Upgrade Advice v2

[Hangman]

Budget (including currency): 500 GBP (maybe not all in one)

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Office Work, browsing, Plex Server & some gaming (Football Manager, Detroit Being Human, Forza Horizon 4 currently)

 

Current Spec

Monitor - Samsung LS34J - 3440x1440 @60hz

Motherboard - MSI Z370-A Pro

CPU - Intel Core i5 8400 (6 Cores)

Memory - 2x 8GB DDR4 2400

GPU - GTX 1050Ti (I know this is a weak link)

Power - EVGA 550 B3 (80+ Bronze)

System Storage - Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB + plus a couple of spinning disks

 

I posted something similar back in November last year and since then have just changed my monitor. I know I could simply upgrade my GPU and improve gaming performance, but I'm now holding back to see what happens to pricing after the 3000 series launch.

 

The main thing I want to do is replace my case for something smaller, I'd be happy re-using my CPU but am Ok with replacing it too maybe go Ryzen. I've been looking at Mini ITX but its really difficult to find reviews of cases that don't cost hundreds of pounds or are still not available. I don't want to get into water cooling but want it as quiet as possible as its sat on the desk next to me and I don't have much desk space (see image).

 

Many Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

[Dedayog]

1050Ti pushing 5 million pixels (granted at 60Hz)?   Get a 5700Xt or 3070 or similar.

[Hangman]

I will definitely be upgrading the GPU, but 1st want to look at the case that will also need a new MB. Then I know what space i'm working with for the GPU.

[boggy77]

switching case to mini-itx means changing motherboard. at this point, this means going ryzen.

with £500 you can get a b450 board, a ryzen 3 or 5, a new PSU and case, but it won't allow you to upgrade the gpu as well.

so I think with your budget, you need to decide between upgrading gpu (+psu), and everything else, can't really do both unfortunately.

[Hangman]

Thanks Boggy.

Not what I wanted to hear but the truth hurts.

Think I'll wait till all the 3000 series GPU are actually available and see how prices are affected then do the GPU upgrade first then delay everything else till later in the year.

I suppose I could upgrade my CPU cooler and rear fan for something better and quieter too.

 

[boggy77]

option 1:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	£174.95 @ AWD-IT
Motherboard	ASRock B550M-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	£129.92 @ More Computers
Case	Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case	£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£69.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£420.31
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-11 17:11 BST+0100

 

option 2:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Video Card	PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Red Dragon Video Card	£359.99 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£69.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£429.97
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-11 17:13 BST+0100

 

[boggy77]

1 minute ago, Hangman said:

Thanks Boggy.

Not what I wanted to hear but the truth hurts.

Think I'll wait till all the 3000 series GPU are actually available and see how prices are affected then do the GPU upgrade first then delay everything else till later in the year.

I suppose I could upgrade my CPU cooler and rear fan for something better and quieter too.

 

make sure whatever gpu you get will fit with the future itx case you plan on getting.

[Hangman]

Do I need to replace my power supply as my current one is 550 watts too?

[boggy77]

2 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Do I need to replace my power supply as my current one is 550 watts too?

thought it's a worse model, but it's actually decent, so you don't really need to upgrade it. 

 

also, remember to quote my messages or tag me @Hangman so I get a notification when you reply.

[boggy77]

in this case, you might get away with this.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Processor	£119.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	ASRock B550M-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	£129.92 @ More Computers
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card	£204.97 @ AWD-IT
Case	Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case	£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£500.34
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-11 17:20 BST+0100

 

 

or try to find a second hand 2060/1080, they should drop down to around £200 in a couple of weeks

[Hangman]

@boggy77

 

Wow, thanks, i'll defo hang fire a couple of weeks to see what happens with GPU pricing first.

I'm just watching a review of the case that was on LTT in 2015 lol

[boggy77]

Just now, Hangman said:

@boggy77

 

Wow, thanks, i'll defo hang fire a couple of weeks to see what happens with GPU pricing first.

I'm just watching a review of the case that was on LTT in 2015 lol

I've quickly looked on ebay and both 1080 and 2060 are selling for £240-£250 or so as a buy it now.

you might be able to snatch one at around £200 through bidding.

[Hangman]

I always prefer buying new, downside to used is it could fail after a month or two and you don't have any comeback.

[boggy77]

2 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I always prefer buying new, downside to used is it could fail after a month or two and you don't have any comeback.

then you'd have to wait until the 3060 announcement and maybe amd gpu announcements to drive the mid tier gpus prices down. might be towards the end of the year

[Hangman]

Quick update on this, I decided to stay with my current case and do some incremental upgrades instead.

 

I've still not bought a new GPU but have decided that I'll wait on availability of the 3070's as that seems to be a decent bang for buck comparison.

 

Then as I feel my i5 8400 is still reasonable I might upgrade my memory from 2400 to 3000mhz.