Out of the loop: PC upgrade time
Discussion
Looks like this one hasn't been asked so far this year, so here goes:
I have almost always built my own PCs, even having to add the soundcard to my very first one as the shop forgot to put it in... bought in '93, specifically to play Doom... this will be relevant
I can't tell exactly when I built my current system, but the MB was launched Sept 2009 and the processor (i5-760) July 2010, so safe to say it was a while ago now! Even my graphics card is 5 years old - a GTX 960. It does sport some SSDs these days.
Amazingly, this has lasted pretty well until now:
Helped by my tendency to buy games when they are relatively old and cheap (finished first play through of Borderlands 2 a few months back; just finished Witcher 2 (#3 installed...))
Hindered by my moving up to a 2K (2560x1440) display a while back. The 960 has even managed manfully for a while at that.
But, I just downloaded new Doom
( Well, I say new, 2016 - £15 on Steam ).
All of a sudden, my poor old rig is struggling. I've turned off/down everything I can in the video choices; the only way I can reliably see even 30fps is by knocking the resolution down to (I think it was) 1176x664, the lowest it would let me set 16:9.
A quick overlay with MSI Afterburner shows all my CPU cores going at 100% at both resolutions; the GPU drops from 100% to a mere 80% at the lower one.
So, for 2k gaming, I'm clearly both CPU and GPU limited.
New build time!
Please note: I like bang-per-buck, and am a strong believer in breakpoints and the law of diminishing returns. There's always a point where it suddenly costs a lot more to go a bit faster and I like to buy just below there.
So, a few questions:
1) Is socket architecture changing much at the moment - is it worth worrying about it? The CPU upgrades available for my old LGA1156 MB might have good at the time, but are utterly pointless the best part of ten years later.
2) For CPUs, I've always been an Intel fanboy, but AMD currently seem to be getting the nudge as the better budget gaming buy - is that fair?
3) Is DDR4 worth buying for my bang-per-buck rig, given I've got 12Gb of DDR3 in this machine (2x4Gb, 2x2Gb)?
4) I'm already pretty set on a GTX 1660 Super for the graphics card... I'm just not worried about raytracing at the moment - chances are it'll be years before I buy a game that supports it - but it will be coming and that dampens my wish to spend lots on the GPU now. I can see the 1660 Super is already a little underpowered for 2k gaming, but anything better looks to cost a lot more! I'm really not keen on AMD graphics due to many bad experiences over the years - it may not be rational, but it's Nvidia only for me (and 3dfx/Voodoo before that!). Is this part of my plan sensible, or would it be worth investing more heavily here?
5) If I'm changing the MB, CPU and GPU, should I have any problems just plugging my current drives back in to the new hardware?
In the past this has created all sorts of driver issues and ended up in a clean install, which I'd rather avoid. I know I'll have to reactivate Windows10, but so far as I understand it, these days it's far more actually plug'n'play than in the good old days. I've got 2 SATA SSDs - one for C: and one for current games, and a big HD for general storage, so I'm in no rush to replace those, either.
6) Anything else I should consider?
I'll probably pick up a new PSU as the one I have is probably the best part of 10 years old like the rest of the core system, and maybe some new case fans as they're a minimum of 5 years old too, and working pretty much 24/7.
Sorry it's a long read, thanks if you made it!
TL/DR: ok to just replace MB, CPU, GPU? Best bang-per-buck buys?
I have almost always built my own PCs, even having to add the soundcard to my very first one as the shop forgot to put it in... bought in '93, specifically to play Doom... this will be relevant
I can't tell exactly when I built my current system, but the MB was launched Sept 2009 and the processor (i5-760) July 2010, so safe to say it was a while ago now! Even my graphics card is 5 years old - a GTX 960. It does sport some SSDs these days.
Amazingly, this has lasted pretty well until now:
Helped by my tendency to buy games when they are relatively old and cheap (finished first play through of Borderlands 2 a few months back; just finished Witcher 2 (#3 installed...))
