Upgrading Nephews PC

IrishGrimReaper

Hi folks, nephew looking to upgrade to something that handles VR Gaming.

Current specs: AMD FX 6300, 8gb RAM and a GTX 480.

Budget approx €1200 - is it worthwhile to change the whole lot or would the CPU and a bit more RAM work fine with a better GPU?

K.O.Kiki

Brand new PC is the way to go, the CPU is 9yrs old & GPU 8yrs.

Be aware there is a MASSIVE shortage worldwide for GPUs & some CPUs so self-builds are out-of-the-question for now.

My pick: Dell G5 https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/gaming-and-games/new-g5-gaming-desktop/spd/g-series-5000-desktop/cd500001
Add another 8Gb RAM for 45eur.

Leaves 350 to spend on a new monitor or mouse/keyboard.

Cyclonius

You could also keep an eye out on the Dell Outlet, to see if there is a similar spec PC to the one that Kiki mentioned, but for a discount. The PCs sold there are ones returned by customers within a week or two, or that have been scratched or dented in the warehouse; all are fully checked out before sale. If that doesn't bother your nephew, you might be able to save a couple of hundred euro. I've saved quite a few euro on some PCs and laptops myself over the years, by picking them up on the Outlet. All have been fine.

It can be worth checking the UK one as well as the Irish one; not all PCs are shown on both, and, if you contact Dell, they can transfer a PC from the UK inventory to the Irish one.

Irish Dell Outlet:
https://www.dell.com/en-ie/outlet

UK Dell Outlet:
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbished-laptops/cp/outlet-dfh

Finally, they have different coupons every week, that can offer further discounts:
https://www.dell.com/learn/ie/en/iedfh1/campaigns/shop-outlet-deals-ie

The 10% one can always be applied, presuming a person hasn't already made a purchase from them within the previous twelve months.

cornholio509

I would be inclined to go with the fguys on this and get a prebuilt system . Graphics cards are hard to come by . Even if you do buy one theiur are double to triple the price because of availablitity .

Komplette prebuilds :
https://www.komplett.ie/gaming/gaming-desktops/
Probably the best system there is the first link with a GTX 1660 6 g . Should be a good 5-7 years b4 the system needs upgrading with the exception of the GPU . All said most of whats there seems to be value for money at the moment .

It is worhtwhile checking out other sites . However beware on prebiults as with what they give you on one hand they take away with another .

PuddingBreath

I would personally prefer to build it myself if I was in your shoes. There's a couple of advantages with this, if a part breaks down then you just replace that part and you'll be more comfortable doing it as you've built it yourself. Parts like power supply and motherboard should be better quality, more features if you build yourself. Intel processors are the way to go I think at the moment, more supply. I was thinking of building a pc around an Intel 9700k(8 cores, 8 threads). Using pc part picker to get the parts from Germany or somewhere if I can't get good prices in Ireland. My primary concern would be just a nippy pc that'll be used for gaming. I currently have an amd ryzen 2600 processor build that I upgraded to recently from an old amd processor similar to yourself. It gave a 50% increase in gaming (a graphics card upgrade is far in the distance due to current worldwide issues). I got that at a great price last year but it's went up recently.
You could build around this either
https://www.maxburns.ie/amd-ryzen-5-3600-cpu-with-wraith-stealth-cooler-am4-3-6ghz-4-2-turbo-6-core-65w-35mb-cache-7nm-3rd-gen-no-graphics-matisse-100-100000031box.html

the_syco

PuddingBreath wrote: »

a graphics card upgrade is far in the distance due to current worldwide issues

The graphic card availability is the reason why people are suggesting prebuilds, not because people like suggesting them!

PuddingBreath

the_syco wrote: »

The graphic card availability is the reason why people are suggesting prebuilds, not because people like suggesting them!

Thanks , yeah. I still think you're going to be stuck with inferior parts for the rest of the pc long term with the only bonus being a graphics card. I'd stick with his current one until things pan out, just build the rest of it, a new pc with SSD etc will be a big change already. Is it ok to give the fella options without arguing about it ? A bitcoin crash would solve a lot of our problems with getting cards for gaming.

Lumen

A 1660 Super is about 500 EUR on ebay, so a pre-built with that card for 850 is going to be unbeatable.

Would it handle VR though, with acceptable quality?

Lu Tze

Lumen wrote: »

A 1660 Super is about 500 EUR on ebay, so a pre-built with that card for 850 is going to be unbeatable.

Would it handle VR though, with acceptable quality?

1660 super was dipping under €200 last year at times.

cornholio509

the_syco wrote: »

The graphic card availability is the reason why people are suggesting prebuilds, not because people like suggesting them!

Exactly the case . I have seen RTX 2060 going for the MSRP of the new 3070 .

IF i was going to suggest a build i would probably go with a Ryzen R7 8 core CPU and a 3070 with 16 GB of ram . It would be a good PC that weill last roughly 5-8 years eithout much need for an upgrade .

Unfortunately CPUs and GPU seem to be hard enough to comeby without getting scalped . Even from retailers . There is a shortage world wide because those Emachines people bought 5 years ago arent cutting it for work from home . SO people are either upgrading or building new PCs .I know people want to blame the miners . However its not the case this time . There is more than the usual demand even if you include miners . The only way you can garauntee a GPU at the moment is a prebuilt .

PuddingBreath

isn't this the problem, people are getting robbed at the moment, so build the rest and wait on the graphic card i say. paying over double the actual real RRP is crazy.

here's a couple of processors from germany

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/KsHRsY/amd-ryzen-7-3700x-36-ghz-8-core-oemtray-processor-100-000000071

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/yhxbt6/intel-core-i7-10700k-38-ghz-8-core-processor-bx8070110700k

"computerUniverse" say they do international shipping