[SOLVED] Gaming PC Upgrade Help (New to PC Building)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
E

EddieA2

Honorable
Aug 19, 2016
23
2
10,515
IMPORTANT: I am very new to PC building and I am not too familiar when it comes to PC parts so please keep that in mind while reading/responding.

So I just made the switch from console gaming to PC gaming. I have been playing Cold War and Warzone on my PC but im getting a constant 60-75 fps while I'm using a 144hz monitor. I am considering getting an upgrade to be able to run Warzone and Cold War at a constant fps of 144. Does anyone have advice for what I should be upgrading? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on which specific parts I should look into buying? I am somewhat new to PC building so I am unsure as to what I should do. My main concern is whether I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first. I am not worried about price as of right now, I just want to learn about different options so I can pick and choose which would suit my build.

This is my current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Along with this, I also need more space on my PC so what should I purchase in order to do this?

Thank you in advance!
 
Solution
Prad_Bitt
EddieA2 said:
IMPORTANT: I am very new to PC building and I am not too familiar when it comes to PC parts so please keep that in mind while reading/responding.

So I just made the switch from console gaming to PC gaming. I have been playing Cold War and Warzone on my PC but im getting a constant 60-75 fps while I'm using a 144hz monitor. I am considering getting an upgrade to be able to run Warzone and Cold War at a constant fps of 144. Does anyone have advice for what I should be upgrading? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on which specific parts I should look into buying? I am somewhat new to PC building so I am unsure as to what I should do. My main concern is whether I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first. I am not worried about price as...
Click to expand...
Sort by date Sort by votes
EddieA2 said:
IMPORTANT: I am very new to PC building and I am not too familiar when it comes to PC parts so please keep that in mind while reading/responding.

So I just made the switch from console gaming to PC gaming. I have been playing Cold War and Warzone on my PC but im getting a constant 60-75 fps while I'm using a 144hz monitor. I am considering getting an upgrade to be able to run Warzone and Cold War at a constant fps of 144. Does anyone have advice for what I should be upgrading? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on which specific parts I should look into buying? I am somewhat new to PC building so I am unsure as to what I should do. My main concern is whether I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first. I am not worried about price as of right now, I just want to learn about different options so I can pick and choose which would suit my build.

This is my current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Along with this, I also need more space on my PC so what should I purchase in order to do this?

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Your CPU and GPU are both very old and need to be replaced. The lowest end 4 core CPU right now is far superior to yours. So I would suggest getting new CPU and GPU both

By space i assume you mean storage. So you can either buy a HDD which is cheaper but much slower. Or you can buy an SSD which is three times the price but much faster.

I would suggest to upgrade your PSU as well, as it is meant for lower end systems like yours.


144fps depends on your settings too. Do you want ultra? High? Medium? Low?

If you want Ultra I would suggest you wait for Nvidia's 3060 and 3060 Ti
For high, I think a 2060 Super will suffice
For medium, probably a 2060
For low, I think 1660 Ti

For reference, a 1660 Ti = 1070
And 1650 Super = 1060. A 2060 = 1070 Ti +, 2060 Super = 1080 + 2070 Super = 1080 Ti, 3060 = 2070 Super +4-5% probably

And with 2070 Super I get 125ish ultra Warzone

And for CPU, you can keep the RAM, don't waste money on newer RAM. And you can go for the i5-10400F. Since your purpose is gaming, the i5 is $175, vs the R5 3600 $200 and is slightly better in some games. Plus, the i5 doesn't care as much about fast RAM as Ryzen does. And you can go for any H410 or B460 motherboard, just ensure it has an 8 pin power connector, and 4 RAM slots. Everything else is irrelevant really.

Another option is waiting for the Ryzen 5600. This will serve you better with faster RAM, but it'll also be $220 for the CPU, and a costlier motherboard than the i5.

Either way you'll need a cooler. $35 for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition is a good investment.

For SSDs, if you want to save some money, you can have great value NVMe drives like the Kingston A2000 and WD Blue NVMe (there's also a Blue SATA, look out) for cheaper than the Samsung drives.

As for which one first.... Well.... If you're gonna go for 144 fps, I'd obviously say GPU first. But keep in mind your GPU will never be at its full potential with that i5-6500. You need a new CPU to make the best use of newer GPUs
 
  • Like
Reactions: EddieA2
Upvote 1 Downvote
Solution
What you currently have is a 5 year old midrange gaming rig.

Both that i5 and the 1060 are middle tier components from 2015, you would have struggled to push a 144htz monitor back in the day with them, they were solid 1080p 60htz based components.


Warzone and cold War will use upto 16 threads, that i5 only has 4.

Realistically you're looking at near enough a full system replacement to push 100fps+ consistently.

