upgrading my current pc - help

sidimmu

sidimmu

sidimmu

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Hey all,

running a pc i built in 2012 currently and looking to upgrade, looking to spend £1000 but can be pushed to £1100 if really worth it. I'm trying to keep it M-atx due to wanting to downgrade my case size. Need space for one more SSD and 2 HDD's.
I have specced the following, anyone notice any absolute clangers ive dropped at all?
Or anyone find anything better for my money?
Interested in m.2 drives but unsure if worth it currently?
ive not specced up amd and vega due to im mainly an intel guy, also im cautious of any compatability issues, i cba for that :D
yes I know two cases also, due to unsure which to pick at the moment, again any better suggestions throw it out there.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,207.78 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​
 

Quartz

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For bang for buck go AMD, not Intel. One SSD / M2 drive, not two. Get a better PSU than the Kolink.

OCUK don't seem to stock any mATX Ryzen 3 motherboards.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £589.91 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

You may need a beefier PSU if you switch to an AMD GPU.
 

EsaT

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If you're gaming 6c/6t CPU isn't good for long time.
Next-gen consoles are coming with Zen2 based 8 core and likely 16 thread CPU.
So would consider 6c/12t as anykind minimum.
With AMD having proper upgrade path you could also later put 8 core there.


That cooler looks like marketing hype mediocrity when looking reviews.
Lot cheaper Scythe Mugen 5 would be actually high end cooler.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/scythe-scmg-5100-mugen-5-rev.b-cpu-cooler-hs-046-sy.html
Though really gross overkill for six core.
This would be plenty for Ryzen 3600:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-ben-nevis-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-048-al.html

For SSD WD Blue 3D is the best priced from those I would accept myself.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0a-hd-54j-wd.html
Samsung 860 QVO uses pretty much analog QLC, which needs to differentiate ridiculous 16 charge states to avoid error.


And price per performance Nvidia cards aren't doing that well against Navi, at least when looking newer games.
https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_rx_5700_and_5700_xt_review,13.html


sidimmu said:
actually also whilst i remember, sound cards still worth it at all? still a big difference between mobo and sound card quality?
was looking at this as example: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150600001-sc-090-cl.html
Click to expand...
If you're using speakers there's no need for sound card, unless integrated one is EMI magnet.
For headphone gaming (+movies) binaural sound simulation/HRTF of sound card is very usefull.
Good HRTF (like Creative's) combined to actually good headphones gives both good directionality and even feel of distance.
Assuming listener's head shape being near average.
Though in few months Creative should be releasing sound cards with head shape customizable HRTF.
That could be killer product for accuracy of immersion.

Anyway Sound Blaster Zx is very overpriced for adding only cheap and bad for sound quality serial resistor based volume dongle.
Sound BlasterX AE-5 and external G6 cost only little more and have better DACs and way better headphone amplifier.
Alternatively Sound Blaster Z is lot cheaper than Zx and loses only that volume dongle.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html
 

sidimmu

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Stephanie Peterson said:
i5 9600 and a 2060 super lmao
no chance. might as well set fire to some tenners instead.
Click to expand...
suggest something better then...

EsaT said:
If you're gaming 6c/6t CPU isn't good for long time.
So would consider 6c/12t as anykind minimum.

And price per performance Nvidia cards aren't doing that well against Navi, at least when looking newer games.
https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_rx_5700_and_5700_xt_review,13.html

Anyway Sound Blaster Zx is very overpriced for adding only cheap and bad for sound quality serial resistor based volume dongle.
Click to expand...

Good shout I didnt notice about the threads, going to re-look/think that for sure.
it all depends on whats available on the day as well to when I order, nothing will be changing in the system for a few years so trying to get as much as possible for price.

cheers for the coolers.
in regards to the SSD, thats all good i'll check it, anyone got any experience with m.2 drives? how they looking long term?

thanks for the sound card stuff too, thats awesome. Was quite interested about the flip switch lol
As for the gfx cards, got a good shout there though, again depends whats about on the day I guess, but thats good for reference.

Happy for more suggestions on builds of course, got about another week or two before order.
 

Plec

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As above (all).

Do you need the ITX format?

If not then the MSI 450 MAX coupled with a 3600, - will give you better performance and an upgrade path that will pay dividends if needed in the future.

You don't need the m.2. drive - better off getting a singular standard SATA 1TB dirve - cheaper and no speed difference (and @EsaT explains well his reasons for avoiding QVO/QLC drives and recommending the WD Drive).

The 3600 comes with a semi-decent cooler so you could use the funds saved to put towards a better PSU (that Kolink is pants) - the BitFenix 650W would be a solid choice for future upgrades in mind otherwise a decent Gold 550W would suffice with a 2070 Super.

The 2060 SUPER isn't great value - the 2070 Super is best bang for buck if going Nvidia - £479

Also, what is your monitor?
 

sidimmu

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Plec said:
As above (all).

Do you need the ITX format?

The 3600 comes with a semi-decent cooler so you could use the funds saved to put towards a better PSU (that Kolink is pants) - the BitFenix 650W would be a solid choice for future upgrades in mind otherwise a decent Gold 550W would suffice with a 2070 Super.

Also, what is your monitor?
Click to expand...

dont need ITX, prefer Matx though.

Acer GN246HL is monitor currently, looking at options may need a display to DVI d connector.
pSU was in there as only one with power in stock at the time, will be changing.

cheers for the rest of your advice!
 

Plec

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sidimmu said:
dont need ITX, prefer Matx though.

Acer GN246HL is monitor currently, looking at options may need a display to DVI d connector.
pSU was in there as only one with power in stock at the time, will be changing.

cheers for the rest of your advice!
Click to expand...
The MSI B450 MORTAR MAX may be released soon (M-ATX) as the Tomahawk hit the shelves a couple of days ago.

