PC Upgrade Assistance

So you ideally want an NVME like this one R1249 for 500gb is decent enough. R2425 for 1tb


You can get away with a 12th gen i5 cpu and it has basic ram and motherboard that runs the nvme too

www.computermania.co.za

ASUS Intel Core i5 12th Gen 8GB Essential Upgrade Kit

Looking to upgrade your current PC? We have put together the perfect combination of a high performance latest 12th Gen i5 CPU, Motherboard and RAM for those seeking to bolster their current PCs with modern technology or even those wanting to build a new PC from scratch.
www.computermania.co.za www.computermania.co.za

Case is about R1k at takealot depending what you like.

Then Computer Mania has those MSI of Cougar PSU also, check how much power you will need. Its about R1k there about too. I have seen enough fancy Antec PSU's blow in my lifetime, including the idiots who think that thermal fans are meant to spin, so they must be faulty and cut out the perfectly working fan in a psu to replace it. Yes if it gets too hot, it will turn on automatically.
 
32gb is actually preferred for a game like Fortnite. So its game dependant. You can get away with 16gb but 32gb is better.

If you are into Video Editing and Image Rendering especially CAD Work etc. Then 32gb is like the minimum, you want to run about 128gb of Ram.

But for gaming 32gb is more than enough, although you can start out with 16gb.
 
Corelli said:
GeForce goes better with Intel.
Click to expand...
The opposite has actually been true the last 2 years or so. The Nvidia driver has more CPU overheads and AMD CPUs perform more efficiently than Intel, so their is more power budget left for performance on AMD compared to Intel for overheads.

Here is a video on the Nvidia overhead problem on entry level CPUs.
Corelli said:
Quite honestly, get the cheapest motherboard as you already have a gfx card. Just decide if it need wifi too, a stock standard cooler is fine too, get a nice case so it look more bling but dont overspend.
Click to expand...
Very true that most people overdo it with the cooler. If you are buying a midrange AMD chip, the stock cooler is fine, unless you need to PC to be quieter.
Corelli said:
In all the years building gaming and cad machines, these super conductor crap motherboards made no difference, unless you want specific audio or specific onboard graphics and connections.
Click to expand...
Do note that many of those entry level motherboard have significant IO bottlenecks, if you ever plan to use more than 1 NVME drive

But that has to do with the chipsets used.

Buy the cheapest motherboard with the chipset and IO you want.

As corelli suggests, more power phases, bigger heatsinks and all those "quality" indicators only really matter if you use the top spec CPU and RAM and you want to overclock.
 
Lupus said:
No 4 is better than 2
Click to expand...
If you're after the best you can milk out of your pc, then 2 sticks perform better in games for AMD since the ryzen platform launched. 4 sticks as mentioned can have stability issues when overclocking and less performance if just using stock settings.
Intel is a different story though
 
Last edited:
Corelli said:
Samsung Pro - tops
Samsung Evo Plus middle
Samsung 980 bottom (I would skip this one completely).
Click to expand...
+1

With SSD/NVME drives you are buying 3 thing mostly
1. Controller
2. NAND modules
3. On board RAM - DRAM buffer

For an OS and game drive, you want decent controller, with TLC NAND modules and a DRAM buffer.

You especially want to avoid drives that don't have the latter. They are called Dram-less drives and they are only good for bulk storage., which is why you want to avoid the Samsung 980 non pro or non evo.

My go to drive at the moment is this Kingston KC3000.
www.wootware.co.za

Kingston SKC3000S/1024G KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive

Buy Kingston SKC3000S/1024G KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

It's an excellent Phison E18 controller, micron TLC NAND and has a good fast DRAM buffer.

But keep en eye out for Samsung drives at a good price. If you can get one within a few hundred rand, I would get the Samsung.
 
Sapphiron said:
+1

With SSD/NVME drives you are buying 3 thing mostly
1. Controller
2. NAND modules
3. On board RAM - DRAM buffer

For an OS and game drive, you want decent controller, with TLC NAND modules and a DRAM buffer.

You especially want to avoid drives that don't have the latter. They are called Dram-less drives and they are only good for bulk storage., which is why you want to avoid the Samsung 980 non pro or non evo.

My go to drive at the moment is this Kingston KC3000.
www.wootware.co.za

Kingston SKC3000S/1024G KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive

Buy Kingston SKC3000S/1024G KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

It's an excellent Phison E18 controller, micron TLC NAND and has a good fast DRAM buffer.

But keep en eye out for Samsung drives at a good price. If you can get one within a few hundred rand, I would get the Samsung.
Click to expand...

