Question Should I make some "mild" upgrades or build a new pc ?

[bulsoldier]

Hello everyone ! I am in need of a little (or may be quite a lot) help.
In any case, this is going to be a (somewhat) long post on my side so if you plan to make it to the end, strap it.
TL;DR: I need advice.

Anyhow, I plan to build a new pc (early next year), currently I have a rig, I made it in mid 2014. It wasnt cheap (for me at least) however I grossly misjudged my knowledge and made some less than ideal choices. Here is the cofig (at least thats what it was when I first made it.)

i5 4590 3.3GHz
GTX 970
2x4gb ddr3 ( I later bought another 2x4gb)
asus maximus hero 7 (this sadly died and had to change it to barebones gygabite with only two ram slots and is basicaly much cheaper mb and am now stuck with 2x4gb just sitting on my shelf)

I am not including storage since it is somewhat cheap and rather irelevant. (Still i have ssd and hdd).

So here is one of the questions, is there any point trying to get some cheap-ish upgrades for this ? Something along the lines of gtx 1080 or gtx 1660ti. Obviously I will have to change the ram to 2x8gb which will leave me with 4x4gb just hanging around.

I am inclined to think no (hence the new pc) since the mb is quite old already,which leaves me with much older cpu (the socket is 1150 and with no room for upgrades. So I was thinking it will be far better to gift this one to my niece (which is 11 and should get more than enough performance out of it) and build a new one. This is the first part of the question.

Enough about that. Now for the potential new pc.
I am still planning on playing on 1080 (since I already have a monitor and I am not sure if I am going to change it, it is not out of the question but I dont really need 4k or 144hz. I dont play competative (not in the sense of needing 100+ fps) but if you have some recommendations regarding a good 1440 display feel free to post them.

But now for the important part, the new pc. For it I have a rather flexible budget I can go as far as 1500 euros (with taxes) which should be about 1700usd ( We have 20% vat which is quite stingy). Anyway, here is my philosophy for that build and do say if it is unwise:

I was thinking to skim on gpu (hear me out) and put more money into a high end cpu. My idea is to upgrade the gpu down the road , after 2-3 years may be with something high end then. Since it seems (to me in my current situation) that the cpu upgrade is really hard (especially if the new one doesn`t fit in the mb) unlike the gpu which is rather simpler upgrade.

For the potential (early 2020) build config I was thinking something along the lines of this:

• ryzen 3700(x) ( with stock cooler , although by that time I start buying may be the new 7nm+ will come out so there is that)
• gpu XXX ( here I am rather unsure. I am looking into 1080 (if I can find it at a good price) or the navi RX 5700 (non XT) or may be RTX 2060. Here is the big debate (in my mind) . I think as the new tech (rtx and navi) matures the new gpus will see bigger bumps in performance with each gen so I was thinking of getting something good enough until 2022-3 and then upgrade (by which point I hope the ryzen will still be relevant).

Those are really the main components I consider in the new pc , everything else will be mostly there for the ride, I will do (this time) my due diligence and properly research what mb will actually better fit such a build.

For storage and ram , I imagine 2x8gb of 3000MHz should do the trick and an upgrade there is quite simple. Storage is pretty much the same, get may be 2tb of ssd storage , uprades are easy there.

Anyway, after that word salad, I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Is some modest upgrade that will hold out for another 2-3 years worth it or a new pc (and which philosophy behind it) is a better option ?
Cheers !

 

[Obakasama]

How long your current PC will last (with upgrades) will depend on your use case, and it's something you don't mention. I would generally consider the broad question: can my PC do the things I want it to? If it can't then upgrade time. The next question: what do I upgrade to get the performance I want?

If you use your PC for multi-threaded applications (whether some more recent AAA games or content creation generally), then an i7-4790k (or other compatible i7) might be an option if cheap enough. One problem with tech is price doesn't seem to go down much for previous generation tech. And then would you be willing to going with a used CPU? The counter is 4c/8t is starting to see limitations with some modern games.

Given pricing and what it could cost you to upgrade the CPU and RAM for your current system, it may make more sense to just go for a new build. If you are aiming to upgrade next year, then there may even be price adjustments making it more economical to upgrade to a new platform.

Nothing wrong in using the GTX 970 and upgrading the graphics card later (I kept using my GTX 750ti while upgrading CPU, RAM and motherboard).

 

[bulsoldier]

Thanks for the advice. I generaly use my pc for gaming . I am curious about trying to stream but that is still a hypothetical. I guess I could keep the gtx 970 for a while. I have to see how good the integrated gpu is. I don`t want to end up have a new pc and 90% of another one. And regarding used components, I am rather reluctant. I live in a small country and the market here is tiny.

 

[Obakasama]

The integrated graphics of currently available CPUs on the market will pale compared to the GTX 970, I believe. I think the most powerful current package is Intel's Hades Canyon range (exclusively NUC builds?), which according to Userbenchmark specs is close to the GTX 970.

When it comes to streaming you'd need to look at higher core/thread count. GamersNexus has streaming benchmarks which may be of some interest to you. But I think you'd be looking at 6c/12t to account for streaming if you indeed wish to move in that direction.

And understandable on used components. I think this would move you towards a new build, perhaps after Ryzen 3000 series launches when perhaps there may be further price adjustments to the existing CPU market. The budget you have should allow for a very good system for your needs.