PC Upgrade - Bang for buck?

TheDoc

Hi all,

For the first time in I think I can remember want to prep myself for potential Black Friday bargains. So while I have loads of things picked out (case, fans, AIO etc) a core part of my purchases I want to check.

Rig is mostly if not exclusively for gaming, World of Warcraft, CoD MW, GTA5, Witcher 3 and soon RDR2

I currently run the below

CPU - Intel I7 4770
MOBO - MSI B85-G41
RAM - Some DDR3 Crucial

I'm looking at

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600
MOBO - MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
RAM - Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16

I have an Nvidia 1070 I bought on release that I figure will do fine for now, if I want next year can pickup a 5700 or even look into a newer gen of card.

Appreciate the feedback

K.O.Kiki

TBH you'd probably see a bigger FPS increase with a GPU upgrade.

TheDoc

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

TBH you'd probably see a bigger FPS increase with a GPU upgrade.

Really?

I didn't think it would be that significant for the outlay of 350-400 euro, interesting

K.O.Kiki

TheDoc wrote: »

Really?

I didn't think it would be that significant for the outlay of 350-400 euro, interesting

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/5266665/spy/9209457/spy/7919174/spy/9185382

I'd look into RX 5700 / 5700 XT, plus you can still get €200 back for the 1070.

That's not to say a platform upgrade is bad. If your main games are GPU-bound though, invest there.

Simi

It's generally better to be GPU limited rather than CPU limited. If you pair a 5700 with that setup you're going to be immediately CPU bound and you may notice increased hitching and stutter depending on the game and your target resolution/framerate.

It's a 100% increase in CPU performance. Personally I'd go with the platform upgrade and pick up a new GPU when you can afford it, and if you can do both then all the better

TheDoc

Appreciate the feedback, I don't proclaim to be a know it all or think I know best.

My thinking was that my CPU is someways old, and the new CPU and associated RAM would give a bigger bump. Didn't think a GPU upgrade would actually give the biggest benefit, it's only two years old!

Think I'm maybe going to get ridiculous, combine the good info given and just.....do both? :P

Push comes to shove I'm not sure I can justify a near €800 spend in one go, but in terms of the CPU, Mobo and RAM, I'm ok on that front ?

In terms of GPU, I had earmarked this one, that a good shout?

Homelander

You also didn't mention what kind of monitor you have which makes recommendations difficult. If it's 1080p 60hz no upgrade will make any real difference. If it is 1440p 60hz, a GPU upgrade makes way more sense. If it is 1080p 144hz, a CPU upgrade makes more sense. etc.

The 4770 and 1070 are still reasonably decent and impossible to recommend either one to swap without knowing the monitor type really. I would consider just selling the full pc 2nd hand and building a new one from scratch?

TheDoc

Homelander wrote: »

You also didn't mention what kind of monitor you have which makes recommendations difficult. If it's 1080p 60hz no upgrade will make any real difference. If it is 1440p 60hz, a GPU upgrade makes way more sense. If it is 1080p 144hz, a CPU upgrade makes more sense. etc.

The 4770 and 1070 are still reasonably decent and impossible to recommend either one to swap without knowing the monitor type really. I would consider just selling the full pc 2nd hand and building a new one from scratch?

Sorry thought I mentioned.

Monitor is 1080p 144hz. I’ve no intention of adopting 1440p anytime in the immediate future so I don’t factor it in any sort of futureproofing

Also I am effectively building a new Pc if I go with both upgrade paths. I haven’t marked out here but I’m changing case and the works.

Plan to retain PSU and my SSDs

TheDoc

Decided to go with platform upgrade now shortly (I’ve assumed Black Friday/ cyber Monday might actual give a few bob off) and then will look at GPU upgrade shortly after

Either pulling money back from my current stuff I’ll sell or an Xmas treat

SweetCaliber

TheDoc wrote: »

Decided to go with platform upgrade now shortly (I’ve assumed Black Friday/ cyber Monday might actual give a few bob off) and then will look at GPU upgrade shortly after

Either pulling money back from my current stuff I’ll sell or an Xmas treat

Probably the best route to take.

The Powercolor RedDevil RX5700XT has dropped to £405 at the moment, cheapest I've seen it.

cherryghost

I have the standard Powercolour 5700XT dual fan, which is 380 pounds, cant fault it really. Runs cool.

Kimbot

cherryghost wrote: »

I have the standard Powercolour 5700XT dual fan, which is 380 pounds, cant fault it really. Runs cool.

Whats the difference between all the powercolour varients? Red Dragon/Red Devil etc

cherryghost

Kimbot wrote: »

Whats the difference between all the powercolour varients? Red Dragon/Red Devil etc

The other variants have 3 fans, and a larger pcb design, meaning better heat disappation under the hood across the card. I have the dual fan one inside an mATX case, no issues with cooling on my side.

Runs a few degrees hotter but still hits the boost speeds when maxed out. If you're looking to save 30-40 euro, I would personally recommend it.

Kimbot

cherryghost wrote: »

The other variants have 3 fans, and a larger pcb design, meaning better heat disappation under the hood across the card. I have the dual fan one inside an mATX case, no issues with cooling on my side.

Runs a few degrees hotter but still hits the boost speeds when maxed out. If you're looking to save 30-40 euro, I would personally recommend it.

Perfect, I am looking at a 5700XT at the moment and overclocking wont be done so I was thinking of getting a cheaper 5700xt varient

TheDoc

Ugh starting to have second thoughts in terms of the colour of what the build will look like.

