EDIT: Ok how I missed that your PC died I have no idea, I have a special talent specifically designed to miss the obvious right in front of me. What I said below still applies however
EDIT#2: Here's my recommendations (I struggled whether or not I should give them but here it goes.)
If you're gaming on 1080p >60Hz monitor try to aim for this system:
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (6C/12T), it will be more than enough for 1080p for the forseeable future - if you need something better wait until Ryzen 4000 is out and sell your R5 3600 online, it will sell since it's a really good chip. Depending on how Ryzen 4000 series performs, I think the best gaming money/performance will proably be in the Ryzen 4600 or 4700 range.
- 32Gb of RAM (explenation is below why 32 instead of 16Gb), 3600MHz and not a single MHz below that. Ryzen chips run optimally at this speed (please don't force me to go into why, it's a long story and I've already written a wall of text.
- RTX 2060S or 2070S, SELL them quickly before RTX 3000 comes out - Nvidia has already discontinued the Turing-architecture (RTX 2000 series) from production, these will drop in price probably pretty quickly when the far superior 3000 series comes out. if they dont and RTX 3000 is disappointing, then the 2070S cards will last you a decent while.
- Motherboard: Aorus X570 Elite from Gigabyte. Hands down the best buck for performance in the x570 range, lots of features and connectivity, decent price and sadly the b550 lineup does a lot of compromises in this price range compared to this board. I even think Buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking (works with Gamers Nexus) did a review on X570 boards and said that this one's the hands down best one to get (price/performance).
If you want to go for Intel system as a baseline:
- Aorus z490 Ultra
- Intel i5 10600k, do a quick overclock and you can get i9 10900k performance in gaming at 1080p, nevermind higher resoultions since CPU matters less there.
- GPU and RAM recommendations the same.
The AMD-system will give you an upgrade path -
will cost you *far* less than a new Intel system and will have better features. In gaming you won't see the difference - and it will run cooler/quieter (Intel runs hotter). AMDs x570 platform has matured over a year and many of the early bugs have been squashed. It's a stable platform. Intel's z490 motherboards are not there yet - they will be, but not yet. There's also very large differences in how your CPU will behave depending on which z490 motherboard you get and from what company. ASUS for instance adheres to Intel specifications when it comes to Boost clocks, where the others do not. It takes a bit more tweaking to get it sorted.
Also be careful of buying into the "it boosts to 5.X GHz!". Yeah that in general is marketing speak. Yes it does matter - but not to such a degree as the CPU manufacturers would like you to believe in gaming. Most people will never see the difference between a 4.6GHz boost from a Ryzen 9 3900x or a 5.3GHz boost from Intel's i9 10900k.
--------------------------------------------General Recommendations--------------------------------------------
Alright, a few things:
1) I am not a shill for any company, I am only trying to offer the best advice that I can with the knowledge I have.
2) I am not a shill for any company.
3) A lot of this is based on rumours within the industry and sources from big Techtuber channels, but also sites like videocardz etc.
Oh and ...1) and 2) again.
WIth that out of the way, let's get going:
Should you futureproof? This is a big question but my opinion is: Yes to some extent. You can't futureproof a PC for 10 years, but if your hardware is heavily outdated within 2 years or even 3 years, you should consider investing in slightly better hardware.
Unless you absolutely have to upgrade now: my advice is to
wait. Nvidia, AMD and Intel are all on the cusp of releasing new technology. You are also looking to play a CPU and GPU demanding game (TW: Warhammer III, assuming it will be since I and II were).
Later this year or early next year (assumed, nothing confirmed) Intel may release 11th gen CPUs (yes most techtubers agree that 10th gen CPUs are a stopgap measure to stay on top of "gaming performance" and are not worth the money in general. If any they do recommend the i5 10600k which has more or less the same performance as the i7 8700k. if not being slightly ahead) and you can OC it *easily* to i9 10900k performance on 1080p.
GPU:
I assume that you will be playing in 1080p or 1440p at >60Hz monitors. This is where a good chunk of your PC gaming budget should go, assuming you play graphically demanding games, that also includes TW: Warhammer 3 if you want to crank up the settings.
Nvidia will (rumoured) release their new line of RTX 3000 series GPUs this september, AMD to follow with "Big Navi"/ "Navi 2X" which is rumoured by people in the industry to be on par with the top of the line RTX2000 cards or a lot faster if you look at the top of the line Navi 2X performance. If I were you I'd wait and pick something in the line of a RTX 3070 or AMD 6800XT (assuming what they're gonna be called, we simply dont know yet). Both will more than likely deliver amazing performance and hopefully not ruin your budget.
CPU:
- Intel's stuck on their 14nm process node, and they've pushed it as far as they are able really. It runs hot, has between 5-15% better gaming performance. It overclocks very nicely but requires a decent cooler. If you want to run a i7 10700k you'd have to invest in a pretty decent cooler (240mm All in one liquid cooler, AIO, for instance or larger). If you can wait (a bit), do consider waiting for AMDs Ryzen 4000 series or Intel 11th gen.
