Return to Amazon and upgrade or..?

[MarleysBeard]

I'll try to keep this simple. I upgraded mobo/cpu/ram recently. I sold my old stuff quicker than I thought. Now I have an extra $175 to put into my PC.

 

I'm within my return window for Amazon. I could return any or all of the new parts and add the value to the $175 I got from the old parts. This would enable me to get better components. Alternatively I could just use the money to replace my old PSU.

 

The original parts from my 2015 build that I still have are:  Corsair Carbide 300R Case -- EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650 80+ Gold -- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4 GB - Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 7200RPM

 

New returnable parts are: Ryzen 5 3600 @ $194 -- X570 Aorus Elite @ $136 (open box Item) -- TEAMGROUP T-Force Dark Pro DDR4 16GB KIT (2 x 8GB) 3200MHz CL 14 @ $119

So total if I returned all of it is $449 + $175 = $624

 

Opinions?

 

[Guest]

I would upgrade my GPU, maybe to a 5700(XT), and sell the GTX 970 on Craigslist. And I would recommend getting an SSD boot drive which is only ~$20 and make everything so much faster.

[LtStaffel]

12 minutes ago, Darpyface said:

I would upgrade my GPU, maybe to a 5700(XT), and sell the GTX 970 on Craigslist. And I would recommend getting an SSD boot drive which is only ~$20 and make everything so much faster.

Agreed. GPU is the only thing worth upgrading and if you don't already have an SSD in this level of a build then get one. Other than those, save your money for other stuff you want

[MarleysBeard]

I do have a 250gb ssd for boot drive.

 

Based on actual sold listings on EBAY my GPU would go for around 70-90. Add that to the 175 and I have 255 for a new GPU. Would that be enough for a worthwhile upgrade from my current gtx 970?

 

I did plan on upgrading GPU in a few months. At that point I'll have a bigger budget  say 400 ish. Maybe I should just buy a new beefier PSU for now then and get the GPU in a few months. Rather then get a lesser GPU now that is...

 

[dizmo]

Return and buy during Black Friday. It was a poor choice to buy them now.

 

You have to quote people if you want them to reply to you.

[LogicWeasel]

40 minutes ago, MarleysBeard said:

Maybe I should just buy a new beefier PSU for now then and get the GPU in a few months.

No, your PSU is fine unless it's making noises or crashing.  Your assumption that you'll need anything above the 650W unit is crazy since you're doing single GPU anyway, you could get away with a quality 450W.  "Beefier" PSU would have no impact on performance.

 

But since we're talking about GPU upgrades, what monitor do you have now?  Do you run above 1080p 60fps?  If the monitor is basic, may wanna think about an upgrade there.  If it's fancy, you need a newer GPU to power it, devote upgrade focus to it.

[LogicWeasel]

1 hour ago, MarleysBeard said:

X570 Aorus Elite @ $136 (open box Item)

I would not even consider returning that for that price.  Keep it, it's a good board, and a good platform, that stays.

[MarleysBeard]

1 minute ago, LogicWeasel said:

No, your PSU is fine unless it's making noises or crashing.  Your assumption that you'll need anything above the 650W unit is crazy since you're doing single GPU anyway, you could get away with a quality 450W.  "Beefier" PSU would have no impact on performance.

My understanding is by having extra power I'd be running at a lower load. So less fan noise and better efficiency. Seems like 50% is the sweet spot. Keeping in mind I'll be upgrading the GPU to something more power hungry I thought stepping up to something in the 7-800 range would put me at or under 50%. That and I've read horror stories about PSUs failing and killing other parts.

[MarleysBeard]

3 minutes ago, LogicWeasel said:

I would not even consider returning that for that price.  Keep it, it's a good board, and a good platform, that stays.

Yeah I'm thinking that board and that ram which seems very well reviewed and popular are keepers. I'd considered switching the CPU out for the Ryzen 7 3700x but looking at benchmarks its not really significantly better when it comes to FPS in games.

