Need to Upgrade my son's gaming computer

Gazbal

Gazbal

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Hi All! I promised to upgrade my sons computer for Christmas, and see I am already going to have to sell a kidney!

Basically need to upgrade GPU so that he can run Tom Clancy Wildlands (which, as I understand, is quite demanding), and hopefully future-proof the computer for next two years. His computer is currently running i5 4460 3.2GHz, 8g Ram (don't know what other info you may need..).

I can get the following cards at these prices and wish to know if they are a) any good b) which is better value for his needs and c) should i be looking at alternatives (hopefully cheaper!)


1. Inno3D GeForce GTX1060 Twin X2, 6GB, 192Bit, 2xDVI 1 Year Warranty for R4350.00

2. SAPPHIRE RX 570 4GB for R3958.80

3. EVGA GTX1050TI 4GB GDDR5 for R2754.00

4. EVGA GEFORCE GTX1060 3GB GDDR5 for R3714.00


And then, also need help with an extra hard drive as his 1TB WD 7200RPM SATA is now full (thanks to STEAM!) and need to at least get him an extra 2TB, but all these blue,red and black models are confusing me!

Thanks in advance!
 
Firstly, get him a 128/256 GB SSD drive for Windows - makes a massive performance difference to load times and general responsiveness of the PC (opening programs etc).

Then get him a WD 2TB Blue - don't bother with a Black or the other colours, just get a blue.

So:
128 or 256GB SSD
2TB WD Blue
GTX 1060 6GB (NOT the 3GB, its crap).
8GB RAM (Same speed as he currently has. Ideally 2 x 8GB sticks, but if he currently has 2 x 4GB, you could add 2 x 4 if he has 2 RAM slots available.)
 
Also, what size screen is he playing on? Do you know the resolution he games at?
 
The biggest speed increase you will get with an SSD. Boot times, games/application load times and general responsiveness will improve exponentially. Highly recommend that. There are quite a few good deals on SSD's on Carb :)

GPU, at the least grab number 1 on your list, or any other 1060 6GB. But if you can take it a little further a 1070 (non ti) will last a little bit longer.

CPU I think is still fine, but maybe up the RAM to 16GB and he will be set for the next few years.
 
UrBaN963 said:
Firstly, get him a 128/256 GB SSD drive for Windows - makes a massive performance difference to load times and general responsiveness of the PC (opening programs etc).

Then get him a WD 2TB Blue - don't bother with a Black or the other colours, just get a blue.

So:
128 or 256GB SSD
2TB WD Blue
GTX 1060 6GB (NOT the 3GB, its crap).
8GB RAM (Same speed as he currently has. Ideally 2 x 8GB sticks, but if he currently has 2 x 4GB, you could add 2 x 4 if he has 2 RAM slots available.)
Click to expand...

This.
 
1. I have a Gigabyte GTX 1060 G1 6Gb, runs Witcher 3 and Battlefield one at ultra high everything and its perfect, no lag nothing. All the 1060 6GB's are pretty much the same bar 1 or 2 fps, its the same brains underneath. But please stay away from the 3GB and stick to the 6GB, very NB!

The different colours of drives are slight speed and power consumption, so if you want to save the planet, buy green... if you want it a tad faster buy black... The logical and cheaper way is to put your operating system on an SSD, and then have a few TB normal harddrive where you store all your other stuff. I run my games off my normal spinning WD Green 2TB harddrive and there are no problems there, I can't really justify spending a huge amount on an SSD to play games that run fine on my normal hdd.

It all comes down to how much money you want to spend...
 
Thanks for all the responses. Appreciate it!

Regarding the monitor, that's next on the list. The sites I looked at say it should be 144Hz but there is no way i can afford that.
 
Gazbal said:
Thanks for all the responses. Appreciate it!

Regarding the monitor, that's next on the list. The sites I looked at say it should be 144Hz but there is no way i can afford that.
Click to expand...

Does he have a monitor? If so, what size is it?
 
Gazbal said:
Currently a 18,5" 1368 x 768...... so want to get maybe a 24" with decent refresh and resolution but i see most of my funds are going to go to the GPU.
Click to expand...

Okay yea so he will definitely benefit from a new monitor. The one I added is quite nice, but you could go a little smaller and cheaper.
144Hz is very nice to play with, but unless he is doing serious competitive gaming, I would save that for a later upgrade and get something cheaper in the interim. Can always sell it later or use it elsewhere. What he will benefit from most is a larger screen that can display a higher resolution. I game on a 24" screen and don't think I could easily play on anything bigger without changing my whole setup.
 
Yes get a GTX 1060 or better and a 24" monitor. Personally I'm happy with a 1920x1080 24" for the long term.

