Need crucial advice for a potential upgrade or new PC in general

[Slugster]

Hey, so I'm wanting to upgrade my CPU and GPU but with using the existing motherboard (I cba rewiring everything again, did it twice)

 

I have a $300 budget each for a new CPU and GPU so $600 in total

 

Existing PC: 

 

CPU: I5-6500

GPU: GTX 970

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 

Ram: 16GB

Link to build

 

 

I need some genuine advice as I'm literally only going to proceed based on whatever responses I get. Another thought that I had was, would it simply be better to buy a completely prebuilt PC instead rather than upgrading? 

 

Thank you

 

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Star Citizen, MMO's in general

 

 

[Fasauceome]

6 minutes ago, Slugster said:

a plan to buy these parts during Black Friday. 

that is so, so far away. A parts list now is useless.

[Shimejii]

You are not going to be able to buy parts for that Motherboard that are going to be worth doing. 6500 to 6700k is a small bump for the 100$ or so thats going to be required to pay. A better GPU is going to be limited by that CPU so you are in a challenging area.

[dizmo]

Agreed. Pointless to look now. Just wait for Black Friday, and see what the sales are like.

 

Also, you can't buy a new CPU for that motherboard. You need to replace both.

[Dravinian]

5 minutes ago, Slugster said:

Hey, so I'm wanting to upgrade my CPU and GPU but with using the existing motherboard (I cba rewiring everything again, did it twice)

 

I have a $300 budget each for a new CPU and GPU but with a plan to buy these parts during Black Friday. 

 

Existing PC: 

 

CPU: I5-6500

GPU: GTX 970

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 

Ram: 16GB

Link to build

 

 

I need some genuine advice as I'm literally only going to proceed based on whatever responses I get. Another thought that I had was, would it simply be better to buy a completely prebuilt PC instead rather than upgrading? 

 

Thank you

 

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Star Citizen, MMO's in general

 

 

I don't think you going to get an upgrade on CPU and GPU, other than second hand maybe, for $300.

 

Even things like the RX 570, are $150, and that is barely an upgrade to a 970, and probably not even an upgrade to the Strix 970.

 

So I think you in going to struggle with that.

[HenrySalayne]

It's still a long time until Black Friday and prices or best-bang-for-the-buck might change quite considerably.

1 minute ago, Dravinian said:

I don't think you going to get an upgrade on CPU and GPU, other than second hand maybe, for $300.

His budget is basically 600$. 300$ for the graphics card and another 300$ for CPU (and mainboard, Z170 is outdated).

[Aniallation]

If you're familiar with second-hand market, you could always buy an 6600K/6700K and sell your old CPU. 

[Slugster]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Agreed. Pointless to look now. Just wait for Black Friday, and see what the sales are like.

 

Also, you can't buy a new CPU for that motherboard. You need to replace both.

 

Well if you disregard the idea of waiting till Black Friday, would there by any worth upgrades doing currently without changing the motherboard? 

 

Or should I just invest in a completely new prebuilt gaming pc in general

[Biscuit Boy]

For now, as all of the other comments have said, there's nothing you can do cpu wise. You will have to upgrade the motherboard and cpu for any actual good improvement, however if you decide to wait on the cpu and motherboard upgrade, that 300$ you said you had for a gpu can be put toward an rtx 2060 for exactly 300$ here. https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjz35CP1tLpAhWL7uMHHYG-DKsYABAFGgJ5bQ&ae=2&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQeD2fYEzWeGOTJROmvJ31HdHZ8Jo_Ypfu22qfReeK3bztgtAZq6hK4GKTRUa5wGyCRvZaRbz_W5cXYZaIHKXyy4t&sig=AOD64_12ywtlhfO1jO7O4loes4nu4q3bEg&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjLpYOP1tLpAhXMqZ4KHRBGCVsQ9aACegQIDhBQ&adurl=

 

While this would eat the whole budget for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and maybe dessert, this will give you an actual improvement in gaming, productivity, and whatever else you could use it for. Proof of gains: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2060-vs-Nvidia-GTX-970/4034vs2577

 

If you are looking for something cheaper that would leave some money left for that cpu upgrade, you could consider a 1660 super, which right now is listed for around 230$, leaving 70$ left toward the motherboard, which actually would benefit you a lot in terms of savings to upgrade to a higher tier cpu. That choice would be up to you, however, here's the listing for the 1660 super: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiTxcvB19LpAhWn_-MHHZsNArwYABANGgJ5bQ&sig=AOD64_1QDtLzjjv1i1la_q-5rrZev_GOHA&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjL28PB19LpAhVMpZ4KHQrsAeEQ2CkIlgU&adurl=

 

And here is the improvement from a gtx 970 to 1660 super: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660S-Super/2577vs4056

 

Keep in mind: all of this pricing you see here WILL change, its just a matter of when pricing will drop when supply chains and connections open up again. While I'd say to wait like everyone else, this will get you started with where to go when pricing returns to normal and when your wallet won't have to donate a kidney to help you upgrade your system. Hope this helps you out a bit.

