Time for an upgrade..? Suggestions needed!!

T

Tommm

Member
Hello!

I bought my PC back in late 2018? And now I think it’s time for an upgrade…

I’d like to upgrade my GPU mainly as I think my OS and motherboard are still good.
(Correct me if I’m wrong 😂)

I was thinking of going for a 4080? But im not sure if that’s overkill.. and or if that’s veasable with the below specs.. any suggestions for a good upgrade path are welcomed!

Kind Regards
Tom

My build is as follows:-

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 570X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-8700k (3.7GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG MAXIMUS X HERO: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
250GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I fully agree that you want to be looking at an upgrade for that system, not replacing it.

A 4080 would be possible, but would need a power supply upgrade as well. Not precisely difficult, but a bit of a pain. I'd suggest at least an 850W model.

What is it precisely you'd like to achieve? What display do you have? (Resolution & refresh rate or make & model.)
 
T

Tommm

Member
Hi sck451,

Thanks for your feedback on this.

Most games I can run with no problems at all, but with new upcoming SP titles like Dead space remake, Hogwarts Legacy and a few others I have my eye on, I'd like to run them on the best settings possible ideally.

I'd say my current PC setup will run them fine on the likes of Medium - High, but I'd like to achieve Ultra/maxed settings.

In terms of current display, I'm using a:-

Samsung C27RG50FQR - CRG5 Series - LED monitor - curved - 27" - 1920 x 1080 Full HD (1080p) @ 240 Hz - VA - 300 cd/m² - 3000:1-4 ms - 2xHDMI, DisplayPort​

 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
You're in a bit of a funny position with that monitor. It's great for games like COD or CS:GO, but for more immersive, slower-paced games it's really not ideal as 1080p is quite low resolution: you'd get a miles better experience from 1440p 144Hz (or even 60Hz in some games!). A 4080 is ridiculous overkill to go with it, to my mind.

In your shoes, I'd personally want to upgrade the monitor to 1440p and upgrade the graphics card to match (a 4080 would be extreme overkill; perhaps a 4070 Ti might be a better bet...) along with a new power supply. I'd also take a look at your slightly confusing storage situation; you have three drives, but none of them is that fast by today's standard. I guess the 250GB one is your boot drive, with games on the 500GB one? Personally I'd want to at least make my boot drive an M.2 SSD, which could be done for ~£70.

I will say that it's quite hard to tell what would be good right now, as Hogwarts Legacy in particular is supposed to have crazy-high system requirements; personally I'd wait to see reviews and data before I bought hardware specifically aimed at it. If you really need a 4080 to play 1080p ultra, maybe it would make sense; my guess is that in fact you won't and a much more modest system can do a good job.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Well, for an RPG there's not much point playing at 240Hz. 60 would be fine; 100 would be outstanding. You'll see your system is actually pretty accurately on the "recommended" specs already. There's no requirement to play at the maximum refresh rate of the display!

The bigger thing for me is that the resolution of your display for these kinds of games is more significant than the frame rate. You have a perfectly adequate but unexceptional display. That's fine, but to me there's no point spending £1000+ on upgrading the PC while sticking with the honestly outdated display.
 
T

Tommm

Member
sck451 said:
You're in a bit of a funny position with that monitor. It's great for games like COD or CS:GO, but for more immersive, slower-paced games it's really not ideal as 1080p is quite low resolution: you'd get a miles better experience from 1440p 144Hz (or even 60Hz in some games!). A 4080 is ridiculous overkill to go with it, to my mind.

In your shoes, I'd personally want to upgrade the monitor to 1440p and upgrade the graphics card to match (a 4080 would be extreme overkill; perhaps a 4070 Ti might be a better bet...) along with a new power supply. I'd also take a look at your slightly confusing storage situation; you have three drives, but none of them is that fast by today's standard. I guess the 250GB one is your boot drive, with games on the 500GB one? Personally I'd want to at least make my boot drive an M.2 SSD, which could be done for ~£70.

I will say that it's quite hard to tell what would be good right now, as Hogwarts Legacy in particular is supposed to have crazy-high system requirements; personally I'd wait to see reviews and data before I bought hardware specifically aimed at it. If you really need a 4080 to play 1080p ultra, maybe it would make sense; my guess is that in fact you won't and a much more modest system can do a good job.
Click to expand...