Hindered by my moving up to a 2K (2560x1440) display a while back. The 960 has even managed manfully for a while at that.
But, I just downloaded new Doom
( Well, I say new, 2016 - £15 on Steam ). All of a sudden, my poor old rig is struggling. I've turned off/down everything I can in the video choices; the only way I can reliably see even 30fps is by knocking the resolution down to (I think it was) 1176x664, the lowest it would let me set 16:9.
A quick overlay with MSI Afterburner shows all my CPU cores going at 100% at both resolutions; the GPU drops from 100% to a mere 80% at the lower one.
So, for 2k gaming, I'm clearly both CPU and GPU limited.
New build time!
Please note: I like bang-per-buck, and am a strong believer in breakpoints and the law of diminishing returns. There's always a point where it suddenly costs a lot more to go a bit faster and I like to buy just below there.
So, a few questions:
1) Is socket architecture changing much at the moment - is it worth worrying about it? The CPU upgrades available for my old LGA1156 MB might have good at the time, but are utterly pointless the best part of ten years later.
2) For CPUs, I've always been an Intel fanboy, but AMD currently seem to be getting the nudge as the better budget gaming buy - is that fair?
3) Is DDR4 worth buying for my bang-per-buck rig, given I've got 12Gb of DDR3 in this machine (2x4Gb, 2x2Gb)?
4) I'm already pretty set on a GTX 1660 Super for the graphics card... I'm just not worried about raytracing at the moment - chances are it'll be years before I buy a game that supports it - but it will be coming and that dampens my wish to spend lots on the GPU now. I can see the 1660 Super is already a little underpowered for 2k gaming, but anything better looks to cost a lot more! I'm really not keen on AMD graphics due to many bad experiences over the years - it may not be rational, but it's Nvidia only for me (and 3dfx/Voodoo before that!). Is this part of my plan sensible, or would it be worth investing more heavily here?
5) If I'm changing the MB, CPU and GPU, should I have any problems just plugging my current drives back in to the new hardware?
In the past this has created all sorts of driver issues and ended up in a clean install, which I'd rather avoid. I know I'll have to reactivate Windows10, but so far as I understand it, these days it's far more actually plug'n'play than in the good old days. I've got 2 SATA SSDs - one for C: and one for current games, and a big HD for general storage, so I'm in no rush to replace those, either.
6) Anything else I should consider?
I'll probably pick up a new PSU as the one I have is probably the best part of 10 years old like the rest of the core system, and maybe some new case fans as they're a minimum of 5 years old too, and working pretty much 24/7.
Sorry it's a long read, thanks if you made it!
TL/DR: ok to just replace MB, CPU, GPU? Best bang-per-buck buys?
1) I believe Ryzen is going to be announcing a new gen soon but I'm a bit out of the loop and I don't know much about it. I'm fairly certain it will be keeping the same chipset though.
2) I have always went Intel previously, but my next build will be AMD based for sure. Most people will agree the AMD is the way to go.
3) Unfortunately you will need to buy DDR4 ram as DDR3 is not compatible with the new generations of CPU's (both Intel and AMD).
4) I just upgraded to a RTX 2060 (I will never use Ray-Tracing either) and I have heard it can hold it own with 2k gaming but I have not tried it. Maybe look up some gameplay on Youtube of 1060 2k gameplay? I agree you should stick with Nvidia here but people will disagree.
5) You may get away with nuking all your old drivers and not having to reformat your SSD but YMMV. Plenty tutorials online (DDU is a good one for display drivers).
6) I would 100% get a new 500-600w PSU. Not worth the risk of blowing up your new build with a 10 year old PSU.
Its looking like a whole new build would be your best option (bar case).
EDIT: Theres also a huge second hand market. My build contains mostly second hand parts apart from storage and PSU. I highly recommend having a look on the bay and Facebook market. I picked up my CPU (i7 6700) for £100 off the eBay used price on FB market a few years back. Still working 100% but a little riskier then buying from eBay (buyers protection and such).
