Upgrading from a 9 year old PC

[Fishbone]

Hi,

My current PC is 9 years old now, I have upgraded it over time, but it's got to the point where the CPU can't keep up anymore. I'm looking to buy a new PC, but move some of the newer components over from the old PC, mainly the RTX2060 and a 500GB M.2 drive to use as the boot drive (the hdd will probably come over too, just for storage space).

This PC will mainly be used for gaming, struggling to run Starfield being the main reason I've decided to upgrade now.

My current monitor is 1080p 165Hz, but my plan for this computer is to buy a 4070 (or next gen, 5070??/AMD equivalent) in 2-3 years time and upgrade my monitor to something like 4k 120Hz.

My budget is around £800-£1,000.

I'm unsure about too many things to put together an initial build, mainly whether I should go Intel or AMD for the CPU and whether I go for DDR4 or DDR5 RAM.

I'm looking for suggestions as I'm a bit out of the loop these days.

Thanks

 

[sck451]

Here's a system that would be a good start. I would warn you, however, that the 2060 is not likely to do a fantastic job of Starfield. It is below the minimum requirements, so even with a new CPU/memory/etc foundation, it will still not do a tremendous job, even at 1080p. (Incidentally, I'd strongly suggest you look towards 1440p as an upgrade, rather than 4K.)

Here's what I'd suggest, presuming you're moving the 2060, the M.2 drive, the HDD and the Windows licence.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
DeepCool AK400 Performance CPU Cooler ZERO DARK
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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 9 to 12 working days
Price: £953.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/yk!YHq9pkE/

 

[Fishbone]

Thanks for the response, looks pretty good.

Is AMD vs. Intel down to personal preference, or is AMD objectively better in this price range? The reviews I had looked at tended to give the 13600k the edge over the 7700. Although it looks like you can get the 7700x for only £4 more than the 7700, which seems like a no brainer.

I will judge what resolution I upgrade to nearer the time, depending on which GPU I go for and what it's capable of, you are probably right that 1440p is more realistic.

I know the 2060 won't be the best for Starfield, I think it is a slightly better card than the 1070ti, particularly with DLSS, so it's maybe just above minimum specs. Based on playing with my current setup I'm fairly confident it will manage 60fps at 1080p on medium-high settings, which I am okay with.

 

[sck451]

Well, the 13600K is around £100 more for an otherwise identical system. And AMD offers you the possibility of upgrades to a different CPU from a future generation, whereas it seems unlikely the 13600K will receive substantial upgrades.

As for the 7700X, that is very, very similar silicon to the 7700 but configured to draw much more power and run much hotter, for a very small performance increase. It would require spending more money on cooling to maintain performance.

You want to be GPU-limited in the majority of scenarios (and with the 2060 that's pretty much guaranteed), in which case the FPS difference between these CPUs/configurations is likely to be zero. The 7700 is the most efficient and the overall value is the best in my view, and the fact that you're then on a platform that will take significant upgrades down the line is also a very nice bonus.