Updating/upgrading step-bro's LGA775 rig - suggestions please

Kalm_Traveler · January 3, 2020

Hey guys, I am looking for suggestions on a surprise upgrade/update for my step brother's rig.

Back in ~ 2011 or so I built an all-new machine for myself and gave him my ~ 2008 build which at the time was a Core 2 Duo E8500, 4gb 1600mhz DDR3 ( 2 x 2gb OCZ DDR3), 200gb SATA HDD, Corsair 850w non-modular PSU, in some old I think Antec case with a metal front door. It has one 140mm intake fan behind a terrible grill, which again is behind a metal door, and one 120/140mm exhaust fan spot. PSU is mounted above the motherboard.

He installed an Asus Geforce GTX 750 Ti some years ago, and a couple years ago I helped upgrade it to 8gb DDR3 and a quad core LGA771 Xeon X5492.

Further, he has installed a 120gb SSD for Windows 10/apps, and it looks like another 200gb SATA HDD.

---

Long story short, I had a new old-stock Corsair 120mm AIO sitting here because I had intended on using it with a retro PC on an old Asrock LGA774 board with a Core 2 extreme 2 core cpu, but scrapped that idea so I figured it would be better with push-pull than the single tower air cooler he had (I think it was a 212 Evo? single tower with one 140mm fan).

Had him come over two days ago and junked the 2 loud case fans (both of which only ran via molex adapters, no motherboard plugs or control - bearings were going bad), installed the AIO as rear exhaust with 2 new EVGA 120mm fans in push-pull, and put a new Thermaltake 140mm ring LED fan I had laying around from a new case in as front intake (the original fan there was orange, and installed as exhaust.... SMH)

After getting the fans set up (the 2 AIO fans are on a Y-splitter on the lone 4 pin CPU fan header, pump is a 3 pin cable on CHA 1, front intake fan is also 3 pin and on CHA 2, there is an unoccupied 3 pin PWR header I think for old PSUs that could tell the MB how fast their own fan was spinning), I sent him on his way.

However - after thinking more about this... I really want to update the system at least somewhat. He does not play games, so the 4 core Xeon and 8gb of RAM actually works just fine for normal basic PC usage for him but that case is awful, he broke the SATA connectors on his SSD so the data cable has been hot-glued on and the drive isn't even secured in the case - it's on a 3.5" bracket but for some reason he just has it wedged in the floppy drive/zip drive cage, and in 2020 I cringe at seeing the poor kid running a 120gb ssd with a pair of old 200gb HDDs.

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TLDR; point - I would like to surprise him with some updates to his rig, not necessarily building a new one since the core guts still work fine for what he wants from a computer (browsers, media, word processing, streaming 1080p content).

Offhand, was thinking a new case, new modular PSU (right now all the extra cables are just bunched up and shoved in the 5.25" drive bay cage), and maybe a 1tb SATA SSD to replace all 3 of his smaller drives would be pretty sweet.

Do you guys have any suggestions for a decent mid tower that can reuse that 120mm AIO for the CPU, and have decent airflow?

Also - while I'm at it, noticed that 750 Ti was pretty toasty, looked like it was sitting around 55c just on the desktop. Could repaste it, thought maybe updating it to a 1050 Ti or thereabouts might be a cheap way to both give better video processing for streaming, and a cooler/quieter card for less noise.

What do you guys think?

Arttu89 · January 3, 2020

As far as I get the "base components are good enough" approach, that MB and CPU are so old at this point, that they most likely stopped at SATA 1 or 2, so whatever SSD you put in there won't even be able to run at it's full speed, because it gets hamstrung by the older version of the interface. If he really doesn't use the PC for any gaming and just does the most basic stuff on it, he'd benefit a lot more from putting money into updating the base platform rather than replacing the graphic card with a 1050Ti.

If I were you I'd get him a basic Ryzen system (maybe stretch a bit on the MB for a decent B450 model, if you want to leave him a better CPU upgrade path), a basic 8GB 3200MHz kit of memory to go with it (since you said he's ok right now with just 8GB for what he does then he'll be fine with it after an upgrade aswell), clean and repaste that 750Ti and put it in a basic decent case, something like a Fractal Focus G or similar. That'll at least give him a reasonably modern platform to upgrade on in the future if he ever wants/needs, rather than keeping him on that old mobo with a Xeon that he can't really upgrade to anything later.

Kalm_Traveler · January 4, 2020

6 hours ago, Arttu89 said:

As far as I get the "base components are good enough" approach, that MB and CPU are so old at this point, that they most likely stopped at SATA 1 or 2, so whatever SSD you put in there won't even be able to run at it's full speed, because it gets hamstrung by the older version of the interface. If he really doesn't use the PC for any gaming and just does the most basic stuff on it, he'd benefit a lot more from putting money into updating the base platform rather than replacing the graphic card with a 1050Ti.