2) I have always went Intel previously, but my next build will be AMD based for sure. Most people will agree the AMD is the way to go.
3) Unfortunately you will need to buy DDR4 ram as DDR3 is not compatible with the new generations of CPU's (both Intel and AMD).
4) I just upgraded to a RTX 2060 (I will never use Ray-Tracing either) and I have heard it can hold it own with 2k gaming but I have not tried it. Maybe look up some gameplay on Youtube of 1060 2k gameplay? I agree you should stick with Nvidia here but people will disagree.
5) You may get away with nuking all your old drivers and not having to reformat your SSD but YMMV. Plenty tutorials online (DDU is a good one for display drivers).
6) I would 100% get a new 500-600w PSU. Not worth the risk of blowing up your new build with a 10 year old PSU.
Its looking like a whole new build would be your best option (bar case).
EDIT: Theres also a huge second hand market. My build contains mostly second hand parts apart from storage and PSU. I highly recommend having a look on the bay and Facebook market. I picked up my CPU (i7 6700) for £100 off the eBay used price on FB market a few years back. Still working 100% but a little riskier then buying from eBay (buyers protection and such).
Edited by RossJM on Monday 24th February 01:27
Edited by RossJM on Monday 24th February 01:31
RossJM said:
1) I believe Ryzen is going to be announcing a new gen soon but I'm a bit out of the loop and I don't know much about it. I'm fairly certain it will be keeping the same chipset though.
2) I have always went Intel previously, but my next build will be AMD based for sure. Most people will agree the AMD is the way to go.
3) Unfortunately you will need to buy DDR4 ram as DDR3 is not compatible with the new generations of CPU's (both Intel and AMD).
4) I just upgraded to a RTX 2060 (I will never use Ray-Tracing either) and I have heard it can hold it own with 2k gaming but I have not tried it. Maybe look up some gameplay on Youtube of 1060 2k gameplay? I agree you should stick with Nvidia here but people will disagree.
5) You may get away with nuking all your old drivers and not having to reformat your SSD but YMMV. Plenty tutorials online (DDU is a good one for display drivers).
6) I would 100% get a new 500-600w PSU. Not worth the risk of blowing up your new build with a 10 year old PSU.
Its looking like a whole new build would be your best option (bar case).
EDIT: Theres also a huge second hand market. My build contains mostly second hand parts apart from storage and PSU. I highly recommend having a look on the bay and Facebook market. I picked up my CPU (i7 6700) for £100 off the eBay used price on FB market a few years back. Still working 100% but a little riskier then buying from eBay (buyers protection and such).
1) There's always a new thing about to be launched... I learnt to ignore that years ago, or you'd never actually buy anything!2) I have always went Intel previously, but my next build will be AMD based for sure. Most people will agree the AMD is the way to go.
3) Unfortunately you will need to buy DDR4 ram as DDR3 is not compatible with the new generations of CPU's (both Intel and AMD).
4) I just upgraded to a RTX 2060 (I will never use Ray-Tracing either) and I have heard it can hold it own with 2k gaming but I have not tried it. Maybe look up some gameplay on Youtube of 1060 2k gameplay? I agree you should stick with Nvidia here but people will disagree.
5) You may get away with nuking all your old drivers and not having to reformat your SSD but YMMV. Plenty tutorials online (DDU is a good one for display drivers).
6) I would 100% get a new 500-600w PSU. Not worth the risk of blowing up your new build with a 10 year old PSU.
Its looking like a whole new build would be your best option (bar case).
EDIT: Theres also a huge second hand market. My build contains mostly second hand parts apart from storage and PSU. I highly recommend having a look on the bay and Facebook market. I picked up my CPU (i7 6700) for £100 off the eBay used price on FB market a few years back. Still working 100% but a little riskier then buying from eBay (buyers protection and such).
3) Damn. At least RAM prices appear sensible at the moment. Still best to have a matched pair rather than all on one stick?