I was planning on NZXT H510 / Corsair Carbide RGB and then accompanying it with white RGB fans from Corsair, the white Corsair RAM and a white Corsair AIO

Now I'm looking at my case, its a Fractal Design R4 I've had easily 6-7 years, and I'm thinking I might not change it at all

SweetCaliber

TheDoc wrote: »

Ugh starting to have second thoughts in terms of the colour of what the build will look like.

I was planning on NZXT H510 / Corsair Carbide RGB and then accompanying it with white RGB fans from Corsair, the white Corsair RAM and a white Corsair AIO

Now I'm looking at my case, its a Fractal Design R4 I've had easily 6-7 years, and I'm thinking I might not change it at all

I have the Carbide Spec 06 RGB White case. I also have the White RGB Corsair Vengeance RAM. Both look very well together.

I currently have the Wraith Max cooler but will be going AIO again in the future.

The carbide is a solid case, Looks mad class, but doesn't overdo it. Plenty of space inside also.

TheDoc

So my parts are sitting at 333 pound

AMD Ryzen 5 3600
MSI Tomahawk Max
Corsair Vengeance LpX 26GB 3200

Going to wait to see if anything goes down next Friday or the Monday. Amazon showing the cheapest.

Also put a Powercolor 5700xt Red Dragon in my wishlist. At 360 on Amazon but all that more then what I want to spend at the moment. Will maybe grab the GPU over Xmas or early in the new year.

Or when my PS4 sells. Didn’t not think it would sit on adverts for aslong as it has

TheDoc

Wake up this morning to only someone putting an offer on stuff I'm selling on adverts.

Looks like that new GPU might happen along with the rest of the build :O

Happy days

TheDoc

Ended up picking up my parts from CCL, as Amazon had no stock for the Tomahawk max and I'm not waiting a month haha

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Mobo - MSI Tomahawk Max
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3200

€415 all in.

Will look to pickup a 5700XT over Xmas or in the New Year

Now to try sell my existing parts

Thanks for the help all, as usual felt like I got put on the right path

cherryghost

The 5700XT I posted is 35 pound off atm too

TheDoc

cherryghost wrote: »

The 5700XT I posted is 35 pound off atm too

Yeah think it's still out of what I'm comfortable spending before Christmas, would bring the upgrade to around 700-750 euro in total.

More palatable for the boss if I do this at Xmas or Jan

TheDoc

Parts I ordered Friday from CCL arrived this morning. Have to say that is pretty good going, Black Friday aside that is fast delivery, and considering they were probably rammed really impressed with that

Cant wait to get home from work and build

TheDoc

Ah wonderful. All night building and cable managing for pc to post but fail to boot into windows. Blue screens and asking me to run startup repair with a disc

K.O.Kiki

Did you do a clean install of Windows?
Using an old install for a new motherboard/CPU combo is a no-no.

TheDoc

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Did you do a clean install of Windows?
Using an old install for a new motherboard/CPU combo is a no-no.

No I was hoping it would just boot up. I need to do a fresh install ?

Been that long since I’ve done a platform change. Obvious now you say it.

Fml. I use a second SSD for games. Does that need formatting or will that recognize if I just do a windows install.

I didn’t back up anything on my existing games...that’s some effort redoing custom UIs in wow and keybinds in certain games haha

joejoggs

TheDoc wrote: »

No I was hoping it would just boot up. I need to do a fresh install ?

Fml. I use a second SSD for games. Does that need formatting or will that recognize if I just do a windows install.

I didn’t back up anything on my existing games...

Are you on Windows 10 or Windows 7?

wotzgoingon

I'd leave out the second SSD till things are up and running.

TheDoc

Ah so somewhat crisis averted.

Turns out my OS SSD sata cable came out when I was putting the back panel on. So hooked that securely and system recognized three drives.

I had plugged in my Western Digital HDD via usb and that was causing bother so unhooked that.

Then went through just a fresh install of windows and everything looking good.

Just home so want to try my games to see if they just kick off and work. But even if they don’t I have access to the folders to make backups of keybindings configs and ui layouts so all good

For the first time actually cable managed(never cared before) and stripped loads of things out of my case. Optical drives, led strips, old hard drives.

Actually really loving how it looks. Unfortunately didn’t take any pics but might throw one up later

Definitely thinking next time out might buy a new psu that is modular with custom sleeping. The multi colored ones look **** now in my black and white build and the cables were just a nightmare. So many of them stuffed in the back cable tied with no use.

TheDoc

Well all and in all pretty happy with how this all went. Also pulled the trigger on a XFX RX 5700 DD that arrived today a day ahead of schedule and swopping over was smooth sailing.

Thanks everyone for the help and advice

BloodBath

How you finding the card? I've undervolted and overclocked mine a bit and set a custom fan curve but sometimes can still hear the fans ramping up.

Looking at the fan speed graph it seems to spike up every now and again despite the gpu temps being stable.

TheDoc

BloodBath wrote: »

How you finding the card? I've undervolted and overclocked mine a bit and set a custom fan curve but sometimes can still hear the fans ramping up.

Looking at the fan speed graph it seems to spike up every now and again despite the gpu temps being stable.

Very impressed and happy to be honest.

Only issue I have at present is a cold boot, the first time I turn on PC. From googling seems to be a common issue with this motherboard and Ryzen, so it needs some BIOS update to solve? I don't know.

Card seems to be fine, at the moment the AMD cooler makes all the noise,so when I get an AIO in I'll know how rough the GPU is. But I tend to avoid any sort of messing with components in terms of overclocking etc.

In terms of real world stuff, I was getting 90 or so FPS in Modern Warfare and yesterday it was a solid 160, even though I set it to cap at 144. So I'm pretty happy, massive real world improvement