Question Spec up old gaming PC to full potential

[LukeWill]

Hello,

I've been out of touch with any type of gaming over a PC for these last few years and I'm looking to upgrade my old gaming PC to the best it can physically be and I require help from individuals who know a lot more about this than I do.

The current build of the PC is as follows:

GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H (Rev1.1/1.2 I believe) motherboard
INTEL i5-4440 CPU
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme CPU Cooler
GTX650 1024M 128B GPU
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL10
Corsair CX600M 600W 80+ Bronze (Semi Modular) PSU
Seagate 1tb hard drive
Two standard cooling fans
No SSD

I am not looking on changing the motherboard. I am looking to see what's the best CPU, GPU and SSD (with SATA) I can get that will go with this setup. I am also willing to upgrade the PSU if needs be. The only real understanding I have of possible upgrade is that an Intel i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad Core (LGA1151) is a good option, the rest I'm completely lost.

Could yall please assist me on making my wife angry that I'm spending money on a gaming PC.

Cheers, Luke

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Welcome to the forum.

The best CPU you can get is actually the I7 4790k.

Whats your maximum budget for these upgrades and what country are you in?

 

[LukeWill]

Welcome to the forum.

The best CPU you can get is actually the I7 4790k.

Whats your maximum budget for these upgrades and what country are you in?

My apologies I've made a typo with the LGA size, it's 1150 not 1151. I'm in England and I've been informed that the 4790K is discontinued and probably not best to buy anything off of ebay etc... I deffo got the 7700K info incorrectly.

 

[LukeWill]

My apologies I've made a typo with the LGA size, it's 1150 not 1151. I'm in England and I've been informed that the 4790K is discontinued and probably not best to buy anything off of ebay etc... I deffo got the 7700K info incorrectly.

I'd say my budget is probably 500 ish

 

[beastii]

Hello,

I've been out of touch with any type of gaming over a PC for these last few years and I'm looking to upgrade my old gaming PC to the best it can physically be and I require help from individuals who know a lot more about this than I do.

The current build of the PC is as follows:

GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H (Rev1.1/1.2 I believe) motherboard
INTEL i5-4440 CPU
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme CPU Cooler
GTX650 1024M 128B GPU
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL10
Corsair CX600M 600W 80+ Bronze (Semi Modular) PSU
Seagate 1tb hard drive
Two standard cooling fans
No SSD

I am not looking on changing the motherboard. I am looking to see what's the best CPU, GPU and SSD (with SATA) I can get that will go with this setup. I am also willing to upgrade the PSU if needs be. The only real understanding I have of possible upgrade is that an Intel i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad Core (LGA1151) is a good option, the rest I'm completely lost.

Could yall please assist me on making my wife angry that I'm spending money on a gaming

View: https://youtu.be/FnfmEe4IoHM?si=Hoglscfbv303ip9J

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

My apologies I've made a typo with the LGA size, it's 1150 not 1151. I'm in England and I've been informed that the 4790K is discontinued and probably not best to buy anything off of ebay etc... I deffo got the 7700K info incorrectly.

I had a 7700K until 3 years ago, they released in 2017 IIRC, its most definitely discontinued so that would be second hand as well. Intel are at the 14 series now.

Unfortunuately you've been misinformed. It doesnt matter about the socket, it might physically fit but its not supported in the chipset. Intel did this for a few years with socket 1150 and then 1151. 4790K is the best you can get that's compatible with that motherboard, sorry!

GA-B85M-D3H (rev. 1.0/1.1) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

For 500 though? Hmm.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-10100F 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£64.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: MSI B560M PRO-E Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£41.94 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£250.02 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CV650 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.99 @ Corsair UK)
Total: £523.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-19 14:20 BST+0100

This would play any modern game at OK settings. CPU is (edit sorry just checked) just a little slower than 7700K, but now you have DDR4 RAM at least. I wouldn't want to put a much faster GPU than this with a 4790K anyway. This would be faster all round and potentially allow you to put a faster CPU in later too. Don't get too crazy though, an I5 maximum as the motherboard and PSU are decent but budget tier.

Might be someone else with build ideas for 500 too, wait and see a bit

 

[LukeWill]

I had a 7700K until 3 years ago, they released in 2017 IIRC, its most definitely discontinued so that would be second hand as well. Intel are at the 14 series now.

Unfortunuately you've been misinformed. It doesnt matter about the socket, it might physically fit but its not supported in the chipset. Intel did this for a few years with socket 1150 and then 1151. 4790K is the best you can get that's compatible with that motherboard, sorry!

GA-B85M-D3H (rev. 1.0/1.1) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

For 500 though? Hmm.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-10100F 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£64.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: MSI B560M PRO-E Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£41.94 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£250.02 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CV650 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.99 @ Corsair UK)
Total: £523.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-19 14:20 BST+0100

This would play any modern game at OK settings. CPU is (edit sorry just checked) just a little slower than 7700K, but now you have DDR4 RAM at least. I wouldn't want to put a much faster GPU than this with a 4790K anyway. This would be faster all round and potentially allow you to put a faster CPU in later too. Don't get too crazy though, an I5 maximum as the motherboard and PSU are decent but budget tier.

Might be someone else with build ideas for 500 too, wait and see a bit

Smashing, thank you very much. I'll hang around for a bit to see if more ideas come through. Your help is much appreciated

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Smashing, thank you very much. I'll hang around for a bit to see if more ideas come through. Your help is much appreciated

Sure

I just threw together an AMD version that would blow the above out of the water, so theres that too.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£117.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte A520M K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£58.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£41.94 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger D OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£221.99 @ MoreCoCo)
Power Supply: Corsair CV650 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.99 @ Corsair UK)
Total: £536.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-19 14:41 BST+0100

 

[LukeWill]

Sure

I just threw together an AMD version that would blow the above out of the water, so theres that too.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£117.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte A520M K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£58.99 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£41.94 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger D OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card (£221.99 @ MoreCoCo)
Power Supply: Corsair CV650 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.99 @ Corsair UK)
Total: £536.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-10-19 14:41 BST+0100

Knocking them out the park here, thank you very much