4) That's a good idea, thanks - I'll hit youtube
And for the edit:
Hmmmm, I've been burnt before buying second hand, and it makes trouble shooting much more difficult IMO. And, tbf, after 5/10 years, I can afford new parts! (Yes, I know they can fail too, but at least warranty is fairly clear/easy.) But I'll have a dig about and a think about it.
I'm more likely to be contributing by selling rather than buying (my graphics card looks like it'll fetch £50, for a start).
My overnight thought is to spend more on the CPU for now as it's likely that will have to serve much longer than the graphics.
Not that we are narrowing down options or anything yet, but to keep your thread going. More answers below.
Modern games use the multiple cores and threads of a cpu quite well now. So more than four threads is a must. I've monitored mine during PubG and all twelve threads are nicely balanced.
When you buy a mobo, if it is dual channel then ram in two slots is more effective.
I bought a second hand 1080ti for £500 around 16 months ago.
You can build a "relatively" cost effect AMD system and they are no longer a poor brother to intel.
As a starter - I'd buy a 650w PSU - 1080ti second hand, 8700k intel i7 second hand, mobo to go with it. ddr4 ram 16gb (you don't need the fast rated stuff, 2400mhz is fine (I went from 2400mhz to 3333mhz and saw zero FPS improvement in any game).
New Mobos will come with NVME slots for very fast NVME drives. 128gb is fine for your system drive and put your favourite game on it - keep your other SSDs for mass storage.
Ideally some sort of corsair all in one liquid cooler is the best simple solution for the CPU. 240mm.
Most modern cases take radiators very well. Obviously you can run it air cooled on the CPU. Either in the long run or just short term to balance the budget.
Fire back with how your investigations are going. (1080 will be fine for 1440p, 1080ti does very well but is more expensive obv).
RW
Modern games use the multiple cores and threads of a cpu quite well now. So more than four threads is a must. I've monitored mine during PubG and all twelve threads are nicely balanced.
When you buy a mobo, if it is dual channel then ram in two slots is more effective.
I bought a second hand 1080ti for £500 around 16 months ago.
You can build a "relatively" cost effect AMD system and they are no longer a poor brother to intel.
As a starter - I'd buy a 650w PSU - 1080ti second hand, 8700k intel i7 second hand, mobo to go with it. ddr4 ram 16gb (you don't need the fast rated stuff, 2400mhz is fine (I went from 2400mhz to 3333mhz and saw zero FPS improvement in any game).
New Mobos will come with NVME slots for very fast NVME drives. 128gb is fine for your system drive and put your favourite game on it - keep your other SSDs for mass storage.
Ideally some sort of corsair all in one liquid cooler is the best simple solution for the CPU. 240mm.
Most modern cases take radiators very well. Obviously you can run it air cooled on the CPU. Either in the long run or just short term to balance the budget.
Fire back with how your investigations are going. (1080 will be fine for 1440p, 1080ti does very well but is more expensive obv).
RW
300bhp/ton said:
Can’t help with the pc specs. But all I can say is, I was so disappointed with that new Doom 2016. Almost as bad as Doom 3.
It really isn’t Doom at all. I’m currently playing Gzdoom and running through the Doom64 wad.
Lordy! Doom 3 was the first and last scary doom. Whilst a move away from the norm, it made you jump out of your seat.It really isn’t Doom at all. I’m currently playing Gzdoom and running through the Doom64 wad.
Doom 2016 was utterly intense If you played it at a relatively higher difficulty level. I enjoyed it, though it dragged out later on.
Steven_RW said:
Lordy! Doom 3 was the first and last scary doom. Whilst a move away from the norm, it made you jump out of your seat.
Doom was scary. It was the first (and one of very few games) which found me physically leaning around the monitor to see if I could see just a little bit around the next corner...Steven_RW said:
Lordy! Doom 3 was the first and last scary doom. Whilst a move away from the norm, it made you jump out of your seat.
Doom 2016 was utterly intense If you played it at a relatively higher difficulty level. I enjoyed it, though it dragged out later on.