[Slugster]

10 minutes ago, Biscuit Boy said:

For now, as all of the other comments have said, there's nothing you can do cpu wise. You will have to upgrade the motherboard and cpu for any actual good improvement, however if you decide to wait on the cpu and motherboard upgrade, that 300$ you said you had for a gpu can be put toward an rtx 2060 for exactly 300$ here. https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjz35CP1tLpAhWL7uMHHYG-DKsYABAFGgJ5bQ&ae=2&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQeD2fYEzWeGOTJROmvJ31HdHZ8Jo_Ypfu22qfReeK3bztgtAZq6hK4GKTRUa5wGyCRvZaRbz_W5cXYZaIHKXyy4t&sig=AOD64_12ywtlhfO1jO7O4loes4nu4q3bEg&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjLpYOP1tLpAhXMqZ4KHRBGCVsQ9aACegQIDhBQ&adurl=

 

While this would eat the whole budget for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and maybe dessert, this will give you an actual improvement in gaming, productivity, and whatever else you could use it for. Proof of gains: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2060-vs-Nvidia-GTX-970/4034vs2577

 

If you are looking for something cheaper that would leave some money left for that cpu upgrade, you could consider a 1660 super, which right now is listed for around 230$, leaving 70$ left toward the motherboard, which actually would benefit you a lot in terms of savings to upgrade to a higher tier cpu. That choice would be up to you, however, here's the listing for the 1660 super: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiTxcvB19LpAhWn_-MHHZsNArwYABANGgJ5bQ&sig=AOD64_1QDtLzjjv1i1la_q-5rrZev_GOHA&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjL28PB19LpAhVMpZ4KHQrsAeEQ2CkIlgU&adurl=

 

And here is the improvement from a gtx 970 to 1660 super: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660S-Super/2577vs4056

 

Keep in mind: all of this pricing you see here WILL change, its just a matter of when pricing will drop when supply chains and connections open up again. While I'd say to wait like everyone else, this will get you started with where to go when pricing returns to normal and when your wallet won't have to donate a kidney to help you upgrade your system. Hope this helps you out a bit.

 

Would an upgrade to an I7-7700k not be worth it? Also, it's a $300 budget for a CPU and GPU separately, so $600 in total. How outdated even is my CPU by now, and should I simply just upgrade the GPU and keep the current CPU?

 

I think all of these comments are kinda reinforcing the idea that I should simply just invest in a prebuilt gaming PC in general. I've built this PC back in 2014 and upgraded it in 2016, and the installation of the motherboard which I had to do twice now was just too much of a hassle hence why I would really prefer not to touch it

[Biscuit Boy]

21 minutes ago, Slugster said:

 

Would an upgrade to an I7-7700k not be worth it? Also, it's a $300 budget for a CPU and GPU separately, so $600 in total. How outdated even is my CPU by now, and should I simply just upgrade the GPU and keep the current CPU?

 

I think all of these comments are kinda reinforcing the idea that I should simply just invest in a prebuilt gaming PC in general. I've built this PC back in 2014 and upgraded it in 2016, and the installation of the motherboard which I had to do twice now was just too much of a hassle hence why I would really prefer not to touch it

