watts300

That includes Windows. Nice. My kid just sent me this as a potential idea: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jJYHjZ. Omitting that 4TB drive, what do you think?

Oh ya, what I meant was that we'll be reinstalling Windows fresh on a brand new drive, so we'll need new SSD storage. The ssd we have now will become secondary storage.

I don't think we have a preference. Whichever makes more sense and performance for the budget. I'm editing the original post above with the gpu I just ordered.

Budget (including currency): $1000ish. Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I'm looking to help my adult kid build a new gaming computer. Not much will be re-used, except for the case (NZXT S340) and the power supply (EVGA Supernova 850w G2), and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, speakers, display). The current SSD will be downgraded to secondary (non-C: drive) storage. I just ordered an ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB. She'll using the budget mentioned above to buy the remaining parts. Currently playing on a 1440p display; the interest in a 4K display is obviously present, but not included in the budget. I'm just mentioning it in case it affects any parts recommendations. So unless I'm forgetting something, I think what we'd need is a motherboard, CPU, RAM, and main storage. Maybe some cooling fan recommendations? Not too interested in overclocking. Our choice of AMD versus Intel is whichever one has the newest current generation.

Where are we with those?

I was looking at October as the target for purchases due to a birthday that month. But sounds like October would be a bad month to upgrade then, no?

Budget (including currency): $2000 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Reusing from current system: EVGA SuperNova 750W Platinum power supply, NZXT S340 case, and storage drives. Playing at 1440 resolution, 60hz. Keyboard and mouse and other peripherals will be carried over. We want to upgrade from a 980ti and i7 6700 system. I'm expecting to need: graphics card, motherboard, CPU/cooler, and memory. I'm a bit overwhelmed regarding figuring out where we currently are in the life cycles of current-generation products from the different manufacturers. I haven't shopped for computer parts in literally years. I would appreciate some guidance. I see that DDR5 is a thing now, as is the soon-to-be Nvidia 4000 series. What's current from Intel? From AMD? Which socket is what? Does either AMD or Intel have a gaming performance edge over the other?

No not really. The inability to use any other drives (without slow-down) with NVMe is a dealbreaker. In the thread I learned about usage for any future builds, but for the build I have now, SATA 2.5 drives will do.

Very interesting. It also sounds like if a difference is noticed (as you said, it probably wouldn’t) it doesn’t come with a good trade-off. I don’t like not being able to use sata drives unless it slows down the rest of it. I feel like I’ve learned that my current PC status is “It’s still good enough, just upgrade the video card.” Which is fine by me.

Even in open world 3D gaming? I would have thought faster storage technology would help with that.

Dare I ask ... do you have a recommendation for another technology that would still be an upgrade? The sata drive I have now is whatever 6Gbps is in real-life usage. If that can be bumped up with a new drive but still allow me to use other (slower) drives (the ones I have now) then I’d like to do that. Otherwise, I’ll consider an erase and reinstall.

Ok I see what you mean. It’s a daily driver computer. Media consumption. And also gaming yes. I’m looking for a path to give it a refresh. Currently has a 980ti, too. I figured an NVMe drive would be a nice-to-have in the meantime until 3070s start to exist in the wild again.

Are you referring to the generation of board I have? Do newer motherboard platforms have features that don’t create a bottleneck like that? I would be nice to have a fast NVMe boot drive and still use the slower 2.5” sata ssds I have currently. If a new MB purchase would mean that ability, I’d find myself considering a new MB.

I’m not sure what you mean - an upgrade to improve performance.

Okay so any other storage would need to be external to not slow down the 970?

I’m becoming confused by specs and trying to learn them. I have this: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-M5/Specification I want to buy this: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BN4NJ2J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_jge1FbQQF9P88?psc=1 Will the drive work at full speed? Looking for an upgrade from the SATA 2.5” I have now.

I won't answer the poll, but ask my loaded, short barrel, pistol grip, 12 gauge Mossberg 500 in my closet. By the way... you really should fix "it deepens."

Less than $200? Yikes.

It's not that I cannot, I chose not to engage in an argument with a kid on an online forum. It's just infantile to encourage such behavior... this might as well be YouTube comments with behavior like that. But kids like you are everywhere and I've met plenty so I know what to expect. But you know what else? That's all just a part of you (or any one for that matter) growing up and experiencing the world.

I guess it could ultimately depend on how much money you have burning a hole in your pocket. 500GB SSDs are still around $200 or a little less. I'd just hate to spend that much money on the small performance increase I'm very confident it would have. I personally wouldn't bother. Newegg has a Samsung 2TB, 5400rpm, 2.5" drive that'll work in the PS4 for just under $100. That's what I'd get. It sure is a helluvalotta space. Four times the space for about half the cost of an SSD capacity worth getting. 5400rpm wouldn't be a negative because I've got my PS4's original hard drive on my shelf -- it, too, is 5400.

PS4 uses SATA2. The cost-to-storage-to-performance comparison makes it not worth it at all. Stick with a regular HDD and you're good. http://www.ign.com/wikis/playstation-4/PlayStation_4_Hard_Drive_Speed_Test_Comparison Barely an improvement at all. I can vouch for this because I had a PC motherboard that only had SATA2. Installing an SSD had an improvement, but not a very large one. A second faster. If that.

Ya the small cover is there the hard drive is. There are 3-4 screws to remove. It's a simple swap.. and turning the console back on automatically reformats the drive and installs the XMB. Yes, you could install an SSD, but seriously, it's not worth the cost. There's no speed benefit to it... at all. Just get the largest 2.5" HDD you can afford and you're good.

Oh. Well.. congratulations. You're another kid of rich parents that doesn't want to be called a kid because he thinks he knows it all. Kids like you are born every day. That's nothing new. I get it. I'm down with that. Best of luck to you.

Says the kid. I'm sorry, but you are not right. And here's the cliche that no one ever likes to hear: One day you'll understand. Forget what's LEGAL for a moment, I have a moral and ethical obligation to know what my underage son is doing and where he's doing it whether it's online or not. Any decent German parent would say the same thing. I am the parent, and I'm responsible for him, his actions, and his discipline. Any one who says otherwise is either not a parent or ignorant (or a bad parent).

To be the devil's advocate, Steam works fairly well on a couch. I use an Xbox 360 controller with my computer. It's pretty snazzy. But in the end, I'm not for or against any platform. I've got a computer and 4 consoles plugged into my tv. I like them all.