If I were you I'd get him a basic Ryzen system (maybe stretch a bit on the MB for a decent B450 model, if you want to leave him a better CPU upgrade path), a basic 8GB 3200MHz kit of memory to go with it (since you said he's ok right now with just 8GB for what he does then he'll be fine with it after an upgrade aswell), clean and repaste that 750Ti and put it in a basic decent case, something like a Fractal Focus G or similar. That'll at least give him a reasonably modern platform to upgrade on in the future if he ever wants/needs, rather than keeping him on that old mobo with a Xeon that he can't really upgrade to anything later.

Correct, the Asus P5Q3 board has SATA 2, so max 3 Gbps.

I was a little off on what hardware he had changed, so he had a 250gb Samsung 840 Evo SATA boot drive, everything else is on a pair of 2 Tb Seagate HDD's. Worse still - the graphics card is a 550 Ti, not 750 Ti. Still, running much much cooler after repasting.

What I did for today was move the guts into an NZXT H510 (adding in a pair of 140mm fans for intake that I had laying around from last years Fractal Define R6 build), swap his broken and glued 250gb SSD for a new 1tb, and swap the 12 year old Corsair 850w non-modular PSU for a new Corsair CX750 semi-modular 80+ bronze unit. Also since I had it laying around I threw in a PCI-E USB 3.0 card so the front panel connector could be used, and it adds 2 rear ports.

Once Windows 10 was installed, he's not entirely wrong... it's 'usable' for basic computing, but I'm so used to more modern rigs that waiting for anything to load at all shocked me.

I'll probably wait for his birthday in a few months to do a platform upgrade like you said. Given he's running a Geforce 550 Ti, wouldn't something like a Ryzen 2200g be an improvement even on the graphics end? CPU + MB + 8gb kit of 3200mhz DDR4 seems like it would be a nice jump, no?

*EDIT*

just put this together from PCPP:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bKhwTB

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.98 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $261.96

Arttu89 · January 4, 2020

4 minutes ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

Correct, the Asus P5Q3 board has SATA 2, so max 3 Gbps.

I just checked that board, let's just say SATA 2 isn't the only old interface on it. PCIe 2.0 ftw!

4 minutes ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

I'll probably wait for his birthday in a few months to do a platform upgrade like you said. Given he's running a Geforce 550 Ti, wouldn't something like a Ryzen 2200g be an improvement even on the graphics end? CPU + MB + 8gb kit of 3200mhz DDR4 seems like it would be a nice jump, no?

I never had the pleasure of benchmarking a 550Ti against a 2200g, but just looking around online it does seem like the integrated graphics on that Ryzen chip do pull a little ahead of that card, so it would give him a bit of a boost. Aside of that, what you did already + CPU,MB, RAM would indeed be pretty sweet compared to what he's been running.

Here's an idea, if the cooler on that 550Ti looks somewhat presentable, maybe you could make a sentimental piece out of it and just mount it somewhere in the case, obviously without plugging it in, just for show, as a little reminder of the old system that served him for such a long time. Unless he's not one to appreciate mementos like that.

Kalm_Traveler · January 11, 2020

On 1/3/2020 at 8:36 PM, Arttu89 said:

I just checked that board, let's just say SATA 2 isn't the only old interface on it. PCIe 2.0 ftw!

I never had the pleasure of benchmarking a 550Ti against a 2200g, but just looking around online it does seem like the integrated graphics on that Ryzen chip do pull a little ahead of that card, so it would give him a bit of a boost. Aside of that, what you did already + CPU,MB, RAM would indeed be pretty sweet compared to what he's been running.

Here's an idea, if the cooler on that 550Ti looks somewhat presentable, maybe you could make a sentimental piece out of it and just mount it somewhere in the case, obviously without plugging it in, just for show, as a little reminder of the old system that served him for such a long time. Unless he's not one to appreciate mementos like that.

hey I've been thinking more about this after the case/PSU swap and I think it'd be sweet to go a little higher in and get him something really good that will actually last him another 10 years.

What do you think about going with a decent B450 board and a 3700x or so, 16gb DDR4, and maybe a 2060 Super in case I can get him to start playing some games?

As far as I know, he's running 2 monitors right now, my old Viewsonic 1920 x 1200 60hz 28" (IIRC it's the VX2835wm) over HDMI and a 1600 x 1200 Samsung 21 or 22" 60hz over VGA.

Kind of want to replace both of those with a 34" ultrawide.