Yet they neither play like proper Doom does. They are just facades using the name for marketing purposes. Doom 2016 was utterly intense If you played it at a relatively higher difficulty level. I enjoyed it, though it dragged out later on.
They might be ok or even good games in their own right. But Doom they ain’t.
I read on Wiki the other day Doom 2016 is intended for you to rush in. And collect health from killing enemies. Where in any of the original content was it remotely similar? I know Doom speed runs are quite fun. But running straight in is not normally the way to play Doom. Tactics and strategy played a far bigger role.
I put this together last June:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/tubbytucker/saved...
Got a freebie Win 10 version (legit) so saved £100; I would probably have spent more on the mobo if I realised I hadbought 2 x 2 sticks of ram - did that by mistake. I do a lot of video/photo editing as well as playing some games so too much is just right. Pretty happy with everything, had a case already so used that. I got an AMD 1660 6gb vid card (I think - at work now so can't check) I would like to add my old HDD's as well but not enough room in the case for them, would need extension card as well on the mobo I think.
Aimed for around a grand, for your budget you should be able to put something pretty good together. AMD sees to use the same socket so you can upgrade the CPU later. I found https://uk.pcpartpicker.com very useful.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/tubbytucker/saved...
Got a freebie Win 10 version (legit) so saved £100; I would probably have spent more on the mobo if I realised I hadbought 2 x 2 sticks of ram - did that by mistake. I do a lot of video/photo editing as well as playing some games so too much is just right. Pretty happy with everything, had a case already so used that. I got an AMD 1660 6gb vid card (I think - at work now so can't check) I would like to add my old HDD's as well but not enough room in the case for them, would need extension card as well on the mobo I think.
Aimed for around a grand, for your budget you should be able to put something pretty good together. AMD sees to use the same socket so you can upgrade the CPU later. I found https://uk.pcpartpicker.com very useful.
Steven_RW said:
I bought a second hand 1080ti for £500 around 16 months ago.
You can build a "relatively" cost effect AMD system and they are no longer a poor brother to intel.
As a starter - I'd buy a 650w PSU - 1080ti second hand, 8700k intel i7 second hand, mobo to go with it. ddr4 ram 16gb (you don't need the fast rated stuff, 2400mhz is fine (I went from 2400mhz to 3333mhz and saw zero FPS improvement in any game).
(1080 will be fine for 1440p, 1080ti does very well but is more expensive obv).
RW
Arggh! This is what I hate about upgarding, so many options, so much budget creep! You can build a "relatively" cost effect AMD system and they are no longer a poor brother to intel.
As a starter - I'd buy a 650w PSU - 1080ti second hand, 8700k intel i7 second hand, mobo to go with it. ddr4 ram 16gb (you don't need the fast rated stuff, 2400mhz is fine (I went from 2400mhz to 3333mhz and saw zero FPS improvement in any game).
(1080 will be fine for 1440p, 1080ti does very well but is more expensive obv).
RW
I was sorta hoping to keep the whole budget nearer £500 for now, maybe £600+, but by £700 I'll be getting twitchy.
I can't see that second hand 1070/1080/ti offer any more or less bang-per-buck than a new 1660 super; if I was going to up the GPU budget to £300 ish + , I'd probably bite the bullet and get an RTX of some flavour... but I can't help that feel by the time I really want ray tracing, those cards will be out of date, and I'd want to upgrade again anyway.
A look on YouTube and review/benchmarking sites suggests a 1660 super will throw Doom 1440p maxed out quality around at anything between 80-120fps, depending where you look (and, I think, test rig specs). It'll also do Witcher 3 with everything (inc Hairworks) maxed out at 50+fps which is acceptable to me, for now.
So, to my mind, with my budget, £200 is the sweet spot for the GPU.
That leaves £300-400 for the rest.
£75 on 16GB RAM and £60 for a PSU, leaves £165-265 for CPU + MB
An i5 9400F is in budget, but your suggestion is out of reach even second hand.
