upgradng First Time Planning an Upgrade...halp

[Skeledom]

So my mate is looking to sell his 4 month old ZOTAC RTX 3090 because he knows someone with a 40 series who's selling.

He DM'd me seeing if I'd like his card and I decided I'd buy it off him as a 3090 would be fantastic to edit videos on as well as game on obviously.

However, I know I'd need a bigger Power Supply to give myself a nice, big, safe overhead.

I'd also like a better case to get more airflow into the system.

Some more RAM would be nice too and blah, blah, blah, down the upgrade rabbit hole I went.

 

This is what I currently have (PCPartpicker "LADY '21" completed build page)

This is all the parts I'm looking into upgrading to down the line (PCPartpicker "LADY '23" Parts List)

 

Basically, other than the 3090 and the PSU, should I be considering more things/options for upgrading? Here are my concerns:

- I assume the motherboard I have is fine, or do I need to prioritise getting a better one? (I have a spare MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi should something happen to the ROG B550-F)

- I figured, when I can, I should pair the beefier card with a beefier CPU like the 5900x, but does the air cooler I picked fit in the 5000D airflow case and have the clearence for 2 more sticks of the RAM I already have? Is there a site I can use to tell me rather than having to try cross-check measurements? Hell can I buy and use PC Building Sim 1 or 2 to figure that out or nah?

- Can I upgrade the RAM like I think? Just buy another 2 sticks of the exact same RAM I already have and put them in the empty slots? Or should I think about just getting 2, new, bigger capacity sticks?

- This is the first time I'd have a GPU at the size it is with the ZOTAC. Do I need a GPU support bracket? (My friend who currently owns it has it mounted vertically which I don't wanna do and why he doesn't have a support bracket in his system)

- Is this the best case for this build at this price or should I hold out for the Lancool 216 to be back in stock (unlikely) or spend a tiny bit more and get the much better looking Fractal Design Torrent/Torrent Compact or should I avoid the Torrents because I'm a first-time upgrader and the PSU goes at the top of the case and the cable management is apparently kinda bad?

 

Notes:

- Live in the UK

- Priorities are a new case and the Power supply. Everything else can come when I have the money, except the RAM since that doesn't cost much.

- My experience building Lady '21 wasn't absolutely abysmal but definitely wasn't good, thanks to the original CPU (a 3700x) and M.2 SSD (Crucial P5) I bought for it both being faulty, which is why I'm turning here to the LTT forum to help me try iron out any details I've missed or overlooked. I would like this to go as smoothly as possible. Even if that means only upgrading the PC one part at a time, once a month or something.

 

Thanks!

- Dom.

[SpookyCitrus]

For PSU I'd go Corsair RM1000e or the Phanteks AMP 1000w, both are well received and in the higher tier list of the PSU Tier List while also being fairly priced. The PSU you linked is older and not very reasonably priced from the prices I can find.

 

As for case the 5000D Airflow is nice but I'd also look into the offerings from Phanteks, the G360a and P500A DRGB cases are awesome offerings and usually very fairly priced as well. The Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB is also a super solid case and usually pretty cheap, however does have some drawbacks. 

 

The Ram issue is a little trickier, the absolute best thing you can do is sell what you have and upgrade to a kit of the size and speed you want, mix matching even identical kits can cause stability issues. You can try it but I'd say it's a 60% chance you'll have issues just adding a secondary kit to the one you have already. 

[Skeledom]

1 hour ago, SpookyCitrus said:

For PSU I'd go Corsair RM1000e or the Phanteks AMP 1000w, both are well received and in the higher tier list of the PSU Tier List while also being fairly priced. The PSU you linked is older and not very reasonably priced from the prices I can find.

 

As for case the 5000D Airflow is nice but I'd also look into the offerings from Phanteks, the G360a and P500A DRGB cases are awesome offerings and usually very fairly priced as well. The Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB is also a super solid case and usually pretty cheap, however does have some drawbacks. 

 

The Ram issue is a little trickier, the absolute best thing you can do is sell what you have and upgrade to a kit of the size and speed you want, mix matching even identical kits can cause stability issues. You can try it but I'd say it's a 60% chance you'll have issues just adding a secondary kit to the one you have already. 

Cheers for the case recommendations, I really like the black and white looks for the Eclipse P500A and the Fractal Focus 2 RBG in their white versions. Fits the theme and name of the build too.

 

For the PSUs, I was thinking of an 80+Titanium rated one, even if that cost a bit extra since this would be the most expensive thing, not just in my room but the most expensive thing that I own either way and would rather get the most efficient PSU I can get, especially when cost of electricity is going up and I'd rather get one that'll actually use as much of the power its drawing as possible.

 

As for RAM I was gonna try get at least 64Gigs of RAM, so in that instance am I better off getting 2x32Gigs sticks or 4x16Gigs sticks?

[SpookyCitrus]

21 minutes ago, Skeledom said:

Cheers for the case recommendations, I really like the black and white looks for the Eclipse P500A and the Fractal Focus 2 RBG in their white versions. Fits the theme and name of the build too.

 

For the PSUs, I was thinking of an 80+Titanium rated one, even if that cost a bit extra since this would be the most expensive thing, not just in my room but the most expensive thing that I own either way and would rather get the most efficient PSU I can get, especially when cost of electricity is going up and I'd rather get one that'll actually use as much of the power its drawing as possible.

 

As for RAM I was gonna try get at least 64Gigs of RAM, so in that instance am I better off getting 2x32Gigs sticks or 4x16Gigs sticks?

Sounds good, with the ram typically 2x32 would be better.