PC Build: Upgrade or start fresh?

Timothy Kim60 said:Based on what I mentioned earlier, the CPU, motherboard, and RAM should come out to about... $2167That's a solid platform. It should hold up. $167He should probably just sell that CPU for $400.$167Looking for some advice on an MBO around the $200 mark.$83Looking for some decent RAM around $150.$67 If he lists the whole setup for $100, it’ll sell like hotcakes. He could even toss in a 1TB SSD to sweeten the deal. Then he just has to wait a few months to see how the next generation of mainstream GPUs shakes out—upgrading that graphics card alone will end up costing him way more than his $7k budget. At that point, he might as well just scrap the old GTX 950. $100 Whenever he finds something, it doesn't have to be some top-tier GPU. Even an RTX 3050 or a 3050Ti with 8GB of VRAM would do the trick—it’ll still be a massive upgrade for him.

Looking for some more budget-friendly CPU alternatives to the Ryzen 7 5800X. $1233i7 10700K - $1000 (Assuming you’re using an Intel build, obviously you’ll need a different motherboard), paired with an R7 3700X. $833 Or maybe an R5 5600X would work? $900It really just comes down to whether his software relies more on single-core performance or multi-threaded power—at least until the Ryzen 5 5600 hits the shelves.

True, but if he goes through with it now, he’s also picking up a 2700x. $500 He could always just sell it in a year or two. Even right now, he'll get decent results running da Vinci with a 2060S.

Timothy Kim60 said:Look, if you want my honest, probably slightly jaded opinion, just hold off until at least next month. You really want to wait for the supply chain mess to settle down for the stuff already out there and let those new mainstream GPU models actually hit the shelves—because yeah, right now, those cards in the 3000-$1667 range are basically the new standard. Just stash your cash away until you can afford this list:

Ryzen 9 5900 (roughly $1533)
A decent B550 motherboard (something like an AsRock B550m pro4 or maybe a Gigabyte Aorus B550m elite) which should run you about $283, unless you're some kind of power user needing dual GPU support or whatever—if you go that route, don't blow too much more than you would on a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite, an MSI X570 Tomahawk, or an Asus X570 tuf, which puts you around $600. Those are beefy boards, and honestly, spending more than that usually feels like throwing money into a black hole without any real payoff. Maybe check if you even need NVlink
RAM 2 x16gb 3000/3200 (around 900-$333)
For the GPU, like I said, keep an eye out for an RTX 3060 12GB or maybe one of those existing RTX 2060 8GB Supers. If you've got the patience to wait longer, hopefully, the cheaper RTX 3050 or 3050Ti models show up with a 128-bit bus and 8GB VRAM options, which would be a lifesaver.
You can easily grab a 1TB NVMe SSD; I snagged a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB for $287 on a sale over at Amazon US right before Black Friday
.
You can always grab the GPU later, but you could pick up the SSD right now if you're itching to build.

Thanks for the heads up.
I was talking to someone else too, and they mentioned an M.2 SSD won't even fit my current board, so I guess I'll just stick with a regular hard drive for now since it's going into the new rig anyway. Everything else, like you suggested, I'll probably aim for around springtime...

Whoever told you that an M.2 drive wouldn't fit clearly hasn't a clue...

- Features one Ultra M.2 Socket. It handles everything from 2230 to 22110 modules, supporting both M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s and M.2 PCI Express up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) speeds.**

Alexander Moore67 said:Whoever told you an M.2 won't fit clearly hasn't got a clue what they're talking about...

He was rambling on about some random adapters, but honestly, I'm not totally sold on whether that actually makes any sense...

slyowl54 said:He mentioned some adapters, but I don't know if that even makes sense...

No clue what he's talking about. Adapters? Either he's trolling you or just has no idea what he's talking about. I pulled these specs straight from the official website for you.