Advice on upgrade options

[Mr.Humble]

Hi everyone,

 

I would like to ask for your advice on how to proceed with my planned PC upgrade. This will be a long post, so I will put most of the stuff under spoilers. I appreciate each and every one of you who takes a look and helps me with my choice.

Budget is around $1250, not including the GPU.

INTRODUCTION / BACKSTORY

Spoiler

I got my current gaming desktop in 2014, and I expected it to be good for 5-6 years. After I go through with the desktop upgrade, I expect to be able to repurpose the old desktop as a NAS for myself and / or my parents, and I expect it to be functional for another 3-4 years.

I'm therefore looking into possible upgrade options around the $1250 pricepoint for a high-end system, without the GPU. This, in my opinion, puts me pretty squarely to the market for AMD.

In addition to the desktop, I recently - end of 2018 - got a new laptop with dual Thunderbolt 3, that I use daily for school and work, and expect it to last for 6 years - 3 years with me, 3 years with my parents.

 

For your convenience, I will be listing prices in US dollars, although it is not my currency. I will therefore be using prices from my local retailers, converted to US dollars according to the approximate current exchange rate, which might differ from prices in the US or on PCPartPicker, for example.

In my opinion, my options now are:
1. Upgrade with Ryzen 2000
2. Upgrade with Ryzen 3000
3. Get an eGPU solution and replace the desktop with the laptop
4. Postpone the upgrade until 2020. In that case I would be looking at around $2000 pricepoint including new GPU.

CURRENT DESKTOP AND LAPTOP

Spoiler

Desktop:

Motherboard: ASUS Z97-P
CPU: Intel Core i5 4590

CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer i30

GPU: Gigabyte GTX1080 G1

RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x8GB 2400MHz

PSU: FSP Raider S 750W

SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB (SATA)
HDD: 2 Seagate Barracuda 2TB drives in RAID1

Case: Zalman Z12

I expect to carry over the GPU, SSD, HDDs, some Noctua 120mm cooling fans and all peripherals (not listed, see signature)

Laptop: HP Spectre x360 13" late 2018: Core i7 8550U, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, 13" 1920x1080p 120 Hz IPS touchscreen, dual Thunderbolt 3

SELECTION CRITERIA:

1: Price:performance - I don't care about RGB RAM, onboard Wi-Fi, or SLI. I want to get as much out of my money as possible, without underspending on any of the critical components (PSU, MB, case)
2: Raw power - I want to be able to use this setup for at least 5 years, with a GPU upgrade down the line. See next section for use cases

3: Quiet operation

4: Reliability - explicitly not interested in watercooling
5: Aesthetics / extra features: I would like to have either an all black / black and white build with a Tempered Glass side panel, but I can do without it.

USE CASES FOR THE SETUP

In order of frequency, most to least:

1. Content consumption

2. 1440p Ultrawide gaming

Games:

Spoiler

 

Current:
Kingdom Come:Deliverance

Witcher 3

TES V: Skyrim

X4: Foundations

(Shadow of the) Tomb Raider

Cities:Skylines

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

X3 Albion Prelude

Expected:

TES VI

Cyberpunk 2077

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

 

3. Office work - Excel spreadsheets, email, Word documents

4. Photo editing in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

OPTION 1: Ryzen 2700X
I consider this option even after the announcement of Ryzen 3000 because it is immediately available, prices are known, and the expected performance level is assumed to be satisfactory for my needs.
In case multiple options are listed, they are considered mutually exclusive, i.e. I won't get 3 motherboards.
TOTAL cost is ~ $ 1045 - $ 1210.

Spoiler

Motherboard:
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F - $130
ASUS PRIME X470 Pro - $190
ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F - $215

CPU: AMD Ryzen 2700X - $320

 
CPU + Motherboard SUBTOTAL ~ $ 450 - $ 535
 

CPU Cooler:

Noctua NH-U12A + AM4 mounting kit - $115

Noctua NH-D15 - $100

 

RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x8GB 3200MHz CL18 DDR4 - $100

 

PSU:

EVGA SuperNova G3 650W - $105

Corsair RM750x (2018) 750W - $130

 

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 500GB (PCIe M.2) - $140

 

Case: 

Fractal Design Define R6 - $150

Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass - $165

+ Fractal Design Connect D1 (Front pannel USB-C) - $25

 

TOTAL ~ $ 1045 - $ 1210

 

In the future I expect to add a couple of 4TB hard drives and a pair of 10GbE NICs to connect the PC and NAS.

OPTION 2: Ryzen 3000

This option assumes the same components as Option 1, except for a different CPU and motherboard, whose combined maximum cost should be lower than $ 570. Prices are not yet known, power requirements are not yet known, but expected to be higher. Noise is expected higher due to active chipset cooler.

OPTION 3: eGPU

My laptop has a 4c/8t CPU and dual 4-lane Thunderbolt 3 ports. I would therefore expect to be able to roughly reproduce Linus' Cleanest setup (see YouTube video). I would expect to reuse my current GPU for this setup.
This setup would be expected to last for the next 5-6 years with 1 GPU upgrade and 1 laptop upgrade in 2-3 years.
I realize that the performance would not be as good, but I expect this to be a suitable solution for my purposes.
TOTAL cost is ~ $ 810 - $ 1060

Spoiler

eGPU enclosure: Akitio Node Pro - $ 460

 

Thunderbolt 3 Dock:

Caldigit TS3 Plus - $ 350

Akitio THUNDER3 - $ 400

 

Optional notebook cooler: under $ 200
 

TOTAL ~ $ 810 - $ 1060

The Akitio dock is considered because it integrates 10gbE connector, as my future plan is to upgrade my NAS with a 10GbE NIC

OPTION 4: Upgrade in 2020

An Upgrade in 2020 would need to include a GPU upgrade, therefore the budget would be expected to increase to roughly $ 2000. It doesn't make sense to list parts for this build. TOTAL cost < $ 2000.

