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A friend of mine is looking to upgrade his PC, but he's not really Tech savvy. Would like to hear some recommendations from yall!

HammyTheHybrid
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Budget (including currency): 500$ USD

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Grand Theft Auto V, CSGO, Warframe, Minecraft, Light video editing and music producing.

Other details: Intel Core i7-3770K, GALAX GTX 660TI, 32GB RAM

 

He's looking to upgrade his PC, as he feels his performance over the years has tanked. He will mainly be using it for gaming, light video editing/music producing every now and then. Would like to hear some recommendations! 

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A used 1070/1070Ti/1080 and an SSD if he doesn't already have one.

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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Posted
16 minutes ago, HammyTheHybrid said:

Budget (including currency): 500$ USD

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Grand Theft Auto V, CSGO, Warframe, Minecraft, Light video editing and music producing.

Other details: Intel Core i7-3770K, GALAX GTX 660TI, 32GB RAM

 

He's looking to upgrade his PC, as he feels his performance over the years has tanked. He will mainly be using it for gaming, light video editing/music producing every now and then. Would like to hear some recommendations! 

This is a good starting point. 

 

I would first tell him to part out his existing machine on ebay. He is on an outdated platform. His CPU is 7 generations behind, he is on DDR3, and his GPU is 5 generations behind. I don't think it is worthwhile to try to stay on either of those generations, therefore, I would advise him to sell them on ebay,

 

These are the prices I would sell at (referenced based on recently sold on ebay):

3770K - $85

660ti - $55

32GB DDR3 Ram - $90

 

This adds up to $230, which brings our budget to $730. I would also look into selling the motherboard and power supply, as well as possibly the storage if it is really outdated.

 

With $730, I would build this machine.

PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $197.82 @ B&H
Motherboard Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $72.99 @ Best Buy
Memory Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $59.99 @ Amazon
Storage Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $67.06 @ Amazon
Video Card MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card $229.99 @ Newegg
Case Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case $49.13 @ Amazon
Power Supply EVGA 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply $59.99 @ Best Buy
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total (before mail-in rebates) $746.97
  Mail-in rebates -$10.00
  Total $736.97
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-26 02:52 EDT-0400  

 

 

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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what psu does he have? Overclock the cpu and buy new gpu. but if your firend doesnt want to overlcok the cpu istn going to be good with a new gpu.

with decent cpu oberclock get rx 580 or rx 5700 if he wants

QUOTE ME  FOR ANSWER.

 

Main PC:

Spoiler

|Ryzen 7 3700x, OC to 4.2ghz @1.3V, 67C, or 4.4ghz @1.456V, 87C || Asus strix 5700 XT, +50 core, +50 memory, +50 power (not a great overclocker) || Asus Strix b550-A || G.skill trident Z Neo rgb 32gb 3600mhz cl16-19-19-19-39, oc to 3733mhz with the same timings || Cooler Master ml360 RGB AIO || Phanteks P500A Digital || Thermaltake ToughPower grand RGB750w 80+gold || Samsung 850 250gb and Adata SX 6000 Lite 500gb || Toshiba 5400rpm 1tb || Asus Rog Theta 7.1 || Asus Rog claymore || Asus Gladius 2 origin gaming mouse || Monitor 1 Asus 1080p 144hz || Monitor 2 AOC 1080p 75hz || 

Test Rig.

Spoiler

| Ryzen 5 3400G || Gigabyte b450 S2H || Hyper X fury 2x4gb 2666mhz cl 16 ||Stock cooler || Antec NX100 || Silverstone essential 400w || Transgend SSD 220s 480gb ||

Just Sold

Spoiler

| i3 9100F || Msi Gaming X gtx 1050 TI || MSI Z390 A-Pro || Kingston 1x16gb 2400mhz cl17 || Stock cooler || Kolink Horizon RGB || Corsair CV 550w || Pny CS900 120gb ||

 

Tier lists for building a PC.

 

Motherboard tier list. Tier A for overclocking 5950x. Tier B for overclocking 5900x, Tier C for overclocking 5800X. Tier D for overclocking 5600X. Tier F for 4/6 core Cpus at stock. Tier E avoid.

(Also case airflow matter or if you are using Downcraft air cooler)

Spoiler

 

Gpu tier list. Rtx 3000 and RX 6000 not included since not so many reviews. Tier S for Water cooling. Tier A and B for overcloking. Tier C stock and Tier D avoid.

( You can overclock Tier C just fine, but it can get very loud, that is why it is not recommended for overclocking, same with tier D)

Spoiler

 

Psu tier List. Tier A for Rtx 3000, Vega and RX 6000. Tier B For anything else. Tier C cheap/IGPU. Tier D and E avoid.

(RTX 3000/ RX 6000 Might run just fine with higher wattage tier B unit, Rtx 3070 runs fine with tier B units)

Spoiler

 

Cpu cooler tier list. Tier 1&2 for power hungry Cpus with Overclock. Tier 3&4 for overclocking Ryzen 3,5,7 or lower power Intel Cpus. Tier 5 for overclocking low end Cpus or 4/6 core Ryzen. Tier 6&7 for stock. Tier 8&9 Ryzen stock cooler performance. Do not waste your money!

