New build pc, no idea what to get.

[bigtallanddopey]

Hi everyone

I am looking to upgrade or build a new pc. I am currently running an i7 950 with slow 6GB of ddr3 memory and an r9 280 for the graphics card.

I mostly play games like cities skylines, stellaris and total war. And the pc is mostly used for gaming although I do use cad software sometimes when I bring work home.

I may stick with graphics card for the time being as I don't game at high resolutions. But if someone says I will see big performance gains I will change it.

Where I seem to be really struggling is the cpu and ram. Late game in stellaris and planet coaster the games judder along. I don't think this is due to the graphics card although tell me if I'm wrong.

I used to be really upto date with my pc hardware but I am pretty clueless at the moment. Ryzen has thrown a spanner in the works for me as on paper it seems to offer a lot for quite cheap. However there seems to be some very good intel chips for the same price. I have a budget of £1000 max but if I can get a pc for £500 that is 90% as good then I would rather have that.

Could some people recommend a cpu, ram and motherboard combination that works together. I am also a little unsure which motherboard chipsets are needed with each cpu and what drr4 they can use.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Ryzen r5 1600+b350 Mobo+2*8GB ddr4 would keep you in the 500 bucks ballpark.

With all the fuzz with high core count the past few months, I would not go with anything less than 6cores/12 threads.

No Intel offering below 800 bucks for that.

As stated in some other thread, Ryzen games well, is way cheaper than Intel and the platform is now mature.

 

[trents]

Ryzen r5 1600+b350 Mobo+2*8GB ddr4 would keep you in the 500 bucks ballpark.

With all the fuzz with high core count the past few months, I would not go with anything less than 6cores/12 threads.

No Intel offering below 800 bucks for that.

As stated in some other thread, Ryzen games well, is way cheaper than Intel and the platform is now mature.

A lot of people would disagree with that.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

A lot of people would disagree with that.

Well, yes, that was a bit cavalier of me

 

[Suppressor1137]

Here is a core build for the UK region in the 860-900 euro range, This is without peripherals or a monitor. The range is to compensate for the case, unless you wanted to gut your current case out to save costs.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/wj3y2R

You can cut the price down by opting for 8 gigs of ram, but thats the absolute minimum I would recommend right now.

I'd also opt for a 8gb rx 580 if you can fit it into your budget, as it will have a higher performance ceiling, but as you requested, we opted for the 4gb, because performance will be about the same for 50 euros less.

You can also opt to axe the SSD to save ~137 euros, and use your current storage solutions from your old build.

And you could shave another 200 euros off if you use your old r9 280 until budget becomes more available; the rx 580 is around 70% overall faster.

 

[trents]

I'm tempted to advice increasing the amount of RAM on your present system and get a better video card to start with but it may not be wise to invest in DDR3 if the CPU is what is holding you back and in fact you need to upgrade the whole system.

Have you done any testing to see if it's the video card or the CPU/RAM that's holding you back? I mean like changing the detail level on the games to put more or less load on the GPU and checking the effect of that on frame rate?

Another option is to overclock the CPU. I don't think it's multiplier is unlocked so you would need to do it via the bclk. What are you using for cooling the CPU?

 

[wingman99]

Hi everyone

I am looking to upgrade or build a new pc. I am currently running an i7 950 with slow 6GB of ddr3 memory and an r9 280 for the graphics card.

I mostly play games like cities skylines, stellaris and total war. And the pc is mostly used for gaming although I do use cad software sometimes when I bring work home.

I may stick with graphics card for the time being as I don't game at high resolutions. But if someone says I will see big performance gains I will change it.

Where I seem to be really struggling is the cpu and ram. Late game in stellaris and planet coaster the games judder along. I don't think this is due to the graphics card although tell me if I'm wrong.

I used to be really upto date with my pc hardware but I am pretty clueless at the moment. Ryzen has thrown a spanner in the works for me as on paper it seems to offer a lot for quite cheap. However there seems to be some very good intel chips for the same price. I have a budget of £1000 max but if I can get a pc for £500 that is 90% as good then I would rather have that.

Could some people recommend a cpu, ram and motherboard combination that works together. I am also a little unsure which motherboard chipsets are needed with each cpu and what drr4 they can use.

What FPS is your rig achieving in the games?

 

[bigtallanddopey]

I'm tempted to advice increasing the amount of RAM on your present system and get a better video card to start with but it may not be wise to invest in DDR3 if the CPU is what is holding you back and in fact you need to upgrade the whole system.

Have you done any testing to see if it's the video card or the CPU/RAM that's holding you back? I mean like changing the detail level on the games to put more or less load on the GPU and checking the effect of that on frame rate?

Another option is to overclock the CPU. I don't think it's multiplier is unlocked so you would need to do it via the bclk. What are you using for cooling the CPU?

I have in a few games such as paragon and battlefield lowered the graphics detail down to below medium settings with little to no effect on the frame rates. I know my ram is really holding me back but to increase it isn't cheap as it is triple channel ddr3 which isn't easy to find. And the stuff in there at the moment isn't great.

The cpu and gpu are water cooled although it isn't as efficient as it used to be but an over clock is possible as I've had a decent one on there in the past.

I have been looking at either a 1600x build or a 6700k build. Obviously they're quite different and there's a decent price difference. I just cannot decide between the 6700k which gives the best performance now. Or the 1600x which may give the best performance in the future with the extra cores.

 

[wingman99]

The 6700k uses DDR4 memory. So if your going to do that go with i7 7700k for the same price.

 

[Suppressor1137]

you have to look at it this way,

ryzen is good enough icp to handle all games without issue, and it is only getting better. For the price they are offering it at, with the budget you have, it is a no brainer. If ryzen was available when I built my pc, i would have gone ryzen.

I bought my pc on a very limited budget, around $200 a month. This meant that i had to piece together my pc almost a year apart for the components that I have in it.

I knew i needed. more than 4 threads for what i was doing on it (web design and graphic design), so the only option at the time was an i7 6700 or the k series.