New Solidworks/Editing build or upgrade old gaming machine?

M4T VW · April 12, 2021

Hello all.

I'm new here but watched LTT for a while now.

So my setup currently is i have a driving simulator which my games PC is used on. The spec of this is an i7 8700k and an EVGA RTX 2080 Super. I don't really have many problems with this machine, I run VR on it and also triple screens and it handles it fine but struggles a little with the VR (HP Reverb G2) on some sims. I think the issue here is the GPU but i'm not going to get into buying a 30 series card for a while looking at the prices so i'm stuck with that GPU until the market sorts itself out.

I have another desktop PC which is quite old now but that's running an i7 920 and a GTX660TI (from memory!)

I've not used this PC for a couple of years now as i packed it away due to a house renovation but got it out and it still works fine. I mainly used this PC for just browsing and a small bit of video editing.

I'm going to get getting more into solidworks and video editing (not in a hardcore way) but want it to be able to handle both.

My options are...

Upgrade the i7 8700k machine to a later spec and use the i7 8700k stuff in my desktop (Not the GPU, That will stay on the games PC) It's just a nightmare having to install all the sim software and games etc so it would have to be worth it for me to strip that one apart. Would i notice any gains if i upgraded to an 11th series CPU?

The 2nd option is leave the games PC alone and build a new desktop, Maybe a Ryzen 5/7 build? I just don't want the i7 8600k hardware to become too old that it's not worth anything.

I would have to wait a bit to get a GPU for the desktop as it seems stupid to buy a GPU at the moment. The GTX660ti works fine for the little bit i do at the moment anyway.

Thanks all, I'm just not sure what to do!

Cheers

Mat

boggy77 · April 12, 2021

why not upgrade and keep just your main pc for both gaming and editing? a ryzen 5000 series (5600x or 5800x) should make some difference in gaming, and would be much better for solidworks and editing than the 8700k.

M4T VW · April 12, 2021

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Sadly it's a problem of location. The simulator is huge and downstairs in it's own room. The desktop is upstairs in my office so it has to be two separate machines.

Cheers

Mat