Arttu89 · January 11, 2020

That setup would be a really nice all-round build, whether it lasts 10 years or not, really depends on how his interests evolve over that time. If he keeps using it as the old one, then he'll probably never fully utilise the power and get even more than 10 years from it, but if you get him into gaming it might need an upgrade or two as the years go by, depending on what he plays.

How does he use those 2 monitors right now? As much as I love the idea of an ultrawide and wouldn't think twice about buying one for myself if I only had the desk space, it's also not always the perfect replacement of a double monitor setup in some use cases.

Kalm_Traveler · January 14, 2020

On 1/11/2020 at 4:52 PM, Arttu89 said:

That setup would be a really nice all-round build, whether it lasts 10 years or not, really depends on how his interests evolve over that time. If he keeps using it as the old one, then he'll probably never fully utilise the power and get even more than 10 years from it, but if you get him into gaming it might need an upgrade or two as the years go by, depending on what he plays.

How does he use those 2 monitors right now? As much as I love the idea of an ultrawide and wouldn't think twice about buying one for myself if I only had the desk space, it's also not always the perfect replacement of a double monitor setup in some use cases.

just sneakily asked him what he's even doing with those two screens and he says he doesn't really use the VGA Samsung much at all, just throws other windows on it when watching movies on the main screen. I bet he'd be fine with one modern good monitor as long as it wasn't smaller than the 28" Viewsonic he has now. Time to do some digging

VEXICUS · January 14, 2020

I'll recommend something like this instead...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor ($85.00) Ryzen 5 1600 AF is available on amazon.com for $85. It is basically a Ryzen 5 2600 with first gen IMC. It is based on 12nm.
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($78.98 @ Newegg) Best entry level Mobo.
Memory: OLOy 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg) 16gb 3200mhz cl16 ddr4 ram. Because Ryzen loves fast dual channel memory.
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 570 8 GB Video Card ($70.00) The rx570 is available on AliExpress/eBay for around $70 that too with free international shipping. It'll be a massive upgrade over 550ti. You can even get a rx580 for around $100.
Total: $291.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-14 01:00 EST-0500

This would be a massive upgrade over what he has already got.

Arttu89 · January 15, 2020

On 1/14/2020 at 2:46 AM, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

just sneakily asked him what he's even doing with those two screens and he says he doesn't really use the VGA Samsung much at all, just throws other windows on it when watching movies on the main screen. I bet he'd be fine with one modern good monitor as long as it wasn't smaller than the 28" Viewsonic he has now. Time to do some digging

So he's basically using it for the "cool factor" of having 2 screens on his desk.

The setup VEXICUS proposed would be a good starting point, only thing I'd think about twice would be the MB, if he ever decides to put a higher end Ryzen chip in it I'm not sure how much the VRM on that ASRock board can take (but maybe I'm overthinking it and trying to plan ahead too much), it's not a huge investment, he can definitely do some gaming on it and if he ever actually decides on going into some triple A titles there's plenty of upgrade options that won't break the bank.

Oh my, I just checked that Viewsonic monitor you keep talking about and felt like I went back in time to the mid 2000s. For some reason I kept assuming it's not too old. The spec says it's 28" but 27.5" viewable.

Here's some options, I tried to find some not too expensive Freesync monitors.

AOC 27V2H - 27" 1920x1080 75Hz TN
Dell SE2717H - 27" 1920x1080 75Hz IPS-type

LG 29UM69G-B - 29" 2560x1080 75Hz IPS - looks like a decent budget ultrawide option if you want to go there, yes I know it's not the 34" you wanted to put on his desk, but it's still ultrawide

There's 144Hz options for some $30-40 more or you could try looking at some cheap 2560x1440, but I don't really think he needs either of those options, I'm not sure he'll even use the 75Hz Freesync, but I tried to take into account you want to get him to do a little gaming.

I think the main problem here is finding a balance between what he needs and your hearts desire to build something slightly higher end.

Kalm_Traveler · January 15, 2020

2 hours ago, Arttu89 said:

So he's basically using it for the "cool factor" of having 2 screens on his desk.

The setup VEXICUS proposed would be a good starting point, only thing I'd think about twice would be the MB, if he ever decides to put a higher end Ryzen chip in it I'm not sure how much the VRM on that ASRock board can take (but maybe I'm overthinking it and trying to plan ahead too much), it's not a huge investment, he can definitely do some gaming on it and if he ever actually decides on going into some triple A titles there's plenty of upgrade options that won't break the bank.

Oh my, I just checked that Viewsonic monitor you keep talking about and felt like I went back in time to the mid 2000s. For some reason I kept assuming it's not too old. The spec says it's 28" but 27.5" viewable.

