Upgrade Advice

Associate
Joined
9 Apr 2014
Posts
27
Hey guys I am lookig to upgrade my current desktop its 7 years old now so not sure if a upgrade or building a new one is the better option.

I stream on Twitch and play a lot of Steam Games, any advice from you guys would be great.

Current System

Zotac GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (ZT-90101-10P)

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black

TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01)

Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1)


SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gbs 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD

Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler

EDIT: Budget is £1000 - £1500
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Apr 2010
Posts
2,877
Location
Bracknell
Here you go.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,521.12 (includes shipping: £13.20)​

As you must realize gpu prices are absurd atm so that is what is killing your budget.

8/16 thread cpu to help with streaming and gaming at the same time.
3060ti as it will game at 1440p easily in most titles maxed out.
32 gig of ram may be an option but im not a streamer so dont know.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Apr 2014
Posts
18,538
Location
Aberdeen
Take a look at the framerates you're getting. Use Rivatuner to monitor in-game framerates, GPU usage, RAM usage, and CPU usage. If they're fine then there's no rush to upgrade. Main-market GPU prices are silly right now, so unless you can grab a GPU at RRP or near-RRP - OCUK have a special offer on for August - the you would be prudent to wait until prices normalise.

Also, AMD are expected to release their RX 6600 GPUs imminently. Hopefully they will actually be available.

I expect you will significantly benefit from a new GPU and an upgrade to 16 GB RAM.

All that said, I do think you are correct to be looking at a full refresh. With only 4 cores and 4 threads on that 4690 you are likely CPU-limited, especially when streaming. The bang-for-the-buck CPU is the Intel 11400F with 6 cores and 12 threads on a B560 motherboard, but the upgrade path is limited. I would steer you to the AMD side where not much more willl get you a Ryzen 3600 - again 6 cores and 12 threads - on a good B550 motherboard but you can upgrade it to a 5950 with 16 cores and 32 threads when funds permit. Both platforms are end-of-life as Intel is switching to LGA1700 for its next generation and AMD is also switching sockets, which is another reason to be patient.

I don't stream so I have an Intel 11400. (Ironically this is my spare machine which has become my main PC for various reasons.)
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,616
Location
Finland
Soldato
Joined
28 May 2007
Posts
18,200
That junk Kolink PSU needs changing to something more reliable.
Also if that lower specification list is trtue storage setup is bad with both small NVMe and SATA SSDs.
Same total price would likely get 1TB WD Blu SN550.

Its pre built with a 3 year warranty from OCUK.
 
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