omniflow said:

As I said, I just did some quick googling and put together a random spec in an hour or so. It's been 10 years since I last did this, so I am out of touch. I've had another look, and the best price I can find for something that's in stock is £350 - is that the right level for 32Gb of DDR5 RAM, or is there a "new kid in town" when it comes to PC components? (Scan and Overclockers are the two places I check).

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a knock at you in any way, it's just a general moan at where we are with current component prices across the board

Fwiw, I find Overclockers very expensive these days, same with Ebuyer. Scan always worth a look though, as are CCL.

Consider checking in on Hotukdeals. Frequently posting good deals on there for PC parts.

It's also worth considering a pre-build. These days it can work out cheaper, and just sell the old case!

ebuyer went bust earlier this year, or last year, can't remember, and got bought out of admin. I wonder if they don't have the buying power anymore.

[Greedydog]

It certainly pays to shop around, if you’re willing to explore eBay for opened unused type items (buyer beware obvs) and ‘open box’ deals elsewhere online you can make considerable savings, although I always assume no warranty for these sorts of purchases.