U$700~800 Upgrade. Help me not waste money!

[Lipous Electus]

Budget (including currency):  €700-ish (U$821.86) (HUF 247,510.97)

Country: Hungary

Aim: Build a mid tier upgradable PC that will be used for light to medium graphic design work (not too complex) and gaming (not interested in 4k gaming, 1080p high settings is already good)

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Photoshop, Illustrator, DaVinci Resolve, LoL, MuOnline, Ragnarok, Battlefield 3,4,5,1, upcoming 2042, CoD

Other details -

• Current kit:
  • Spoiler

    CPU: i3-4170 3.70GHz 
    RAM (unmarked): 8.00 GB
    GPU: XFX Ghost R7800 Series 2gb (AMD Radeon HD 7870)

    MOB: unmarked
    STORAGE: 1TB HDD

    PSU: 500w (will keep it)
    What I can run: BF3 and 4 just fine but BF5 on lowest(-est-est) settings, 40ish FPS but dense areas and fights reduce the frames drastically. Photoshop and Illustrator also slow down when handling big files. Computer freezes at random times while playing LoL (troubleshooted but nothing worked) which makes me think HDD might be damaged (10 year old + multiple flight rides).
     

• NO peripherals (I have cheap stuff and it's the craic)
• 500w limit as I don't plan on buying new PSU
• 1080p High settings is my main goal but medium settings is already tons of fun.

Planned Build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NXnKvf

Spoiler

I did a few other configs which interested me but as you will see I haven't got much experience

Spoiler

In general I have no idea whatsoever about GPUs and I'm basing my picks on YTB Review videos and price. So I really would appreciate some help with that. I believe I could do with anything between GTX1050,1060,1060ti,1080, RX570.. Up to 1660 (which are the ones currently available for us in europe (or if you know more and the link to it, please help a lad out). I also have a bias against single-fan models but I don't know why... so roast me and tell me they are fine as they seem to be cheaper and I don't plan on frying my GPU so two fans aren't a necessity 

 

Ryzen 3 or 5 for me doesn't really matter, I believe 4-Cores and 8-threads will do the workload I require just fine, so if you think I should go down to Ryzen 3, please advise me. So cost-benefit dictates what is best.

[christoplayz]

i mean with 400 bucks and more you could get a 3060 ti so i'd rather try to get it at msrp i know its impossible but at least you try

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

28 minutes ago, Lipous Electus said:

Build a mid tier upgradable PC

Am4 and lga 1200 are dead end platforms as the next gen will have ddr5 and a new platform

 

 

I suggest just upgrading your ram to 16gb

 

Upgrading the cpu to a xeon e3 1230 v3 or a better v3 cpu in the 12xx series

 

Then adding a 500gb or 1tb ssd

 

Now you can just focus on upgrading the gpu as you can transfer that to a new system

 

Heck if you have some money leftover might aswell upgrade the psu to a 750 or 850 if youd like to futureproof

[Lipous Electus]

26 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Am4 and lga 1200 are dead end platforms as the next gen will have ddr5 and a new platform

 

 

I suggest just upgrading your ram to 16gb

 

Upgrading the cpu to a xeon e3 1230 v3 or a better v3 cpu in the 12xx series

 

Then adding a 500gb or 1tb ssd

 

Now you can just focus on upgrading the gpu as you can transfer that to a new system

 

Heck if you have some money leftover might aswell upgrade the psu to a 750 or 850 if youd like to futureproof

Thanks for the input. Yeah, with the next generation surely interesting fast and new stuff will be launched but the price tho... the price for this gen is already salty.. My idea is to get an upgrade for my 10 year old CPU that will last me 5-6 years. At this point, I will be able to afford a mid-high tier of the next generation.
GPU market seems extremely overpriced, even for low-profile gpus. That's why I thought that if I'm upgrading for playing the next few 3A titles at mid settings I could at least get better productivity with the R5-1600 as well.

Is there any trade off from getting a Xeon e3 1230 to a i7-4770?
Also for this price, 75 EUR, for 50 bucks more I can get the R5-1600 which is box new, almost lower TDP and with a socket that allows me to upgrade to other CPUs further ahead (ofc still staying on AM4 grounds). Isn't it worth it to go for an upgrade?

