I’m currently running the following:
Gigabyte B550 UC AC-Y1 motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
AMD Radeon RX 6600
32GB Ram
500GB SSD + 1TB SSD
PSU 600W
Outside of wow, I do photography. So I use photoshop, lightroom, and various other photo editing programs also that are graphics and ram intensive. If money was no issue, what is the first two things you’d upgrade to? If you had a budget of $1000 for upgrades, what would you choose?
Monitor is a HP 25f set to 1920 x 1080 due to editing for photo competitions. Refresh rate is set at 59.94hz with the ability to go up to 75 hz. WOW is really the only game I play outside of the photo programs above (plus evoto). Power supply looks to be EVGA 600W. Right now I’m averaging about 58 fps on wow.
Monitor is still good, and would probably be last on my list since I bought it specifically for photo editing.
I was thinking probably GPU and possibly power supply. But am really debating if starting to upgrade with the mobo first would be worth it since I’d be able to upgrade from there with newer items as they come out too.
so EVGA had several 600w units
600b & 600w from HEC and the 600wBQ from andyson
HEC has certainly done better in production lately but not when those units were made. Andyson is pretty mediocre as well. These are OEMS you go to knowing cost cutting will be done that will impact performance. The 600w probably the cheapest of the three, the BQ was…OK and the better of the three with a FDB fan (although noisy) and 105c rated main cap.
1920x1080 is hardly demanding and you already get close to 60fps. Something like the RTX 4060 will get you to 75fps in WoW easy but really not worth that investment for just 15 fps. Cards like the RTX4060ti or RX 6800 would be nice upgrades from the RX 6600 but your 1)monitor refresh rate would limit their full potential 2) your CPU would start to limit their full potential 3) you can run the RX4060ti off the evga BQ 600 but the RX 6800 would really push that PSU and it could get noisy (probably will) . I would not run either GPU on the other two units especially the “W”.
If it was me (take or it leave it) with a 1k budget
1-solid PSU
2 - GPU (RTX 4060ti or 7700XT)
3 - Monitor (I know you want to skip that part but it really will give your GPU upgrade room to stretch its legs)
4- look for a used 5700X3D or 5800X3D
without the budget
5700X3D & 5800X3D are great gaming CPUs even today and will run WoW and most other games extremely well with a mid level GPU…probably I would sacrifice some CPU performance now and get a 7600x (still a very good gaming CPU) with a new platform that AMD will support with new CPUs for at least another two years giving me more of a upgrade path down the road
hope this helps you a bit to make your decision, end of the day get the performance you want that puts smile on your face otherwise what’s the point of getting hardware
Thank you! That does help. I’m thinking I’ll likely go the no budget route and get what I was thinking. It’s easy enough to build gaming computers for me. While I wasn’t wanting to upgrade the monitor I may look at the higher quality photo editing ones which wouldn’t be a bad thing. The PSU, I was figuring I’d likely need to upgrade since it’s only 600W anyways. And wasn’t exactly the best one then.
From what you’ve said, a 750 or 850 W PSU (although this might not be necessary depending on what GPU you go for)+5700x3d, with as much of the rest put towards getting as beefy a GPU as you think you need within budget sounds like the play.
Although, you can probably fit up to a 4070 Super with a 5700x3d and still be fine on the 600 W PSU from a capacity perspective. But the market’s gone crazy with the shortages and the 50 series launch, so the days of $550 4070s appear to be gone for a while.
600w, 750w, and 850w are all more marketing numbers and fail to tell the ability of a PSU without temp rating and proper 3rd party testing. For example if I recall correctly that EVGA 600"W" is only rated for 25c (30c tops) while the 600 BQ is surprisingly rated at 40c. A quality 650w unit like the corsair RMx line is rated to 50c. What does that mean? Well inside your PC temps can easily hit 45c+ so that 600w 25c rated will not be able to perform under spec in those conditions. Once pushed to high power demands it will either fail to deliver power and/or go out of spec. The 40c will perform better but may have similar issues once you push it even further near its limit. The 50c rated (and tested) unit will hit 650w power delivery no problem under those conditions while still remaining in spec.
So in reality that 600w is more like a mediocre 500w unit. Same can be said to generically state get a 750w, 850w, 1000w, etc., unit. What often ends up happening is someone says get that quality 650w for $100 (an example) while the shopper sees a 800w unit for $75 and says to themselves why spend $100 for 650w when I can get 150w for more for $25 less? That’s a no brainer. Well that 800w is rated for 30c and basically acts like a mediocre 700w unit while 650w is built like a tank, doesn’t sweat in hot temps, and will handle any transient spike your mid level GPU will toss at it while remaining under spec and keeping your hardware in proper working condition without damaging it.
So get the PSU that has the proper connectors your system needs, handles all your current hardware and down the road upgrades, and will properly perform under difficult conditions for your system (and future ones) time line and passed “proper” 3rd party testing.
Is that a 650w, 750w, 1000w+ unit? I can’t tell you that and neither can anyone else without the user doing home work on their end to a degree. What parts do I plan to have now and down the road and what are their power demands. Getting a $250 1000w unit is waste of money if you only need 375w tops. A 650w for $100 will handle that and you could have upgraded the CPU, GPU, etc., for better performance. Getting a $100 650w when you will need 600w 12 pin connector for a flagship GPU in two years is also a waste of money since now you are going to have to spend another $200 for a quality 1000w PSU.
*prices are an example
or a much bigger upgrade for you would be
If I can sneak in a random PSU question here, I’m thinking about how much headroom should generally be wanted when deciding on a PSU.
As an example, consider a system’s estimated wattage requirement being approximately upwards of 650 - 700 W under load
I’ll answer your question with information as there is a basic idea but it falls on the individual and their set up
For example when I was posting on JG we always had people coming on asking “what PSU do I need for my setup” with most posters stating 450w-550w as the OP was often around 300w tops while gaming. The OP would come back shocked stating that on other web sites people would recommend at 750w units. JG was full of PSU enthusiasts so they understood having more power does not mean your PC hardware runs more powerful. The PSU puts out 300w if that is what your system needs regardless if the PSU is 450w or 750w,
Remember brands put warranties on quality PSU that cover them for 24/7 full power demands. Take into account the ATX spec of your PSU and your GPU and possible GPU spikes. ATX 3.x units are required to have better tolerance for high power spikes, reaching up to 200% of the PSU’s rated power for 100 microseconds at 10%(i believe) duty cycle using the 12pin. They are also under spec to handle transient loads and drops better. It’s not that various ATX 2.x units didn’t handle these situations well it’s just now Intel has it under spec.
Also take in consideration your fan profile if noise is an issue to you. If the fan settings is aggressive at 60% power demand and your PC demands 650w on a 1000w unit, the noise may be an issue to you while other people are fine with it. Some units have a semi-passive fan profile and some units the fan does not start to spin fast until 75-80% power draw. Also starting and stopping of the fan is not good for it’s lifespan so if you have a 1000w unit while pulling around 500w and the fan constantly starts and stops, you are probably better off turning off the semi-passive fan setting assuming you have long gaming sessions.
So if you spike to 650w-750w gaming, a solid ATX 3.x unit at 850w-1000w will handle that no problem. You are constantly pulling 650w-750w, probably want to look at 1000w-1200w units. If your unit is pre-ATX 3.x it will still handle modern GPUs but you probably want to do a little research into the GPU’s spike and reviews of your PSU and if it has a sensitive OCP setting.
So all that info I just posted really comes down to…what’s your exact hardware and what’s your exact PSU? Otherwise it’s a guess estimate like I did above assuming you have a solid PSU.
BTW, I thought you have a 9800X3D & 7800XT, you should be well under 650w. Gaming that’s around 400w with spikes up to 550w.
Thank you for all that, but I’m really looking for a much simpler, dumbed down answer – just a general standard for PSU shopping; i.e., how much headroom above the basic wattage requirement under load should someone go for?
if someone did their homework on their current (and down the road) power demands and quality PSU units, pulling 60% of the units power on avg is hardly pushing the unit. So if you average 350w gaming, a 650w unit is more than enough. Now sometimes the 750w version of that exact same series is just $5-10 more so people want to the 750w “just in case” and that’s fine.
Power supplies are kind of Lilybugg’s Jam.
Just like processors and RAM are kind of mine. So I think we both kind of Default to longer answers the needed when talking about these two subjects
100%, you want people to make the right decision for their specific needs. Look I can just say go get a 1000w unit from the same brand I own. Will it work in most cases? probably. I am really helping that person or just acting as an unpaid salesman for a brand I just happened to have at the time in on one of my PCs?
I love and appreciate the longer answers and have gone out of my way on multiple occasions to show appreciation for those who give them. Obviously not something I have a problem with. That said, sometimes it’s just more useful to have a simplified approach to things.
It’s sometimes hard to do and that’s why you see on my post in this section more often than not that it’s been edited 4 or 5x.
I do my best to give the right information so you can make an informed decision. But I also try to give the reasons behind that information.
So that way not only can you make an informed decision you can sit there and say or due to _______ and _______ that’s why they are recommending it.
Where there are some people who was simply recommended an Intel or AMD product to you or in the case of power supplies will recommend a certain brand simply because they are a “Fanboy” of said brand.
Neither me or Lilybug is like that. So we kind of do our best to give a longer answer than needed so not only can we make a recommendation you know why we are making that exact recommendation.
Get me?
No one more than I in this forum has expressed appreciation for you and Lily for the verbosity of the input you share.
In factoring in all individual components of my entire system and allowing for increased power draw of some oc’d hardware, I should be approximately upwards of 650 - 700 W on heavy loads, at least according to my earlier research on it.
Fully agree.
Well thanks for that.
In my experience the problem with PSU’s is there really isnt a short simple answer. There is si much you have to factor in when recommending one. You follow? You kind of need to know the persons FULL BUILD and what they are doing with that build. Someone with a top of the Line Asus ROG APEX Motherboard who wants to start dabbling in OC is obviously going to get recommended a Platinum Rated PSU with a higher wattage than someone on an MSI Tomahawk who plans to just put the parts in the rig and forget it and have fun in Games.
When it comes to PSU’s and the circuitry and complex ins and outs of the PSU? Thats is really not my specialty. I have limited knowledge on the subject. That is more Lilybug’s area. Im more Motherboards, RAM and CPUs.
The PSU wasn’t the greatest when I built this one. I just for the life of can’t remember which EVGA it was. That one was likely going to get replaced no matter what with a better one. I can’t remember why I ended up going this route, other than it was a covid build when things were hard to get.