First off, you really need at least another 4GB of RAM. If you can swing 8GB instead, go for it—hitting that 12GB total mark is plenty for basically anything you'll want to play.
Next up is the GPU. You should look for a used GTX 1060 with some kind of warranty on sites like eBay or Craigslist. You could also check out an RX 570 or 580, but just keep one thing in mind: those cards are power-hungry, so you'll definitely need a decent power supply, ideally at least 500-550W.
Third, if you can find an i7 2600k for a fair price, grab it. That I5 2500k is still a decent enough processor, but don't expect miracles in CPU-heavy titles. You’re going to run into some stuttering, especially in games like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed Origins, or similar stuff. Moving to the i7 would make things run a lot smoother because you're getting that jump to 4 cores and 8 threads, whereas the 2500k is stuck at 4 cores and 4 threads.
wiredotter14 said:GPU prices aren't exactly looking bright right now, at least not for anything stronger than what he’s currently running. The RX570 and GTX1660Ti are decent buys, but they aren't a massive leap from his current setup, and anything significantly better sits right in that awkward spot where you're basically paying previous-gen prices for mid-tier performance. There’s really no rush to pull the trigger on a new card. He can easily hang tight until Navi drops, or wait for Nvidia to move to 7nm—probably sometime next year.
They might not be "bright," but they're about as low as you're going to get in the States right now. For instance, a GTX1660Ti is a solid jump in performance with noticeably lower power draw, and you can find dual-fan models with a 3-year warranty starting around $220. $0.77An RTX2060 with two fans and a 3-year warranty is roughly $0.97.
I was also chatting with someone who knows their way around the hardware market a bit better than we do, and they mentioned there's a real chance GPU prices could start climbing again this summer. That’s why I’m saying if you’ve got the itch to upgrade, you might as well just grab it now.
So, I’m running an i5 6400 paired with a GTX1060. I ran a few tests back when I was rocking a single 8GB stick of DDR4 2133MHz CL15, and compared that to what I have now: 2x8GB DDR4 2133MHz CL14.
It definitely makes sense to jump to a Ryzen 1600 if you're keeping that GPU. My i5 6400 and GTX1060 combo struggles in almost any CPU-heavy title—think Assassin's Creed Origins or Odyssey, or multiplayer modes in Battlefield. I don't want to list everything, but for those specific games, I actually sat down and spent time tweaking the in-game settings and the Nvidia Control Panel just to minimize bottlenecks and get playable FPS without constant stuttering.
As for the whole single vs. dual channel memory debate: yeah, you'll see higher minimum FPS, which naturally bumps up your average FPS, but it's not life-changing. It's not like you're going to jump out of your chair screaming with excitement. Still, having dual channel is better. Period. I suspect there might be even bigger jumps in some games I haven't personally tested.
Also, you've got it a bit wrong saying the Ryzen 1600 is "way faster" than the i5 6400. It isn't necessarily faster; in fact, the i5 6400 is slightly stronger in single-core performance, which matters for gaming. The real issue is that the i5 is just 4 cores and 4 threads, so you hit high CPU usage constantly. For modern, CPU-intensive games, 4 cores and 8 threads is really the bare minimum if you don't want your CPU pegged at 100%. That’s why even today, an i7 3770 actually handles things more smoothly alongside an RX470/570/480/580 or a GTX1060 than a newer i5 from the Skylake/Kaby Lake era or an i3 from Coffee Lake.
My advice? If you've got the itch to upgrade right now, grab a beefier GPU while prices are what they are. But if you need a whole new platform, the Ryzen 3xxx and 7xxx series are right around the corner. If it's not an emergency, I'd wait. Though, you could always pick up a budget-friendly Ryzen 1600/2600 + B350/B450 and 2x8GB DDR4 3000MHz setup for relatively cheap.
Don't expect much performance here. Honestly, you’re better off just running on the integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics for now, then picking up a used GTX 1060 down the road to plug in.
