Upgrading old PC advice

[shoneoreg]

Budget (including currency): $3300 NZD - ish, but not more

Country: New Zealand

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games: Cyberpunk 2077 (lot's of mods), CK3, BeamNG, Elden Ring. I also do some Unity dev on the side, as well as work from home on here (just browser stuff). I also want to play the new titles that are coming out, so this is needed I think.

Other details: 

I am getting sick of having a crappy computer, and I want a big upgrade after having this one for quite a while now and not being able to play at the resolution and FPS I want.  I don't need any peripherals, so that does not matter. I play at 3440 x 1440, my monitor is 100hz. 

 

Note - I will be using my current SSDs in my new build, one of which has Windows on it.

 

I plan to buy over the coming months leading up to Christmas, as I am getting the case from my girlfriend as a gift. This can be taken out of the total cost. I also plan to sell my current PC, probably as a whole, after I get the new one built.

 

Currently I have:

• i5-12400f
• RTX 3060 8GB
• 16GB DDR4
• 550W PSU
• One 500GB NVMe SSD 
• One 2TB NVMe SSD
• Ugly case I want to get rid of.

 

This is my planned build:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($640 NZD)
• ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB 48.82 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($250 NZD)
• MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($320 NZD)
• G.Skill Ripjaws M5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL30 Memory ($240 NZD)
• Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card ($1430 NZD)
• Lian Li Lancool 207 Digital ATX Mid Tower Case ($230 NZD)
• Silverstone DA850R-GMA 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($200 NZD)

 

Total: ~ $3300 NZD

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

Buy the 9070 XT first, throw it into your current build and see how it handles. The 12400f should still have life left in it. (You're buying the GPU anyway, so why not?)

[shoneoreg]

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Buy the 9070 XT first, throw it into your current build and see how it handles. The 12400f should still have life left in it. (You're buying the GPU anyway, so why not?)

would my PSU handle it?
I am also wanting to make sure that I can have this new PC for around 4-5 years.

[jaslion]

38 minutes ago, shoneoreg said:

the coming months leading up to Christmas,

Ask again week of buying else you WILL pay more for worse and might not even be able to get all the components anymore.

 

30 minutes ago, shoneoreg said:

would my PSU handle it?

Anyways do a new psu and gpu first. Good chance you have all the gaming performance you need after those 2. Maybe ram after if the current upgrades suffice then.

 

 

[shoneoreg]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Ask again week of buying else you WILL pay more for worse and might not even be able to get all the components anymore.

 

Anyways do a new psu and gpu first. Good chance you have all the gaming performance you need after those 2. Maybe ram after if the current upgrades suffice then.

 

 

Yeah, I am going to save for the GPU and CPU first to make sure I get them at a decent price. The other stuff likely won't increase in price, and I am not gonna buy it right before Christmas, likely at least a month.

 

As for the other part, okay. I will do that, that does make sense. Thank you both for your advice

[jaslion]

8 minutes ago, shoneoreg said:

Yeah, I am going to save for the GPU and CPU first to make sure I get them at a decent price. The other stuff likely won't increase in price, and I am not gonna buy it right before Christmas, likely at least a month.

Thrn buy everything a month before christmas. Keep in mind new hardware launches pressure price nonstop as well as increase in stock.

 

The cpu especially I wouldnt buy now as that just keeps going down. Asixe from that how much is a 7700(x) they perform basically identical.

 

Cooler Id just get sonething cheaper a simple single 120mm tower cooler is already heaps good for a 9700x or 7700x. Really no reason to go overkill at all.

 

Ram I highly recommend going to 6000mhz cl30 it is a NOTICEABLE performance uplift.

 

 

As for case the digital is a pretty big extra cost for a lcd thats just gonna get in the way most of the time and ve annoying (depending how you set it up windows multi display will randomly put windows on it :p)

[leclod]

58 minutes ago, shoneoreg said:

I am getting sick of having a crappy computer,

Your crappy computer is pretty close to my decent computer,

[shoneoreg]

6 minutes ago, leclod said:

Your crappy computer is pretty close to my decent computer,

sorry dude

i just mean for my purposes, it is not the greatest for me.

[Why_Me]

4 hours ago, shoneoreg said:

Budget (including currency): $3300 NZD - ish, but not more

Country: New Zealand

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games: Cyberpunk 2077 (lot's of mods), CK3, BeamNG, Elden Ring. I also do some Unity dev on the side, as well as work from home on here (just browser stuff). I also want to play the new titles that are coming out, so this is needed I think.

Other details: 

I am getting sick of having a crappy computer, and I want a big upgrade after having this one for quite a while now and not being able to play at the resolution and FPS I want.  I don't need any peripherals, so that does not matter. I play at 3440 x 1440, my monitor is 100hz. 

 

Note - I will be using my current SSDs in my new build, one of which has Windows on it.

 

I plan to buy over the coming months leading up to Christmas, as I am getting the case from my girlfriend as a gift. This can be taken out of the total cost. I also plan to sell my current PC, probably as a whole, after I get the new one built.

 

Currently I have:

• i5-12400f
• RTX 3060 8GB
• 16GB DDR4
• 550W PSU
• One 500GB NVMe SSD 
• One 2TB NVMe SSD
• Ugly case I want to get rid of.

 

This is my planned build:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($640 NZD)
• ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB 48.82 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($250 NZD)
• MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($320 NZD)
• G.Skill Ripjaws M5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL30 Memory ($240 NZD)
• Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card ($1430 NZD)
• Lian Li Lancool 207 Digital ATX Mid Tower Case ($230 NZD)
• Silverstone DA850R-GMA 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($200 NZD)

 

Total: ~ $3300 NZD

 

 

You want DDR5-6000 CL30 if you intend on gaming and look for a board that supports PCIe 5.0 for the gpu seeing how these new AMD and Nvidia cards support PCIe 5.0.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($803.85 @ PB Technologies) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($95.45 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: *MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($399.05 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Memory: *ADATA XPG Lancer Blade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($205.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Video Card: *ASRock Steel Legend Dark Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($1479.00 @ PB Technologies) 
Case: *Phanteks XT PRO ULTRA ATX Mid Tower Case  ($121.19 @ Paradigm PCs) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($187.99 @ Paradigm PCs) 
Total: $3291.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-07-18 01:23 NZST+1200

[shoneoreg]

23 hours ago, Why_Me said:

You want DDR5-6000 CL30 if you intend on gaming and look for a board that supports PCIe 5.0 for the gpu seeing how these new AMD and Nvidia cards support PCIe 5.0.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($803.85 @ PB Technologies) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($95.45 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: *MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($399.05 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Memory: *ADATA XPG Lancer Blade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($205.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Video Card: *ASRock Steel Legend Dark Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($1479.00 @ PB Technologies) 
Case: *Phanteks XT PRO ULTRA ATX Mid Tower Case  ($121.19 @ Paradigm PCs) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($187.99 @ Paradigm PCs) 
Total: $3291.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-07-18 01:23 NZST+1200

this has changed every single part I had planned. I get about the RAM and PCIe 5, but may I ask why for everything else? This is my first build that I am doing myself, and all the advice I can get is greatly appreciated.

[Why_Me]

3 hours ago, shoneoreg said:

this has changed every single part I had planned. I get about the RAM and PCIe 5, but may I ask why for everything else? This is my first build that I am doing myself, and all the advice I can get is greatly appreciated.

Performance.