Spoiler

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Lipous Electus
typos

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Just now, Lipous Electus said:

Is there any trade off from getting a Xeon e3 1230 to a i7-4770?

Lower boostclock

Otherwise the xeon is actually binned so its better than a 4770 at undervolting, might even be better at overclocking if you have a z87 that can reach decent bclk speeds

[Lipous Electus]

26 minutes ago, christoplayz said:

i mean with 400 bucks and more you could get a 3060 ti so i'd rather try to get it at msrp i know its impossible but at least you try

 

MSRP on a 3060ti seems like a dream in dream. I'm not even sure if a python bot would be able to get that 
Currently one of the cheapest available in stock, using a hungarian catalogue website (Árukereső), is the 8gb version for 848.41 EUR (~1000US$) w/o shipping.

I will keep an eye for the 1060,1080, 1660, 1650 (TIs and SUPERs, if possible) and also for the 2060 as I've heard those can be bought for less stupidly high prices and still deliver good performance.

Thanks for the input!

[KKLawrence]

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/4rtR7X

 

So yeah, GPU market is tough right now. But I would keep the CPU for a bit and invest more in the GPU and Ram.

But then I would save up a bit more for a 3600 on a B550 board.

This Combo will really help you, more then a 1600.

 

I also wouldn't call these sockets dead end, as a 5000 series CPU is very capable!

 

For GPU, a 3060TI at MSRP would be dreamland. But not realistic.

More realistic is a 2060 or 2070 used for 300€.

Invest in Ram and an SSD, you'll notice the boost imidiatly. And then buy the best GPU you can afford, because the market doesn't make sense unfortunately...

[Lipous Electus]

13 minutes ago, KKLawrence said:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/4rtR7X

 

So yeah, GPU market is tough right now. But I would keep the CPU for a bit and invest more in the GPU and Ram.

But then I would save up a bit more for a 3600 on a B550 board.

This Combo will really help you, more then a 1600.

 

I also wouldn't call these sockets dead end, as a 5000 series CPU is very capable!

 

For GPU, a 3060TI at MSRP would be dreamland. But not realistic.

More realistic is a 2060 or 2070 used for 300€.

Invest in Ram and an SSD, you'll notice the boost imidiatly. And then buy the best GPU you can afford, because the market doesn't make sense unfortunately...

Appreciate it mate! I will look thorugh amazon.de as well as I haven't actually taken a look at out-of-hungary options. Mostly everything besides RAM, CPU and SSDs seems to be either out of order or delivery in months from now  but I will keep track of stuff.
Thanks for your input!

[ckinfos]

if you need a medium card for casual gaming then you can try to find some older generation cards like amd radeon 5500xt, or even amd rx 580,590.

For cpu i think you can get an amd 3100 up to amd 3600. And motherboard with a b450 or b550. Ram 16gb at Least.
Although it's old gpu generation and the old chipset that does not mean thye are bad. they will do their job until you can afford to buy a better configuration or your needs change. Prices will be falling by then...Hope so...

[Lipous Electus]

2 hours ago, ckinfos said:

if you need a medium card for casual gaming then you can try to find some older generation cards like amd radeon 5500xt, or even amd rx 580,590.

For cpu i think you can get an amd 3100 up to amd 3600. And motherboard with a b450 or b550. Ram 16gb at Least.
Although it's old gpu generation and the old chipset that does not mean thye are bad. they will do their job until you can afford to buy a better configuration or your needs change. Prices will be falling by then...Hope so...

I saw the offer for an 1650 SUPER at 370€ yesterday, placed the order today a few hours ago. Company called me to tell me they sold out. I'm waiting my money to arrive back so I can try my luck again.
Surely going for 16gb as I've heard that AMD can be quite RAM hungry and also am the type of dude who has 10+ chrome tabs open  
Hopefully the prices will drop, specially on the mid-tier cards. I'm all for lower specs with high cost-benefit so I don't see myself getting anything more than a 2060 or 1660.
Thank you for your input