Upgrade current PC or build a new one?

ipopoff · May 18

Hey guys,

I am in a little bit of a predicament and decided that an unbiased opinion might be helpful.

My current PC has the following specs:

CPU - i7-6700

GPU- 1060 3GB

MOBO - Gigabyte B150

RAM - 16GB of mismatched Corsair Vengence and HyperX sticks (4x4GB )

PSU - 550W

Case - Some random chinese case, cheapest one at the time

I have recently found a well paid job and can finally afford to splurge on my gaming setup a little bit. My question is, do you guys think i should upgrade parts of this build or just sell it and build something completely new. I was initially thinking of just slapping a 3060 or something like that in it and calling it a day, but it would still be missing some pretty cool newer feature which just weren't standard on this tier build at the time, such as nvme slots, usb-c/thunderbolt, built-in wifi (this existed, i was just being a cheapskate at the time lol) and so on. I don't think the 6700 is limiting me that much because i do not use this computer for anything other than games. I do all my work, video/photo editing and so on on my MacBook.

Thanks in advance for the input!

emosun · May 18

8 minutes ago, ipopoff said:

do you guys think i should upgrade parts of this build or just sell it and build something completely new. I was initially thinking of just slapping a 3060 or something like that in it and calling it a day

this is kinda up to you as we don't dictate what games or what settings or what kind of performance you want.

if the machine does it's job to your level of expectations then nothing needs to be fixed or replaced.

whats games , what settings , what budget

Tetras · May 18

57 minutes ago, ipopoff said:

My question is, do you guys think i should upgrade parts of this build or just sell it and build something completely new.

As the above poster has asked already, what exactly are you trying to achieve here? If we know what games or level of performance you want (including monitor resolution) then it is much easier to give advice.

Generally speaking, the 1060 is pretty slow at this point, even for 1080p, so something like a $200 RX 6600 (or the 3060, as you intend) would nearly double your GPU power and make some modern games a lot more playable than they are now. That said, you're still not going to achieve crazy FPS in any newer AAA game.

Would I go all-out and buy something like a 4070 Super or 7900 GRE? Probably not, not unless you're trying to push 1440p UW or 4K and might upgrade the rest later.

1 hour ago, ipopoff said:

such as nvme slots, usb-c/thunderbolt, built-in wifi (this existed, i was just being a cheapskate at the time lol) and so on

True, but none of these things are going to hold back your gaming performance, for the most part. There are one or two newer games that can exceed SATA (with a SSD), but it is not something worth upgrading for, in my opinion.

If you have a full-size motherboard, you could possibly install a PCI-E M.2 adapter, but yeah, I doubt that would be worthwhile.

PDifolco · May 18

1 hour ago, ipopoff said:

Hey guys,

I am in a little bit of a predicament and decided that an unbiased opinion might be helpful.

My current PC has the following specs:

CPU - i7-6700

GPU- 1060 3GB

MOBO - Gigabyte B150

RAM - 16GB of mismatched Corsair Vengence and HyperX sticks (4x4GB )

PSU - 550W

Case - Some random chinese case, cheapest one at the time

I have recently found a well paid job and can finally afford to splurge on my gaming setup a little bit. My question is, do you guys think i should upgrade parts of this build or just sell it and build something completely new. I was initially thinking of just slapping a 3060 or something like that in it and calling it a day, but it would still be missing some pretty cool newer feature which just weren't standard on this tier build at the time, such as nvme slots, usb-c/thunderbolt, built-in wifi (this existed, i was just being a cheapskate at the time lol) and so on. I don't think the 6700 is limiting me that much because i do not use this computer for anything other than games. I do all my work, video/photo editing and so on on my MacBook.

Thanks in advance for the input!

Too old and janky to upgrade imo, keep it or replace it fully

ipopoff · May 20

On 5/19/2024 at 1:07 AM, Tetras said:

As the above poster has asked already, what exactly are you trying to achieve here? If we know what games or level of performance you want (including monitor resolution) then it is much easier to give advice.

Generally speaking, the 1060 is pretty slow at this point, even for 1080p, so something like a $200 RX 6600 (or the 3060, as you intend) would nearly double your GPU power and make some modern games a lot more playable than they are now. That said, you're still not going to achieve crazy FPS in any newer AAA game.

Would I go all-out and buy something like a 4070 Super or 7900 GRE? Probably not, not unless you're trying to push 1440p UW or 4K and might upgrade the rest later.

True, but none of these things are going to hold back your gaming performance, for the most part. There are one or two newer games that can exceed SATA (with a SSD), but it is not something worth upgrading for, in my opinion.

If you have a full-size motherboard, you could possibly install a PCI-E M.2 adapter, but yeah, I doubt that would be worthwhile.

I have a 1080p 144hz monitor. I can't really play most newer games because of the 3GB VRAM. I have friends with the 6GB version of the 1060 who get considerably better performance. I want something that can run modern games at 144fps 1080p and it would be a big advantage if i can switch the hdmi and also use the PC as a console for my TV. It's a 4k 60hz tv but a bit lower res should also look fine on it.

Tetras · May 20

8 minutes ago, ipopoff said:

I have a 1080p 144hz monitor. I can't really play most newer games because of the 3GB VRAM. I have friends with the 6GB version of the 1060 who get considerably better performance. I want something that can run modern games at 144fps 1080p and it would be a big advantage if i can switch the hdmi and also use the PC as a console for my TV. It's a 4k 60hz tv but a bit lower res should also look fine on it.

It depends on the games of course, but I think you're going to struggle with 144 Hz in anything relatively modern & especially AAA, just because your CPU and slow RAM will hold you back. In older games, I think a 3060 will achieve it no problem.

For 4K/60 then again, a 3060 12GB can do that just fine in older games, but the newer you get, the more it'll struggle. DLSS is a lot more effective at 4K than 1080p, so that would certainly help some to get you 60 fps.

Realistically, the kind of games that you're struggling to play with a 1060 are also likely to be bottlenecked by your CPU, but my guess is your overall experience will still improve significantly even if not @ 144.