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PC Upgrade

MASunderc0ver
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I feel like my PC needs an upgrade. With uni just around the corner, my budget is limited. I have three options.

Upgrade from 8gb RAM (2x4gb) to CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (1X 16GB) 3000MHZ  (£70)

Upgrade my i5- 6500 to an i5-9400F (£160) however unsure about which new Motherboard.

Upgrade my GPU from a GTX 970 to an RTX 2060 (£320)

 

I was wondering which one would see the best performance increase for the pice. I have looked at the minimum specs of new games and it suggests my Cpu is the bottleneck? 

Any help would be great. 

Sam

Pc

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Your current processor will hold you back in some cases, yes

 

Though I'd say wait a month for AMD's 3000 chips to release. You might find some better value in there. 

 

What performance are you looking to achieve?

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3 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

I feel like my PC needs an upgrade. With uni just around the corner, my budget is limited. I have three options.

Upgrade from 8gb RAM to CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (1X 16GB) 3000MHZ  (£70)

Upgrade my i5- 6500 to an i5-9400F (£160) however unsure about Motherboard.

Upgrade my GPU from a GTX 970 to an RTX 2060 (£320)

 

I was wondering which one would see the best performance increase for the pice. I have looked at the minimum specs of new games and it suggests my Cpu is the bottleneck? 

Any help would be great. 

SamPc

Well with the release of zen 2 on the 7th of july, prices will initially drop of both zen and zen+ cpu’s. You could then perhaps grab a 1700 or 2600 + a B450 motherboard for cheap. 

 

Do you already have a SSD?

 

also, why not buy another 8GB stick and benefit of dual channel. What is your current ram specs?

 

as to the GPU, 2060 is a solid choice, but you could opt for an AMD card if you don’t need ray tracing. 2 new Navi cards are also to be launched sometime this year.

 

MSI B450 Pro Gaming Pro Carbon AC | AMD Ryzen 2700x  | NZXT  Kraken X52  | MSI GeForce RTX2070 Armour | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4*8) 3200MhZ | Samsung 970 evo M.2nvme 500GB Boot  / Samsung 860 evo 500GB SSD | Corsair RM550X (2018) | Fractal Design Meshify C white | Logitech G pro Wireless | Gigabyte Aurus AD27QD 

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8 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

 

Upgrade my i5- 6500 to an i5-9400F (£160) however unsure about Motherboard.

 

You cannot upgrade to an i5-9400F

It's not compatible with 100- 200 series intel motherboards 

Please quote or tag me @Void Master,so i can see your reply.

 

Everyone was a noob at the beginning, don't be discouraged by toxic trolls even if u lose 15 times in a row. Keep training and pushing yourself further and further, so u can show those sorry lots how it's done !

Be a supportive player, and make sure to reflect a good image of the game community you are a part of. 

Don't kick a player unless they willingly want to ruin your experience.

We are the gamer community, we should take care of each other !

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9 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

Upgrade my i5- 6500 to an i5-9400F (£160) however unsure about Motherboard.

Motherboard will not work for a 9400F, you'd need a new one 

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 11 and Fedora Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

PSU tier list

How many watts do I need?

PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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12 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Your current processor will hold you back in some cases, yes

 

Though I'd say wait a month for AMD's 3000 chips to release. You might find some better value in there. 

 

What performance are you looking to achieve?

I play CPU and RAM heavy games in the simulation and strategy genre rather than GPU intensive. 

Not sure if you are familiar with things such as Cities Skylines mods and if they are cpu or Ram intensive? 

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14 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Well with the release of zen 2 on the 7th of july, prices will initially drop of both zen and zen+ cpu’s. You could then perhaps grab a 1700 or 2600 + a B450 motherboard for cheap. 

 

Do you already have a SSD?

  

also, why not buy another 8GB stick and benefit of dual channel. What is your current ram specs?

 

as to the GPU, 2060 is a solid choice, but you could opt for an AMD card if you don’t need ray tracing. 2 new Navi cards are also to be launched sometime this year.

I have an SSD

my current ram set up is 2 4gb sticks in dual channel which was a silly purchase. Hence the next bu will be a single stick 

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26 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

Upgrade from 8gb RAM (2x4gb) to CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (1X 16GB) 3000MHZ  (£70)

Upgrade my i5- 6500 to an i5-9400F (£160) however unsure about which new Motherboard.