This will be Zen-2 compatible out of the box - again larger eeprom and slight facelift - but essentially the same board but fully 3000 ready.

May be worth you waiting a week or two, if you can.
 

EsaT

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sidimmu said:
it all depends on whats available on the day as well to when I order, nothing will be changing in the system for a few years so trying to get as much as possible for price.

in regards to the SSD, thats all good i'll check it, anyone got any experience with m.2 drives? how they looking long term?
Click to expand...
If you want PC to stay good for many years with minimal upgrades, then good CPU becomes important.
In about year next-gen consoles will no doubt kick start games to utilizing high number of strong cores/threads.
Ironic that those consoles are the best thing that's happened to PC gaming in long time.

In gaming use there's very little real world loading time difference between NVMe and SATA SSDs:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nvme+ssd+hdd
Unless having only small price difference to SATA drive, that money would be lot better used for stronger CPU etc.
 

orbitalwalsh

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what monitor res and hz you gaming on ?

intel is faster with 1080p and high hz monitors then ryzen and will be going forward 2020 but rzen holds better value for 1440p/4k .

consoles are 8 cores next gen but means jack as even though Consoles sames are built on PCs and Development consoles - games are then 80% ported via 3rd party companies and poorly at that .
India games market dominates steam library and most run fine on 4 threads, but depends what type of games your into, as finally AAA budget games are finally using more threads , but you'll still find i7 4 core's been given extra life with vulkan and DX12.

ryzen 6 core, b450 and super 2060 or AIB RX 5700 should do you well. hopefully MSI MAX boards dont run into issues currently faced with current b450 boards

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/msi-tomahawk-max-really-slow-post.18861746/

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/msi-b450-tomahawk-amd-3000-no-longer-posting.18860053/

lot on reddit

just go standard ssd, at 1tb though some m.2 nvme come close in price to sata3 models so keep an eye out
 

sidimmu

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orbitalwalsh said:
what monitor res and hz you gaming on ?

intel is faster with 1080p and high hz monitors then ryzen and will be going forward 2020 but rzen holds better value for 1440p/4k .
just go standard ssd, at 1tb though some m.2 nvme come close in price to sata3 models so keep an eye out
Click to expand...

thanks for the above bud, im not going to be 4k gaming anytime soon and i run 144hz on my monitor and will continue to do so :)
I get what you mean about processors and yeah I can see where my current 3rd gen i5 is underutilised in games, in terms of AAA games, I tend to not go for these straight out the box anyway and im never mega fussy to have to play it at ultra insane quality at 1440p, that wont happn until i upgrade monitor or tv.

Yeah thats what I had seen for the NVME drives, am interested in them but even if its just for bragging rights, does it really matter? there is no real loss to it is there? Money is of course not just an object, but im sure we can all lose a tenner here and there without it being a big problem for exploring.
 

orbitalwalsh

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@sidimmu

sorry is your monitor 1080p or 1440p with 144hz ?

is it also freesync or sync monitor ?

if your running an overclocked i5, then going for extra 2 cores with 9600k is understandable but with any upgrade you want to double your specs, 9700 or 9700k with going ryzen 3700x personally . for me, upgrading i like to double the power! and with me for gaming, will be moving from 8 core 2700 running 3.9ghz to ryzen 3600 hopefully pushing 4.2ghz all cores - need the speed more then core count and performance increase over core increase.

if you can grab an nvme for extra £10-15 then go for it over sata3 . full fat PCIe 4.0 nvme drives will show a better gain moving to that standard but there arent any controllers/units that push it to max speed to make more of a difference yet . I think it'll be PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives that will finally show a big performance increase instead of going for standard sata 3 ssds.
 

clown_abhi

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A Ryzen 3600 will give you an excellent upgrade path in the future. You can pair that with any B450M board preferably the Mortar or the Asrock Pro4 and 16GB of 3200MHz ram. You can easily OC the RAM to run at 3600 if need be but the performance gains are hardly worth doing.

The CPU cooler - Why spend £70 when you can get a cooler worth £20 and it does the job just fine. Get a Dark Rock or similar cooler and it will plenty sufficient for the Ryzen - quiet and cool.

There is hardly any improvement that a NVMe drive will have over a normal SSD. So just go for a 1TB normal SSD with DRAM.
 

sidimmu

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hey everyone,

firstly I game at 1080P 144hz. It is not a 4k monitor, its a couple years old, but im not replacing monitor at this time.

@orbitalwalsh - I don't think it runs freesync, cant find any information online about it.

I am currently running this:
MSI HD 7870 Hawk 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
Asus P8Z77-M Pro Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbs Solid State Hard Drive - Retail
Antec 1100 Eleven Hundred Ultimate Gaming Tower Case - Black

Corsair Builder Series CX 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020015-UK)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gbs 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX)
Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3DUS) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket

I am not going to be able to use any elements of the rig above, as its purpose will be changing :)
So I dare say any upgrade is going to be a significant upgrade regardless in terms of Cores, threads and performance. This is why I originally chose the 9600K due to core and thread upgrade without having to go OTT. Plus the 3570K I've got has been an absolute dream.
thanks for the advice on the NVME, yeah for the sakes for 10-20 quid I genuinely don't care.
I understand about the core speed over amount of cores, I was hoping to increase amount of cores for future proofing reasons.

Always been a bit concerned going AMD due to previous experience mainly in terms of long term reliability, this will be my main pc for the next good number of years. But maybe I should check Ryzen to get more bang per buck and increased speeds.
 

sidimmu

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orbitalwalsh

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Not the best designed board , but one of few mATX which is a shame there isn't more of :/


Little bit more, such a better board all around, able to handle 16+ cores too, and wifi

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £536.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​
 
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