Spoiler

 

Storage tier List. Tier A for Moving files/  OS. Tier B for OS/Games. Tier C for games. Tier D budget Pcs. Tier E if on sale not the worst but not good.

(With a grain of salt, I use tier C for OS myself)

Spoiler

 

Case Tier List. Work In Progress. Most Phanteks airflow series cases already done!

Ask me anything :)

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2 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

what psu does he have? Overclock the cpu and buy new gpu. but if your firend doesnt want to overlcok the cpu istn going to be good with a new gpu.

with decent cpu oberclock get rx 580 or rx 5700 if he wants

He's got a $500 budget. He should sell his gear and upgrade to a newer platform. His CPU is literally 7 generations behind. And then he can buy a 1660 super or something similar.

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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29 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

 

CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $197.82 @ B&H
     
     
Video Card MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card $229.99 @ Newegg
     

Wait for the 3300x... Same gaming performance as the R5 3600, $120 MSRP. Also buy in store at microcenter with a compatible motherboard for another $20 off.

So with the extra $100 and coughing up $20, upgrade that 1660 to an RX 5700 xt.

 

 

29 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

 

     
Power Supply EVGA 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply $59.99 @ Best Buy
     

 

 

What are you recommending this for. This is a dangerously bad power supply.

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4 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Wait for the 3300x... Same gaming performance as the R5 3600, $120 MSRP. Also buy in store at microcenter with a compatible motherboard for another $20 off.

So with the extra $100 and coughing up $20, upgrade that 1660 to an RX 5700 xt.

 

 

What are you recommending this for. This is a dangerously bad power supply.

OP said they would also be doing light video editing and music producing. I think the 6 cores is more useful than an increase in graphics. Also the 3600 is available right now. 

 

Also, what is wrong with that power supply? I'm not necessarily disagreeing; I am not well versed in power supplies. I thought EVGA was a good company. The PSU has good reviews.

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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1 minute ago, jtmoseley said:

OP said they would also be doing light video editing and music producing. I think the 6 cores is more useful than an increase in graphics. Also the 3600 is available right now. 

I'm a professional musician and occasional studio engineer... Recently recorded a 16-track live recording with 4 plugins on each track, on a relatively dinky i7 7700hq LAPTOP cpu... And the fans didn't even turn on. Music production is not a processor intensive task anymore...

He said light video editing. I don't think he would want to sacrifice that much gaming performance for to shave 40 seconds off his occasional render...

The 3300x will be out pretty soon. Worth waiting a few weeks when the performance is that much better and for cheaper.

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2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I'm a professional musician and occasional studio engineer... Recently recorded a 16-track live recording with 4 plugins on each track, on a relatively dinky i7 7700hq LAPTOP cpu... And the fans didn't even turn on. Music production is not a processor intensive task anymore...

He said light video editing. I don't think he would want to sacrifice that much gaming performance for to shave 40 seconds off his occasional render...

The 3300x will be out pretty soon. Worth waiting a few weeks when the performance is that much better and for cheaper.

Fair enough. So what would you recommend for the PSU?

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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6 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

Also, what is wrong with that power supply? I'm not necessarily disagreeing; I am not well versed in power supplies. I thought EVGA was a good company. The PSU has good reviews.

Bad build quality, lack of undervoltage protection, sketchy components, poor quality control. When your SSD fails your SSD fails, it doesn't kill anything else...

When your PSU fails, it does so in, uh, explosive fashion. It can take your whole PC and all your data with it, and possibly burn down your house.

Use this to understand.

 

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3 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Bad build quality, lack of undervoltage protection, sketchy components, poor quality control. When your SSD fails your SSD fails, it doesn't kill anything else...

When your PSU fails, it does so in, uh, explosive fashion. It can take your whole PC and all your data with it, and possibly burn down your house.

Use this to understand.

 

I can't find the model that was on pcpartpicker. I believe it is the k1 skew. Model  100-W1-0600-K1

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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14 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

Fair enough. So what would you recommend for the PSU?


https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FQ648d/corsair-power-supply-cp9020101na

 

5 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

I can't find the model that was on pcpartpicker. I believe it is the k1 skew. Model  100-W1-0600-K1

W1. Avoid.

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Just now, Aereldor said:


https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FQ648d/corsair-power-supply-cp9020101na
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/LKPKHx/antec-neoeco-classic-550-w-80-bronze-certified-atx-power-supply-ne550c

 

W1. Avoid.

Ah, I understand. 

Case: InWin 303 Motherboard: Asus TUF X570-Plus Processor: Ryzen R9-3900x GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 3000 MHZ

 PSU: Corsair CX750M Storage: 1TB Intel 660p NVME SSD and a 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Mouse: Logitech G600 Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Headphones: Steelseries Arctis 7 Audio: Shure PGA58 with a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen

 

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