Also, a wide variety of Rayzen CPUs are do-able, but I've got little idea of how the range works... maybe time for some learning.
The MBs for AMD appear to be a little cheaper on the whole then Intel ones; again that would give me more headroom to spend on the CPU itself.
This is also supported by your comment about number of threads being important these days; and again by the frame rates on the benchmarks which at a quick glance do seem to vary by CPU, suggesting this card will still be somewhat limited by CPU power.
So to me this all still points to spending a little more on the CPU vs more on the graphics.
While extras like an NVMe drive would be nice, i think they'll have to go on the back burner for now - so long as the MB supports them, they can be an affordable upgrade in the future.
Keep your eyes peeled for a Ryzen 5 3600. They've been as low as 170 recently. Wouldn't bother mucking about with some old second hand CPU from Fleabay.
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, about £90
16GB RAM. Corsair Vengeance Pro 3600 £88 on Amazon at the moment.
The improvement to NVME from SSD is negligible. Keep your eyes peeled for the Crucial MX500 SSD. 1TB regularly drops to £90.
Don't skimp on your PSU. Grab an EVGA G3 or similar.
GFX - Sky is the limit here. I've been running a 5600XT since release, all over the shop initially but few driver updates and it's stable now. Though still hard to recommend. Not sure if you mentioned monitor you have but there isn't point in getting a card to do 1440 if you monitor tops out at 1080 and I wouldn't get hung up on things like Ray Tracing for a couple of years.
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, about £90
16GB RAM. Corsair Vengeance Pro 3600 £88 on Amazon at the moment.
The improvement to NVME from SSD is negligible. Keep your eyes peeled for the Crucial MX500 SSD. 1TB regularly drops to £90.
Don't skimp on your PSU. Grab an EVGA G3 or similar.
GFX - Sky is the limit here. I've been running a 5600XT since release, all over the shop initially but few driver updates and it's stable now. Though still hard to recommend. Not sure if you mentioned monitor you have but there isn't point in getting a card to do 1440 if you monitor tops out at 1080 and I wouldn't get hung up on things like Ray Tracing for a couple of years.
I'd go with this if you plan on using a GTX 1660 Super, gfx card, memory, mobo and cpu for £452 - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/nTNMMc still up-gradable motherboard for CPUs later if you want to go further.
You can reuse SSD, HDD and anything else, or change other bits if you want to like PSU (550w is always the sweet spot)
Also keep an eye on Amazon "Today's deals" as Crucial memory have been on a few times recently and you can sometimes get it for less.
You can reuse SSD, HDD and anything else, or change other bits if you want to like PSU (550w is always the sweet spot)
Also keep an eye on Amazon "Today's deals" as Crucial memory have been on a few times recently and you can sometimes get it for less.
FourWheelDrift said:
I'd go with this if you plan on using a GTX 1660 Super, gfx card, memory, mobo and cpu for £452 - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/nTNMMc still up-gradable motherboard for CPUs later if you want to go further.
You can reuse SSD, HDD and anything else, or change other bits if you want to like PSU (550w is always the sweet spot)
Also keep an eye on Amazon "Today's deals" as Crucial memory have been on a few times recently and you can sometimes get it for less.
Alternatively, I wouldn't touch that at all. You can reuse SSD, HDD and anything else, or change other bits if you want to like PSU (550w is always the sweet spot)
Also keep an eye on Amazon "Today's deals" as Crucial memory have been on a few times recently and you can sometimes get it for less.
bungz said:
Nothing wrong with a 2600 at that price, its a cracking CPU if you are on a budget.
And for stock use a low end B450 is similarly fine though Gigabytes b450m ds3h would be my choice.
Yes, it's a perfect match (power and price) for the OPs budget and choice of 1660S card, which I why I suggested it. Unless he thinks it should have a Radeon gfx card in there instead, but I wouldn't touch them And for stock use a low end B450 is similarly fine though Gigabytes b450m ds3h would be my choice.
