Upgrading average - low gaming PC

S

Sheepyy

n00b
Joined
Mar 31, 2020
Messages
8
Hi guys,

First of all I will be buying from the UK, but I'm not clued up on the best place to shop for PC parts as this is really my first proper build. :D



I've built my current PC from 3 pc's that I had lying around the specs currently sit at:
Motherboard: GA-H61M-S2V-B3 (rev. 1.1)
CPU: i7 2600
GPU: Radeon (TM) RX 460 4GB
PSU: Some really bad one from an old pc I had, not sure what it is.
RAM: 16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
Case: CARBIDE 540 HIGH AIRFLOW ATX CUBE CASE - WHITE (No rush to upgrade but I work away sometimes so might get an average sized case as this is a bit bulky)




Right now I'm capped by my motherboard I think so I could do with upgrading that and going from there.
I play some games on my PC mainly and not much else other than that, the games I play are:
Rust
Rocket League
(Occasionally) CSGO

But I would like to keep my options open to potential upgrades on top.
If I've left anything out let me know but I'm prob looking at essentially upgrading, Motherboard, PSU, CPU and my Ram to DDR4, I feel I can make do with my GPU for now and case etc.

This is my first post so let me know if I've posted this in the wrong place or anything else, but thanks for any suggestions or help!

I'm looking at spending around £400 if possible so nothing crazy but something that could maybe be worked with? Been told AMD is a good option.


I've never overclocked before but maybe with this build it would be an option so any tips with this are appreciated!



My current resolution is: 1920 x 1080 so this I guess? Sorry again I'm somewhat new!



I plan on building it as soon as I get an idea of what I want so if I get good tips tonight the parts will be bought tonight/tomorrow :D



No software needed as I'm currently win10, 240SSD 250GB (ish) HDD and a 1TB external HDD with all my stuff on.



My friend told me AMD is the way to go so maybe that but not 100% glued to that idea, also I do love Corsair :p



Thanks for any help!


-Sheepyy
 
I would disagree with your assessment that your current GPU is OK; it's likely your single biggest limiting factor.

At £400 for your budget, you've potentially got enough cash to either make one big purchase or a bunch of smaller purchases, especially if you're OK with some used components.

If it was me, I would be targeting an 'all around' upgrade. For $495 USD (which Google tells me is the current value of £400) you could pick up a Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of DDR4-3000 or 3200 RAM (2x 8GB sticks), a B450 motherboard, and a used RX480 or 580. The new parts would be around $330 leaving the rest for the GPU + taxes/shipping. RX480/580 (and GTX 1060s as well) have been going used for ~$100 or so. You could presumably sell your existing components for at least a few shekels as well to help claw back a bit of money, or possibly to replace your crappy power supply. A slightly less substantial upgrade, but cheaper, would be to swap in a Ryzen 5 1600 AF CPU instead of the 3600; that would save you around $80 or so, but the CPU is a good bit slower. Alternatively also you could look for a used 1600/1700/2600/2700 CPU. Upside though is the motherboard would still be happy to take the faster CPU at a later date, so your system would likely have some legs to it.

If you don't want to spend right at your top budget, I think the single component to go with would be the GPU. Plenty of games are still perfectly happy on 4C/8T CPUs, but that RX460 is pretty limiting.
 
sinisterDei said:
I would disagree with your assessment that your current GPU is OK; it's likely your single biggest limiting factor.

At £400 for your budget, you've potentially got enough cash to either make one big purchase or a bunch of smaller purchases, especially if you're OK with some used components.

If it was me, I would be targeting an 'all around' upgrade. For $495 USD (which Google tells me is the current value of £400) you could pick up a Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of DDR4-3000 or 3200 RAM (2x 8GB sticks), a B450 motherboard, and a used RX480 or 580. The new parts would be around $330 leaving the rest for the GPU + taxes/shipping. RX480/580 (and GTX 1060s as well) have been going used for ~$100 or so. You could presumably sell your existing components for at least a few shekels as well to help claw back a bit of money, or possibly to replace your crappy power supply. A slightly less substantial upgrade, but cheaper, would be to swap in a Ryzen 5 1600 AF CPU instead of the 3600; that would save you around $80 or so, but the CPU is a good bit slower. Alternatively also you could look for a used 1600/1700/2600/2700 CPU. Upside though is the motherboard would still be happy to take the faster CPU at a later date, so your system would likely have some legs to it.

If you don't want to spend right at your top budget, I think the single component to go with would be the GPU. Plenty of games are still perfectly happy on 4C/8T CPUs, but that RX460 is pretty limiting.
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Oh for real?? I thought my GPU was something that wasn’t so bad, I get it’s nothing amazing but I didn’t think it was necessarily limiting me in anyway!
Second hand parts aren’t too bad for me but I find you don’t really know what they were used for before.
Looks like I’ll be looking into a new GPU then aswell :p Do you recommend and Nvidia then?
 
At the ~$100 price point, I think I would prefer an RX480/580 over a GTX 1060, and 100% prefer them over the 3GB variant of the 1060. Plus, you already have a RX460 you seem happy with; while folks on the internets will tirelessly complain about AMD's drivers, I have to assume you're OK with them on your 460 and so moving to a 480 or 580 would be a straight performance uplift of +100% or so. I keep referring to the 480 and 580 because, if you're unaware, they're 99.9% identical cards - just a minor clock speed difference between the two and some factory OC'd 480 cards stray into 580 territory anyways. If you can get a cheap 8GB 480 or 580 that would be my number 1 preference, with the 6 GB 1060 below that, then a 4GB 480, then dead last a 3GB 1060. I'd take a RX470/570 over a 1060 3GB card I think.
 
sinisterDei said:
At the ~$100 price point, I think I would prefer an RX480/580 over a GTX 1060, and 100% prefer them over the 3GB variant of the 1060. Plus, you already have a RX460 you seem happy with; while folks on the internets will tirelessly complain about AMD's drivers, I have to assume you're OK with them on your 460 and so moving to a 480 or 580 would be a straight performance uplift of +100% or so. I keep referring to the 480 and 580 because, if you're unaware, they're 99.9% identical cards - just a minor clock speed difference between the two and some factory OC'd 480 cards stray into 580 territory anyways. If you can get a cheap 8GB 480 or 580 that would be my number 1 preference, with the 6 GB 1060 below that, then a 4GB 480, then dead last a 3GB 1060. I'd take a RX470/570 over a 1060 3GB card I think.
Click to expand...

I've found a cheap Rx 580 for sale which I might just go for! But I've been told my i7 2600 (not k) will really struggle with a decent GPU so I'm kinda stuck.
 
Sheepyy said:
my i7 2600 (not k) will really struggle with a decent GPU
Click to expand...

A slower CPU will primarily affect your bottom-end framerates; more and faster cores will help level out your framerate so it's prone to fewer dips. If you move to a RX 580, your bottleneck will move from your GPU to your CPU, that's for sure, but your overall performance will still be much improved.

As well, my recommendation *was* to upgrade all of them, funds allowing :) I just think if you are forced to choose just one thing, the GPU would be it.
 
sinisterDei said:
A slower CPU will primarily affect your bottom-end framerates; more and faster cores will help level out your framerate so it's prone to fewer dips. If you move to a RX 580, your bottleneck will move from your GPU to your CPU, that's for sure, but your overall performance will still be much improved.

As well, my recommendation *was* to upgrade all of them, funds allowing :) I just think if you are forced to choose just one thing, the GPU would be it.
Click to expand...
So I had a little look around and found a bundle here which is an msi B450 tomahawk max, ryzen 5 3600, 16gb Corsair 3000mhz ram and a VS550 80+ Corsair PSU for £398
Now I’m going to do a bit more digging but I think for the motherboard bundle that’s the best price I can get at that sort of spec. Were you thinking for me to buy in the US and import over or? I mean I’m pretty much open to anything
 
Sheepyy said:
Were you thinking for me to buy in the US and import over or? I mean I’m pretty much open to anything
Click to expand...

Nope, I just don't know much about where / what sites you would shop at, nor what your prices were like, so I converted to USD to make my examples on my side of the pond. Obviously you'll have to adjust for yours!

On Newegg for the exact (I think) parts you selected, the price is $447. That includes the B450 Tomahawk Max for $115 and the Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (2x8GB) kit for $92. However, over on my side these are not the least expensive parts - the ASRock B450M Pro4 is available for only $80 and some Team Vulcan Z 16 GB (2x8) DDR4 3200 memory is $65. Swapping to those components saves $70 and drops the price to $378. There's probably a few dollars to be saved on the PSU as well - I found a Thermaltake 500W 80+ unit that's $48 on my side, dropping the total to $368.

Obviously price and availability is going to be vary given the ocean in between us. You could also easily target a used CPU and motherboard as well, especially on the CPU side - a used Ryzen 1600, 1700, 2600, or 2700 would work. The 3600 is faster core-for-core since it's the 3000 series, but any of them would spank your older i7 and you could always upgrade to the 3000 (or 4000) series CPUs later down the line. If you do get a used motherboard, though, I would try and target the B450 or X470 chipset rather than a 300 series; I've heard conflicting rumors as to whether the 300 series will receive support for the Ryzen 4000 CPUs.
 
Sheepyy said:
I've found a cheap Rx 580 for sale which I might just go for! But I've been told my i7 2600 (not k) will really struggle with a decent GPU so I'm kinda stuck.
Click to expand...

A decent GPU is relative. While the 480-580 is a major upgrade in your case, it's still just a low \ mid grade gpu. When you see people talking about a 2700s bottlenecking gpu they are likely talking about GTX 1070 or above level of performance or specific games like battlefield that really struggle on older \ low core count CPUs.

I agree with sinister that your first upgrade should be GPU. The 2700 will need to be replaced at some point but performance wise you are probably going to see more improvement spending $100 on a gpu then you would spending 3-400 on CPU, Mobo, and ram but keeping the old 460.
 
Quick update on my situation, I've bought a RX580 8GB so that arrives tomorrow in the post. I tried to buy a seasonic 550w PSU off of overclockersUK but the delivery is delayed by a week (which their website had no sign of telling people and happily let them pay extra for next day delivery - myself in this case! Until I called them to ask if I made the window or if I would need to change to weekend delivery in which they then told me that it was delayed! Wasn't impressed!!)

So right now I'm kinda debating on whether to try to pick up a 500w PSU locally when I get back from working away tomorrow, unsure whether I will succeed with that due to this stupid COVID-19!!

Kardonxt said:
A decent GPU is relative. While the 480-580 is a major upgrade in your case, it's still just a low \ mid grade gpu. When you see people talking about a 2700s bottlenecking gpu they are likely talking about GTX 1070 or above level of performance or specific games like battlefield that really struggle on older \ low core count CPUs.

I agree with sinister that your first upgrade should be GPU. The 2700 will need to be replaced at some point but performance wise you are probably going to see more improvement spending $100 on a gpu then you would spending 3-400 on CPU, Mobo, and ram but keeping the old 460.
Click to expand...
I think what I will do is see my performance with the 580 and see if I NEED the further upgrades right now (Although I would love it :D ) but I think I want to go fancy water cooled and RGB crazy so I might just buy parts as and when I can find good deals if my performance is good enough. But as I can imagine with everyone sitting at home, the demand for PC's and parts could possibly rise? Or maybe they might put some good deals on who knows!
 
Sheepyy said:
I think I want to go fancy water cooled
Click to expand...

Just know that AIO watercoolers don't really do any better of a job than decent air cooling. I ditched my Corsair H100i for a Noctua 120mm tower cooler when the pump in the H100i died and they run at the same temps. And if the fan on the Noctua dies I can replace an individual fan, where I would have had to replace the whole AIO when the pump died on the H100i.
 
sinisterDei said:
Just know that AIO watercoolers don't really do any better of a job than decent air cooling. I ditched my Corsair H100i for a Noctua 120mm tower cooler when the pump in the H100i died and they run at the same temps. And if the fan on the Noctua dies I can replace an individual fan, where I would have had to replace the whole AIO when the pump died on the H100i.
Click to expand...
I mean, I'd only be going water cooled because it looks great, I wont be doing any sort of hardcore gaming I don't think (Unless you can say 10 hours straight of rocket league is anywhere near hard core haha)
 
SO I went and bought pretty much everything I need just ordering a 500w seasonic psu in the next few mins!
I went with:
Radeon RX580 8GB
ASUS ROG STRIX b450-F Gaming motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU
Corsair vengeance LPX 3000MHz (2x8Gb) 16GB RAM

I think that's everything I've bought unless I've forgotten something lol
 
What are you using for storage? A SATA SSD I hope...
 
Sheepyy said:
SO I went and bought pretty much everything I need just ordering a 500w seasonic psu in the next few mins!
I went with:
Radeon RX580 8GB
ASUS ROG STRIX b450-F Gaming motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU
Corsair vengeance LPX 3000MHz (2x8Gb) 16GB RAM

I think that's everything I've bought unless I've forgotten something lol
Click to expand...

You are in for a treat sir!
 
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