Should I upgrade or buy a new PC?

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yigami

Sep 17, 2018
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I'm currently looking to improve performance for PC gaming as well as wanting the capability to stream/record simultaneously. I've been receiving mixed and conflicting advice to upgrade certain parts as well as just buying a completely new computer. I was hoping for further information and clarity and would appreciate any input I could get! In order to be able to run games like World of Warcraft or newer games like Fallout 76 smoothly on fairly high settings, as well as being able to record/stream,would it be best to buy a completely new PC or keep some of these parts and upgrade say the CPU and GPU. I'd prefer to not spend more money than needed if I would be able to keep some of these parts. Thank you in advance for your help!

My current build is:
CPU - Intel Core i5 4460 @ 3.20GHz
RAM - 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @666MHz
Motherboard - ASRock H97M Pro4
Graphics - 2269W (1920x1080@60Hz) 3072MB ATI AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
PS - 520 Watt
 
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julienruc
I would rather recommend a build like this. Though the GPU is less efficient, I've chosen a better motherboard for just overall performance as the Asrock Pro4 is a budget option and you're going for relatively mid-to-high-end components with that CPU and GPU. Also, putting a few extra bucks on a case might be worth it as they often come with features like dust filters on every side. I also don't think that you need a PSU that good. 750W and Gold is way overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($165.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V 16GB...
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I think the best would be to change everything.

Here's why:
If you upgrade your CPU, you will need to upgrade your motherboard as well because it supports at most 5th generation Intel CPUs.
I assuming this because going for anything that's not at least a 6th generation CPU or newer is not really an upgrade, but this also means that you will need DDR4 Ram.
You will need to upgrade your GPU (Graphics Card) in order to play the games you stated in fairly high graphic settings.
The only thing that you MIGHT be able to keep is the PSU as 520 Watt is good enough. HOWEVER, send me the model for double checking.

Now areguably, you could go for a 5th Gen CPU, however, to run the new games you want at fairly high settings, you will need at least a GTX 1050Ti and I would recommend a GTX 1060. Meaning that any CPU below an i5-6600k would kinda be bottle-necking your new Graphics Card.

This means that the only thing you might be able to keep is the case, the case fans, as well as your storage drives.

BUT, to give you a better recommendation - What is your budget? We'll try to work around that.
 
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I'd prefer to keep the budget around $800-900 but I may consider more if that wouldn't be enough to build a powerful PC capable of performing well on high settings while simultaneously recording/streaming.
 
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($164.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg Business)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.60 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($52.00 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1009.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-26 01:42 EDT-0400
 
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You can use your current PC as a streaming rig and connect it to your main PC where you are gaming. That way each PC is doing there own thing.

The only bad thing about doing this is that you will need to fit within the budget a new case, new fans and new harddrives whereas if you're only upgrading, you could keep these and put it in the new build (possibly you could even keep the PSU deoending on the model you currently have)
 
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Streaming while gaming its very demandant. And if you are obsessed like me with High frame rates and the best graphical quality possible. A new Rig its totally the best thing you could do. Ofcourse that there will be different kinds of builds some may be more friendly with your wallet and some may not... Much depends on what are you aiming and dispossed to pay aswel.

I can definitly say that the best thing to do in this case is to Build a new PC.
If you wish me to build a new one for you just PM me or post below a base price and i see what i can do via partpicker.
 
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Would I be able to fit a hard drive or something with more space ontop of the SSD?
 
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Should I consider also buying a power supply with higher wattage to be safe as well as for the possibility of upgrading in the future?
 
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Does a higher wattage psu require more cooling? should I be concerned about that? and also would any hard drive work with this build? if I wanted like a terabyte or something? I really appreciate your help as well!
 
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I would rather recommend a build like this. Though the GPU is less efficient, I've chosen a better motherboard for just overall performance as the Asrock Pro4 is a budget option and you're going for relatively mid-to-high-end components with that CPU and GPU. Also, putting a few extra bucks on a case might be worth it as they often come with features like dust filters on every side. I also don't think that you need a PSU that good. 750W and Gold is way overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($165.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($133.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY - CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.86 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card ($269.99 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks - Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($38.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $880.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-27 01:21 EDT-0400
 
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