Douglas Ramos5 said:I've got this setup: an AMD Athlon II X2-B26 processor, an ATI HD 7700 with 1GB, 8GB of RAM, and a 500W power supply. I'm looking to upgrade, but I'm wondering if it's even worth it. If it is, what order should I swap parts out in?
It's a bit of a tricky one. What kind of budget are we talking about? That's going to be the biggest factor in deciding the next move.
There is some room for an upgrade on this platform. You could grab a used quad-core plus a decent used GPU in the range of an RX 570 Max, and you'd be set. That would give you a solid jump in performance, letting you run things okay-ish without spending a ton of cash.
If you really want to stop worrying about hardware for a while, you'll likely need to overhaul the entire platform, which is a much bigger project requiring a larger budget.
It’s not quite accurate to say they won't perform similarly; in some cases, they're neck and neck, but in others, the i5 actually pulls ahead by about 15-20% more FPS based on what I've seen in YouTube benchmarks. Still, that doesn't mean I'd choose that route, because the 1600X is an absolutely insane deal at $400.
Jonathan Barrett said:Sacrificing 8GB of RAM just to get a larger SSD makes zero sense, IMO.
Actually, it makes total sense. In 95% of cases, an extra 8GB of RAM won't change a thing, and you can always just pop in another stick five minutes later if you really need it. For that price, you're getting double the storage capacity—once you commit to it, there's no more upgrading that specific drive.😵
Adam Williams2 said:Look, my buddy Philip bought a 55-inch TV before the pandemic hit, so he's got plenty of screen real estate for movies. 😁
And don't get me wrong, I have no clue how demanding Fortnite actually is. It’s not like people only play Fortnite; they play it because it’s what’s hot right now. Tomorrow, kids might move on to something else entirely. When I was their age, I jumped from CM to FIFA, then to GTA and Neverwinter, so anything can happen. 😁
All I want is a PC that can handle Fortnite and whatever other big titles come out soon without breaking a sweat. That's it. I just want the best bang for my buck. As for the panel, VA or IPS, I don't really care. I remember when my dad bought me an old Microtron case for about $600—it cost as much as some other cases back then—but that thing outlived three different builds and always gave me a great picture regardless of what I was playing, if you know what I mean. 😁
Also, someone told me today that they're getting a Pentium paired with Nvidia for their kid's gaming setup. He thinks it's better than going with AMD, claiming a Pentium works better for games. I'm wondering if there's any truth to that, or if the build Smartic put together is actually superior to an Intel and Nvidia combo. 🤷
Basically—whatever you've been told here, especially by the users in bold, carries more weight than whatever your neighbor's cousin tells you. 😬
What Smartic put together is a total best buy for that price range. If you really want to future-proof it even more, maybe grab a stronger GPU like a GTX 1070, and you're set. You won't need to change anything else. 👍
This might be pretty similar to the discussion I had with a buddy who was dealing with a nearly identical mess. Only he was running an Intel Core i5 7600K instead of a 2600.
I'm thinking a BIOS update ended up being the fix most of the time.
Peter Green said:What kind of "dead end" are you even talking about? For 20 $0.00, you can grab basically everything top-tier on the market and still have 4000 left over for a killer monitor. Seriously, why on earth would anyone even consider slapping a Core i5-2500 in a build at that price point?
It doesn't even matter; the guy is talking about saving $150 on a processor within a practically uncompromising $6667 build. I might have understood if he'd suggested a Ryzen, but an i5... 🤣 He still has plenty of wiggle room even with all his exaggerations, INCLUDING the motherboard, which isn't lacking anything at all except for pure value, since it already costs what it costs. Then again, there's still a few hundred bucks left before hitting $2,000, so there’s really no need to cut corners anywhere. Unless he actually wants to save money, but that's a different story entirely.
At the end of the day, I'm calling on all of you to put together some builds so I can see what they should actually look like 😬
Looks like analogtiger19 was right on the money, since overclocking is now an option 😛
As for liquid cooling, I don't think that even makes sense for you. Just grab a Noctua 14 or better yet an Alienware Aurora—you'll get cooling that's just as good, if not better, than water cooling, all while staying quieter and avoiding the headache of leaks and constant maintenance. Unless you really want to mess around with circulating water inside your case, obviously. 🙂
Look, World of Tanks has always been terrible at multi-threading. Even an old Pentium could handle it just fine, whereas something like an AMD FX would struggle because its single-core performance was so weak. They’ve since improved the multi-thread optimization, but I still run it at home on an Intel Pentium G3220 and a 260X without any issues at all.
You build someone a rig worth nearly $3,000 and then slap a CM 212X on it instead of a Noctua? It’d be more useful to give them an NH-D15 than that 750W power supply you suggested, especially considering how much juice this whole setup is actually going to pull.😉
If he isn't planning on overclocking, there’s honestly zero point in getting a Noctua lol. I already mentioned that if he actually wants to OC, he should just go with something beefier or switch to liquid cooling. I get the feeling you didn't even read my post... 😵
A 500W power supply will get the job done, sure. But when you're dropping $20,000 on a build, you don't pinch pennies just to save thirty bucks on the wattage.