Have you done any ingame monitoring of cpu/gpu usage??

I'd be fairly certain the cpu is pegged at 100% most of the time.

There's no way around a cpu limitation regarding fps apart from an upgrade.

Gpu fps limitations can always be negated by lowering resolution and/or graphics quality settings.

Try lowering ingame resolution to 720p and graphics options to low.

This will show the fps limits of your cpu at which point you can make an informed decision on what to do upgrade wise.

The issue with a cpu upgrade on that system is that the only place to go is an i7 6700 which would imo be a pointless and expensive upgrade for not enough performance increase.

You're talking virtually a complete system and platorm rebuild.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Prad_Bitt
Upvote 1 Downvote
EddieA2 said:
IMPORTANT: I am very new to PC building and I am not too familiar when it comes to PC parts so please keep that in mind while reading/responding.

So I just made the switch from console gaming to PC gaming. I have been playing Cold War and Warzone on my PC but im getting a constant 60-75 fps while I'm using a 144hz monitor. I am considering getting an upgrade to be able to run Warzone and Cold War at a constant fps of 144. Does anyone have advice for what I should be upgrading? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on which specific parts I should look into buying? I am somewhat new to PC building so I am unsure as to what I should do. My main concern is whether I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first. I am not worried about price as of right now, I just want to learn about different options so I can pick and choose which would suit my build.

This is my current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Along with this, I also need more space on my PC so what should I purchase in order to do this?

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Hello there!!
Pc building isn't that hard not even selecting parts for it you just have to see some build understand why they chose that parts and ofcourse compatibility. Now i understand that you wanna learn how to make a part list, the first thing is Price actually and without it you cannot plan anything even a bit of difference in the budget can get you either a good part else might cut corners so first think of a ideal budget for either the cpu,ram and Mobo else for gpu or else even for the entire system.
2. A) Purpose: Games or Content creation
B)Types of games esports/AAA
3. Monitor resolution
This is not everything but things to keep in mind, can you tell me what you wanna expect from your pc?
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Prad_Bitt said:
Your CPU and GPU are both very old and need to be replaced. The lowest end 4 core CPU right now is far superior to yours. So I would suggest getting new CPU and GPU both

By space i assume you mean storage. So you can either buy a HDD which is cheaper but much slower. Or you can buy an SSD which is three times the price but much faster.

I would suggest to upgrade your PSU as well, as it is meant for lower end systems like yours.


144fps depends on your settings too. Do you want ultra? High? Medium? Low?

If you want Ultra I would suggest you wait for Nvidia's 3060 and 3060 Ti
For high, I think a 2060 Super will suffice
For medium, probably a 2060
For low, I think 1660 Ti

For reference, a 1660 Ti = 1070
And 1650 Super = 1060. A 2060 = 1070 Ti +, 2060 Super = 1080 + 2070 Super = 1080 Ti, 3060 = 2070 Super +4-5% probably

And with 2070 Super I get 125ish ultra Warzone

And for CPU, you can keep the RAM, don't waste money on newer RAM. And you can go for the i5-10400F. Since your purpose is gaming, the i5 is $175, vs the R5 3600 $200 and is slightly better in some games. Plus, the i5 doesn't care as much about fast RAM as Ryzen does. And you can go for any H410 or B460 motherboard, just ensure it has an 8 pin power connector, and 4 RAM slots. Everything else is irrelevant really.

Another option is waiting for the Ryzen 5600. This will serve you better with faster RAM, but it'll also be $220 for the CPU, and a costlier motherboard than the i5.

Either way you'll need a cooler. $35 for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition is a good investment.

For SSDs, if you want to save some money, you can have great value NVMe drives like the Kingston A2000 and WD Blue NVMe (there's also a Blue SATA, look out) for cheaper than the Samsung drives.

As for which one first.... Well.... If you're gonna go for 144 fps, I'd obviously say GPU first. But keep in mind your GPU will never be at its full potential with that i5-6500. You need a new CPU to make the best use of newer GPUs
Click to expand...

I certainly was not expecting an extensive and in-depth response so thank you so much for that! Typically, I play on all low graphic settings just because I prefer performance over quality. From what you're saying it seems like I should go beyond just replacing the CPU or GPU?

Also, how exactly does the SSD and HDD impact performance on games?

I will most likely take my PC into Microcenter and have them replace those parts because there is no way I would be able to do it myself.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
General Kenobi said:
Hello there!!
Pc building isn't that hard not even selecting parts for it you just have to see some build understand why they chose that parts and ofcourse compatibility. Now i understand that you wanna learn how to make a part list, the first thing is Price actually and without it you cannot plan anything even a bit of difference in the budget can get you either a good part else might cut corners so first think of a ideal budget for either the cpu,ram and Mobo else for gpu or else even for the entire system.
2. A) Purpose: Games or Content creation
B)Types of games esports/AAA
3. Monitor resolution
This is not everything but things to keep in mind, can you tell me what you wanna expect from your pc?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the response!