Here's some options, I tried to find some not too expensive Freesync monitors.

AOC 27V2H - 27" 1920x1080 75Hz TN
Dell SE2717H - 27" 1920x1080 75Hz IPS-type

LG 29UM69G-B - 29" 2560x1080 75Hz IPS - looks like a decent budget ultrawide option if you want to go there, yes I know it's not the 34" you wanted to put on his desk, but it's still ultrawide

There's 144Hz options for some $30-40 more or you could try looking at some cheap 2560x1440, but I don't really think he needs either of those options, I'm not sure he'll even use the 75Hz Freesync, but I tried to take into account you want to get him to do a little gaming.

I think the main problem here is finding a balance between what he needs and your hearts desire to build something slightly higher end.

You're absolutely right...

and actually if I can toss another idea out there; For the last month or so I've been having weird crashing on my HEDT somehow related to the RAM running at its XMP speed and finally got fed up enough to order a new CPU / MB / RAM to replace it all. Since all the components are fine, I'll be selling those which will probably recoup I'd imagine at least $1200 or so (Asus Rampage VI Extreme mb, core i9 7960x delidded, 4 x 16gb GSkill Trident Z RGB 3200mhz CL14 kit).

I was thinking if I really wanted to be nice I could just use that money to buy cpu/mb/ram for my step brother and get him a really good setup that would definitely last him 10+ years.

With say $1200 to spend on a mb/cpu/ram and a screen we have quite a few options, no?

*EDIT*

Just threw this together as an example (no screen but I'm not sure how much to allocate for that):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DKNc4n

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor ($373.34 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($141.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($403.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $1131.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-15 17:12 EST-0500

Arttu89 · January 16, 2020

On 1/15/2020 at 8:22 PM, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

You're absolutely right...

and actually if I can toss another idea out there; For the last month or so I've been having weird crashing on my HEDT somehow related to the RAM running at its XMP speed and finally got fed up enough to order a new CPU / MB / RAM to replace it all. Since all the components are fine, I'll be selling those which will probably recoup I'd imagine at least $1200 or so (Asus Rampage VI Extreme mb, core i9 7960x delidded, 4 x 16gb GSkill Trident Z RGB 3200mhz CL14 kit).

I was thinking if I really wanted to be nice I could just use that money to buy cpu/mb/ram for my step brother and get him a really good setup that would definitely last him 10+ years.

With say $1200 to spend on a mb/cpu/ram and a screen we have quite a few options, no?

*EDIT*

Just threw this together as an example (no screen but I'm not sure how much to allocate for that):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DKNc4n

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor ($373.34 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($141.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($403.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $1131.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-15 17:12 EST-0500

If you're really set on using all of the $1200 on his computer I'd probably go with a Ryzen 5 3600 and a decent air cooler (or even staying with the stock AMD cooler, they're really enough for those chips and even look surprisingly good for a stock cooler) and put the money you save on that into something like a 27" 2560x1440 monitor. Even if you get him into gaming I don't see him using the potential of a 3800X any time soon.

boggy77 · January 17, 2020

On 1/15/2020 at 8:22 PM, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

You're absolutely right...

and actually if I can toss another idea out there; For the last month or so I've been having weird crashing on my HEDT somehow related to the RAM running at its XMP speed and finally got fed up enough to order a new CPU / MB / RAM to replace it all. Since all the components are fine, I'll be selling those which will probably recoup I'd imagine at least $1200 or so (Asus Rampage VI Extreme mb, core i9 7960x delidded, 4 x 16gb GSkill Trident Z RGB 3200mhz CL14 kit).

I was thinking if I really wanted to be nice I could just use that money to buy cpu/mb/ram for my step brother and get him a really good setup that would definitely last him 10+ years.

With say $1200 to spend on a mb/cpu/ram and a screen we have quite a few options, no?

*EDIT*

Just threw this together as an example (no screen but I'm not sure how much to allocate for that):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DKNc4n

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor ($373.34 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($141.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($403.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $1131.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-15 17:12 EST-0500

full build including monitor:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$189.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$29.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$81.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$99.99 @ B&H
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$403.98 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case	$55.88 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$73.98 @ Newegg
Monitor	AOC C24G1 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor	$144.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1240.78
	Mail-in rebates	-$60.00
	Total	$1180.78
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-17 05:45 EST-0500

VEXICUS · January 17, 2020

There you go...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING X Video Card ($409.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 (w/o ODD) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: MSI Optix MAG27CQ 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor ($299.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1360.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-17 09:23 EST-0500

