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Upgrades for SO's computer

Hi! My SO has a pre-built computer that is 3 years old at this point. He uses it extensively for work (accessing VMs and local software development) as well as some gaming (likes to play DOOM mods and Paladins at this time). 

 

Here is the link to the pre-built rig: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LAJ52RA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We've determined he doesn't actually have the 120GB SSD (must've been an option he opted out of).

 

If I were to get him a couple things to beef this up some, what would you recommend? He has expressed interest in a better GPU, but beyond that I dont know what else would be upgradeable without overhauling the whole rig.

 

Budget (including currency): USD, no budget (really). Something reasonable without replacing everything

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: work (accessing VMs and local software development), some gaming (likes to play DOOM mods and Paladins at this time)

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

  • As explained above.
  • I would also throw in a better headset w/mic. His sucks. He needs a better set.
  • He would eventually like to get into game design, but I have a feeling that'll mean just a completely new rig.

Thanks in advance!

 

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Adding an SSD would be a cheap noticeable boost. What's holding his computer back? Is his CPU, RAM or GPU maxing out?

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

Project Hot Box

CPU 13900k, Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, RAM CORSAIR Vengeance 4x16gb 5200 MHZ, GPU Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC, Case Fractal Pop Air XL, Storage Sabrent Rocket Q4 2tbCORSAIR Force Series MP510 1920GB NVMe, CORSAIR FORCE Series MP510 960GB NVMe, PSU CORSAIR HX1000i, Cooling Corsair XC8 CPU block, Bykski GPU block, 360mm and 280mm radiator, Displays Odyssey G9, LG 34UC98-W 34-Inch,Keyboard Mountain Everest Max, Mouse Mountain Makalu 67, Sound AT2035, Massdrop 6xx headphones, Go XLR 

Oppbevaring

CPU i9-9900k, Motherboard, ASUS Rog Maximus Code XI, RAM, 48GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 mhz (2x16)+(2x8) GPUs Asus ROG Strix 2070 8gb, PNY 1080, Nvidia 1080, Case Mining Frame, 2x Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB, PSU Corsair RM1000x and RM850x, Cooling Asus Rog Ryuo 240 with Noctua NF-12 fans

 

Why is the 5800x so hot?

 

 

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Just now, Voluspa said:

Adding an SSD would be a cheap noticeable boost. What's holding his computer back? Is his CPU, RAM or GPU maxing out?

Agreed on the SSD add. We have one, he just hasnt installed it (in 3 years.....). Not exactly sure whats holding it back, but based on his interest in a better GPU, Im gonna say start with that. Im seriously open to any suggestions on upgrades that are not dependent on a ton of other upgrades  - like a new PSU for a better GPU, or more RAM to handle another upgrade, that sort of thing is fine.

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@Voluspa For the record, I'm trying to surprise him a bit with the actual upgrades. He knows I wanna get him something for his rig, but he doesnt know the specifics.

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These days that is a fairly low end system with a motherbaord and CPU that are going to hold back pretty much any newer GPU.

 

A Ryzen 3000 or upcoming 5000 based system with a modern GPU, DDR4 RAM, etc is an upgrade, but like you said, that's basically a whole new system.

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3 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

These days that is a fairly low end system with a motherbaord and CPU that are going to hold back pretty much any newer GPU.

 

A Ryzen 3000 or upcoming 5000 based system with a modern GPU, DDR4 RAM, etc is an upgrade, but like you said, that's basically a whole new system.

Out of curiosity, what would that build look like?

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I don't know much about software development, but if it was me I'd look at his RAM usage in game and while working. That *might* be holding him back a bit. A 16 gig kit could come in cheap and handy in that case. I was finding 16 gig kits for $60USD. 

The most efficient route depending on your budget would be like @TheGlenlivet said and give it a refresh. You gave a vague budget, but reasonable to you and reasonable to me might be completely different. For Paladins at least, I don't think that GPU would be holding him back much. 

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

Project Hot Box

CPU 13900k, Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, RAM CORSAIR Vengeance 4x16gb 5200 MHZ, GPU Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC, Case Fractal Pop Air XL, Storage Sabrent Rocket Q4 2tbCORSAIR Force Series MP510 1920GB NVMe, CORSAIR FORCE Series MP510 960GB NVMe, PSU CORSAIR HX1000i, Cooling Corsair XC8 CPU block, Bykski GPU block, 360mm and 280mm radiator, Displays Odyssey G9, LG 34UC98-W 34-Inch,Keyboard Mountain Everest Max, Mouse Mountain Makalu 67, Sound AT2035, Massdrop 6xx headphones, Go XLR 

Oppbevaring

CPU i9-9900k, Motherboard, ASUS Rog Maximus Code XI, RAM, 48GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 mhz (2x16)+(2x8) GPUs Asus ROG Strix 2070 8gb, PNY 1080, Nvidia 1080, Case Mining Frame, 2x Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB, PSU Corsair RM1000x and RM850x, Cooling Asus Rog Ryuo 240 with Noctua NF-12 fans

 

Why is the 5800x so hot?

