New Computer Build

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
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Hello! (Sorry for the long post! TLDR: Should I look into building a new PC?)

I wanted to come to the forums to see if I could get any feedback on whether or not I should go ahead and look at getting a new PC or maybe mine just needs some upgrades? I purchased my first “real” pc a couple of years ago, and it wasn’t very expensive (maybe $600?). It has served me well, but it doesn’t seem quite as good as it used to. Load times are getting a lot longer, it freezes occasionally so I have to restart… Maybe this is just a product of pc age, and I’m just not that knowledgeable. I downloaded the newest Star Wars game this last weekend, and it’s really quite laggy, even after lowering the settings.

I’ve been looking into whether or not I should upgrade my current PC, or I’ve been interested in testing my hand at building one myself! I’ve heard there’s a lot of pros with building your own, and I’ve been trying to learn more about PC’s in general.

Here’s my current build (I used Speccy to find this information quickly. Not sure if that’s reliable?)
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 16GB (I put an extra 8gb in not too long ago)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 (Socket M2)
Graphics: 2048MB ATI AMD Radeon RX 560 Series (XFX Pine Group)
Storage: 931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 ATA Device (SATA)
Let me know if I’m missing any important details.

My ultimate goals with my PC:

  • To be able to play, largely, any game without issues. (IE - avoiding the issues I’m having with the SW Game… didn’t even think it was a very spec heavy game!).

  • I’d preferably like to utilize high settings as well. I currently play with low-mid lvl settings on WoW for instance.

  • Interested in playing around with a VR set as well. So, being able to handle that would be great too!

I’m not sure if my PC is basically to “old” or “cheap” to achieve these goals and my best bet is just to start fresh? Or maybe a couple of upgrades will get me where I need?

I appreciate any help! Apologies for the long post, but I figured I’d reach out to some pros before making any decisions!

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Your issue is probably both age and a cheaper system to start with. What sort of budget do you have if you were to buy a new one?

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That’s where I’ve been unsure. I don’t want to drop heavy $$ if my pc is basically fine and just needs some tweaks. But, by the same token, if I’d be better off spending the money on a new pc anyway, I’d rather spend the $$ there.

Could spending $1000-$1500 be enough to realistically hit my PC goals? That’s basically what I’ve been looking at right now. I feel like it is, but I don’t have much to compare it to as I’ve never had anything better than what I have now lol.

Thanks for your help!

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Unfortunately, FX was already outdated when it launched.

You’ll find an ENORMOUS upgrade going from that FX-6300 to something modern like a Ryzen 5 3600.

For $1000, assuming USD, you can get:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JCNLgJ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($166.89 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($112.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming D OC Video Card ($383.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman S2 ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $987.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-09 09:58 EDT-0400

PSU’s are a bit pricey right now due to many reasons, but overall this system will play almost any game at 1080p/144 or 1440p/60 easily.

CPU benchmark comparison, about twice as fast single threaded and almost 4x as fast in multi-threaded applications:
http://hwbench.com/cpus/amd-fx-6300-vs-amd-ryzen-5-3600

GPU benchmark comparisons, the 5700 XT is twice as fast as the RX 570, which is about twice as fast as the RX 560. So roughly 4x performance.
http://hwbench.com/vgas/radeon-rx-5700-xt-vs-radeon-rx-570

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That’s a really awesome website you used to build all of that! Thank you so much for all of that information!

I’ve read there can be some diminishing returns as you start increasing in price (I doubt I’m at that price point anyway though). Do you think there’d be any noticeable difference in something you built here vs. something at $1300 (USD) for instance? Or any particular “pieces” that would be worth the extra money spent on? That it may either increase performance or longevity even?

Thanks a ton for putting all of that together!

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Well, there’s also your display. What are you using? If you are using a 1080p/60 display, I would upgrade that before going any farther in “upgrades”.

CPU: The 3600 will play any game well. It’s not really perceptibly any slower than the other CPUs with more cores. You could spend significantly more on an Intel CPU, but I think this closes in on the “diminishing returns” you’re talking about. An Intel CPU will have better average FPS at 1080p, and better minimums (not by much) at most resolutions. At GPU limited scenarios, you won’t notice any difference. In WoW, the Intel systems might be slightly faster at minimums while raiding, but I do not believe it is really that significant. Other AMD CPUs with 8 and 12 cores+ aren’t going to really impact gaming.