Kalm_Traveler · January 17, 2020

4 hours ago, boggy77 said:

full build including monitor:

PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $189.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler $29.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $99.99 @ B&H
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory $81.99 @ Newegg
Storage Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $99.99 @ B&H
Video Card EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card $403.98 @ Newegg
Case Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case $55.88 @ Amazon
Power Supply Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply $73.98 @ Newegg
Monitor AOC C24G1 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor $144.99 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total (before mail-in rebates) $1240.78
Mail-in rebates -$60.00
Total $1180.78
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-17 05:45 EST-0500

removing the storage, case, and PSU since I just bought him brand new ones this month, and bumping the monitor up to at least 28" (since he currently has a 28" 1920 x 1200 and wouldn't want to downsize) what would you change?

Kalm_Traveler · January 17, 2020

25 minutes ago, VEXICUS said:

There you go...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB GAMING X Video Card ($409.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 (w/o ODD) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: MSI Optix MAG27CQ 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor ($299.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1360.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-17 09:23 EST-0500

Thank you!

removing the storage, case, and PSU since I just bought him brand new ones this month, and bumping the monitor up to at least 28" (since he currently has a 28" 1920 x 1200 and wouldn't want to downsize) what would you change?

boggy77 · January 17, 2020

3 minutes ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

removing the storage, case, and PSU since I just bought him brand new ones this month, and bumping the monitor up to at least 28" (since he currently has a 28" 1920 x 1200 and wouldn't want to downsize) what would you change?

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$189.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$29.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$81.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card	$489.99 @ Newegg
Monitor	VIOTEK GN34CW 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor	$349.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1271.94
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$1241.94
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-17 09:53 EST-0500

Kalm_Traveler · January 17, 2020

16 hours ago, Arttu89 said:

If you're really set on using all of the $1200 on his computer I'd probably go with a Ryzen 5 3600 and a decent air cooler (or even staying with the stock AMD cooler, they're really enough for those chips and even look surprisingly good for a stock cooler) and put the money you save on that into something like a 27" 2560x1440 monitor. Even if you get him into gaming I don't see him using the potential of a 3800X any time soon.

ahh yeah I see your point. I guess what is going through my mind is that this kid (man... guy is married with a child and turning 30 this year...just always think of him as my little step brother) will probably never be able to afford to buy himself a brand new decent PC.

Thought has been that if I got him something a little higher end on the CPU/memory side it would last him another 10 years since he's been getting by with my old Core 2 Duo -> upgraded to that quad core Xeon I think 2 or 3 years ago.

You're probably right though - keeping roughly around that $1200 mark, dropping to a 3600 to fit a big screen in makes more sense.

Arttu89 · January 17, 2020

6 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

ahh yeah I see your point. I guess what is going through my mind is that this kid (man... guy is married with a child and turning 30 this year...just always think of him as my little step brother) will probably never be able to afford to buy himself a brand new decent PC.

Thought has been that if I got him something a little higher end on the CPU/memory side it would last him another 10 years since he's been getting by with my old Core 2 Duo -> upgraded to that quad core Xeon I think 2 or 3 years ago.

You're probably right though - keeping roughly around that $1200 mark, dropping to a 3600 to fit a big screen in makes more sense.

I see your point, but if you look at what was available 10-15 years ago and how much of a difference it made (even in simple day to day computing) to go a tier higher on parts and compare it to what it looks like today, then if he keeps using his PC as casually as he did until now, he can easily get 10 years out of today's mid range components.

If he does get caught up in gaming over the next couple years, then he'll still have the option to drop a high end Ryzen 4000 series and/or a higher end 2020/2021 GPU at a point in time where they'll probably be available at discount prices and it will still give him a really nice experience on a 2560x1440 panel.

I just feel that with how you described his particular use case, there's really no need to overbuild it as much, because even the low end of today's hardware would be a ton more responsive, snappy and comfortable to use, then that old system he grew into.

Arttu89 · January 18, 2020

@Kalm_Traveler1

Btw, make a picture of the build when you're done, I got so involved in this topic I kinda wanna see what turns out of it.

Kalm_Traveler · January 18, 2020

1 hour ago, Arttu89 said:

@Kalm_Traveler1

Btw, make a picture of the build when you're done, I got so involved in this topic I kinda wanna see what turns out of it.

For sure - for starters here's the old case (he sent this to me after I made him promise to get it out of my sight forever)

Arttu89 · January 20, 2020

On 1/18/2020 at 6:51 PM, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

For sure - for starters here's the old case (he sent this to me after I made him promise to get it out of my sight forever)

Well... at least the side panel had an interesting design.

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Updating/upgrading step-bro's LGA775 rig - suggestions please

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