Need Advice upgrading to 144hz Gaming, Incl. Monitor

[SociallyUnadjusted]

Budget (including currency): 2000 CAD

Expertise: Beginner

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: AAA 144hz (not all ultra/all the frills, just playable), non AAA 144hz (Dota 2, CS;GO, Valorant, SC2, etc.); productivity. 

Monitors: I want to get a 144hz monitor, and run a 2 monitor setup with my current monitor for productivity, so something similarly sized (27", 1080p) ideally. 

Other details: My current build looks like this: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$452.12 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard	MSI B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2133 CL13 Memory	$92.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage	Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$139.91 @ Amazon Canada
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card	$237.52 @ Amazon Canada
Power Supply	Corsair CX 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$169.50 @ Vuugo
Monitor	ViewSonic VX2739WM 27.0" 1920x1080 Monitor
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1092.04
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-28 11:03 EST-0500

Cooling/Case: Mid-Tower with 2x120mm fans out front, 1x200mm fan up top (no radiator support). Stock Ryzen fan on the CPU. 

 

Goal: I want to spend as little of the budget as possible to get where I want to be, with a focus on price to performance. I would rather play AAA titles on Medium for 1000$ than on Ultra for 2000$, as long as it's playable fps wise, if that makes sense. The problem is that I'm not sure where my most efficient marginal improvements to performance will come from. I know for sure I'll need to upgrade the graphics card, but not sure to what (e.g. 1080ti, new 30XX cards, 5700 rx?). I definitely don't know details such as what functional differences there are between going AMD vs NVidia. Beyond that, I don't know if it makes sense to upgrade CPU (bottlenecks?)/RAM/Motherboard, spend on a case+cooling combo, upgrade to PCIe SSD, etc. Could also use some advice on 144hz monitors. 

 

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

[AlTech]

If you're looking at just a minimal upgrade, it might be possible to just swap out your 1500X for a 3700X and swap the GPU to something like a 5600XT.

 

In general I'd change the power supply to a more high quality unit but I don't think you'd need to change anything else unless there's something you're not happy with it.

[Acoreus]

Flash your bios, the latest one is from 5 months ago.

Then get a Ryzen 5 2600/2700/3600 depending on what's' cheapest. 

Ram is super cheap, so upgrade that to 16GB 3200mhz.

I would add a 1TB SSD for more fast storage, but that's absolutely up to your budget. 

Videocard I'd watch for a used 2060/5700 XT

Monitor I'd look for a 144hz 1440p 27". I prefer BenQ

 

[Acoreus]

Oh! One item I'd add in. When looking at monitors, try and find something that has close to the same bezels as your current monitor. Having two monitors that look similar really helps the visual appeal of the monitors sitting next to each other. It's just a little thing but you'll notice it down the line if you don't. 

[SociallyUnadjusted]

14 minutes ago, Acoreus said:

Flash your bios, the latest one is from 5 months ago.

Then get a Ryzen 5 2600/2700/3600 depending on what's' cheapest. 

Ram is super cheap, so upgrade that to 16GB 3200mhz.

I would add a 1TB SSD for more fast storage, but that's absolutely up to your budget. 

Videocard I'd watch for a used 2060/5700 XT

Monitor I'd look for a 144hz 1440p 27". I prefer BenQ

 

Anything I should keep in mind when buying used? I've heard of concerns about cards that have been used for mining but I doubt I'd be able to tell at a glance.

[SociallyUnadjusted]

17 minutes ago, Acoreus said:

Flash your bios, the latest one is from 5 months ago.

Then get a Ryzen 5 2600/2700/3600 depending on what's' cheapest. 

Ram is super cheap, so upgrade that to 16GB 3200mhz.

I would add a 1TB SSD for more fast storage, but that's absolutely up to your budget. 

Videocard I'd watch for a used 2060/5700 XT

Monitor I'd look for a 144hz 1440p 27". I prefer BenQ

 

Also, what do you think about cooling? Is it not worth it if I'm not pushing for high-end performance? Am I ok with the stock Ryzen fan for the CPU? Thanks for the input. 

[SavageNeo]

9 minutes ago, SociallyUnadjusted said:

Anything I should keep in mind when buying used? I've heard of concerns about cards that have been used for mining but I doubt I'd be able to tell at a glance.

Prefer Ebay. It the seller sells bbroken thing Ebay will refund it the seller wont. Also sicne 5700Xt is pretty new mining has not done any harm to it really.

[Acoreus]

Always test the card before buying. Either you bring your system or they have their system setup so you can see it running (With covid this is a harder process). But cards that were used for mining are still pretty good.

 

Stock cooling is great for all listed CPU's at stock speeds and light overclocking. AIO/Custom cooling anything more. 

 

Edit: SavageNeo has a good point with Ebay.