I need advice for future upgrades

[elboh]

Hello there, hope you having a great time.

So i started "building" my pc a month ago, not really building, i wanted to but then found a pre-built one for a lot cheaper than what it could have cost me if i built it myself and i was like why not, i can upgrade it later.

The purpose of this pc is to allow me to work (programming) and for gaming, and later on to stream (mainly educational content of programing but why not stream while i'm enjoying my video games as well).

so the pre built one was for 510$, with a CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, but i upgraded the CPU to be : AMD Ryzen 7 5700G + CPU cooler : COOLER MASTER HYPER 212 ARGB (2 fans) and it ended up costing me : 623$

just keep in mind that i live in Tunisia, usually electronics can be up to double their original price else where due to VAT and other taxes.

when i started this build 2 things i kept on mind : i won't cheap out in the CPU and GPU because they are the most 2 expensive parts, and the second thing is, i don't have enough for a decent graphic card so i'll just buy the G series of amd because it runs valorant smoothly until i have more money to upgrade.

and the day has come where i ordered a saphire RX 6700 (non-xt) 10g for 387$,

now i understand that it might be a little cheaper on sites like newegg or i might have ordered the XT version of the card with just few dollars more, but I live in Tunisia which means there is no fixed formula for tax paid over importing electronics and in some cases when you go to get your package you get charged more than what's in the package itself and my budget can't really allow me to do that, so i came up to the solution to ship it to a friend of mine in France and he can bring it with him when he arrives.

But still newegg doesn't ship to France so i had to find retailers that do, and that's the best value for money i can honestly find.

now this is my setup :

 

(i still didn't install the gpu yet but i'll keep it in the specs)

the PC:

  CPU: AMD ryzen 7 5700G

  CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER HYPER 212 LED TURBO ARGB.

  GPU: RX 6700 10g (non-xt)

  case: MASTERBOX K501L ARGB (2 x 120mm front fans + 1 x 120mm rear)

  power supply : cooler master Elite 600W 230V - V3.

  motherboard : ASUS TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS II

  RAM: 2 x HP V2 8G DDR4 3200MHz

  Storage: 500gb hdd + 256gb ssd sata.

Monitor : MSI optix g24c4 24" 144hz.

Keyboard: an old DELL keyboard that's really great and been living with me for more than 16 years now.

Mouse: redragon predator m612 (for just 18$ it's amazing and fits my hand perfectly).

 

now here is my short term and long term upgrades :

short term : i will buy the samsung evo 980 1tb ssd, also i might add 1 or 2 tb of hdd.

i think i need more fans but not sure, should i add 3 fans on the top and one on the front ? or wait and upgrade it to water cooling ?

mid term : i would like to upgrade the ram because i use a lot of softwares that depend heavily on ram in my line of work.

long term : as i said before i'll start streaming some time on this pc, so i need better audio devices, starting with a streaming microphone, maybe a better headset

also i believe i need a bigger desk and a second monitor (as you can see this desk have only space for one), but i have a fancier desk laying around, what i don't like about it tho that the pc goes on the bottom and i don't think it has good airflow in there, and there is a keyboard drawer, which is uncomfortable to squeeze a keyboard and mouse in there and you can't put them on top of the desk.

 

1- do i need to rearrange my upgrade priorities ?

2- what else you think i can upgrade that i didn't mention?

3- do i need more fans ? if so is aircooling fine or i need to upgrade to water cooling ?

 

and thank you in advance.

 

[SleepDeprivationTheITGuy]

OP, I think you may be overthinking this. It's always good be organized and coordinated but taking a simpler approach will likely be something that will make upgrading an easier process. Go through each component you are considering upgrading and evaluate whether or not you need to upgrade the part in question; PCs as a hobby can become money pits very quickly.

 

1. The only reason you may need new case fans is high temperatures, and typically a better solution is purchasing a better cooler if CPU temperatures are high. If GPU temperatures are high, try undervolting and repositioning what case fans you do have so that they are more optimal for both CPU and GPU temperatures. 3-5 decent 120mm fans is the gold standard; 2 in front for intake with one exhaust in the rear, or 3 front 2 rear. If you already have a few, my guess is they could just be re-arranged if they're sub-optimally placed.

The 5700G is a 65W CPU that doesn't overclock particularly well, so I wouldn't even consider water cooling it. If it runs at less than 90C under full load, don't even think about getting a new cooler because it's not needed.