Motherboard: Spending more on a motherboard will get you more robust power delivery, more features, and usually better BIOS experience. Robust power delivery doesn’t matter that much past a certain point unless you’re going to be overclocking a lot or using one of the 12 or 16 core chips. For the purposes of the B450 Tomahawk MAX, it’s enough to power even a 12 core 3900x with some overclocking. Some of the features you get from a more expensive board you may never use, like PCIE4.0 or a bunch of m.2 slots.

RAM: Faster and lower latency RAM yields better results. But, 3200 CL16 is fine, 3600 CL16 is better, and after that you have hit the wall of “diminishing returns” by virtue of just how expensive fast RAM is. It’s also more difficult for B450 boards to hit 3600, which is why I listed 3200.

GPU: 5700XT is the most reasonable GPU to buy right now in most scenarios. It’s competent at 1080p high refresh and 1440p/60, and even some light 4k. For example, it could power this game at 4k/60 without any problems whatsoever. Spending more here won’t matter if your display can’t take advantage of it, so this is why I asked what display you have. The only things after this are the 2070 Super at $499, which is at most ~10% faster, but also comes with RTX and NVENC if you stream. Otherwise, you’re looking at huge jumps like 2080 super at $700, or the 2080 ti at $1100, which are both overkill for this game and won’t push you over any big milestones the 5700 xt won’t, except 1440p high refresh and 4k gaming. Again, if your display isn’t a high refresh 1440p display or 4k, it’s wasted.

Storage: The Intel 660p is a great NVME boot drive and also fast gaming drive. It uses both DRAM and SLC cache to boost the performance of it’s majority QLC memory (slower, more dense), and has great software to control it. You could spend more here on a faster NVME drive like a Samsung 970 EVO PRO, but in most scenarios you won’t notice the difference. While the QLC storage from the 660p has less write endurance, we are talking about still writing its full capacity 200 times over. Which, even at installing a largish 100gb game a day (which you aren’t), would take you 2000 days. Besides, it has a 5 year warranty. A more expensive or faster NVME is definitely “diminishing returns” for most users.

Case: This is largely personal preference. I chose this one because it’s inexpensive and doesn’t appear to have poor case flow.

Power supply: This is an important one, but it’s a rough spot right now. Either due to covid19 or other trade issues, PSU prices are way high. You could spend more on a better quality unit, but the reality is you’ll never need more than say 500w for any modern single GPU system. I chose the one you chose here because it’s decent and wasn’t too expensive. You’re largely paying for the quality and warranty, not wattage. As far as this goes, as long as it has adequate protections, has the necessary power throughput, and has good cable management, anything more than you need is “diminishing returns”.

Hope this helps.

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I see! Yes, my monitors probably need upgrades. I should have listed those, and now that I’m at work, I don’t really know what I have specifically. 2 different ones actually and I believe one of them was pretty cheap. One is an acer and one is a BenQ (I believe it’s called). So, they’re likely due for upgrades. What should I be looking for in monitor specs, if you don’t mind typing for me one more time lol?

I don’t think I really do much intense gaming. Play some WoW, League, download the occasional random/new game. No streaming or anything. I wanted to play around with a VR set, so I was looking for one that could support that too.

Seeing that I can build a pc for my needs for roughly $1k (+ monitor upgrades) is really awesome! Figured it would cost well over $1500, but I’ve heard that is a pro with building your own. Excited to build my own PC, so I appreciate all of this information!

PS- If you don’t mind one more question, how long should I realistically expect a PC to last? For instance, the one you built above, could I expect more than 2 years of good life out of it? My current one runs ok, but my WoW load times have gotten pretty long at times, lagging at low graphics on newer games, even freezing up. Just curious what’s realistic in a PC.

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As for displays, well, it depends on your preferences. Some people care more about framerate than resolution, and the opposite. Then there’s size, and then there’s display types (IPS, TN, VA). IPS has the best visual quality, but tends to be more expensive and slower response time. TN has the worst color/viewing angles, but has the fastest response time and is less expensive. VA is kind of an in between, but in my personal experience I’ve never used a VA panel I liked. Generally, most gamers would be well served by a 1080p/144hz or 1440/144hz display. The 1080p will be easier to drive for most games, and will last you “longer” in that your GPUs will be able to power it longer. A 1440p/144hz display can still run at 1080p, but due to non-native resolution, will look a bit weird.

