Hardware Upgrade my gaming PC, or just buy a new one?

[MushGuy]

So I currently have this gaming PC that I built back in 2012, and I was wondering if it's still good enough to upgrade it, or if I should just buy a new high end PC. These are the components my current PC has:
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Motherboard: MSI Z77MA-G45 LGA 1155
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive Series 650W Modular Gaming Power Supply
CPU fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

So, should I upgrade, or just replace it with a new one? I'm thinking about buying the parts, or the PC, from Newegg. What are your thoughts?

 

[Deleted User]

if you want to lean towards a cheaper price range, you can look into upgrading to an i7-3770k, and maybe somewhere around a 1070 or 1080 for gpu, if you can find anything for a decent price that is
also double your ram to 16gb, very important

replacing the entire setup would cost significantly more, because you'd basically have to buy a new literally everything except for the case

 

[MushGuy]

if you want to lean towards a cheaper price range, you can look into upgrading to an i7-3770k, and maybe somewhere around a 1070 or 1080 for gpu, if you can find anything for a decent price that is
also double your ram to 16gb, very important

replacing the entire setup would cost significantly more, because you'd basically have to buy a new literally everything except for the case

OK, so if I upgrade the processor, should I still keep the cooling fan, or also buy one that better suits it? Does it come with its own thermal paste? As for RAM, is 16GB good enough for current gaming, or should I go for 32 (the maximum it supports)? If were to upgrade, I'm looking for components that are still compatible with my motherboard (240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM Dual Channel, PCI Express 3.0 x16, PCI Express x1, LGA 1155).

 

[Deleted User]

OK, so if I upgrade the processor, should I still keep the cooling fan, or also buy one that better suits it? Does it come with its own thermal paste? As for RAM, is 16GB good enough for current gaming, or should I go for 32 (the maximum it supports)? If were to upgrade, I'm looking for components that are still compatible with my motherboard (240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM Dual Channel, PCI Express 3.0 x16, PCI Express x1, LGA 1155).

the hyper 212 is still good for cooling even the i7, so you're good to keep it, and you should be able to use any ddr3 1600mhz kit you come across, 2 brands i personally recommend are the corsair vengeance 16gb kit https://www.newegg.com/corsair-16gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820233388
and your board is also compatible with ddr3 2133 if you want just that tiny bit of boost, here's a link for that https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820231755
ddr3 nowadays costs quite a bit compared to ddr4 ram for some reason, but it's ultimately cheaper to upgrade and stay on your platform for a little longer, as long as current scalper bs is still going on

32gb is still technically overkill unless you want to have protection against stuff like memory leaks for terribly made games cough gta 5 cough, or if you want to use a ramdisk or something
another recommended upgrade i'd give you if you haven't done so already GET AN SSD an ssd makes a world of difference on the usability of a pc, even if it's a small one just being used as a boot drive

 

[SG854]

Don't know if it's worth upgrading right now. PC parts went up in price because of the tariffs in the U.S.

 

[MohammedQ8]

Just buy any pc with latest motherboard so that you can upgrade everything in one by one.

My 2019 pc motherboard died while I am buying it hehe now I can’t upgrade the cpu.

I might buy new pc with amd motherboard this time.

 

[MushGuy]

the hyper 212 is still good for cooling even the i7, so you're good to keep it, and you should be able to use any ddr3 1600mhz kit you come across, 2 brands i personally recommend are the corsair vengeance 16gb kit https://www.newegg.com/corsair-16gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820233388
and your board is also compatible with ddr3 2133 if you want just that tiny bit of boost, here's a link for that https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820231755
ddr3 nowadays costs quite a bit compared to ddr4 ram for some reason, but it's ultimately cheaper to upgrade and stay on your platform for a little longer, as long as current scalper bs is still going on

32gb is still technically overkill unless you want to have protection against stuff like memory leaks for terribly made games cough gta 5 cough, or if you want to use a ramdisk or something
another recommended upgrade i'd give you if you haven't done so already GET AN SSD an ssd makes a world of difference on the usability of a pc, even if it's a small one just being used as a boot drive

Sounds good! As for thermal paste, does the processor come with it, or do I have to buy one separately? Also, I'm looking for a really good graphics card, so is the GTX 10 series good enough, or should I go for something higher? Is 11GB of graphics memory good enough, or overkill as well? Should I stick with full HD, or is it a good time to upgrade to 4k? As for processors, which 3rd gen do you recommend best?

Oh, and definitely getting an SSD for my upgrade.

 

[Deleted User]

Sounds good! As for thermal paste, does the processor come with it, or do I have to buy one separately? Also, I'm looking for a really good graphics card, so is the GTX 10 series good enough, or should I go for something higher? Is 11GB of graphics memory good enough, or overkill as well? Should I stick with full HD, or is it a good time to upgrade to 4k? As for processors, which 3rd gen do you recommend best?