- AMD has been on a roll the past 12 months. While they are not the best of the best in gaming, the difference for most gamers is miniscule, even on 1080p, but especially on higher resolutions such as 1440p or 4k because you are more GPU-bound then than you are CPU-bound. AMD offers more cores/threads, and if you do anything other than gaming, in most applications AMD will absolutely destroy Intel chips in performance. In gaming the top of the line AMD chip is (AT THIS MOMENT with Ryzen 3000 processors) roughly 5% behind Intel in gaming performance. Their chips come with their pretty decent stock coolers (Wraith and Prism coolers, except their new XT chips, don't get those - they're a waste of money for <3% performance gain) and they generally cost roughly 100 USD less than their Intel counterparts.
If you can wait: I'd wait at least until Ryzen 4000 comes out (rumoured later this year, september or october would be my guess together with their GPU-launch of Navi 2X.
AMD also supports new technology that Intel does not yet (PCI-Express 4.0, but that won't matter for anyone unless you're gonna invest in PCI 4.0 SSDs that will use that bandwidth. It might matter in a few years though when new technology comes out and you want to upgrade a potential graphics card that may (or not) use that extra bandwidth. It's worth considering at least. The AMD B500-series motherboards are unlocked and you can OC on them, the Intel counterparts are not.
Yes it does sound like I'm advocating for AMD systems right now, and I am. Intel has sadly been sitting on its' laurels and they've been making refreshes of a processor from 2016. And yes I'm running an intel system myself.
RAM:
- RAM has come down in price and I'd get 32Gb just for that reason, especially if you want to do other things on your PC at the same time while you're gaming. Hello Chrome. Yes I'm looking at you Google Chrome. You like to eat your RAM. A lot of it.
PSU:
-
Do *not* cheap out on this. This is the one component on your PC that can fry your entire system if you try to cheap out on it and you're unlucky. I'd go with a 650-ish Watts (err on the higher end here, for upgrades in the future) and a 80+ Gold rating. Notable brands I can recommend are Corsair, Seasonic and EVGA.
PC Case:
- This is important. High end components run hot and need to be cooled effectively. I'd recommend watching the YT channel Gamers Nexus for the best brands. I believe they usually recommend Phanteks P400a, CoolerMaster 500P, NZXT 500-series. Again do some research here. I'm running a Lian Li 011 Dynamic XL and it's easily the best chassis I've ever worked with - works great for Aircooling even though it's designed for custom water loops. Just make sure that your PC can breathe and doesn't sit in a corner and sucking in dust
High Airflow=lots of crap can get in. Clean it on a regular basis for optimal performance. More temperature=lower GPU/CPU clocks=slower gaming experience.
Storage:
500Gb SSD for system drive, 1Tb SSD (NvME or SATA doesn't really matter for gaming) and another 2TB for mass storage (I suggest a hybrid drive like thet Seagate Firecuda drives).
CPU cooling:
- You can go either AIO (all in one liquid cooling, I'd recommend watching some vids on youtube for ones you're interested in, again check out Gamers Nexus on YT for this) but most AIOs perform more or less the same. NZXT has released a new Z-series AIOs that are awesome, but they're also very expensive.
- For Aircooling, I'd stick with Noctua probably, their tower coolers are hands down among the best if not the best.
Fans:
- If you want to or need to buy case fans: Go with Noctua's Chromax fans. They're hands down the best on the market. A bit pricey but as I mentioned before - cooling is essential for performance.
RGB:
Is RGB important to you? I recommend running as many components then as possible from *one* brand (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI) - if you run different brands they can have serious mismatching issues where the RAM sticks wont be able to properly take commands from your Motherboard's RGB, you won't be able to sync them and if you have to run 4 different programs in the background just to control the lights: It will eat up a lot of PC resources just for running and...at least to me that's unacceptable.
I suggest prioritizing everything else however before you start considering adding some bling to your system.
Again if this wasn't perfectly obvious:
These are my opinions and I'm in the process of upgrading my PC as well - I'm waiting. I'm reading up on what's coming and how things stand today.
I suggest checking out the following Youtube channels:
Gamers Nexus (
very detailed reviews)
Paul's Hardware (down to earth and serious talk much of the time, not boring - just to the point and concise with his reviews)
Hardware Unboxed (Probably my favourite. Decent balance between detailed reviews (for youtube), humour and being concise)
Bitwit (Fun but still serious. Has a nice recurring podcast with Paul from Paul's Hardware)
Jarrod's Tech (more laptop oriented)
Linustechtips (bit of a goofy tone, but they do have episodes where they're more serious, probably the largest tech tuber in the world)
JayzTwoCents (Same as above, but when sits down to talk serious to his audience, he doesn't mess about. Also his Ifixit commercials are hilarious if you come across those)
AS FOR EVERYTHING I'VE SAID. YOU ARE YOUR OWN PERSON AND I CAN NOT MAKE THESE DECISIONS FOR YOU. Please review, research, talk to people online - and SET A BUDGET. Do not go over that budget. Do not waste absolutely more money than what you're comfortable with.
If you wish to have a word in a discord chat or something over this, I'm happy to oblige.
best regards and good luck!
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