 

 

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1 minute ago, Voluspa said:

I don't know much about software development, but if it was me I'd look at his RAM usage in game and while working. That *might* be holding him back a bit. A 16 gig kit could come in cheap and handy in that case. I was finding 16 gig kits for $60USD. 

The most efficient route depending on your budget would be like @TheGlenlivet said and give it a refresh. You gave a vague budget, but reasonable to you and reasonable to me might be completely different. For Paladins at least, I don't think that GPU would be holding him back much. 

Very true about budgets being relative. Lets cap that at $2000 for a rig refresh. I'm willing to go above that if the boost is worth it, but I think 2k is a good limit. 

Re: the 16GB RAM, whats your recommendation?

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2 minutes ago, MinxyLynx said:

Very true about budgets being relative. Lets cap that at $2000 for a rig refresh. I'm willing to go above that if the boost is worth it, but I think 2k is a good limit. 

Re: the 16GB RAM, whats your recommendation?

At $2k, you could look at a massive refresh. R5 3600, new Mobo, SSD, new power supply since the one in his pc now could be unknown(unless you have access to seeing it and confirming it is a good one), 16 Gig Ram. With money left over..

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

Project Hot Box

CPU 13900k, Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, RAM CORSAIR Vengeance 4x16gb 5200 MHZ, GPU Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC, Case Fractal Pop Air XL, Storage Sabrent Rocket Q4 2tbCORSAIR Force Series MP510 1920GB NVMe, CORSAIR FORCE Series MP510 960GB NVMe, PSU CORSAIR HX1000i, Cooling Corsair XC8 CPU block, Bykski GPU block, 360mm and 280mm radiator, Displays Odyssey G9, LG 34UC98-W 34-Inch,Keyboard Mountain Everest Max, Mouse Mountain Makalu 67, Sound AT2035, Massdrop 6xx headphones, Go XLR 

Oppbevaring

CPU i9-9900k, Motherboard, ASUS Rog Maximus Code XI, RAM, 48GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 mhz (2x16)+(2x8) GPUs Asus ROG Strix 2070 8gb, PNY 1080, Nvidia 1080, Case Mining Frame, 2x Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB, PSU Corsair RM1000x and RM850x, Cooling Asus Rog Ryuo 240 with Noctua NF-12 fans

 

Why is the 5800x so hot?

 

 

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1 minute ago, MinxyLynx said:

Out of curiosity, what would that build look like?

It would look something like this.  There are a LOT of parts out there and new ones coming out before the holiday season.  You could buy this right now.  It's a decent mid level upgrade to his system.  Everyone here could offer a list with different parts they would prefer, but this is a start.

I added a PSU because I know prebuild systems come with sketchy ones sometimes.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/v2tV68

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ Best Buy) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  ($78.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($79.00 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB KO GAMING Video Card  ($617.94 @ Office Depot) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($114.99 @ Corsair) 
Total: $1205.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-27 13:29 EDT-0400

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

It would look something like this.  There are a LOT of parts out there and new ones coming out before the holiday season.  You could buy this right now.  It's a decent mid level upgrade to his system.  Everyone here could offer a list with different parts they would prefer, but this is a start.

I added a PSU because I know prebuild systems come with sketchy ones sometimes.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/v2tV68

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ Best Buy) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  ($78.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($79.00 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB KO GAMING Video Card  ($617.94 @ Office Depot) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($114.99 @ Corsair) 
Total: $1205.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-27 13:29 EDT-0400

 

 

 

That is not as bad as I thought. His existing rig has the 1TB HDD. Could that be ported over too?

 

Side question: favorite 4k monitor? (In prep for the new XBOX Series X coming out)

Edited by MinxyLynx
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2 minutes ago, MinxyLynx said:

That is not as bad as I thought. His existing rig has the 1TB HDD. Could that be ported over too?

 

Side question: favorite 4k monitor? (In prep for the new XBOX Series X coming out)

Yeah it could.

You mentioned he has an SSD already, so you might not need the SSD I included.

 

I use a 1440P ultrawide myself, so I am not the authority on 4K monitors, but I am sure there is someone on the forums that can point you in the right direction.

 

Also, all of these parts would need to be installed by him, or you  at this price.  It's pretty easy to do, just making sure you know this build keeps his old case, fans and any other parts not listed.

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Just now, TheGlenlivet said:

Yeah it could.

You mentioned he has an SSD already, so you might not need the SSD I included.

 

I use a 1440P ultrawide myself, so I am not the authority on 4K monitors, but I am sure there is someone on the forums that can point you in the right direction.

 

Also, all of these parts would need to be installed by him, or you  at this price.  It's pretty easy to do, just making sure you know this build keeps his old case, fans and any other parts not listed.