Oh, and definitely getting an SSD for my upgrade.

no, likely it won't come with good thermal paste, so look into arctic silver 5 or something, as for graphics card, something good enough to be on par with the cpu would be either a 1070 or 1080, if you can find one for a good price, and vram isn't really important enough to say wether or not it's overkill, it's just good to consider it future proofing when it comes to texture size
1080p is good enough, 4k is just overhype garbage, personally i'd say invest in high refresh rates instead of 4k
as i previously said, the i7-3770k should be the latest and greatest cpu for your socket, and since you're already on 3rd gen you likely can just do an in-place upgrade and be fine

 

[Kwyjor]

What are your thoughts?

In the end, you just have to ask yourself: is there something you want to do with your computer that you can't do already?

I need to upgrade from Windows 7 one of these days, so an upgrade doesn't make too much sense for me.

 

[Deleted User]

In the end, you just have to ask yourself: is there something you want to do with your computer that you can't do already?

I need to upgrade from Windows 7 one of these days, so an upgrade doesn't make too much sense for me.

he has a gtx 660 ti, there's probably a lot he wants to do that he can't do

 

[MushGuy]

no, likely it won't come with good thermal paste, so look into arctic silver 5 or something, as for graphics card, something good enough to be on par with the cpu would be either a 1070 or 1080, if you can find one for a good price, and vram isn't really important enough to say wether or not it's overkill, it's just good to consider it future proofing when it comes to texture size
1080p is good enough, 4k is just overhype garbage, personally i'd say invest in high refresh rates instead of 4k
as i previously said, the i7-3770k should be the latest and greatest cpu for your socket, and since you're already on 3rd gen you likely can just do an in-place upgrade and be fine

OK, got it. Now, assuming that 1080 is better than 1070, what's the different between the regular GTX 1080, the Ti, FE, and Ti FE?

 

[Deleted User]

OK, got it. Now, assuming that 1080 is better than 1070, what's the different between the regular GTX 1080, the Ti, FE, and Ti non-FE?

the 1080 ti is a step above the base 1080, it has higher clock speeds, more cuda cores and more vram, it's actually one of the best graphics cards of all time, and nvidia made a mistake releasing it as it was
founder's edition is just the reference edition of a card, typically the worst variant, look into another brand, and avoid asus

 

[Deleted User]

I would ditch the old system and upgrade (it‘s too outdated in my opinion). I agree the 4k is overhyped BUT I won‘t recommend gaming in 1080p either - 2k (1440p) is the sweetspot.

Investment in literally outdated hardware (cpu/ram/gpu) is not a good idea. If you are not going to overclock you can save quite some bucks and get the latest portfolio. If you stick with intel I would also consider getting an cheap i3 and maybe replace that later (they are really close to the top in pretty much alle of the games). RAM wise get 3200 or 3600 DDR4 and as a GPU a rtx 2070 super (they are really cheap) or a XT). Your PSU with 650W is (more than) sufficient.

 

[Deleted User]

you can save quite some bucks and get the latest portfolio.

eh, i can contest against that. i upgraded from an i7-4790k to a ryzen 5 3600, and the price of the ram, cpu and motherboard combined was like $800
but i am stupid and the motherboard was the only part that wasn't a midrange temporary part

 

[MushGuy]

OK, so avoid Founder's Edition and Asus. Got it. Now, from the products that are listed here, what are your thoughts on this graphics card? I see that it has the highest boost clock available, and with a water cooling system, or does it really not matter? If not, what do you think is the best pick?

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

OK, so avoid Founder's Edition and Asus. Got it.

I avoid Asus like the plague, dealing with them for RMAs and the like have always been a fucking nightmare.

MSI and Gigabyte have been "ok" to deal with thus far. EVGA is hands down the best to deal with. When you consider all a different brands offer is customer service and support (performance differences are kinda none existent when both parts are same line) I've found it best to stick with brands that wont be a nightmare to deal with *should* something go wrong.

 

[Deleted User]

OK, so avoid Founder's Edition and Asus. Got it. Now, what are your thoughts on this graphics card? I see that it has the highest boost clock available, and with a water cooling system, or does it really not matter?

considerably overpriced, if you're gonna go with something like a 1080 ti then go used, you can find one for like $400-$500, at a price of $1100 it's better to just go 2 steps up and get a 3080 instead

 

[MushGuy]

considerably overpriced, if you're gonna go with something like a 1080 ti then go used, you can find one for like $400-$500, at a price of $1100 it's better to just go 2 steps up and get a 3080 instead

The thing is, the highest I can go with PCI Express 3.0 x16 is the RTX 20 series, especially with the power supply I have. I searched it now on eBay, and it seems there are cheaper choices. Now how do I choose the best card in this category? Or do I just go for the cheapest (this one, for example, and avoiding the brands that you mentioned, of course)?

 

[Deleted User]

The thing is, the highest I can go with PCI Express 3.0 x16 is the RTX 20 series, especially with the power supply I have. I searched it now on eBay, and it seems there are cheaper choices. Now how do I choose the best card in this category? Or do I just go for the cheapest (this one, for example, and avoiding the brands that you mentioned, of course)?

Your PSU is sufficient including rtx 3070 (even without undervolting).

 

[MushGuy]

Your PSU is sufficient including rtx 3070 (even without undervolting).

Even if my PCIe is 3.0 x16, even though it's made for 4.0? That's my biggest question, because of the bottleneck that may occur.