Desktop - What to Upgrade First (3 year old budget build)

[PCurly]

Budget (including currency): 500€ range

Country: Portugal

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Diablo Franchise mostly, the odd triple A game but I don't care much for framerate tbh, regular productivity (several spreadsheets at most)

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

Current parts list is as follows:

Motherboard: MSI B450M Mortar AMD B450 Socket AM4 Micro ATX

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + Noctua aircooler

PSU: Corsair TX550M — 550 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce 1660 Super OC 6G

Storage: 1TB SSD (don’t remember brand)

RAM: 2x8 GB (CL16 I think)

Case: Corsair 280x (wastes a lot of space, but im OK with it i guess)

 

Now i bought all this late 2020, early 2021 I think. And I told myself I'd upgrade regularly to be future proof. But now its mid 2024 and I havent done anything about it. I'd really like to prevent tempting myself from buying a prebuilt or going with a laptop out of frustration of having to upgrade everything at once. I'm hoping that my current build isn't so obsolete yet, that upgrading isn't a cost effective thing to do here.

 

So TLDR: If I had to start future proofing my PC starting today, where should I start? And what might be good value purchases for this purpose currently?

 

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Your CPU is still pretty decent for gaming but that GPU is holding you back. What GPUs are in that price range for Portugal? Can you get a RTX 4060 or RX 7700 XT for 500? Alternatively If you can find a good deal on a used RTX 3070 or a rx 6700 xt / 6750 xt that would be a good choice.

[Why_Me]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€124.90 @ Globaldata) 
Memory: *Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€70.90 @ Globaldata) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING Twin Edge GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  (€284.53 @ PC Componentes) 
Total: €480.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-26 02:07 WEST+0100

[8tg]

32 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€124.90 @ Globaldata) 
Memory: *Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€70.90 @ Globaldata) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING Twin Edge GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  (€284.53 @ PC Componentes) 
Total: €480.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-26 02:07 WEST+0100

bruh i cant tell if this is an ironic shitpost or not

 

[Why_Me]

37 minutes ago, 8tg said:

bruh i cant tell if this is an ironic shitpost or not

 

First off no idea what a 'bruh' is and secondly let's see what you would do for an upgrade with the OP's budget.

 

1. 32GB of RAM makes everything run smoother.

2. 5600 is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's 3600.

3. RTX 3060 12GB is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's GTX 1660 6GB.

[8tg]

8 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

First off no idea what a 'bruh' is and secondly let's see what you would do for an upgrade with the OP's budget.

 

1. 32GB of RAM makes everything run smoother.

2. 5600 is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's 3600.

3. RTX 3060 12GB is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's GTX 1660 6GB.

adding moar ram doesnt make things moar better if they arent running out of ram, i cant think of a worse way to "upgrade" a system than spending 70 euros on ram when they have a perfectly good kit of ram

short of either "upgrading" to a slightly faster 16gb kit or changing out the psu for a spec equivalent psu, throwing money away

 

the 5600 isnt enough of a performance increase to justify that cost, at that point, go all in with the 5800x, that will be a much more noticeable increase in overall cpu performance and at only 205 euros, its the only cpu really worth going for on end stage am4

like whats the point in upgrading am4 if you arent going to go all the way at this point? waste of time and money to get a 5600 now and a 5800x later when its time to upgrade again because the mediocre performance increase didnt hold up for as long

 

gpu wise, a new 3060 is just a waste of money with the remaining budget, a used titan x pascal would cost less and perform slightly better overall, if the goal is just that tier of gpu, when youre talking about a finite budget and upgrading an older system, theres no real reason to be buying last gen gpus new for such a high price, when adequate used options cost less

 

[Why_Me]

31 minutes ago, 8tg said:

adding moar ram doesnt make things moar better if they arent running out of ram, i cant think of a worse way to "upgrade" a system than spending 70 euros on ram when they have a perfectly good kit of ram

short of either "upgrading" to a slightly faster 16gb kit or changing out the psu for a spec equivalent psu, throwing money away