 

2. Are your current storage devices full or close to full? If not, then you don't need more storage. Unless you are absolutely, positively sure that you need more storage and will make use of 1TB-2TB more space, do not buy more storage.

 

3. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. If you're not using all of your RAM under a typical workload, then buying more RAM will not make anything faster. If you are hitting memory limits and using pagefile, then buying more RAM would be a good decision sooner rather than later. Yes, applications will use more RAM if it is available, but if they don't use everything that is available, then that means that they do not need more and will not necessarily run faster no matter how much RAM you throw at them.

 

4. The PC goes into the bottom and not enough airflow? Cut holes in that part of the desk. Never seen a desk like that where the tower slot is in any way structural so just yank the door off (if there is one) and cut some holes through the back side. Once that's done, second monitor is something I would do ASAP as it massively increases productivity at least for me. As for the microphone and headset, what are you unable to do with them currently that you could do on better equipment?

 

TL;DR: Monitor and desk are the only things I would consider to be more urgent without any more information than is provided here. RAM maybe if you're hitting pagefile or other memory-related limitations. Pretty much everything else you'll need to do some investigation of your own on to determine if they are actually in need of an upgrade.

[elboh]

2 hours ago, SleepDeprivationTheITGuy said:

OP, I think you may be overthinking this. It's always good be organized and coordinated but taking a simpler approach will likely be something that will make upgrading an easier process. Go through each component you are considering upgrading and evaluate whether or not you need to upgrade the part in question; PCs as a hobby can become money pits very quickly.

 

1. The only reason you may need new case fans is high temperatures, and typically a better solution is purchasing a better cooler if CPU temperatures are high. If GPU temperatures are high, try undervolting and repositioning what case fans you do have so that they are more optimal for both CPU and GPU temperatures. 3-5 decent 120mm fans is the gold standard; 2 in front for intake with one exhaust in the rear, or 3 front 2 rear. If you already have a few, my guess is they could just be re-arranged if they're sub-optimally placed.

The 5700G is a 65W CPU that doesn't overclock particularly well, so I wouldn't even consider water cooling it. If it runs at less than 90C under full load, don't even think about getting a new cooler because it's not needed.

 

2. Are your current storage devices full or close to full? If not, then you don't need more storage. Unless you are absolutely, positively sure that you need more storage and will make use of 1TB-2TB more space, do not buy more storage.

 

3. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. If you're not using all of your RAM under a typical workload, then buying more RAM will not make anything faster. If you are hitting memory limits and using pagefile, then buying more RAM would be a good decision sooner rather than later. Yes, applications will use more RAM if it is available, but if they don't use everything that is available, then that means that they do not need more and will not necessarily run faster no matter how much RAM you throw at them.

 

4. The PC goes into the bottom and not enough airflow? Cut holes in that part of the desk. Never seen a desk like that where the tower slot is in any way structural so just yank the door off (if there is one) and cut some holes through the back side. Once that's done, second monitor is something I would do ASAP as it massively increases productivity at least for me. As for the microphone and headset, what are you unable to do with them currently that you could do on better equipment?

 

TL;DR: Monitor and desk are the only things I would consider to be more urgent without any more information than is provided here. RAM maybe if you're hitting pagefile or other memory-related limitations. Pretty much everything else you'll need to do some investigation of your own on to determine if they are actually in need of an upgrade.

1 - i'm just asking in general, but that's reassuring (i am just concerned because i live somewhere where it's 30°C-37°C in the summer, and i don't think that applies to everyone).

2 - the SSD M.2 is basically essential to better boot and better performance overall but the extra storage i might do when i am near full ( i happen to have couple of hdds laying around).

3 - for the ram that's not urgent at all, applications like "Android Studio" push the ram to it's limits but i am using it less as i am migrating to visual studio, so i am not worried about it now.

4 - here is a picture, do you think there is good airflow in there ?

 

for microphone and headset that's a quality thing, just spoiling myself, but it's in the long run.

[SleepDeprivationTheITGuy]

@elboh If those white spots near the back are the wall showing through because there's holes, then there is plenty of airflow in that spot of the desk.

[elboh]

1 hour ago, SleepDeprivationTheITGuy said:

@elboh If those white spots near the back are the wall showing through because there's holes, then there is plenty of airflow in that spot of the desk.

yes that's the wall, thank you for the reassurance, i will clean it and move it to my room instead of my current desk