Post by NecroWolf on Mar 8, 2023 15:12:40 GMT -5
Well, I finally bit the bullet and decided it was time to rebuild my PC. I use it for work and to play games and the system had not been updated for 3 years. I drove 2 hours to the closest MicroCenter because, well because it's MicroCenter.
I planned well and put a lot of research into every purchase. I decided to stick with the same motherboard because although there are newer motherboards with AM4 architecture none of them is really a massive upgrade to what I have now and I'm not ready to plunge into the new AM5 setups (Ryzen 7000s). I started with the Ryzen 5 5600X to replace my 2600X. It's about 20 percent faster and a couple of generations newer. I won't get PCIe gen 4 because the motherboard doesn't support it but I can change the motherboard at a later time. I also doubled my RAM with G.skill, the same I had timing-wise and everything, just bigger chips. I noticed Fortnite was using almost all of my 16GB so upgraded to 32 GB.
Believe it or not my monitors were over a decade old so I got two new Acer 24" ones and I must say I am so glad I did. They are much clearer with better-looking color and at less than $80 each I was very impressed. I also got a VESA mount to mount them on. They were also much thinner than the ones they replaced so that says something about newer technology.
I also got a new NVME, I went with a new Samsung 1TB doubling my NVME boot drive size. It replaces an Inland Premium which is still a good NVME, I just got a case for it and converted it to a USB thumb drive. Other than being larger I have not noticed much speed difference or anything like that. I did have to install Samsung's drivers to get it to work as fast as it is now though.
The main upgrade I really wanted was a newer GPU. I went with a used EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 and I was worried I made a mistake but come to find out it's faster than the newer RTX 2070 and RTX 3060. It's also faster than a lot of cards on the shelf right now. Not the beast ones of course like the 3090 or 4090 but it's a great card and it replaced an AMD RX 580 and in my testing, I now get three times the frame rate or more. This is all at 1080p for me that's just fine.
All in all, I must say I am pleased with the upgrades. It did cost me $800-900 in all but I sold some of the old parts and got about $150 back. I am set for a couple of years until the next time I get itching for newer stuff.
I planned well and put a lot of research into every purchase. I decided to stick with the same motherboard because although there are newer motherboards with AM4 architecture none of them is really a massive upgrade to what I have now and I'm not ready to plunge into the new AM5 setups (Ryzen 7000s). I started with the Ryzen 5 5600X to replace my 2600X. It's about 20 percent faster and a couple of generations newer. I won't get PCIe gen 4 because the motherboard doesn't support it but I can change the motherboard at a later time. I also doubled my RAM with G.skill, the same I had timing-wise and everything, just bigger chips. I noticed Fortnite was using almost all of my 16GB so upgraded to 32 GB.
Believe it or not my monitors were over a decade old so I got two new Acer 24" ones and I must say I am so glad I did. They are much clearer with better-looking color and at less than $80 each I was very impressed. I also got a VESA mount to mount them on. They were also much thinner than the ones they replaced so that says something about newer technology.
I also got a new NVME, I went with a new Samsung 1TB doubling my NVME boot drive size. It replaces an Inland Premium which is still a good NVME, I just got a case for it and converted it to a USB thumb drive. Other than being larger I have not noticed much speed difference or anything like that. I did have to install Samsung's drivers to get it to work as fast as it is now though.
The main upgrade I really wanted was a newer GPU. I went with a used EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 and I was worried I made a mistake but come to find out it's faster than the newer RTX 2070 and RTX 3060. It's also faster than a lot of cards on the shelf right now. Not the beast ones of course like the 3090 or 4090 but it's a great card and it replaced an AMD RX 580 and in my testing, I now get three times the frame rate or more. This is all at 1080p for me that's just fine.
All in all, I must say I am pleased with the upgrades. It did cost me $800-900 in all but I sold some of the old parts and got about $150 back. I am set for a couple of years until the next time I get itching for newer stuff.