[SOLVED] Suggestions for PC upgrade

[ringmany]

Hi everyone,

A friend is currently looking to upgrade his PC (New CPU and Graphics card) yes I know it's a bad time due to prices.
He mostly uses his PC for streaming FPS games to Twitch, such as Valorant, CS:GO, some aimlabs etc.

His current PC build is:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/RingMany/saved/BnsjHx

I've been looking online for suggestions on current builds since it's been a few years since I made one. Was looking at the tomshardware 2020 build comp and comparing to the top rated builds. At the moment, I've created 3 lists, since he doesn't want to replace everything:

AMD:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/RingMany/saved/#view=d4trvK

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/RingMany/saved/#view=VtxWt6

Intel:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/RingMany/saved/#view=8RN28d

I'm trying to convince him to swap over to AMD instead of Intel. So he'll need a new motherboard too.
He doesn't have a specific budget, but he originally wanted an RTX 3060 for his GPU, although there's probably better choices. So budget is around the price for an extra I9 and 3060.

What are your thoughts on these 2 current builds and what else can be improved and potentially saved? Again, the PC will mostly be for streaming FPS games on Twitch. Thanks.

 

[logainofhades]

I would not pair that motherboard, with a 9900k. The VRM's are bound to overheat. Graphics card, a 3070 or 3080 makes more sense, than a 2080ti. Ram needs to be a dual channel kit, and really should be faster, so I would suggest that too. I see he has dual channel 2400, 16gb, now, and your build upgrade lists are single 8gb @2400 speed. I would go with an inexpensive 3200, 16gb kit. Since he is wanting to stream, I would suggest just getting the new GPU, and ram, and use Nvidia's NVENC encoder for the streaming, before buying a CPU. Their CPU isn't terrible. I added a better cooling solution. The stock Intel cooler is terrible, and cooler temps mean higher boost clocks.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 2.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (£189.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 V2 64.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£27.16 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 HD3 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£65.56 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£587.73 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£90.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card
Case: Corsair Carbide 175R RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (£57.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Aerocool 650 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Total: £1018.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-26 21:35 GMT+0000

 

[siaan312]

Damn he has a 4TB ssd? not bad.

Anyways, For games like csgo and valorant, I see very little reason to upgrade, especially now.
He should get more than 160 fps in both of those titles.

All 3 builds you sent aren't ideal.
You want a 5th gen ryzen chip for gaming. In csgo, the ryzen 5 5600X out performs the i9 10900k by a few dozen or even hundred fps.
As for gpu, just don't bother right now. ryzen 5000 is actually almost at msrp, and is actually obtainable, gpus on the other hand are literally unobtainium.
If you went all out, you might want to flip the ram you have on a 2nd hand market, and buy 3600mhz cl 16/17 dimm, since that would give you around 10% more performance (If you upgrade to the ryzen 5 5600X as I suggested)

Since you want to stream, rtx 3000 would be of great help using the NVENC encoder, and so will an 8 core cpu.

So my recommendation is this (If he's hellbent on upgrading now.)
Get a mid range B550 board, and get either a ryzen 7 5800X, or ryzen 5 5600X depending on budget, sell your current ram and get a 3600mhz cl 16/17 kit, preferably with RGB since it's 1000000 more fps (joke.), a new cooler, doesn't have to be fancy, a hyper 212 or 120mm AIO will do you nicely, then wait out gpu prices.
He can offload streaming to the cpu for now if he gets the 5800X, and the 1060 is more than enough to play csgo.
There is 0 reason for him to buy a gpu right now, unless he can miraculously gets MSRP or close to MSRP pricing.

 

[Why_Me]

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or ...

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Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition £32.99

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Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit £78.98

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