[SOLVED] Looking for an advice on how to improve a somewhat potato PC

[Damathryx_7]

My current PC has this stuff:
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Graphic card: Nvidia GeForce GTX970
Processor: AMD FX8320 8 core processor
Power Supply: Zalman GigaMax 650W (it also says 80plus bronze power supply)
8 GB RAM
250 SSD for everything (yup, win 10 and games and programs combined)

Not overclocked.

In what direction should I be looking forward to upgrade this PC? I basically inherited it in a way and not sure how the specs were chosen, but I always catch myself thinking that I can't run games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided on low-mid and get decent fps. So I basically stick to older games, and even then I can't even use maximum settings on games like Dota. It's pretty annoying.
What would be the best component to upgrade to at least get a glimpse of smooth experience in new-ish games? Keep in mind that I'm a bit broke and live in Russia so I'm looking for something with good value for money ratio. You know, something consistent and obvious that'll pave the way for future upgrades if possible. I'm always worried that motherboard is just bad or something and doesn't support good stuff, but im not sure.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Damathryx_7]

I tried something with pcpartpicker, so basically this is what I ended up with:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mTP6NP

What do you think? Anything cheaper I could use but with relatively comparable performance? Budget's getting pretty tight here lol

 

[Darkbreeze]

Everything there looks compatible, and not too bad. Couple of things though.

You do NOT want that Seasonic S12III. Not even actually made by Seasonic. Plenty of info out there on this, and if you click on the PSU recommendations link in my signature and go and actually read the guide there, I specifically call this unit out as being one you don't want.

Also, while the X570 boards generally offer some features not found on B450, in this case I'd probably recommend that you forego paying the extra for one, especially for THAT particular one. The Elite really isn't all that great. You'd be a lot better off IMO if you simply saved some money (All depends on the price and availability for your region) and went with something like the B450 Tomahawk or Gaming Carbon fiber, which are both terrific motherboards (Even though MSI is a slum lord type company) and are usually much less expensive than any of the X570 boards.

This is a good read:

Ryzen 9 3950X on Good and Bad B450 Motherboards

As we anticipated when we reviewed AMD's new flagship 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, rather than testing it on the very high-end Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme, we want...

www.techspot.com

Or, even maybe look for a B550 board if there is one available at a reasonable price in your region. But before you do that, be sure to mention it here so we can take a look to see if it's a POS board or a decent one.

 

[Karadjgne]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Adorama)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($77.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card
Power Supply: SeaSonic CORE GM 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($85.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: LG 22M35D 22.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor
Total: $558.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-18 21:25 EST-0500

 

[DSzymborski]

For posterity's sake, it's unlikely that the PSU is awful. There's a 105-degree ChengX capacitor in there, but most of the capacitors are 105-degree Teapos and it's a DC-DC unit using a double-forward topology. Not something I'd personally buy, of course, but it's probably Tier C-ish, so we don't need to kill it with fire.

 

[Darkbreeze]

For a new build, in a country where the parts are seemingly MUCH harder, and more expensive to come by, I'm killing the idea of ANY tier C power supply going in with my brand new hardware, with fire. Sorry, that's just me. Especially if it has already a bunch of trips around the block under it's belt.

Plus, being in Russia, it's likely that RMAs or warranty returns are definitely not as simple of a matter as they would be if they were in the US, UK, Canada, etc., so for me that really pushes me towards the side of "doing all I can to protect my hardware" because it's just not a simple matter most likely to replace damaged or faulty components. That puts me squarely in the "best power supply I can realistically afford" camp for that scenario. But, I also agree that sometimes you have to do what you have to do, it's just that doing what you "have" to do doesn't always turn out the way we'd like for it to.

 

[Damathryx_7]

Thank you for your input, it was incredibly helpful. Should I mark the thread as solved for now? I guess new questions will emerge later, when I will actually proceed to ordering parts and come here for double-check.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's totally up to you. You can, or you can leave it as is, your choice. If you feel you got the answers you were looking for then you can choose a post that best helped to answer your question by clicking on the trophy icon next to that post. It doesn't "close" the thread anyhow, it just marks it as solved, so you can post additional questions or replies after doing so at any point later. Or, simply start a new, more specific thread if other questions happen to occur to you at some later date.