[SOLVED] £800-1000 PC upgrade options

[LilPinky]

Hi folks

Looking for bang-for-buck upgrades on my venerable tower unit. Used as a general PC (including some chunky spreadsheets), as well as gaming (particuarly flight seems, which are heavy on RAM).

Current system is:

• i5 3750k under a stable water-cooled overclock, in a Gigabyte Z77-D3H motherboard (both from 2012...)
• GTX970 Strix
• 16GB DDR3 1600mHz
• Corsair RM650 power supply
• (Various SSDs, HDDs, network card, etc)
• 24" Dell SP2309W monitor from 2009

It's still running well, but is underpowered for modern games, and I don't want to run the motherboard into the ground and have it start failing, given its age.

My plan:

• Look to replace the motherboard and CPU as the priority.
• I have a second GTX970 Strix from upgrading a sibling's PC last year, so I could get a graphics boost for free with a motherboard that could support dual graphics cards.
• Swap the RAM to DDR4, something above 3000mHz, and possible 32GB.
• Monitor upgrade (mainly looking for increased size, for the spreadsheet-wrangling).

Can budget £800-1000, which feels like £500-600 for the motherboard and CPU, £100ish for RAM, and £300ish for monitor.

Sound a sensible approach? Would need to check the PSU has the guts to power dual graphics cards, but hopefully OK at the 650W.

Cheers for your thoughts

Rob

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Dual GPUs for Gaming is no longer well supported, SLI is basically an abandoned technology now. as such, I'm going with an upgraded GPU instead:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£168.30 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard (£135.95 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3733 Memory (£96.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£99.98 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB MECH OC Video Card (£346.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.96 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£52.34 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £996.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-28 15:19 GMT+0000

the RX5700XT will handle 1440p gaming at ultra settings in AAA games. at 80-100 fps

 

[LilPinky]

Ok. I knew I hadn't heard much about SLI recently, but I'd hoped that was just because I hadn't really looked. Alas.

Thanks for the picklist. Case, storage and PSU are all fine, so taking those out would leave £250 for a monitor.

I've always been Intel/Nvidia. I take it AMD and Radeon now provide better value in this unglamorous middle tier?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

AMD CPUs are now the better value at all tiers, the Rx 5700/5700Xt are the best value at 1440p.

As for the PS: if your PSU is the original for your 3750K, replace it anyway, just on age.

For a 1440p monitor, I'll suggest this:

AOC Q3279VWFD8 31.5" IPS LED QHD (2560x1440) Freesync 75Hz monitor: £194.99
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CG41Y8Z

 

[LilPinky]

Sorry to dredge this back up - motherboard ended up lasting longer than expected!

Take it the Ryzen 5 / 5700 XT remains a solid choice for a £1k system upgrade?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

yes