How long will this PC last? Well, that’s tough to say, and it depends on what you mean, as well as the fact nobody can read the future. We’re on the cusp of new GPU tech, and soonish we will have new CPU’s from AMD. New consoles are coming which are supposedly 8/16 Ryzen 3000-series, and contain Navi RDNA2 (second generation technology that the 5700 XT uses), as well as some proprietary SSD functionality that could greatly impact gaming.

AMD promises you can upgrade to a 4000 series on the B450 motherboards (for now, anyway), and it’s possible if in the future more cores are needed, you can upgrade to something there. As far as the SSD debacle, I’m confident that even if the new consoles have some killer SSD tech/software, i can’t say that most developers will learn to saturate that until well until the later days of the console’s life. At the very least gaming developers who are developing games aimed at multi-platforms will deliberately design their games to not alienate a demographic of their playerbase.

So, I’d say that PC i linked is good for at least 3-4 years. Probably more. But, no guarantees.

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Another thing with screens, unless you’re extending your game across multiple screens you only need 1 ‘good’ gaming screen and can use a cheaper/older screen for your second.

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To piggyback off of this, I am using an AOC AG241QX 24" 1440p/144hz display for my center primary display, and am using 2x24" ACER K242HYL’s on either side. These are pretty much dirt cheap 1080p/60 VA panels but perfect for those uses. The left is plugged into both my PC and my work laptop w/keyboard and mouse, and my right is plugged into my PC. Center for gaming, right for videos/forums. Left for work or other random stuff on the weekends.

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Thanks a ton! I was literally hopping on here to ask if it would affect anything by using one good monitor for my gaming and just use one of my current monitors for my 2nd monitor, which I only really use to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc…

Looks like my current monitor setup is…

Primary: Acer - XF251Q 24.5" LED FHD FreeSync Monitor
Secondary: BenQ GL2460

So, it sounds like I may want to look into something with a little bit higher on the refresh rate? as you mentioend above, 144hz? For the primary screen.

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so a few things to consider - sometimes having different resolutions is “weird” to work with since one screen has more actual real estate than the other. 1440p is about 77% more actual pixels, and it means the upper middle of the edge of your 1440p display will be at the top edge of your other display when you move your mouse over (assuming same size displays)

You’ll also want to consider the different scaling to compensate.

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You’ll notice more with a higher resolution and size, something like a 1440p (2k) and 27" than a really high refresh rate. For most people anything over 60hz in wow looks great, it’s not a game that has you spinning camera wildly like an fps where refresh rate is a lot more noticeable

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I’d argue it depends. Once you’re used to it, anything below 85ish fps starts to feel sluggish and gives me a headache :frowning:

yes, i know that sounds a bit snobbish but here we are

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It always depends on the person but it’s uncommon for the average person to notice a real difference over 60hz. Yes there are people that can but generally that’s because they’re flicking camera angles quickly and looking how smooth the scene is rendered.

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For me, 80-85 is the minimum for a smooth experience in most games. 60hz feels like a slideshow.

That said, I do often hold left click when I play and rotate my camera around constantly, and use hold right click to move. It’s kind of a situational awareness thing.

From 60 to 85fps is a huge perceivable jump for me; beyond that it’s not that perceptible.

Humans can see well past 60fps, just not everywhere at once. We can detect very high motion in focus, but the game doesn’t know where we’re looking, and it doesn’t render different parts of the game at different rates, so it’s all or nothing.

Most of the frames aren’t seen, but when we are looking for it, we will see it.

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WoW is different, but hop onto Overwatch and it will immediately become apparent. Also high refresh rate has become much more affordable, wouldn’t build a gaming PC today without a high refresh rate gsync compatible monitor.

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Yes I did in fact say this a few comments up.
You’re not generally flicking your camera around in wow (maybe in some furious pvp you might) like you do in an fps.
Don’t get me wrong, I love high frames rates and have a 166hz screen. I’m just saying that if you don’t have the money you can get more benefit from hither resolution over refresh past 60hz

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A few years ago I would agree with you, but considering how even Nvidia is supporting freesync now and there’s some okay options at lower price points. It’s a good time to get a high refresh rate monitor with freesync.