Question Feedback on What To Get For New Build/Upgrade?

[ascendant]

Considering building myself a new computer while using some of the components of my current one. To cover the info about what I’m looking for:

- My priority would be one that is optimal for gaming. Secondary use would be for video editing for YouTube content.

- As far as my budget, I’m hoping to try to keep it under $700. This is considering that I will not need any new monitors, hoping to use my current hard drives (assuming they will be compatible with all my new components), and will use whatever other components will be compatible with my upgrades that won’t be a bottleneck to the new system. While I don’t want to go too overboard on my spending, at the same time, I want an upgrade that is solid enough to be significant compared to what I have now and should last quite a while.

- Building in the US and I typically use Newegg.

- I personally prefer AMD and nVidia.

- I don’t plan to overclock.

- I currently run dual monitors. Primary resolution is 1920 x 1080, secondary monitor is 1360 x 768.

- This is something I plan to build and use within the next few weeks.


Here is my current PC:

Case - XION II XON-101
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 6 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU – AMD FX-4350 Vishera Quad-Core 4.2GHz Socket AM3+ 125W FD4350FRHXBOX
Ram - G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C10D-16GSR
Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 950 DirectX 12 02G-P4-1950-KR 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support
Hard Drive – Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Backup Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
PSU - EVGA 100-B1-0700-K1 700W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Power Supply


At the time when I built it, it was top of the line. So, as I’m sure you could imagine, I built this thing quite a while back. The most recent upgrade was my CPU and PSU.

Surprisingly, I have been able to play pretty new games at max graphics running very smooth. Like I have Doom 2016 maxed out on everything and it runs very smooth. But, I would like my computer to run faster when it comes to software, loading, etc, while still being solid for gaming for years to come.

I saw there are newer sockets and such, so wanted to get feedback on thoughts on what would be good to go for that would be a solid upgrade/new build, while staying within my budget?

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Look at a B550/570X motherboard (AM4), like an Asus TUF series. Look at 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz CL16 or better RAM. Look at a Ryzen 3600x for cost ($199 on Amazon, if its in stock). That'll be $450 basically, give or take, likely give more depending on market fluctuation. You can continue to use your GTX 950 GPU for now until you can get something better later. Update to a SSD for your OS, a 500Gb SSD will run you $50~60, or a 1TB NVMe M2 SSD in the $120 range roughly. Major upgrade for gaming and for general operation of your OS. That's $550~600 depending on what you do. If you need Win 10, get it from Ebay as an OEM Key. Use the Microsoft downloader tool and make a Win 10 installer on USB, install it, don't activate right away. After you install, activate with the OEM key (don't use the disc it comes with). No fuss, works great. These keys are commonly $30 on the `bay. With the remaining budget, get a 4TB HDD for video storage and general storage since you want to edit YouTube media content.

As budget opens up and things become available, upgrade your GPU (target something like RTX2060 or RTX3060).

Very best,

 

[ascendant]

Thanks so much for the info. I had a feeling I was going to have to pretty much rebuild from the ground up again.

One of my friends told me I probably want to wait at least six months or more, as prices have gone up because of shortages thanks to Covid. Is this true, and if so, how much of an increase on average?

Also, I do have Wind 10 currently, so if I remember right, I can just transfer that license to the new computer after I build it.

Since I would have to build pretty much an entirely new computer, would my old one have much of any resell value and if so, where would be a good place to sell it? No idea where used towers sell at.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

The pricing thing is really related to various CPUs and GPUs. The other components are not over-inflated in price. It's both COVID and crypt-mining that is causing problems with GPU. COVID for the CPU stuff. It's a great time to get NAND based drives, RAM, PSU's, software, etc as prices are good on these. Selling your used gear may or may not be worth it. I would say keep it. You may find it useful to make a server from it one day, or a backup for when things go south for some reason or if you need to re-gift something or re-purpose it. Always good to have a backup of anything.

Very best,