New PC Upgrade 2020 into 2021

[2Channelwonder]

My PC is 7.5 years old with a triple core AMD APU and is is only letting me play games in Source because of 8GB DDR3 so now the time has finally come to do an upgrade.

As usual though there is the minefield of the graphics cards - I need to know if I pick a 4Gb card will the RAM be split across the two monitors - as well as generally put it this way I could buy the GPU and monitor separately and use them before picking up a CPU Mobo and New RAM and also another PSU, if not in Black Friday sales then possibly Christmas new year. So specs matter more than price at the moment.

So at the moment it goes like this:

GOT: The ATX case, 1TB HDD, DVD Burner that can be tested from an old build

NEED: CPU - Ryzen is a minefield and I know they have announced new models for November- potentially making Custom PC's benchmarks of two months ago, out of date once more. Anyone with Ryzen experience post in as it would be good to know how they run. Keeping the TDP at 65W rather than 100 would be good considering I'm paying the electric bills and for just operating in Windows I'd want it idling at 50W at the wall maximum in power saving mode. I have never spent more than £150 for a chip ever though and am unlikely to start now.

RAM: I know it fluctuates but can I assume that it's £150 approx if I push the boat out and get 2 x 16 in a kit? That's how it was eight years ago trying to get 16gigs instead of 8.

MOBO: MSI being AMD's launch partner I tend to look at their boards first but all opinions welcome, in the end I have a Giga-byte for the APU that's still going strong. There's loads of time before I get the new build parts if I go piecemeal. Micro ATX preferred for my classic ATX PSU-at-the-top case.

PSU: I wouldn't plan to go above whatever the equivalent is of Ryzen 5 or midrange Quad Core, Six core might be overpowered and like I said, I'd be wanting to keep down to 65W TDP. A decade ago I paid £80 for 650W non-modular made by Antec then that would allow for potentially more than the one build. Any other recommendations would be great, I didn't get the best out of the last model I bought (Corsair) so once again any changes in the last 12 years would be good, currently on an Antec 430W. However once again if I could get a half-decent 700W for what I paid for 650 I would consider that progress and once again, if I wanted to upgrade I wouldn't need to change the PSU again.

GPU: Like I said if I see something decent and could live with it being slowed down by an older CPU then I could get one anytime before the main backbone of the new machine and then move it over later but as usual, they rebrand and relaunch quarterly so just whatever you picked up and if it was a Radeon, how long AMD supported it before you were hit with the legacy driver. Nvidia did seem to support with the Detonators for longer but it could've all changed.

MONITOR: Has anyone bothered with a larger monitor later on for the second screen and has anyone seen Displayport on a monitor? I haven't seen any from looking around, and do GPUs still come supplied with HDMI back to DVI converters? Or should I save my sanity and just get same size, as close to the same MS as possible? Thankfully Iiyama have expanded their range and my ceiling for the monitor is £100. Once again the 22in I have at the moment is OK but as usually, it's tempting to push it up to 24 but only if it wouldn't stress a dual monitor setup for just having Windows on the other screen.


So all opinions and education welcome! No hurry whatsoever if I am awaiting those newest Bonfire Night Ryzen benchmarks from Bit Tech Custom PC or any other tech site.

[Drarok]

MONITOR: Has anyone bothered with a larger monitor later on for the second screen and has anyone seen Displayport on a monitor? I haven't seen any from looking around, and do GPUs still come supplied with HDMI back to DVI converters?

Any decent monitor should have DisplayPort, which you'll want to use over HDMI or DVI for any modern features like G-Sync, high frame rates, stuff like that. I've not seen nor needed an HDMI/DVI converter dongle in years.

[DjchunKfunK]

Do you have a specific budget in mind Neth?

[2Channelwonder]

Put it this way DJ, ideally out of the GPU or the monitor I would hope to split the purchases and try to get one of them before the end of the year.

So when it comes to the CPU/RAM/Mobo backbone under £400 in one go, £450 at the most when trying to horsetrade for the best PSU to power it all. I understand that might keep me at 16 Gigs of RAM instead of 32.

[DjchunKfunK]

Here you go.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/F9j29N

[elgaucho]

Do you have a specific budget in mind Neth?

Oh so THIS is where Neth went! Man, it's been ages!

Like you Neth, when we're talking hardware change, I'll generally refer to Custom PC for my recommendations. I don't think i can add much value over and above what they report. Especially as I've been running the same mid range spec they recommended for me back in 2012 or so!

I'll be honest - my inclination would probably be not to skimp on power supply if you need an upgrade. It'll last forever, and it'll run more efficiently, quietly and have better connectors for future change overall. I'm still running what i assume to be a now prehistoric Seasonic S600, probably since 2006 or so!

apart from that, I've been toying with the idea of an upgrade for a while, but i can't decide what i want.

DJ's drafted spec looks pretty decent to me.

[2Channelwonder]

Thanks Elgaucho! Glad to bump into the old crowd again and get more use out of the forum.

Cheers DJ I will look into each of those parts, there was at least one other PSU that was 80 Plus Gold but there was 50W in it and I hadn't planned on a SSD so that's where I can think about 32Gigs instead of 16, but that partpicker's helped me get a decent idea of the basics. The SSD money might end up going towards the GPU in the end but there's plenty of time to get the info on those upcoming benchmarks.

[DjchunKfunK]

I don't think you should be worrying too much about having 32gbs of RAM.

[Raid]

Yeah, 32gb isn't really required yet. Maybe get 2x8gb, which will let you add a second 2x8gb kit later down the line if needed. I only have 32gb because of the horribly unoptimised flight sim I play regularly, I can't say I noticed a difference elsewhere when I did that same upgrade earlier in the year.

[arqueturus]

I'm going to lob a grenade into this thread to get some opinions. I'm very much coming to the point where I'm going to need to upgrade - my current setup is from 2011 and was decent then but not earth shattering with some upgrades over the years (newer gpu, additonal bugger SSD and a replacement PSU).

But I'm faced with a full replacement system, I pretty much think. Normally I would buy parts, canabalise and rebuild but I'm wondering if it's more cost effective to just get a specced build system as so much will need to be replaced? Is there a tipping point or is it still always cheaper to build your own?

Apologies for the slight derail.

[Mantis]

It's always cheaper to build your own in my experience. Not only because you avoid all the premiums for labour costs and their high markup, but also you can source parts from different sites yourself so always end up buying your individual pieces for the cheapest possible.

Slotting everything together is a doddle nowadays anyway, you can be up and running from initial unboxing in a couple of hours quite easily.

[Rusty]

I always used to build my own but my last 2 computers were pre built. I couldn't get the prices for the indiviual bits at a lower cost than they could build it and deliver it to me... I'll probably get a pre built for my next Pc too. I'm just waiting for the next influx of 3080s

[DjchunKfunK]

Building your own PC can save you anywhere from £200-£500 depending on the spec, it's always cheaper to build yourself. The only way I could see a pre-built being cheaper is if you were after some kind of lighting/water cooler setup or one of the major parts was in short supply and prices had exploded. I've specced up a number of systems for people in the past month and every single time they were significantly cheaper than the pre-built route.

[Rusty]

Coolio. MIght try it again then (was a few years ago I last tried it)

[Raid]

I think there's only one good reason to choose a pre-built system if you're capable of putting one together yourself, and that's the potential for a full system warranty that the retailer may provide. One of my workmates has done this, when the price made sense (he says his system was only about £50 more than buying the components separately).

I've only ever built one system entirely from scratch, so it wouldn't usually make sense to go for a pre-built.