8GB ram is fine and an SSD is a bit of a luxury if it's only for gaming - you could always add that later.

Also note that you can run Nicehash to mine(at current rates) R700 profit a month with the GTX 1060. R1000 with the GTX 1070.
This could be a real discount to what you're spending.
 
GoB said:
Yes get a GTX 1060 or better and a 24" monitor. Personally I'm happy with a 1920x1080 24" for the long term.

8GB ram is fine and an SSD is a bit of a luxury if it's only for gaming - you could always add that later.

Also note that you can run Nicehash to mine(at current rates) R700 profit a month with the GTX 1060. R1000 with the GTX 1070.
This could be a real discount to what you're spending.
Click to expand...

There is so much wrong with this post.

8GB RAM is okay for now, but he specifically mentioned future-proofing. Future games are going to be more resource-heavy obviously, and as his son gets older he's likely to also get interested in other things. Also, having 16GB not only provides you some leeway, you can also have other apps running in the background without killing performance (Chrome tabs, iTunes, whatever).

SSD isn't a luxury by any means. It affects app load times, Windows boot times, loading times for games as well as in-game performance for loading textures and such.

Your Nicehash advice does not advise OP about electricity consumption rates or actual PROFIT, only net gains. Extremely misleading.
 
Just bear in mind that an SSD will do nothing for games unless they run from the SSD. And then the only thing you will notice is that they load faster. For your budget, an SSD might not be worth it.

UrBaN963 said:
There is so much wrong with this post.

8GB RAM is okay for now, but he specifically mentioned future-proofing. Future games are going to be more resource-heavy obviously, and as his son gets older he's likely to also get interested in other things. Also, having 16GB not only provides you some leeway, you can also have other apps running in the background without killing performance (Chrome tabs, iTunes, whatever).

SSD isn't a luxury by any means. It affects app load times, Windows boot times, loading times for games as well as in-game performance for loading textures and such.

Your Nicehash advice does not advise OP about electricity consumption rates or actual PROFIT, only net gains. Extremely misleading.
Click to expand...

Agree on the RAM, but if he buys a 120GB SSD (which seems to be in his price range), he won't be able to fit many or any games on it. So it will help Windows boot faster - whoopie.

It will do absolutely nothing for games. Games that are installed onto the hard drive (which will be most of them) will not see any benefit from an SSD at all.

Unless the OP suddenly has the budget for a 500GB SSD, in which case great.
 
Last edited:
UrBaN963 said:
There is so much wrong with this post.

8GB RAM is okay for now, but he specifically mentioned future-proofing. Future games are going to be more resource-heavy obviously, and as his son gets older he's likely to also get interested in other things. Also, having 16GB not only provides you some leeway, you can also have other apps running in the background without killing performance (Chrome tabs, iTunes, whatever).

SSD isn't a luxury by any means. It affects app load times, Windows boot times, loading times for games as well as in-game performance for loading textures and such.

Your Nicehash advice does not advise OP about electricity consumption rates or actual PROFIT, only net gains. Extremely misleading.
Click to expand...

Not at all, I think it is very pragmatic advice - I only commented because of the earlier poor advice in my opinion. You may have your opinion though.

I myself have a 500GB SSD and find it essential. A 500GB drive is barely enough today even with a fibre line to re-install games when needed. R3000 if you have it, but a kid doesn't NEED it.

Other than wanting to run VM's, 8GB RAM is OK for now and there's no inefficiency in adding it when it becomes an issue.
If I wanted to future-proof to that extent, I would rather forget about the i5-4460 and buy an entire new box. The 4460 is slower than my 6-year old i5.

Nicehash PROFITS were taken off the site today at electricity cost of 0.17USD which is our high consumption bracket. Realistically you could make 80% or 120% of that. Or 0% since things change. I'm sure the OP can decide for himself... it's just something which I took into account in the past and provided me with a free GPU upgrade.
 
Okes I disagree entirely with the focus on SSD. When it comes to games it is nothing more than a quality of life feature. If the PC can't run the game in the first place the SSD is a white elephant. To run games the GPU is all that really matters.

For gaming PC the priorities are as follows (factoring in the existing setup in the OP):
Phase 1: GPU (spend maximum amount here that you can)
Phase 2: SSD (it really is awesome and worth it)
Phase 3: CPU & Motherboard refresh
Phase 4: 16GB DDR4 Ram now that you have the motherboard to support it
Bonus phase to be slotted in wherever: Monitor/UHD TV - depending on the room setup, 4k TV's are more and more becoming of a viable option. A 40" TV on special is cheaper than a gaming monitor. You are also going to get HDR support which makes a MASSIVE difference to perceived beauty

Note: I could be totally wrong on the TV part :o
 
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