What do you think is the best option for me? Which would you choose?

Thanks for your time and help!

 

Spoiler

P.S.: You have no idea what feelings I had when I apparently took too long to submit and the forum logged me out.

 

[SolarNova]

Here's another option, none of the above.

 

Unless ur purposely aiming to build a NAS from leftover parts then you should consider just upgrading the CPU and GPU.

 

Find a used 4770k or 4790k, sell the 1080 and get a used 1080ti or a new/used 2080.

Grab a better cooler for the CPU perhaps a NH-D15 or a 280m or 360m AIO and OC the CPU.

 

You'd already got a solid base PC, for 1440p ultra wide gaming u just need more GPU power and an i7 for those games that use more than 4 cores.

[Mr.Humble]

3 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Here's another option, none of the above.

Find a used 4770k or 4790k, sell the 1080 and get a used 1080ti or a new/used 2080.

You'd already got a solid base PC, for 1440p ultra wide gaming u just need more GPU power and an i7 for those games that use more than 4 cores.

Thank you, yes this is a possibility and I will definitely be looking out for reasonable deals on used parts.

I actually had that option last year, but due to the Intel shortage even the price of such an old part as the 4790k was grossly overinflated: 

I am not very experienced with overclocking, but I wouldn't mind trying it.

13 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Grab a better cooler for the CPU perhaps a NH-D15 or a 280m or 360m AIO and OC the CPU.

Problem is that the case has enough clearance for only 160mm towers, and I don't want to watercool. The case also doesn't sound isolate very well, and if I would need to transplant the internals to a new case, I feel like I'm ultimately better off just getting a new system anyway, assuming that the Z-97 platform would be suitable for the next 2 years.

I would also probably be looking for a better PSU as the FSP unit I have will conclude its warranty period this year and according to every PSU Tier list it's considered garbage.

15 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Unless ur purposely aiming to build a NAS from leftover parts then you should consider just upgrading the CPU and GPU.

Me and my dad are incredible data hoarders. I would like my parents to have a centralized home media library and off-site backup solution for their respective businesses.

So if I don't repurpose the current setup, I will probably be getting an off-the-shelf NAS box - I have been eyeing the QNAP TS-453Be-4G with it's 10GbE card for instance.

 

Overall I absolutely agree this is a viable option how to squeeze some more life out of the current setup.

[GoldenLag]

42 minutes ago, vojta.pokorny said:

OPTION 2: Ryzen 3000

This option assumes the same components as Option 1, except for a different CPU and motherboard, whose combined maximum cost should be lower than $ 570. Prices are not yet known, power requirements are not yet known, but expected to be higher. Noise is expected higher due to active chipset cooler.

We know the price of some of the CPUs allready.

 

And the chipset fan probBly wont be very loud as the chipset only gets hot from RAID tasks etc.

 

But id wait for Ryzen 3k at this point an upgrade to that. 

[Jurrunio]

Wait for 3rd gen. Tbh at 1440p you dont need the best of processors especially with only a GTX 1080, it's just to take advantage of price cuts on the old parts (tho dont mind new parts if they are really good and well-priced).

 

I wont go eGPU, the enclosure isnt that cheap and you limit performance headroom from upgrades because TB3.

 

30 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Find a used 4770k or 4790k,

Mind you, being the gaming kings of DDR3 these two CPUs are super difficult to find at a reasonable price and fakes are all over the place.

[Mr.Humble]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Tbh at 1440p you dont need the best of processors especially with only a GTX 1080

Thank you, it's 3440x1440p, so a little bit more demanding, but still only around 60 % of 4K.

I expect a GPU upgrade next year.

I'm one of those people who have an Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of their setup  and I determined that I should upgrade the GPU every 3 years - got the 1080 in 2017.

[Jurrunio]

11 minutes ago, vojta.pokorny said:

I'm one of those people who have an Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of their setup  and I determined that I should upgrade the GPU every 3 years - got the 1080 in 2017.

Nice, keep that above 3 years, basically skipping one generation after the other since performance dont really improve that much

[SolarNova]

My personal GPU upgrade path in relatively recent years has been.

 

Dual 8800 GTX - 560ti - 780 Classified (water cooled)- 1080ti reference (water cooled)

 

Each one being a sizable performance jump.

 

The notion of using a set number of years doesn't really work, i have always prefer the "once an upgrade increases performance by set %" approach. This is why im still using a 3930k CPU, its really not worth the upgrade for gaming unless ur targeting high FPS where CPU bottlenecks can start become much more obvious.

[Mr.Humble]

42 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

The notion of using a set number of years doesn't really work, i have always prefer the "once an upgrade increases performance by set %" approach. This is why im still using a 3930k CPU, its really not worth the upgrade for gaming unless ur targeting high FPS where CPU bottlenecks can start become much more obvious.

It's not like I absolutely need to adhere to the schedule 100%. I use it more as an estimation, assuming that the card will allow me to play at high settings for roughly 3 years, and that it's also enough time for new hardware that's better enough to justify an upgrade.

I get what you mean though. And it's not like a GPU uprade takes signifficantly more than 5 minutes.