I inferred the installation. I envisioned him opening box after box of parts, and then putting it together Christmas morning. Thank you again for your help!

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6 minutes ago, MinxyLynx said:

That is not as bad as I thought. His existing rig has the 1TB HDD. Could that be ported over too?

 

Side question: favorite 4k monitor? (In prep for the new XBOX Series X coming out)

I went with this. Keeps his GPU. Uses a normal SSD instead of m.2 to cut cost back a little bit and a slightly newer Mobo. Like Glenivet said, everyone will have their own opinions on this. Stuff can be cherry picked as needed. The HDD can be ported over, but you'd want OS on the SSD. So I'd back up what's on the HDD minus the OS, format it. Put windows on new SSD and then what ever files he doesn't want the speed for on the HDD or use it as an over flow.

PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $199.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard $149.99 @ B&H
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory $64.98 @ Amazon
Storage Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive $114.96 @ Amazon
Power Supply Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $114.99 @ Corsair
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total (before mail-in rebates) $654.91
  Mail-in rebates -$10.00
  Total $644.91
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-27 13:43 EDT-0400  

 

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

Project Hot Box

CPU 13900k, Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, RAM CORSAIR Vengeance 4x16gb 5200 MHZ, GPU Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC, Case Fractal Pop Air XL, Storage Sabrent Rocket Q4 2tbCORSAIR Force Series MP510 1920GB NVMe, CORSAIR FORCE Series MP510 960GB NVMe, PSU CORSAIR HX1000i, Cooling Corsair XC8 CPU block, Bykski GPU block, 360mm and 280mm radiator, Displays Odyssey G9, LG 34UC98-W 34-Inch,Keyboard Mountain Everest Max, Mouse Mountain Makalu 67, Sound AT2035, Massdrop 6xx headphones, Go XLR 

Oppbevaring

CPU i9-9900k, Motherboard, ASUS Rog Maximus Code XI, RAM, 48GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 mhz (2x16)+(2x8) GPUs Asus ROG Strix 2070 8gb, PNY 1080, Nvidia 1080, Case Mining Frame, 2x Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB, PSU Corsair RM1000x and RM850x, Cooling Asus Rog Ryuo 240 with Noctua NF-12 fans

 

Why is the 5800x so hot?

 

 

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You guys are seriously the best. Thank you so much, I know any upgrades he gets he'll be super stoked about.

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1 minute ago, MinxyLynx said:

You guys are seriously the best. Thank you so much, I know any upgrades he gets he'll be super stoked about.

With so many choices this hobby seems to be very susceptible to buyers remorse.  

The options you have been shown here are pretty solid, but keep your receipts just in case... hehe.

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3 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

With so many choices this hobby seems to be very susceptible to buyers remorse.  

The options you have been shown here are pretty solid, but keep your receipts just in case... hehe.

haha I doubt upgrades will trigger remorse from him. Hes generally very happy to get anything that makes his computing life better. But thank you, ill keep that in mind.

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2 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

With so many choices this hobby seems to be very susceptible to buyers remorse.  

The options you have been shown here are pretty solid, but keep your receipts just in case... hehe.

@MinxyLynx This. Keep receipts just incase something is DOA. If you got any other questions, feel free to come back. If you do want to upgrade his GPU and not go to the 2000 series, the 1660TI is a really good little GPU. Doubles his Vram. Also, if you wait a week or two, AMD is coming out with it's new offerings which might make this upgrade a little cheaper. I don't follow AMD much so I don't know how much they tend to drop last gen hardware.

Also your earlier question. I'm in the 1440p club also so I can't recommend a 4k monitor earlier. You might have better luck with a separate thread in the monitors section. They seem to know their shtuff.

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

Project Hot Box

CPU 13900k, Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, RAM CORSAIR Vengeance 4x16gb 5200 MHZ, GPU Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC, Case Fractal Pop Air XL, Storage Sabrent Rocket Q4 2tbCORSAIR Force Series MP510 1920GB NVMe, CORSAIR FORCE Series MP510 960GB NVMe, PSU CORSAIR HX1000i, Cooling Corsair XC8 CPU block, Bykski GPU block, 360mm and 280mm radiator, Displays Odyssey G9, LG 34UC98-W 34-Inch,Keyboard Mountain Everest Max, Mouse Mountain Makalu 67, Sound AT2035, Massdrop 6xx headphones, Go XLR 

Oppbevaring

CPU i9-9900k, Motherboard, ASUS Rog Maximus Code XI, RAM, 48GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200 mhz (2x16)+(2x8) GPUs Asus ROG Strix 2070 8gb, PNY 1080, Nvidia 1080, Case Mining Frame, 2x Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB, PSU Corsair RM1000x and RM850x, Cooling Asus Rog Ryuo 240 with Noctua NF-12 fans

 

Why is the 5800x so hot?

 

 

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