Right now for what I can find, a 7700k is around 380$, so I'm not sure how out of budget you would want to go, but if you would like to put money toward the 7700k and downgrade your budget for your gpu, that would work. Also, with the cpu, while I'm not an expert by any means, its not a bad cpu. If it can still run games well with what you plan to play, and you don't need a big boost in productivity workloads, then it should still be fine. If you are mainly focused on gaming, I would say keep the cpu, and upgrade to a 2060 or a 1660 super, and leave the cpu. If you want to upgrade the cpu and gpu together so you don't have to deal with two separate upgrade time frames, then I would upgrade the cpu to the 7700k, and assuming for pricing right now you buy it for 380$, that still leaves you with around 220 to work with on a gpu. This can be improved by selling your older 970 card, which goes for around 100$ or more used right now on ebay. This means, if you don't mind waiting for a bit for your new card, your budget can be a little higher than previous, at around 320$ for a gpu. If this is the case, then go with the previous reccomendation of a 2060 or 1660 super. If you can find better deals when this happens, then go for those.  This next part assumes you don't sell the 970 card, and just buy for around 220$ for a new card. GTX 1660 cards that are non ti or super are around 200$ right now, some a bit higher around 215$-250$. These are all still good options, especially since the 1660 super only gives a slight bump over the non super 1660 cards. I would aim for around that price point, though there are some good rx590 deals for around the same price, and deliver about the same performance. This link is the improvement from a 970 to an rx 590: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-AMD-RX-590/2577vs4033

 

and this link shows improvement from 970 to 1660: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660/2577vs4038

 

Again, both of these options assume you don't sell the old card (gtx 970) for a larger budget, allowing you to hit rx 5600xt and 2060 territory, maybe even a good deal on a 2070 if you can find it.

[Dravinian]

I did a build in another thread for another post, $660 and it had a RT 5700 XT in it and a Ryzen and as I remember it was a full build.

 

So let me see if I can find the damn thing.

 

Price seems to fluctuate up to $670 now, but shop around you could find cheaper and if you have a PC, you maybe don't need RAM or SSD/HDD

 

This was only a 5500 too, memory is shady, but really with the $160 saved on SSD/HDD/RAM you may get the RX 5700 XT

This will be better than any cobbling together you try and do with that motherboard.

 

AND it has an upgrade path, insofar as the B450 boards will support Ryzen 4000 series (though not spectularly easily) but at least you will be able to upgrade in the future.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$119.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$72.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Silicon Power 256 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$34.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$58.98 @ Newegg
Video Card	ASRock Radeon RX 5500 XT 4 GB Challenger D OC Video Card	$159.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$83.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$690.90
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$670.90
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-26 20:26 EDT-0400

 

 

[Dravinian]

5 minutes ago, Biscuit Boy said:

and this link shows improvement from 970 to 1660: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-970-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660/2577vs4038

Don't use that site.

 

Use this, far more reliable in my opinion: 

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

 

A 13% difference between those two cards in performance terms as compared to the best card, is probably not worth spending the money on.

 

The 5700 XT is a whopping 50% jump in terms of comparitve performance.

 

If you can get to that, will actually make a difference.

[Biscuit Boy]

1 minute ago, Dravinian said:

Don't use that site.

 

Use this, far more reliable in my opinion: 

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

 

A 13% difference between those two cards in performance terms as compared to the best card, is probably not worth spending the money on.

 

The 5700 XT is a whopping 50% jump in terms of comparitve performance.

 

If you can get to that, will actually make a difference.

And this is why we have people with more experience check what the hell I say. Thx 

[Dravinian]

Here you go, bearing in mind your starting point:

 

You don't need a case, you don't need a PSU, you don't need RAM, you don't need a HD, you don't need an SSD.

 

Ok, it is $67 over budget, but shop around, maybe there is a better deal with be had somewhere on the MB or CPU, or if you really can't find a better deal, go for a slightly cheaper 5700 XT, that isn't the cheapest one around, it is just one I have heard good reviews on.

 

This would be a pretty good system for gaming. 3600 isn't far off the curve and the 5700 XT is pretty powerful.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$172.34 @ Walmart
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.99 @ Best Buy
Video Card	PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 8 GB Red Devil Video Card	$379.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$667.32
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-26 20:40 EDT-0400

 

Oh my last little point to persaude you to the dark side of AMD.

 

This build will last you, it won't last forever, but you will be able to play games that come tomorrow, next year, and you will be fine.

 

The upgrade path you are taking might just about play games today, but you aren't going to be able to keep up, as you are barely keeping up with today's games.

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, Slugster said:

 

Well if you disregard the idea of waiting till Black Friday, would there by any worth upgrades doing currently without changing the motherboard? 

 

Or should I just invest in a completely new prebuilt gaming pc in general

If you can find a particularly good deal on a 7700k, that'd be a decent upgrade. A better video card wouldn't be bad, but it depends what you want out of the system.

If you wait it out you can usually pick up a 1070Ti for around $200. Who knows what the 3000 series will bring performance wise though.

[Slugster]

Thank you very much everyone for all of your inputs