1 * MS THETA wired headset password: 0161086 - $33
You could grab a Ryzen 1600/1600 x instead and pocket about 300-$117. Just a heads-up though: if you go with the X version, it doesn't come with a cooler, so you'll need to make sure you have the right bracket for your current setup. If you opt for the non-X 1600, it comes with a stock cooler you can use as a stopgap while you hunt down that bracket. I actually heard that even Corsair might send them out for free if you already own one of their older coolers from before the Ryzen launch, though you'd have to wait for the shipping to clear.
Basically, I’d sell this whole thing, maybe hang onto the cooler and the drives, and pick up something newer—ideally including a case, since I'm currently running some old Mid Tower. Any advice on what to grab for around $400?$1667 (I'd probably look into financing it). I can put it together myself, though I don't mind paying someone if it doesn't break the bank. Just need it for movies, streaming shows, and the occasional video game without needing maxed-out graphics settings.
Thanks
Keep your power supply, hard drives, and case. Everything else would look like this:
Look, there’s no reason to throw in the towel just yet; you aren't tethered to that CPU for life. Go ahead and grab the monitor you actually want, then start saving up for a fresh platform. Alternatively, you could hunt down a used Intel Core i7 6700/7700—those chips are still solid performers for gaming today. If it were me, I’d definitely be planning to swap out that processor. It’s going to seriously bottleneck your GPU. I’m speaking from experience here; I’m currently running an Intel Core i5 6400, and even with a much weaker GTX 1060 3GB, I can feel it struggling in CPU-heavy titles.
Look, an RTX 3060 is perfectly fine if you just want to hit 1440p at 60 or 75Hz. But trying to push 1440p at 144Hz? That’s a whole different level of expensive.
Zachary Nguyen2 said:Man, I can't believe how much SSD prices have cratered. When I built my rig about a year and a half ago, I dropped $333 on a 500GB drive.
It’s been a while.
Around $15 for 120GB $50 Maybe $25 for 240-250GB $83 About $40 for 480-500GB $167 And roughly $80-$90 for a 960GB-1TB $317
Alexander Flores3 said:Thanks for the tip. I saw this video where some guy didn't have the actual mounting bracket for his SSD, so he just used some side screws to strap it onto the same section where the HDDs go...
I was thinking about throwing in either a Patriot Blast 120GB or maybe an EVO 256GB... just one of those two...
That’s called an SSD tray, and you just slide it right into the HDD slot. You can find them on eBay for next to nothing. When I picked up an extra SSD a while back and didn't have any open 2.5" bays left, I had to wait about a month and a half for my order from overseas to arrive. In the meantime, the drive was basically just "hanging" inside the case, but honestly, it worked without any issues at all.
William Clark86 said:I ran AC Origins without any issues at all. With AC Odyssey, though, I actually had to dial back the settings during those massive battle scenes where you join in with the Spartans or Athenians because the frame rate would start stuttering. Everything else was on Ultra.
Aside from that, maybe there's something wrong with your PC. Have you checked your drivers? This is just my gameplay using my processor and an MSI 1050 Ti (mine is an ASUS model, but I don't think it makes much difference) at 1080p—though I'm playing at 1080p myself—and it stays well above 30 fps.
There isn't really anything left for me to tweak. My settings are dialed in, I've always got the optimal driver for a specific game installed, and my RAM is running in dual channel... The truth is, this game just struggles. It pushes even high-end rigs, let alone these "weaker" setups. An i5 quad-core is becoming a bottleneck in more and more games lately, even when paired with mid-range cards like a GTX 1060 or an RX 580.
Robert Rodriguez2 said:30 fps? Man, where have you been living? 😁
My fingers just typed that out on autopilot. 😁 I meant to type 30fps... Anyway, there’s no way someone was running the last two AC titles on Ultra settings with an old quad-core and a GTX 1650. I’m running an i5 9600k paired with a GTX 1060 on medium settings—even then, I had to mess around with some tweaks in the Nvidia Control Panel to take some load off the CPU because of how much background noise those games generate. Even with that, I can barely keep it above 40fps, especially when I'm hitting cities packed with NPCs and skyscrapers.
