Yet another "What to upgrade?" thread

[Computernaut]

I'm looking to upgrade some part of my setup sometime soon and I'm stuck between peripherals and actual parts. My current load-out is an i5-4570 with 8 GB of RAM in an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 (an SFF case, so not large GPUs) with a 120 GB DRAM-less ADATA SSD and a 1 TB Seagate HDD for storage, Oh, and for graphics I have a GT 1030. On top of the desk I've got an old 1080p HP monitor and 1280x1024 Dell Clunker I use as an auxiliary display. My mouse and keyboard are basic affairs from HP and Dell respectively. My first impulse for an upgrade would be to get a cheap (maybe second hand) 4K TV and use software to split it up into smaller virtual displays; the problem is, I don't know if my GPU could handle 4K, or even half of that. I don't play any demanding games, really all I play is Minecraft, but if you load it up with ~40 mods, it can get to be tough slogging for a wimpy 30 watt card. So if I upgraded to a 4K TV I might need to get a GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti, this might not bode well for my 240W PSU or my low-profile only case (although I'm willing to Jerry-rig). Oh, and the PSU is non-standard, so no upgrading. I know that there will probably be a bunch pf people telling me to upgrade my RAM, which thankfully I could do thanks to the two empty slots, but I haven't encountered any issues with having "only" 8 GB, so I think I'm good for now. I would really like to upgrade the mouse and keyboard to something a bit more flashy, but since the existing ones work just fine, it's hard to justify when other upgrades could give me more tangible benefits.

Currently my budget is around $300 CAD, but it may grow somewhat in the future.

[Fasauceome]

You could go all out with a low profile 1650 if you wanted to, the PSU isn't really much of a barrier because you're close to 60 watts with the CPU and 75 with the GPU. The wise money would go towards a cheap system upgrade though, $600 Canadian can make a really nice system that's not constrained to a proprietary motherboard/PSU/case.

[Computernaut]

10 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

You could go all out with a low profile 1650 if you wanted to, the PSU isn't really much of a barrier because you're close to 60 watts with the CPU and 75 with the GPU. The wise money would go towards a cheap system upgrade though, $600 Canadian can make a really nice system that's not constrained to a proprietary motherboard/PSU/case.

I think you may have misread $300 as $600 since I have no idea where you got that "$600 Canadian" from. Additionally, a GTX 1650 is not good if it leaves only ~$50 for a 4K TV. The system runs just fine right now with the GT 1030, I would only need the 1050 or 1650 if I upgraded the display.

[williamcll]

Like what Fasauceome said, I suggest the following: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/4CsmP6/asus-geforce-gtx-1650-4-gb-dual-oc-video-card-dual-gtx1650-o4g at it has the best boost clock out of the box for just 211.99 CAD .

 

Linus in a video did say a high end intel 3/4th gen is still enough to run most popular games.

Perhaps sell your GT 1030 and 120 ADATA for a Kingston A400 SSD which does come with RAM.

[Computernaut]

1 hour ago, williamcll said:

Like what Fasauceome said, I suggest the following: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/4CsmP6/asus-geforce-gtx-1650-4-gb-dual-oc-video-card-dual-gtx1650-o4g at it has the best boost clock out of the box for just 211.99 CAD .

 

Linus in a video did say a high end intel 3/4th gen is still enough to run most popular games.

Perhaps sell your GT 1030 and 120 ADATA for a Kingston A400 SSD which does come with RAM.

Okay, so say I sell the SSD and the 1030, the SSD might fetch $20 if I'm lucky and the card would go for around $70 (would be my best guess). So now that leaves me with a total of $390. A Kingston A400 of the same capacity is $40. And with a $212 GPU I'm left with less than $140 to buy a 4K TV... Yeah, not looking good.

[williamcll]

2 hours ago, Computernaut said:

Okay, so say I sell the SSD and the 1030, the SSD might fetch $20 if I'm lucky and the card would go for around $70 (would be my best guess). So now that leaves me with a total of $390. A Kingston A400 of the same capacity is $40. And with a $212 GPU I'm left with less than $140 to buy a 4K TV... Yeah, not looking good.

No but it's enough to run modded minecraft on 1080@60fps stable.

 

You would need a beefier GPU to run 4k games.

[Fasauceome]

8 hours ago, Computernaut said:

I think you may have misread $300 as $600 since I have no idea where you got that "$600 Canadian" from. Additionally, a GTX 1650 is not good if it leaves only ~$50 for a 4K TV. The system runs just fine right now with the GT 1030, I would only need the 1050 or 1650 if I upgraded the display.

I don't meant your current budget should be used for a new PC, I think you should double your budget and put it towards a new system that can be expanded in the future quite easily. Taking some time to build up would provide a lot of value for you over time, especially since your aspirations are 4K.

[Computernaut]

8 hours ago, williamcll said:

No but it's enough to run modded minecraft on 1080@60fps stable.

 

You would need a beefier GPU to run 4k games.

Except that my current setup is already capable of running whatever I can currently throw at it Minecraft-wise. I really only need a new GPU if I go for 4K.

[Computernaut]

4 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

I don't meant your current budget should be used for a new PC, I think you should double your budget and put it towards a new system that can be expanded in the future quite easily. Taking some time to build up would provide a lot of value for you over time, especially since your aspirations are 4K.

That would indeed be ideal, however as a high school student with no job (and the job market the way it is and will likely remain for a while), doubling my budget just isn't really feasible at this juncture. I might be able to sell my existing computer as well as the GPU, but I don't think that would net me $300. You bring up a good point though, and maybe I should just bide my time for a while longer until I can build my own system, especially since that is what I really want. The catch is that a new system wouldn't really do me much good with my monitor as that is what has become the bottleneck. This means I would also have to factor in the cost of a new display, preferably of a higher or refresh rate, into my budget.