I want new hardware

[Cov]

Hi,

I'm using the following hardware:

CPU: i5 3570K (IGP: HD 4000)
MB: Intel DH77DF (Mini iTX)
RAM: G.Skill DDR3 2x 8GB
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 250GB


Although it works fine, I really want up-to-date hardware ...

CPU: i5 8600K (IGP: UHD 630) = 214.55 Euro
MB: Asus Z370-I Gaming (Mini iTX) = 184.85 Euro
RAM: G.Skill DDR4 2x 16GB = more than 300.- Euro
SSD: Samsung 960 Pro M.2 NVMe 512 GB = 267.04 Euro

CPU cooler: Silverstone Argon AR07 V2 = 37.95 Euro
or Arctic Freezer 33 Plus = 32.34 Euro


Here is a comparison between the old and the new CPU:



And here a comparison between the old and the new IGP:



The prices for RAM are still crazy. 
I could get 2x 8GB instead of 2x 16GB and I could use my old SATA SSD instead of getting an NVMe one.
And of course use my old PC case, PSU, Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse.

The new CPU, MB and RAM would cost at least 550.- Euro, that's the bare minimum I would have to spend.
Just still in the process of making my mind up whether to get 16 or 32GB RAM and to get the M.2 SSD or not.

Would you like to upgrade your hardware too?

[Kingfish]

With 550 Euro's I know I could grab a used workstation with dual quad or greater cpu's and two reasonable graphics cards with at least 24gb of memory and likely a decent monitor.

[Cov]

... and two reasonable graphics cards ...

Hm, what would a "reasonable" graphics card be, a GTX 1050 (2GB)? 
People always say to rather get one good one instead of two not-as-good cards for SLI.

For 339.- Euro I currently would get an EVGA GTX 1060 SC (6GB) and could use it with my old hardware.
However, I have decided against any external graphics card and get up-to-date CPU / MB / RAM instead.

[Mr.Masami]

Never go under xx60 on nvidia cards if your budget allows it, they are cut on power too much.

Here's a synthetic comparison of 1060 6GB vs 1060 3GB vs 1050 2GB:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compa...5B%5D=3566

Even 7 series is faster(in synthetic test) than this eco-driven card:

1050 2GB vs 760 4GB

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compa...5B%5D=2561

Real life performance:

760 2GB vs 1050 2GB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6Wvx3HY18

1060 3GB vs 1050 Ti 4GB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqSV2cE4TT8

And yes, it's better to have one good, especially that you can not bind them together via SLI, I think this feature is available only from 1070 up when comes to 10xx series.

For 339.- Euro I currently would get an EVGA GTX 1060 SC (6GB) and could use it with my old hardware.
However, I have decided against any external graphics card and get up-to-date CPU / MB / RAM instead.

It depends on what you do on your PC, if you plan to play new games then the new GPU will give you more FPS in games than replacing any of the other components but they will also bottleneck the performance of your GPU.

Ideally you should balance the performance/price ratio, it takes time as you need to check benchmarks and be sure hardware is compatible.
Just don't overpay for the version number, higher does not always equal better as you may go lower on CPU/GPU/RAM whatever model that differs only slightly with speed but you can put this money somewhere else where you can gain a lot more.

Hope you understand my broken English rumbling.

With 550 Euro's I know I could grab a used workstation with dual quad or greater cpu's and two reasonable graphics cards with at least 24gb of memory and likely a decent monitor.

It's a good advice for video rendering or something like that, but for a simple user the power will be not used by many apps due to single threaded programs and games that are not compatible with SLI.
It would be easier to navigate our friend to a good build path if he told us whats the goal for this build is.

Same with the SSD, if you are planning lot of work on it or torrenting, be sure to choose the right technology like MLC, it is slower (but still very fast) than TLC based disks but has much higher durability.

I love Intel CPU's but in this price range they suck compared to AMD, again - compare, compare, compare.

Synthetic test:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php...cmp[]=3100

DDR4 is a waste of money, not only it cost more but the mainboard and CPU is also higher in price, what you get for that ? practically nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF7NUBX5HI

Last time I built a PC for my friend was about a year ago and he can still play all games in "Ultra" with high FPS.
It cost around ~760 euro without the monitor, keyboard and mouse.

I don't remember exact specs right now but if I remember good it had 1060 6GB from Gigabyte, AMD FX-8350 4.00GHz (4.2 in Turbo) 8MB Black Edition, Crucial 8GB 1600MHz Ballistix Sport CL9
Small amount of RAM that can be easily upgraded later but didn't bottleneck in any games due to 6GB on the GFX card.
Also didn't bother with dual 4GB modules(same price as 1x8GB) as the dual channel mode will give you like 1FPS in games, not a good deal for occupying one slot more, again - the goal of the built was games, if it was for some computing that relies heavily on memory bandwidth then it would be a whole another story.

The built would be probably different today as prices changes and new models come along.
We didn't wasted money on SSD because it was build with games in mind, and SSD don't give ANY FPS gain, games will load faster, system and apps too, but that's it. After it loads to RAM, it doesn't really matter.
So it was better to spend that money on better GPU or whatever and we couldn't pass the 760 euro so that was a sacrifice that was needed but it can be easily upgraded later if needed.

This post is probably longer than it should be,  in short: Don't waste money on placebo effect.

[dueda]

If you plan to play something better than GTA V / Witcher III, think carefully and find a store that let customers test the thing first.

Buy a proper GPU or an AMD APU if you can.  Internal graphics: Intel is bad, AMD is good. Dedicated GPU is the best, but SLI is a $$$ niche thing.

If you're going to replace mobo/cpu/ram, get an AMD APU. Intel can't match, unless maybe on the top tier CPU price range... but then, spend it on a GPU.


A good deal on a GPU may come with a bad deal on a new Power Supply and get into fan noise and dust cleaning, but avoids the shared memory bottleneck.

Bought my rig in 2012 and it still run games, even if low graphics quality and some stutering: 
2nd gen. 2.5GHz i5-2450, 8GB DDR3, 60GB SSD, 2GB DDR5 nVidia 540M (low power notebook version).

---

Also these links can help:

Video test: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7b...d_a129800/

Compare tool: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Int...724vsm7752

Hope you find a nice new rig!

[contrail]

I would want to upgrade my GPU, and my RAM to increase my functionality. After that if I am lucky another big HDD or SSD.

[Flavoredia]

Not really worth it.

[dueda]

I would want to upgrade my GPU, and my RAM to increase my functionality. After that if I am lucky another big HDD or SSD.

Not really worth it.

That will depend on what hardware one has now and what they can upgrade to. Top hardware costs a lot, and usually can't be used with older/lower tier parts.

Ex: DDR3 x DDR4 - Older Intel systems can't use DDR4; but a top motherboard and memory (like CAS-9 or 10) is hell better than a "fancy" newer one.

[haanuman]

Hi,

I'm using the following hardware:

CPU: i5 3570K (IGP: HD 4000)
MB: Intel DH77DF (Mini iTX)
RAM: G.Skill DDR3 2x 8GB
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 250GB


Although it works fine, I really want up-to-date hardware ...

CPU: i5 8600K (IGP: UHD 630) = 214.55 Euro
MB: Asus Z370-I Gaming (Mini iTX) = 184.85 Euro
RAM: G.Skill DDR4 2x 16GB = more than 300.- Euro
SSD: Samsung 960 Pro M.2 NVMe 512 GB = 267.04 Euro

CPU cooler: Silverstone Argon AR07 V2 = 37.95 Euro
or Arctic Freezer 33 Plus = 32.34 Euro


Here is a comparison between the old and the new CPU:



And here a comparison between the old and the new IGP:



The prices for RAM are still crazy. 
I could get 2x 8GB instead of 2x 16GB and I could use my old SATA SSD instead of getting an NVMe one.
And of course use my old PC case, PSU, Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse.

The new CPU, MB and RAM would cost at least 550.- Euro, that's the bare minimum I would have to spend.
Just still in the process of making my mind up whether to get 16 or 32GB RAM and to get the M.2 SSD or not.

Would you like to upgrade your hardware too?

In my opinion your current hardware is still great except the GPU, getting the 1050 ti (6GB) or the GTX 1060 would be perfect for you. Why are you looking for an upgrade except to stay up to date and what would the purpose of the computer be after the upgrade?

[Cov]

In my opinion your current hardware is still great except the GPU, getting the 1050 ti (6GB) or the GTX 1060 would be perfect for you. Why are you looking for an upgrade except to stay up to date and what would the purpose of the computer be after the upgrade?

I think you are absolutely right! I'm still using my old hardware and it does everything what it's supposed to. I like the (single fan) EVGA GTX 1060 6GB for my mini ITX system. However, Nvidia's new generation is coming out soon. Let's see how much more efficient it will be than the current one. Why was I thinking of upgrading? That's a good question actually ... 

• I was wondering, how much faster 6 cores can handle everyday tasks compared to 4 cores
  
• for a mini ITX fan like me, going from 2.5" SSD to M.2 2280 sounds pretty cool - can't make the storage any smaller than that
  
• the new Asus mainboard with lots of new features has a beautiful BIOS, unlike my current one
  

What would be the purpose of my computer after upgrading? The same as before: using the internet, using MS office, video editing, playing games occasionally, reading ebooks, ...