Question Buying friend's i5 7600k GTX 1080 build vs keeping my 3600 GTX 1070 build?

[tim9317]

I just bought the parts for a rig I want to build and the specs are:

Ryzen 5 3600
G. Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8) 288-pin ddr4 3600 ram (dual channel)
Seasonic Focus GX-750 80+ Gold Full Modular PSU
Asus Tuf Gaming x570 Plus (wi-fi) motherboard
Evga GTX 1070 8GB video card (bought used from Ebay, under warrant until December 2020)
Corsair 200R case
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD
Windows 10 Pro OEM

Total build cost = $1245 (taxes + shipping included)

My specs for my friend's build that he is willing to sell to me for $900 are:

i5 7600K
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 2400
EVGA 850W Bronze Rated Modular PSU
MSI Pro Series Z270 SLI Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080
Corsair Air Flow 540 Carbon Black Case
Corsair H100i liquid cooler
Western Digital Black Gaming 500GB NVME M.2 SSD
Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm HDD
Windows 10 Pro
Logitech G602 wireless gaming mouse
IBuyPower gaming wired keyboard


My friend's build seems like a good deal and I am seriously considering buy his rig but I have some concerns. I don't like that his 7600K cpu only has 4 cores and I know it is fast enough to run most current games fine I will run into trouble if games use more than 4 cores and it seems like games will start regularly using more than 4 cores in the next year or two. From what I understand, this 2400MHz ram is fine for Intel cpus but I know it won't be fast enough for a decent Ryzen cpu if I decide to upgrade in a few years to a Ryzen cpu. I also don't like that he only went with a Bronze rate PSU instead of a Gold but that probably is not a huge issue. It is tough, because if I bought my friend's rig and upgraded it in 3-4 years, I would have to spend $350-400 to upgrade the CPU and motherboard and possibly another $100 if I upgrade the ram. So, in 3-4 years, it would be a $500 upgrade. I don't know if the 1080 card will still be okay to play games on medium to high settings at that point? I do think that my friend's rig has a great case, I like the liquid cooling, the 1080 card, the M.2 storage and the included gaming keyboard and mouse.

With my Ryzen 3600 build that I current have the parts for, I could probably upgrade to a decent mid-range Ryzen 4000 series cpu for $200 and then buy a decent used Nvidia card for $200 for a total upgrade cost of $400. I know my PSU is top notch and I won't have to upgrade that.

I will also say that I am a pretty casual gamer and am just getting into PC gaming. I don't know exactly which games I will be playing but I will be playing many different types of games.



What would you do, buy my friend's rig for $900 or keep what I have that I paid $1,245 for?

 

[daveybrat]

There's no way i'd buy his rig. Stick with the Ryzen as games are starting to use more cores/threads. That Ryzen 3600 will last you for a while and is still upgradable. Buying his system is a dead end.

 

[tim9317]

There's no way i'd buy his rig. Stick with the Ryzen as games are starting to use more cores/threads. That Ryzen 3600 will last you for a while and is still upgradable. Buying his system is a dead end.

If I do stick with my build, would you recommend me keeping the Ryzen 3600 or instead getting the Ryzen 3700X for the extra 2 cores. I know the extra 2 cores will benefit future games but I don't like the fact that the 3700X is an extra $130. I feel like I could upgrade to a mid range 8 core 4000 series AMD CPU in 2 years for probably $200 and that might be better.

 

[daveybrat]

Just keep the 3600 unless you plan on doing some heavier tasks like 4K video editing or something.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I agree with the above, used machines price seems sort of high but I get pricing has been weird due to AMD not being much to the table pre-Ryzen and nvidia just owning graphics.
I’m looking at it like it’s 4 plus year old equipment. Yeah the 1080 will be better for now but I suspect both won’t be so great in a couple of years. Also 4 year old card has a high chance of failing.
Current AMD system may be a little less powerful and you may end up with a card that’s less powerful but it will all be new and mostly upgradeable.

 

[tim9317]

I agree with the above, used machines price seems sort of high but I get pricing has been weird due to AMD not being much to the table pre-Ryzen and nvidia just owning graphics.
I’m looking at it like it’s 4 plus year old equipment. Yeah the 1080 will be better for now but I suspect both won’t be so great in a couple of years. Also 4 year old card has a high chance of failing.
Current AMD system may be a little less powerful and you may end up with a card that’s less powerful but it will all be new and mostly upgradeable.

He built the PC 2 years ago with all new parts and hasn't used it much. The upgrade costs over the next 3-4 years would be about the same when I factor in that the total cost of my new build is $1245. Even in my friend's rig, if I upgraded the Mobo, cpu, ram, psu and got a decent used video card for $200 in 3 years, the cost would be about the same if I kept the new rig that I have and in 3 years, upgraded the cpu and got a used video card for $200. This is also factoring in that I could probably sell the mobo, cpu and ram from my friend's build in 3 years for $150. My friend's case is much nicer as well and better for airflow.

 

[daveybrat]

He built the PC 2 years ago with all new parts and hasn't used it much. The upgrade costs over the next 3-4 years would be about the same when I factor in that the total cost of my new build is $1245. Even in my friend's rig, if I upgraded the Mobo, cpu, ram, psu and got a decent used video card for $200 in 3 years, the cost would be about the same if I kept the new rig that I have and in 3 years, upgraded the cpu and got a used video card for $200. This is also factoring in that I could probably sell the mobo, cpu and ram from my friend's build in 3 years for $150. My friend's case is much nicer as well and better for airflow.

Now you're overthinking this. Like i've said before, this is a dead-end upgrade for you. I wouldn't expect 3 years of good gaming on that 7600K cpu. My i5 4690K struggled in the new COD: Modern Warfare but my Ryzen 2600X is like butter.