What is your opinion with this as a combo?

https://www.wootware.co.za/amd-100-...7ghz-4-6ghz-boost-socket-am4-desktop-cpu.html


https://www.wootware.co.za/asus-rog...-b550-socket-am4-atx-desktop-motherboard.html
 
Pulserider said:
What is your opinion with this as a combo?

https://www.wootware.co.za/amd-100-...7ghz-4-6ghz-boost-socket-am4-desktop-cpu.html


https://www.wootware.co.za/asus-rog...-b550-socket-am4-atx-desktop-motherboard.html
Click to expand...
Its an overkill motherboard, but its a good price for it.

Normally I would say save your money and get this one, but not at only R100 cheaper
www.wootware.co.za

ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard

Buy ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

For the CPU, I would try to get one of the AMD X3D models. These are gaming optimized chips (they have an extra layer of L3 Cache on top of the CPU) are 20-30% faster in gaming than their non 3D version.

The 5600X3D just got launched at $200, but I don't see it available locally yet. Might be a month before we see it.

But you can get the $250 5700X3d, which gives you two extra cores.
www.wootware.co.za

AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included

Buy AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

Wootware does seem to have the best price for it. Just note it does not include a cooler, but a basic cooler should be fine.
Excellent cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/scythe-scfm-3000-fuma-3-120mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
just fine cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/id-cooli...mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
 
Sapphiron said:
Its an overkill motherboard, but its a good price for it.

Normally I would say save your money and get this one, but not at only R100 cheaper
www.wootware.co.za

ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard

Buy ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

For the CPU, I would try to get one of the AMD X3D models. These are gaming optimized chips (they have an extra layer of L3 Cache on top of the CPU) are 20-30% faster in gaming than their non 3D version.

The 5600X3D just got launched at $200, but I don't see it available locally yet. Might be a month before we see it.

But you can get the $250 5700X3d, which gives you two extra cores.
www.wootware.co.za

AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included

Buy AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

Wootware does seem to have the best price for it. Just note it does not include a cooler, but a basic cooler should be fine.
Excellent cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/scythe-scfm-3000-fuma-3-120mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
just fine cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/id-cooli...mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
Click to expand...
You will never see the 5600X. It is a US-only part, exclusively available through Microcenter.

The 5700X3D is the one to get. 3-5% slower than the 5800X3D so you're not losing much.
 
Lupus said:
No 4 is better than 2
Click to expand...
Do you have a citation for this?
Unbuffered RAM is significantly less stable with 4 sticks than 2 due to signal degradation, is my understanding.
On my SuperMicro servers the board even tells you that if you install 4 sticks your RAM will be clocked lower.
I have yet to see platforms where they recommend 4 over 2 in performance scenario.
 
Gnome said:
Do you have a citation for this?
Unbuffered RAM is significantly less stable with 4 sticks than 2 due to signal degradation, is my understanding.
On my SuperMicro servers the board even tells you that if you install 4 sticks your RAM will be clocked lower.
I have yet to see platforms where they recommend 4 over 2 in performance scenario.
Click to expand...

https://www.techspot.com/article/2140-ryzen-5000-memory-performance/

The single rank vs dual rank thing...4 SR sticks used to be the easiest way to guarantee you ended up with dual rank.

It's not a concern for a reasonable combination of hardware where the GPU is usually the limiting factor.
 
Sapphiron said:
Its an overkill motherboard, but its a good price for it.

Normally I would say save your money and get this one, but not at only R100 cheaper
www.wootware.co.za

ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard

Buy ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI II AMD B550 Ryzen Socket AM4 ATX Desktop Motherboard at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

For the CPU, I would try to get one of the AMD X3D models. These are gaming optimized chips (they have an extra layer of L3 Cache on top of the CPU) are 20-30% faster in gaming than their non 3D version.

The 5600X3D just got launched at $200, but I don't see it available locally yet. Might be a month before we see it.

But you can get the $250 5700X3d, which gives you two extra cores.
www.wootware.co.za

AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included

Buy AMD 100-100001503WOF Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core 4.1GHz Socket AM4 Desktop CPU - Cooler Not Included at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

Wootware does seem to have the best price for it. Just note it does not include a cooler, but a basic cooler should be fine.
Excellent cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/scythe-scfm-3000-fuma-3-120mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
just fine cooler - https://www.wootware.co.za/id-cooli...mm-black-pwm-premium-high-end-cpu-cooler.html
Click to expand...

Between the two motherboards that is separated by R100 will you go for the link I posted or the Tuf one? Then Memory https://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-...-3200mhz-cl16-1-35v-black-desktop-memory.html
 
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