For my PC I would like it to be able to run games like Warzone and Call of Duty at about 144fps on medium-low graphics settings without any problems. Right now I get about 55-75 fps while I am playing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EddieA2 said:
I certainly was not expecting an extensive and in-depth response so thank you so much for that! Typically, I play on all low graphic settings just because I prefer performance over quality. From what you're saying it seems like I should go beyond just replacing the CPU or GPU?

Also, how exactly does the SSD and HDD impact performance on games?

I will most likely take my PC into Microcenter and have them replace those parts because there is no way I would be able to do it myself.
Click to expand...
SSD and HDD mostly affect loading speeds, but can also affect stuttering. Especially in open world games like GTA V. Where you've got large lands and traveling is possible.

I'm saying I would recommend cpu gpu mobo (because cpu without mobo not possible) and PSU. The best combo would be i5+2060 if yiu want medium - low 144fps. And probably that PSU will suffice, but just to be on the safer side, a Corsair CX550. (non M version)

I'm pretty sure you can do it yourself, but that's at your discretion of course
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: EddieA2
Upvote 1 Downvote
Prad_Bitt said:
SSD and HDD mostly affect loading speeds, but can also affect stuttering. Especially in open world games like GTA V. Where you've got large lands and traveling is possible.

I'm saying I would recommend cpu gpu mobo (because cpu without mobo not possible) and PSU. The best combo would be i5+2060 if yiu want medium - low 144fps. And probably that PSU will suffice, but just to be on the safer side, a Corsair CX550. (non M version)

I'm pretty sure you can do it yourself, but that's at your discretion of course
Click to expand...
I will most certainly look into that combo that you recommend.

I'll also look into replacing them on my own so I can save a bit more money.

Thank you so much for you help!!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Prad_Bitt said:
SSD and HDD mostly affect loading speeds, but can also affect stuttering. Especially in open world games like GTA V. Where you've got large lands and traveling is possible.

I'm saying I would recommend cpu gpu mobo (because cpu without mobo not possible) and PSU. The best combo would be i5+2060 if yiu want medium - low 144fps. And probably that PSU will suffice, but just to be on the safer side, a Corsair CX550. (non M version)

I'm pretty sure you can do it yourself, but that's at your discretion of course
Click to expand...
Actually I have one more question.

You mentioned that I should upgrade my PSU as well. Do you have an specific suggestions for what I should upgrade to?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EddieA2 said:
Actually I have one more question.

You mentioned that I should upgrade my PSU as well. Do you have an specific suggestions for what I should upgrade to?
Click to expand...
CX550 upto an RTX 2060, anything above that and id say TX650M or RM650. Since you're in the $1000-1200, here's a build for you, assume $300 for the 5600X and $400 for the 3060 when prices become stable. You can do $500 for the 3070 too. I haven't included a case, I don't know what you have and whether or not you want an upgrade so...

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vyCNy4


You can also buy 10600K and keep the RAM you have. You can keep the RAM you have with the Ryzen too, it'll just be hindering the potential though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EddieA2
Upvote 0 Downvote
madmatt30 said:
What you currently have is a 5 year old midrange gaming rig.

Both that i5 and the 1060 are middle tier components from 2015, you would have struggled to push a 144htz monitor back in the day with them, they were solid 1080p 60htz based components.


Warzone and cold War will use upto 16 threads, that i5 only has 4.

Realistically you're looking at near enough a full system replacement to push 100fps+ consistently.

Have you done any ingame monitoring of cpu/gpu usage??

I'd be fairly certain the cpu is pegged at 100% most of the time.

There's no way around a cpu limitation regarding fps apart from an upgrade.

Gpu fps limitations can always be negated by lowering resolution and/or graphics quality settings.

Try lowering ingame resolution to 720p and graphics options to low.

This will show the fps limits of your cpu at which point you can make an informed decision on what to do upgrade wise.

The issue with a cpu upgrade on that system is that the only place to go is an i7 6700 which would imo be a pointless and expensive upgrade for not enough performance increase.

You're talking virtually a complete system and platorm rebuild.
Click to expand...
Well there is a 6c/12 skylake processor the 6800k and getting it in used could be worth but i have heard it can only be oc at 4.0ghz and i believe if we compare the 8700k and the 10400 it wont perform similar to the other,8700k would be the fastest followed by 10400 but it would be better than the i7 6700k for sure.
Edit: There no point the socket is different.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom