Can I pimp my old PC for a few years more?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I know many of you are enthusiasts with killer machines. Sadly I have a very limited budget for the PC due to family etc. In the past I would upgrade every 2 years, now it’s more incremental with roughly 4 years between upgrades. Anyways I currently sport the following for 1440p gaming.

-Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout EditionMidi Tower

-500 Watt be quiet! Straight Power 10-CM Modular 80+ Gold

-MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AMD B350 So.AM4 Dual Channel DDR4 ATX Retail

-32GB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3200 DIMM CL15

-AMD Ryzen 5 1600X

-Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev. B Cooler

-MSI Geforce RTX 3060

-500GB SSD

A totally new PC is out of the question. But Starfield shows me I am on the edge of not being able to play the games I want and with Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty on the horizon that will ask for lots of CPU I am considering the following upgrades.

-Switch Processor to 5800x3D
-Switch to GeForce RTX 4060TI
-Add a stronger power unit.

That would be roughly 800 Bucks. I can spend at most 1000. If I go all for AM5 to future proof further with a full upgrade that would leave me with no money for a Graphics card, and I really would like some Frame Generation through DLSS to compensate some of the systems weaknesses. I know it is not ideal but do you all think it feasible at all? I want roughly 4-5 Years out of the upgrade if at all possible. Not an ultra quality guy and 40FPS on DLSS Balanced is usually plenty for me.

2

I did roughly the same (Ryzen 2600 > 5800X3D, Rx 5700XT > RX 7900XT, 400W PSU > 800W PSU) and am happy with the results and don’t expect to have to upgrade for 4 years. 3440*1440 at highest settings is usually above 60FPS in games without FSR

3

Don’t judge yor current rig on Starfield. It runs like ass on my Ryzen 5900x and RTX3090. It just runs shit on nvidia gpus.

4

download (1)

I believe that board supports a single M.2 drive, I’d consider that also. :)

2TB is under $100 now.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Plus-PCIe-NAND-5000MB/dp/B0B25ML2FH

I usually buy Crucial or WD , so maybe another brand is better, others can chime in opinions. ;)

5

I have to check that. I have an SSD but its a “drive” one. Thanks for pointing this out.

6

You don’t have to do everything at once? You could do one thing and see how that goes for a while. If you wanted to keep the power cost low you could go for the 5600x, which is pretty low power and a good gaming CPU. People don’t seem to like the 4060 Ti much - it’s an 8GB card? I have a 5600x / 4070 and it’s been great for 1440uw. Power draw doesn’t get much above 300W.

7

This.

5600x 150
M2 drive 80

Try that first and see how it feels before you upgrade the gpu. Or get a 4070 for 550 and still stay under the 800 config.

8

Yea, after some more research going 4060TI seems useless, better to get a cheap 4070. Plan is to first get the processor and then later the card.

May I ask why 5600x instead of the 5600x3D? Most suggest the 3D variant for longevity.

9

Just a bit cheaper and draws less power. The x3d chips are great but the non 3d chips are also good.

10

Absolutely do not upgrade from a 3060 to a 4060ti.

Almost a sidegrade really.

I would wait until the next series of gpu to upgrade,or if you want to spend money, at least get a 4070 level card. You’ll want to get a card with more VRAM if you want to future proof for a few years.

11

Personally I would go for the 5800x3D and if necessary a more powerful PSU.

12

Why, unless you are playing something like MSFS, which I don’t think is the case? It’s twice the cost on a limited budget. That money could be better used on a gpu, and my 5600x is great.

13

Because I reckon a 3060 will last a couple years, and is upgradeable if not. whereas the 5800x3D is as far as you can go on AM4.

Also, MSFS.

14

My suggestion is to replace your monitor with a 1080p one. Probably $150 for a pretty good one and you don’t need to replace anything else.

15

If he drills a few holes in his 1440p monitor those extra pixels will leak out, and he can game at 1080p, and not have to spend a single dime. :)

16

I have a similar system, though my i5-9400f is a bit faster. It runs Starfield well enough, though I’m not turning out to be a fan of the game anyway.

Next on my horizon is Cities Skylines 2. We exceed the minimum but not recommended CPU, so it’s another case of wait and see.

17

Only if the holes are properly aligned with the zodiac for that week.

18

From Amazon US:
$550 ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC
$120 MSI Pro B650M-P
$217 Ryzen 7600
$40 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 HSF
$80 Crucial DDR5 5600

$1007

Edit: Well shoot. No PSU in that list, so breaks the budget. A bunch of 850W PSU options at 100 bucks.

A fast 1TB NVME SSD is $40 bucks these days.

If $1k is the hard cap, I’d probably get the PSU/5800X3D/4070 combo which comes in at just under $1000 before tax.

19

I mean, that is not really pimping an old pc, more like building a brand new one.

20

Yes, mono was doing a counterpoint. As in, hey look, for a little bit more, you could have a new PC instead.