Recent computer upgrade

gallinka · April 7, 2021

Budget (including currency): # $1200

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Most newest games (Minecraft, Eve Online, Fortnite, CoD, Roblox, etc), Maybe video editing, Maybe some streaming, Maybe crypto mining

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): Old Gigabyte GTX 1070. Beige computer case. 650 watt (bronze) Power supply.

I recently upgraded my desktop computer that my sons use most of the time. I had an old MSI motherboard with 8 GB of ram running an AMD Phenom II x6 (the 1100 BE specifically) and it needed a refresh. The last big upgrades were going to 8 GB of ram, a small (240 gb) Sandisk SATA SSD and, most recently, the GTX 1070 a few years ago. The parts list of this new upgrade (as of last week) is a follows:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800x

ASUS ROG Strix x570-E Gaming motherboard (this broke the buget and pushed me close to $1500. I wanted an ASUS TUF x570 Gaming Pro but they were sold out)

32 GB (2 sticks x16 GB) of G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4 Ram

WD Blue NVMe M.2 2TB SSD (I wanted the 970 EVO plus but NewEgg listed that at $270 last week which seems to be a bit above retail)

The 5800x does not come with a cooler so I bought a Thermaltake Contac Silent 12. I had an old 120mm fan

(nice quiet Gled brand that was barely used and has a very good MTBF: https://www.newegg.com/gelid-solutions-fn-fw12-15-b-gamer-fan-wing-12-blue/p/N82E16835426018?Item=N82E16835426018&Tpk=35-426-018) that I set up in a Push-pull configuration.

A couple WD (a 1 TB and a 4TB) mechanical/magnetic HHD and the 240 GB Sandisk SATA SSD were reused

Windows 10 (I even bought a license this time!)

So, this is not a brag post but I wanted to get input in two ways. First, what might I have done wrong or incorrectly buying/selecting/configuring this upgrade. I read a review of the 5800x vs the 5900/5950 and I think that was an excellent choice. I really did not want to spend $430 on a motherboard but I was kinda stuck between buying one that did not have the features I wanted (I REALLY wanted bluetooth 5) and waiting who knows how long for the one I wanted to be in stock. I had no choice with the video card for obvious reasons. That leads me into my next question though. What could I/should I upgrade if I could? I think a RTX 3070 or 3080 would be a good choice if I could get one. I could get a nice modular >=800 watt PSU with a gold or platinum rating. If I was to spend $100/300/500/1000 more what do you think would be a good upgrade?

I hope you found this interesting, thanks for any replies to my questions (criticism, constructive or otherwise is fine), I will try to answer any questions you have. Thanks!

Edited April 7, 2021 by gallinka
fixed spelling