Yep totally hit the nail on the head there, back when I bought the monitor most of the games that I played were the likes of Overwatch, CSGO, COD, Battlefield etc I'm branching over into more SP, MMO, casual games now that I'm older. Although I'm still a avid Tarkov player.

Going for a 4070 Ti seems on the financial side of things a much better option for me, so I'll probably go down that route with a 850w Power supply? or along them lines.

In terms of storage, the 250 SSD is the boot drive, 500GB is for the main games I currently play and then the 1TB is just for misc games and work etc - When it comes to a good/cheap M.2 SSD what would you recommend?
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
CountingDown said:
The drives that you selected are slow drives...you really want M.2 drives as a minimum. If you go back to the post to forum page and include the configurable URL from the bottom as well as a maximum budget, then we can work out what drives can be fitted into the budget
Click to expand...
I don't think you can do that with an upgrade.

I'd probably get a good 500GB SSD and use that as the boot drive. Probably the Samsung 970 Evo as it's currently £61 on Amazon; I'd imagine it's similar in the PCS upgrade tool; there's no point going for gen 4 drives as the platform doesn't support it. Then you have 750GB of SATA SSDs for games. Personally I'd think that an adequate platform. In an ideal world you'd add a second 1GB SSD for games, but I'm not sure it's worth it.
 
T

Tommm

Member
sck451 said:
I don't think you can do that with an upgrade.

I'd probably get a good 500GB SSD and use that as the boot drive. Probably the Samsung 970 Evo as it's currently £61 on Amazon; I'd imagine it's similar in the PCS upgrade tool; there's no point going for gen 4 drives as the platform doesn't support it. Then you have 750GB of SATA SSDs for games. Personally I'd think that an adequate platform. In an ideal world you'd add a second 1GB SSD for games, but I'm not sure it's worth it.
Click to expand...

Definitely going to snap up that Samsung 970 Evo 500GB, now in regards to PSU to support a 4070 Ti what would you recommend?
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
SpyderTracks said:
I would suggest nearer 1000w RMX as a minimum for the 4070ti
Click to expand...
Given the difference in price, I think going for anything other than a 1000W PSU would be silly. It's not strictly needed and the Corsair PSUs are strong enough that they can cope even with the spikes in power draw of modern GPUs, but for the sake of ~£20 when you're spending £1000, it's a no-brainer.
 
T

Tommm

Member
Hi sorry to bring up a dead-ish thread but...

I just wanted to reach out to you lot again, as I've decided to basically give my setup to my partner and just straight up build a new PC based on your recommendations with 4070 Ti, 1000w PSU, 970 Evo and a few more SSDs etc, one thing that I'm not too sure on is whether to keep the same motherboard, CPU & Case or upgrade the lot to something more modern, as I'm not 100% clued up on what's good or bad these days, all I know is the I7 and Asus motherboard I have on my current PC were pretty good back in 2018 and I've never had a single problem with my PC! -Touch wood

In terms of budget to build the entire thing I'm working with around £3200 but if needed I could chuck a few more pounds in if required. The PC is mainly going to be used for Gaming (Ideally on max settings etc) and I'd like to to last a good few years like my current one!

Anyone's advice would be highly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Tom
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I'm a little confused about what you're looking for. You say you want to give your current PC to your partner, but you also talk about using the same components? You can't buy the 8700K anymore. An i7 today is very different to then.

What you should do first is think about a new display. I'd budget something like £500 for the display, maybe the Gigabyte M34WQ? That's an ultrawide 1440p display and would be a great option. You could push to 4K; I personally think you get better value with the ultrawide.

Then you could go for something like this:

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE - WHITE Suggesting something a different colour to differentiate it from your partner's - but lots of really good case options are available
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) The best gaming CPU there is right now
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) A good motherboard
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB) Plenty of RAM for gaming
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 The same performance as the 4070 Ti, but cheaper (though admittedly higher power draw)
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) Fast boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) Big games drive
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Definitely makes sense
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler Arguably overkill for the 7800X3D, but really good
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 10 working days
Price: £2,210.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/Zchv!bPxMs/
 
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