But then again I'm very happy with my RTX ray tracing Budget is always a major factor so i do the same as you and stay a safe distance behind the curve.
About three weeks ago i decided to upgrade my 6yr old PC with a second hand GPU. I opted for a 1080ti of Ebay for £340.
After much messing about trying to get good results i came to the realisation that it was a great card, but i needed to upgrade everything else to make it work as it should.
So, rather than messing about, i got back on Ebay/marketplace and bought a nicely upgraded Dell XPS 8930 with i7-7700/SSD/HD/DDR4 and a GTX1060 for £500.
Only then did i discover the bloody 1080ti would not fit in the new machine.
It turned out though that the Dell with the 1060 was a really good upgrade over what i had so i sold the 1080ti for £80 profit.
So, i have a completely new machine (to me) and moved my old storage drives into it so i could sell the old one. My 'upgrade' has cost about £250.
About three weeks ago i decided to upgrade my 6yr old PC with a second hand GPU. I opted for a 1080ti of Ebay for £340.
After much messing about trying to get good results i came to the realisation that it was a great card, but i needed to upgrade everything else to make it work as it should.
So, rather than messing about, i got back on Ebay/marketplace and bought a nicely upgraded Dell XPS 8930 with i7-7700/SSD/HD/DDR4 and a GTX1060 for £500.
Only then did i discover the bloody 1080ti would not fit in the new machine.
It turned out though that the Dell with the 1060 was a really good upgrade over what i had so i sold the 1080ti for £80 profit.
So, i have a completely new machine (to me) and moved my old storage drives into it so i could sell the old one. My 'upgrade' has cost about £250.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/amd-ryzen-5-3600-...
Just by chance found this and remembered this thread, As cheap as ive ever seen it.
I have the 3700x and had a 1600x before that. AMD are definitely the best bang for buck CPU's at the moment. Im still on my original b350 board which is holding up no issues.
graphics cards unfortunately have stuck at insanse prices ever since the crypto boom and dont show any signs of changing, The top of the range cards went from around £600 mark to £1200 in one generation and muggles bought them.
I got a second hand 1080ti on an ebay bargain and will probably be with it for sometime yet.
Just by chance found this and remembered this thread, As cheap as ive ever seen it.
I have the 3700x and had a 1600x before that. AMD are definitely the best bang for buck CPU's at the moment. Im still on my original b350 board which is holding up no issues.
graphics cards unfortunately have stuck at insanse prices ever since the crypto boom and dont show any signs of changing, The top of the range cards went from around £600 mark to £1200 in one generation and muggles bought them.
I got a second hand 1080ti on an ebay bargain and will probably be with it for sometime yet.
If I had as tight a budget as the OP.
I'd go Ryzen 5 3600 and o/c to 3600x levels. 154 quid on Amazon
B450 Motherboard. 100 or thereabouts
16GB of whatever fastest DDR4 configuration was available cheapest at the time 2x8 gb sticks about 80.
AMD RX5700- the cheapest board I could find. I got a reference card for 270 which I bios flashed to a 5700XT. In another league of performance than lesser cards mentioned on this thread for similar cost.
PSU EVGA/Corsair as mentioned earlier 60.
SSD 1tb you can get a Samsung QVO drive for 100.
Add a cheap case and you'd have a decent machine for 800 quid or so.
I'd go Ryzen 5 3600 and o/c to 3600x levels. 154 quid on Amazon
B450 Motherboard. 100 or thereabouts
16GB of whatever fastest DDR4 configuration was available cheapest at the time 2x8 gb sticks about 80.
AMD RX5700- the cheapest board I could find. I got a reference card for 270 which I bios flashed to a 5700XT. In another league of performance than lesser cards mentioned on this thread for similar cost.
PSU EVGA/Corsair as mentioned earlier 60.
SSD 1tb you can get a Samsung QVO drive for 100.
Add a cheap case and you'd have a decent machine for 800 quid or so.
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