Ok... I have a confession to make that I am both ashamed, and proud of simultaneously: I am still using the same PC that I built in December 2011. I am ashamed because...damn!... nine years! I'm proud because the damned thing is still delivering the goods. It's the rig in my sig. Sure... SATA 3... PCI-E v2... yada yada... but I can still game at 1600P in most things if I get creative with settings. The oddest thing has happened though. I have become emotionally attached to the old thing. We've been through a lot together. Usually, in years passed when I upgrade or rebuild, my wife gets the old rig (or cannibalised parts from it), but this thing is just too power hungry, and too ridiculous. A 9 year old ROG Rampage IV is not something that can be re purposed sensibly, so it's time to be retired to silicon heaven soon, and I'm very, very upset. I'm not ready to start buying stuff yet, but I'm just wondering where to go. I'm initially thinking Ryzen 9 3900X.. AM4... 32Gb... RTX2070super... but just wanna hear some suggestions, as I've been out of the game for some time. My requirements haven't changed that much over the years, and some of you who remember me from years past will not be surprised to hear that digital photography is still the main big boy pants use for my PC, but the short trouser use remains similar too: The odd bit of high FPS twitchy stuff.. a lot of elite.. a lot of x-plane11. Train Sim, and Train Sim World are used often, but I also like to delve into whatever current triple A shizzle is current, with high settings at 1600p (my screen is 2560x1600). The screen is another thing: I MAY be prepared to sacrifice hardware calibration and IPS in favour of something 144hz and VA... maybe... Let's deal with the screen another time though. DV-I and 60Hz may not matter in Photoshop, but as a gaming rig?... blherg! It is still an awesome, big, hardware calibrated screen that, despite the use, still turns in impressive delta-E numbers, 400:1 contast ratios and can still pump out 300cd on full tilt if need be. It, like my rig, has aged well, and whichever way you cut it, it's was a £2300 screen that is in perfect working order, so I'm torn over what to do there. Advice please. As an aside... if anyone ever tells you that going absolutely bonkers with spec and money if you have the chance is stupid, laugh at them. I built this in 2011 and it's still viable in most situations. I've NEVER in my life had a machine last as long as this. Sure, it's had a couple of GPU upgrades, but still... nine years! It may be a power hungry, mediocre/meh performer now, but this thing was awesome when I built it, and cost stooopid money, but I've got my money's worth, and then some.
*twists neck* I see the light! Cheers. What you've said sounds perfectly reasonable Pookey. I'd aim a little wee bit higher on the GPU myself, but I guess it depends on your use case. I've got a 2070s and it's a fine GPU, but it's the only thing I'd be hesitant on given both companies are launching newuns this year, and well you've waited 11 years. Plus you can always upgrade your GPU later. It's good value now the 5700 series are out.
I Know this feeling! I have a Maximus V Gene thats still going with a 3570k, I'm oddly attached to it! Its now my workstation machine, and when it dies I'll probably frame it! I guess the question is, how many pennies would you like to spend?
2080? 2080Ti? I would have thought the 2070super would be a good all rounder. Fair point. As always... I start out sensible, saying £1500, then end up spending three grand.. LOL. I don't know... sensibly, a lot will be re-used. The Corsair 650D is showing its age, but I can think of no reason to not use it. Monitor, as said above, is still probably going to stay. PSU is a Corsair HX1050 which I also see no reason to replace.... so given that it may only be Mobo, RAM, CPU and GPU, I'd say £1500 or so.
Pasted from my sig: MAIN RIG |Intel i7 3960X @ 4.7GHz ¦¦ H105 ¦¦ Asus Rampage IV Extreme ¦¦ 16Gb Mushkin DDR3 2133 ¦¦ 512GB Samsung 830 SSD ¦¦ 4TB of HDD Storage ¦¦ EVGA GTX980 Super-Clocked¦¦ Corsair 650D ¦¦ Eizo ColorEdge CG303W & Dell 2007FP ¦¦
@Pookeyhead After 9 or 10 years i'd consider a new PSU too. I know,, the glamour component! My Be Quiet gave out on my 3770 / Asus Z77 board after about the same length of time (they're thankfully fine and I only swapped over this year too ) But yeah, still working fine for what it's doing now.
my 4670k rig is still rocking from 2013 and its left on 24/7 and OC'd to 4.4ghz....added a gtx1070 upped the ram to 36gb and lots of hdds... prices for stuff over here are stupid so cant justify an upgrade atm... not that I need to tbh!
Yeh, this is what I did as 10 years is pushing it even for top end PSU's. I'd ignore PCIe 4 SSD's, they're not worth the mark up over gen 3 to be honest. Compared to Jeff's I'd drop the CPU, RAM and motherboard a bit and slam the pennies into the GPU, thusly Edit: I'd personally go for an Intel system, just because the kid in me want to see 5GHz!!!
At the risk of getting mistaken for a "nostalgeek", I just can't part with my old rigs the oldest from 2009 (Q9650/GTX 550TI) , likewise my AMD rig (FX 8370/R9 Nano), and even though my I7 4930K is still in the race, I coudn't resist against attractivness of a Ryzen platform ... shall I be ashamed or proud? unless I am simply nuts
Just figuring out when i have time to boot up the Abit X78 board and x2 Atlon myself... Really should use or sell my x58 kit though. Been saying that for a loooonnng time.
Thanks everyone for the thought food! The case has to go... no one has 5 1/4 drive bays any more OSU will be replaced... it's had a hard 9 years.. still working fione, but (shrug). The Corsair AIO is still working fine... nice and quiet, so may re purpose that. Thanks for the ideas, and feedback.
Ha.. sorry for thread resurrection, but Oh, how things change: Virus... Lockdown... Etherium... Mining demand... Scalpers... World semi-conductor shortage.... So here I am still on the rig I built in December 2011 (sigh). Looking back with fondness; innocently asking for build advice, as if I can just walk into Scan and actually buy things at MSRP LOL.
Well, the CPU shortage seems to have subsided. So you could get a new platform and only re-use your current GPU for now. I do Although not that I use it. I even recently bought a drawer for my 5.25" to hold the Wi-fi antenna and xbox receiver. The other 3 bays is used to mount a fan.
Indeed. Things are afoot. New case on way... just deciding on mobo and cpu. Almost tempted to stick it out a few more months to see what Alder Lake and Zen4 have to offer ... but then again, there's always something new around the corner. I'd like to jump aboard the PCIe5 and DDR5 train if I'm going to build another "future proof" machine though. Still deciding.
Strangely... after saying that, the case I've just ordered HAS a 5 1/4 inch bay LOL. It's stealthy, and can be removed though.
PCIe 5 and DDR5 would be an early 2022 jobbie. If you are willing to pay higher prices for the memory, I think it's definitely worth the wait. There's huge bandwidth increase all around, hopefully we'll see more similar amount of 10Gbps or higher USB-C on the boards as high end Macbook pros (current 1-2 is pitiful in terms of future-proofing). Personally, I'm undecided whether to wait ~two years when DDR5 price stabilise and upgrade whole computer to DDR5, or buy a second hand 5800x or 5900x next year when early adopters jump on DDR5 and be done with it for next 6+ years. Similar to you, my previous computer before mid-2020 was i7 2700k with 16GB RAM.