 

the 5600 isnt enough of a performance increase to justify that cost, at that point, go all in with the 5800x, that will be a much more noticeable increase in overall cpu performance and at only 205 euros, its the only cpu really worth going for on end stage am4

like whats the point in upgrading am4 if you arent going to go all the way at this point? waste of time and money to get a 5600 now and a 5800x later when its time to upgrade again because the mediocre performance increase didnt hold up for as long

 

gpu wise, a new 3060 is just a waste of money with the remaining budget, a used titan x pascal would cost less and perform slightly better overall, if the goal is just that tier of gpu, when youre talking about a finite budget and upgrading an older system, theres no real reason to be buying last gen gpus new for such a high price, when adequate used options cost less

 

It's 'more'. Next time try spell check. Fact of the matter is 32GB does make games and programs run smoother ... that is a fact. Now use PC Partpicker and show us what you would do with the OP's 500 euro budget.

 

 

12GB of VRAM > 6GB of VRAM.

[8tg]

5 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

12GB of VRAM > 6GB of VRAM.

what card exactly do you think im referencing?

the titan x pascal is a 12gb card you wangus

 

[Why_Me]

2 minutes ago, 8tg said:

what card exactly do you think im referencing?

the titan x pascal is a 12gb card you wangus

 

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/list/   <--- €500.00. Now show us.

[8tg]

4 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/list/   <--- €500.00. Now show us.

Ok here you go, the link equivalent of what I’ve already said, a 5800x and titan x pascal

except now it’s a Titan Xp which is a little better but costs around the same

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/list/CLKmTY

[Why_Me]

12 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Ok here you go, the link equivalent of what I’ve already said, a 5800x and titan x pascal

except now it’s a Titan Xp which is a little better but costs around the same

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/list/CLKmTY

First off if you're going to upgrade to a Ryzen 7 you go with the 5700X seeing how not only does that cpu run cooler while using less juice than the 5800X, it cost less while giving similar performance. Secondly you are asking the OP to purchase a used gpu off of ebay from a US retailer. 

[8tg]

8 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

First off if you're going to upgrade to a Ryzen 7 you go with the 5700X seeing how not only does that cpu run cooler while using less juice than the 5800X, it cost less while giving similar performance. Secondly you are asking the OP to purchase a used gpu off of ebay from a US retailer. 

first off if you don’t post your reply in the form a pcpartpicker link your post is actually invalid, sorry

Spoiler

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

drop in a 5700x3d for 255€ since its literally the best gaming cpu you can get on am4

 

gpu wise resell that 1660s for like 100-150€ and add to budget, then you have 350/400€ for a better gpu which at worst will be a used 6800 but you should be able to get used 3080 or 6800xt around that price range used

 

35 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Ok here you go, the link equivalent of what I’ve already said, a 5800x and titan x pascal

except now it’s a Titan Xp which is a little better but costs around the same

https://pt.pcpartpicker.com/list/CLKmTY

titan xp is a strange choice when used 6700xt 3070 and 6800 exist, might aswell go 5700x3d as itll be a hell of alot faster in gamss

 

1 hour ago, Why_Me said:

First off no idea what a 'bruh' is and secondly let's see what you would do for an upgrade with the OP's budget.

 

1. 32GB of RAM makes everything run smoother.

2. 5600 is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's 3600.

3. RTX 3060 12GB is a noticeable upgrade from the OP's GTX 1660 6GB.

same as above

 

ram is a valid point but only if op can make use of it, i mean its only 30€ for a generic 2x8 xmp kit you slot in the leftover slots for 4x8 or even less if used oem bare pcbs are accessible

 

3060 and titan xp should be pretty similar in performance but theyre both downright strange choices again used 6700xt exist around the same price and demolish both of em, then you consider op reselling the 1660s and now its a used 6800xt or 3080

 

5700x3d > 5600 and 5700x/5800x