System Upgrade Questions

jrshawver · September 27, 2021

Budget (including currency): $600-$800 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: General Hobbyist gaming, CAD, and general playing a techie does.

Other details I am currently looking at upgrading my existing tower. Trying to determine the best course forward in the current climate. The current system has a AMD A8, gtx660, evga 750 bronze 8 gigs of ddr3 PC3-12800. I am looking to upgrade the ram, motherboard, and CPU. So the question is 5600x and reuse the current graphics card until prices get reasonable or get a 5600G? what I have seen on the UserBenchmark is there performance is very similar. Hence the question. Also if anyone knows of a way to fit graphics card capable of raytracing in that budget I would love suggestions. lastly I am currently planning on reusing as much of the existing system as I can. The current system always seems to have the cpu pegged while using the system.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Jeremy

RAM555789 · September 27, 2021

I would go ahead and get a 5600G, but still go ahead and pick up a GPU when prices drop and you can afford it. Personally I would go switch out everything, up t oyou if you wanna continue to use case and all. If you don't already, also make sure to get and SSD/

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($258.96 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac ATX AM4 Motherboard ($109.29 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($54.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($81.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar MX330-G ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($59.50 @ Amazon)
Total: $614.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-09-27 16:29 EDT-0400

RONOTHAN## · September 27, 2021

12 minutes ago, jrshawver said:

UserBenchmark

Don't. It's an absolute joke of a platform, and their numbers are not to be trusted under any circumstances. The 5600X is a decent amount faster than the 5600G (~4-5% faster depending on the test).

14 minutes ago, jrshawver said:

Also if anyone knows of a way to fit graphics card capable of raytracing in that budget I would love suggestions.

With how the market is, you can't touch an RTX card in that budget, let alone buy one. If you get lucky and get something at MSRP, maybe you can score a 3060, but I wouldn't count on it.

Personally, I would go 5600X and reuse the GTX 660.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4gWt8J

Parts like these should do the job. I would personally throw a cooler like the Hyper 212 on there as well, but you can always use the free, box cooler and see if it would be worth it to you to upgrade. When GPU prices come down, something like a 3060 or an RTX 2070 would be a decent pick to put in if you can get it for a decent price, but it might be a while before that happens.