PC build, eGPU?

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Dec 4, 2005
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671
Hello,

Looking to start doing some light gaming on PC again, as the kids are taking over the living room.

I have the Rig in my signature still, which clearly wont cut much. i5 2500K, MSI GD-65, MSI 6970.

Im just wondering which route is recommended. I dont think upgrading my current system would be ideal, but open to opinions. Also I have a 2017 MBP, with an i7 3.1ghz, 16GB 2133... that i could look at boot camping, and slapping an eGPU like a Vega64 on the side of.

Thoughts? Budget isnt set by any means, but i really dont see me spending $2500 on a dedicated gaming rig. It would be 1080P or 1440 gaming. Settings dont need to be maxed, but medium etc
 
If you want to keep the budget low it would be hard to beat a Ryzen 2600 and a Vega 56 / 64. Chip, board, and 16GB RAM can be had for not much more than $200 altogether; add another $100 for a cheap but fast 1TB NVME SSD, $300 for video, and $150 for a decent case and PSU and you're still well under $1000. I am currently running a Ryzen 1600 and Vega 56 (heavy OC w/ custom water loop) and can run most games I play at high-max settings on 3440x1440.
 
Yeah, looking to keep it budget friendly. Which is why I’m looking at the egpu option as well. I’m in Canada, so the egpu is about $550, and graphics cards are 3-400 depending. I was planning if I went egpu to stay with compatible OS X cards, so it would work with OSX as well.

So that’s gonna cost me close to a grand anyway.

I’ll price out a similar build as listed above. Thanks.
 
If you overclock the i5-2500k to 4.4Ghz, you can just upgrade to a GTX 1060 or RX 580 and you're good for gaming at 1080p/1440p medium-high settings.
 
If you overclock the i5-2500k to 4.4Ghz, you can just upgrade to a GTX 1060 or RX 580 and you're good for gaming at 1080p/1440p medium-high settings.

Yes my 2500K runs at 4.4 daily, and 4.7 if I want. Anything above that, and my fans kick to high and it gets noisy.

Wonder about a power colour reference Vega56. If flashable great (currently 6950->6970), and its listed as a compatible card should i decide to go egpu later. 56 should be sufficient, provided my system doesnt just bottle neck it
 
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Well, think I’ve decided on a PC build. Though different from suggested.

I am going to go intel cpu, and and GPU, for reasons I can’t talk about here.

Thinking:
i5-9600K
Asus Tuff Z390 - Plus Gaming Wifi
G.Skill Trident Z 2x16 DDR4 3200
Radeon 5700XT

Re-use
Silverstone Raven 2 Evo
NH-D14
Antec HCP-850
M4 256GB
M4 128GB
2x hitachi 1TB drives
Keyboard/mouse etc

Anyone see any issue with this?
 
I would get an NVME SSD in addition. You may as well seeing as you will be doing a fresh install anyway.
 
A GPU upgrade should be enough for your gaming needs. EGPU is a good option if you can also benefit from the higher compute performance in OSX. Im using an EGPU with 2013 MacBook Pro and am quite happy with it. One benefit is that the notebook itself runs a lot cooler since the onboard GPU is not doing any work (fans don't spin up when I use multipole displays anymore).
 
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