Upgrade my GPU from a GTX 970 to an RTX 2060 (£320)

-Go for 2x8GB RAM. Dual channel is important for gaming performance

-I suggest waiting until 7 July(maybe a week after for reviews) for Ryzen 3000, it is very promising

-I suggest also waiting until 7 July for Radeon RX 5000 series, very promising too. 

 

Both Ryzen 3000 and RX 5000 series is likely to provide better price to performance to i5-9400f and RTX 2060 respectively.

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2 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

Yes I know, it's just which to get for that CPU

Oh okay

18 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Well with the release of zen 2 on the 7th of july, prices will initially drop of both zen and zen+ cpu’s. You could then perhaps grab a 1700 or 2600 + a B450 motherboard for cheap. 

 

Do you already have a SSD?

 

also, why not buy another 8GB stick and benefit of dual channel. What is your current ram specs?

 

as to the GPU, 2060 is a solid choice, but you could opt for an AMD card if you don’t need ray tracing. 2 new Navi cards are also to be launched sometime this year.

10 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

I play CPU and RAM heavy games in the simulation and strategy genre rather than GPU intensive. 

Not sure if you are familiar with things such as Cities Skylines mods and if they are cpu or Ram intensive? 

Go with @Stormseeker9's suggestion

Ryzen 3000 CPU's will have a 15% IPC uplift , so don't worry about CPU performance 

And also older ryzen CPUs will be much cheaper (I am going with this strategy)

So it's better to wait for now (this is my opinion it may be wrong or right)

 

Please quote or tag me @Void Master,so i can see your reply.

 

Everyone was a noob at the beginning, don't be discouraged by toxic trolls even if u lose 15 times in a row. Keep training and pushing yourself further and further, so u can show those sorry lots how it's done !

Be a supportive player, and make sure to reflect a good image of the game community you are a part of. 

Don't kick a player unless they willingly want to ruin your experience.

We are the gamer community, we should take care of each other !

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8 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

my current ram set up is 2 4gb sticks in dual channel which was a silly purchase. Hence the next bu will be a single stick 

Why? Running a single 16GB stick is really bad because you're only using single channel memory, will affect CPU performance a lot. Using 2 4GB sticks and 1 16GB stick doesn't make sense too. Just get either 2x8GB or 4x4GB. If you go for Ryzen, get RAM speed above or equal to 3000MHz. If Intel, then 2400-2666MHz is the sweet spot.

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12 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

Why? Running a single 16GB stick is really bad because you're only using single channel memory, will affect CPU performance a lot. Using 2 4GB sticks and 1 16GB stick doesn't make sense too. Just get either 2x8GB or 4x4GB. If you go for Ryzen, get RAM speed above or equal to 3000MHz. If Intel, then 2400-2666MHz is the sweet spot.

i was thinking for upgradability to swap out the 2 4gb sticks for one 16gb would be the way to go as it allows me to get 32gb should i need to in the future.

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1 minute ago, MASunderc0ver said:

i was thinking for upgradability to swap out the 2 4gb sticks for one 16gb would be the way to go as it allows me to get 32gb should i need to in the future.

32 is basically useless for anyone who isn’t doing content creation. 

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16 minutes ago, Void Master said:

Oh okay

Go with @Stormseeker9's suggestion

Ryzen 3000 CPU's will have a 15% IPC uplift , so don't worry about CPU performance 

And also older ryzen CPUs will be much cheaper (I am going with this strategy)

So it's better to wait for now (this is my opinion it may be wrong or right)

 

So CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2X 8GB) 3000MHZ would be the better option along with a new Ryzen CPU (if the reviews are positive)?

Also do you have any tips on a Motherboard purchase? What sort of thing should I look out for? (obviously on the lower end)

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29 minutes ago, MASunderc0ver said:

i was thinking for upgradability to swap out the 2 4gb sticks for one 16gb would be the way to go as it allows me to get 32gb should i need to in the future.

For gaming 32GB is not needed. Getting 2X8GB RAM also allows you to upgrade to 32 as well, as most motherboards have 4 RAM slots.

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