[LogicWeasel]

14 hours ago, MarleysBeard said:

My understanding is by having extra power I'd be running at a lower load.

On its face this statement is wrong.  A lower load in wattage, no, the load on a PSU is just that, the load, how much power you're pulling through it.  Maybe what you meant here was a lower percentage of its total rated continuous power? perhaps, but that doesn't make 300W of power generate less heat or noise if you run it through a 550W PSU vs a 850W, that's just incorrect.  All typical ATX PSU have the same size fan (quality and noise varies of course), ever wonder why that is? 

 

14 hours ago, MarleysBeard said:

Seems like 50% is the sweet spot

Nope.  That is now debunked mis-info and was only partially true in the bygone time when it was propagated when PSU were shown with a bump on the efficiency curve at 50%, but that just means drawing a pittance less power from the AC wall plug, unless you are worried about saving pennies every month operating your PC, ignore that.  Here's some required reading on that:

 

14 hours ago, MarleysBeard said:

I'll be upgrading the GPU to something more power hungry I thought stepping up to something in the 7-800 range would put me at or under 50%.

No, no no no.  That's stupid overkill for this build.  Even if you were planning to buy an RTX 2080 Ti and overclock the snot out of it (which you're clearly not) that's still more power than that high-end of a GPU needs.  There is a lot of false assumption about just how much power a modern PC uses.  People assume they'll use more power every year, but they forget how moore's law and die-shrinks to 10nm and lower mean the opposite will be true of modern, flagship CPU/GPUs.  More required reading:  

 

 

14 hours ago, MarleysBeard said:

That and I've read horror stories about PSUs failing and killing other parts.

Sure, but you didn't buy a Diablotek PSU, so you're not shooting yourself in the foot, therefore do not worry yourself on this.  You have a well-warrantied EVGA G1 650W PSU with the expected level of protections built into a non-crap PSU, you are not going to melt your cables unless you really try.  If your PSU starts to give you issues or randomly shuts off, then it's time to replace, but if it's working, hey, why spend money to fix what ain't broken, right?

[Harry Voyager]

I'm going to echo the advice to save the money for your future GPU upgrade.

 

Also, consider the cost of your time in taking everything apart and rebuilding it; if you're working, it may make more sense for you to put in an extra weekend or two to increase your cash on hand, that you could save by returning and buying back the parts. 

[MarleysBeard]

9 hours ago, LogicWeasel said:

On its face this statement is wrong.  A lower load in wattage, no, the load on a PSU is just that, the load, how much power you're pulling through it.  Maybe what you meant here was a lower percentage of its total rated continuous power? perhaps, but that doesn't make 300W of power generate less heat or noise if you run it through a 550W PSU vs a 850W, that's just incorrect.  All typical ATX PSU have the same size fan (quality and noise varies of course), ever wonder why that is? 

 

Nope.  That is now debunked mis-info and was only partially true in the bygone time when it was propagated when PSU were shown with a bump on the efficiency curve at 50%, but that just means drawing a pittance less power from the AC wall plug, unless you are worried about saving pennies every month operating your PC, ignore that.  Here's some required reading on that:

 

No, no no no.  That's stupid overkill for this build.  Even if you were planning to buy an RTX 2080 Ti and overclock the snot out of it (which you're clearly not) that's still more power than that high-end of a GPU needs.  There is a lot of false assumption about just how much power a modern PC uses.  People assume they'll use more power every year, but they forget how moore's law and die-shrinks to 10nm and lower mean the opposite will be true of modern, flagship CPU/GPUs.  More required reading:  

 

 

Sure, but you didn't buy a Diablotek PSU, so you're not shooting yourself in the foot, therefore do not worry yourself on this.  You have a well-warrantied EVGA G1 650W PSU with the expected level of protections built into a non-crap PSU, you are not going to melt your cables unless you really try.  If your PSU starts to give you issues or randomly shuts off, then it's time to replace, but if it's working, hey, why spend money to fix what ain't broken, right?

Lots of insight and good information, thank you for taking the time to share it.