Discussion Why a lot of hardware youtubers presume I have to build PC from ground up?

[SeverinV]

Hi all,
In nearly all youtube videos out there, I found info that it is not worth buying an old i7 like 4790.
But all those people do not take into account that some people, like myself, already have 4th gen motherboard so if someone has i3 or i5, buying and installing the best i7 is far cheaper option than building a new pc from ground up.
The price for i7-4790 varies, from 30 to 100$ depending were you buy it.
Buying a new PC (CPU,ram, motherboard or even a brand new case) can cost you over 500 $.
I personally do not see a point of buying new PC, if you still have room for improvement in your cpu socket.
So what do you think?
Cheers,

 

[USAFRet]

Hi all,
In nearly all youtube videos out there, I found info that it is not worth buying an old i7 like 4790.
But all those people do not take into account that some people, like myself, already have 4th gen motherboard so if someone has i3 or i5, buying and installing the best i7 is far cheaper option than building a new pc from ground up.
The price for i7-4790 varies, from 30 to 100$ depending were you buy it.
Buying a new PC (CPU,ram, motherboard or even a brand new case) can cost you over 500 $.
I personally do not see a point of buying new PC, if you still have room for improvement in your cpu socket.
So what do you think?
Cheers,

Building a PC absolutely depends on:
Your budget
The use case
What parts you already have

Obviously, random utubers do not know all that.


Given a 4th Gen Intel motherboard, I personally would not invest a whole lot in an "upgrade".
The 4790 was a great CPU for the time. But that WAS a long time ago.

 

[dwd999]

People are making those videos for clicks and likes and hopefully generating income. So they focus on the stuff which they think people are most interested in and which will generate the most traffic. Plus they get a lot of the stuff they focus on for free or on loan from manufacturers looking for promotion. I still have a 4790 build in my storage cabinet for emergencies but I don't plan on using it because its not capable of hdmi output at 4k 60p.

 

[SeverinV]

Building a PC absolutely depends on:
Your budget
The use case
What parts you already have

Obviously, random utubers do not know all that.


Given a 4th Gen Intel motherboard, I personally would not invest a whole lot in an "upgrade".
The 4790 was a great CPU for the time. But that WAS a long time ago.

If you have 4th gen motherboard, a whole new system is way more expensive than just upgrading to old i7.
Throwing 400$ on new system is far more expensive than picking old CPU.
You need at least ryzen 5 5600 for the upgrade to be meaningful.
Ryzen 5600 on total war have nearly double the performance of 4790. So if you play a lot of strategy games and have cash it is better to upgrade.
As i do not play a lot of newer titles, 4790 is more than enough for my tastes.
In my case, i have 24 GB of ddr3 ram so picking up 32 gb of ram newest ram would also increase the price of a new system.

 

[USAFRet]

If you have 4th gen motherboard, a whole new system is way more expensive than just upgrading to old i7.
Throwing 400$ on new system is far more expensive than picking old CPU.
You need at least ryzen 5 5600 for the upgrade to be meaningful.
Ryzen 5600 on total war have nearly double the performance of 4790. So if you play a lot of strategy games and have cash it is better to upgrade.
As i do not play a lot of newer titles, 4790 is more than enough for my tastes.
In my case, i have 24 GB of ddr3 ram so picking up 32 gb of ram newest ram would also increase the price of a new system.

I absolutely get that.

This specifically relates to your budget.

So, back to what the utubers say....ignore them.
Get a 4790, and step out smartly.

I in fact have a 4790k system sitting on the other side of the room. Not used in a couple of years.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I agree with what USAFRet said, the 4790 is pretty old now, and would struggle with a lot of current and recent games. Hell, I thought my 8700K was sweet when I first got it, but anymore it takes a more modern CPU just to keep up with mid tier 4000/7000 series GPUs from Nvidia/AMD. I don't play a wide spectrum of genres, but some of the games I play are definitely demanding, like A Plague Tale Requiem for instance. It all depends what titles you play.

So to your point OP, it's not that you HAVE to build an entire PC from ground up, it's more that you need to assess what level of games you play and will be playing, and take into account whether any of your current core components are capable of handling them and the settings you prefer. Keep in mind, even with upgrades, to maximize cost effectiveness, you should also plan in at least 3 years of headroom on performance relative life of the upgraded rig.

Those YT vids are OK for someone who wants the latest gear. YT is also very competitive from channel to channel, which is why most offering build advice use such videos as click bait to hype up the latest gear. People just looking to upgrade should not take them too seriously though, as it's more about what you personally need.