Building/Upgrading a pc

[MurkyMark]

Budget (including currency): 1,000 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly RPG's and strategy games with the occasional shooter. Think anything Star wars, Bioware, or Paradox related.

Other details I have some existing parts from my old PC I built in like 2012. 

I think I'm good on Fans, I have a 1tb hard drive, and a 750w Corsair power supply. I have x2 4gb Corsair Vengeance ram sticks. I have a 750 TI Graphics card.

 

I would like a new case, it doesn't need to be super duper fancy or anything, but I'd like for it to be modern looking and have at least one window panel.

 

I would like to get another TB of memory.

 

I would like a minimum of 16 Ram, but I would really want a minimum of 32. 

 

I need wifi capabilities.

 

I prefer Intel CPU, but I am open to AMD

 

I would like to upgrade my graphics card but I understand there is some price inflation RN so I am willing to wait on that front and listen to advice on when to buy a new one.

 

I don't really need any peripherals right now but I'd like to pick up a new monitor or two at some point, so suggestions and advice would also be appreciated. Also, I'll probably need to buy a new mouse.

 

Thanks for the help and advice in advance. This is my first post on here so I hope this is the right format.

 

I am not exactly the most computer savvy person. And because it has been almost a decade since the last time I did this please treat me as a first-time builder and don't assume I know anything lol.

 

[Jonathan Lee]

I would say this is the best value you can get right now:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700F 2.9 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($259.99 @ Adorama) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe FUMA 2 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B560 AORUS PRO AX ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($179.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($93.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $818.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-09-02 01:46 EDT-0400

 

Case is easily interchangeable. You can look for what you like the look of best. Make sure it has a mesh front though to keep the temps of your component cooler. You can also consider going to a 10 core intel (10850k/10900), since it's a bit under budget.

 

For a higher end build, you can go with this:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($539.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING ZOOMFLOW 360X ARGB 62 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($155.00 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($93.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1123.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-09-02 01:48 EDT-0400

 

For graphics card, I would recommend at least going rtx 3060TI if you can find one decently priced.

[Bombastinator]

What about image size? also what GPU did this 12 year old machine have? That and the case are the only items from it that even might be useful unless you want to build a shooter only machine.  Then it is outside possible some of them might. 
 

One can build a machine that does some things better than other things.  One can concentrate on size of image or number of frames of image.  Or, with enough money, both.  There doesnt appear to be enough money to do that. So it’s the mostly stuff, rpg games that don’t need fps that badly but like richness and image size, and rely heavily on GPUs or shooters that like nosebleed high fps so much that people give up everything else to get as much as possible.  A shooter machine has few but fast cores, and enough gpu to paint the frames at a high enough rate. An AAA machine has a larger screen with higher resolution and more monitor but doesn’t run at super high frame rate because it doesn’t need to. Generally more threads but the don’t have to be as fast.  Both will still do the other but not very well.  Your statement of a bunch of AAA type titles with “a few shooters” kinds of wants both. Fast cpu with many threads and a big monitor that also runs at high FPS with enough GPU to drive it.  The problem is to do that you’ve got to pretty much double your budget or more. 

 

One thing neither type of machine needs is more than about 9gb of memory.  People buy 16 only because it’s available in chunks of 8 and 9 is more than 8. Some trim their windows install and live in just 8. That 32gb of memory thing is generally for arts work or math stuff, not games. 
 

Your PSU is too old to be considered safe, 12 years ago PSUs had 5 year warranties for fairly good reason.  PSUs wear.  and PSUs, even good ones, are relatively cheap. The HDD could be used for slow storage but SSDs (SATA or nvme) are much preferred for loading times. If you want to build off your old rig, it would need to be at least a sandybridge system. It could be built into a shooter only machine maybe, (I don’t have the specs) but there is a strong argument against throwing money into such a system.  Such a thing is perilously close to retro gaming grade even at its top end. 
 

GPUs are a particular problem right now and tend to be massively overpriced so if you had a really good GPU back then and kept things updated it may have some use.  The oldest gpu that is commonly used for gaming is a 480. There are also some higher end Nvidia 900 series GPUs (970,980,980ti) that are considered relatively usable because of the difficulty of acquiring modern stuff.