What now from here? Upgrade or sell off the PC?

Buying Advice Desktop & PC Buying Advice
1

I will give a quick version of what happened with my PC last year.

I was in college for couple of years, away from PC > GPU died while I was away > Borrowed friend’s dead GPU, fixed it, it died again in my PC > HDD and NVMe died with data > Scary noise comes from PC now since 1st Jan.

I believe the main culprit is PSU since the noise is coming from it, IDK should I open and replace the fan which makes the noise or just do away with it completely, after all there’s “case hardened” patina on my PCIe cable (metalic rainbow color with dark hue, burn marks I guess). 2 Fridges and this PC runs on the same rail, I guess that could have caused the PSU

I have no longer been playing games for a while now so I was thinking I might just sell the PC and buy a new one later when I get a better paying job.

PC specs: [This is not a formal post, just asking opinion about buying or selling]

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450m DS3H WiFi
RAM: 2x8GB GSkill Ripjaws DDR4 3000 @cl16
Monitor 1: LG 22MP68V-Q 21’’ 75Hz IPS
SSD: Kingston NV2 (RMA replacement for A2000 3 months old) 500GB (might not sell)
SSD 2: Crucial CX500 500GB SATA (might not sell)
SSD 3: WD Blue SN530(I guess) OEM drive from laptop
Case: Gigabyte C200
Fans: 3x CoolerMaster Value 120mm, 1x Gigabyte 120mm, 1xJonsbo120mm with Red led ring, 1x Arctic P14 140mm
Keyboard: Sk61-Red Optical Switch
Mouse: Logitech G102 (with Kailh Black switch)
Mousepad: Generic 900x400x3 mm, Logitech G240 300x240x0.5 mm
Not sure if I should list the PSU or not…

Friend’s old hardware thwy gave me to sell:

Monitor 2: Zowie XL2411P 24’’ TN 144Hz
GPU 1: MSI Gaming RX 580 8GB (good condition)
CPU 2: Ryzen 5 3500
GPU 3 [Broken] : Zotac 1660Ti (for parts)

The option of not selling includes:

Getting a used PSU from TE. (I saw few 80+Gold ATX 3 750W+ PSUs for 4k)
New PSU for 7k
New 9060XT 8GB for 34k
2TB HDD for 8k
Monitor for 14k
That’s at least 63 to 70k just for upgrades on this R5 3600 PC. I could have gone for used items but I don’t earn enough + family obligations aka low savings for lesiure items. So either I would have to go for EMI for very important stuff like PSU and HDD, or EMI for full upgrades (I’m 99% against getting into debt for silly reasons).

Or, should I consider a 50-60k gaming laptop, or a deskop upgrade for iGPU usage: 9600x, B850, 16GB DDR5, 750W Gold PSU for same 60K? This would be considered after selling the old PC partially or fully.

Please discuss with me and help me chose a path.

2

Sell it. Do a upgrade.

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3

Sell the CPU, Mobo, RAM, Monitor, PSU but keep your friends monitor and your SSD.

Buy all above along with a new 650w PSU.

Buy the following:

7600- 17k
MSI 650M mobo- 10k
16GB 5600Mhz CL30 ram -13k
Asrock Challenger 9060XT 16GB -40k
Any 650w PSU Gold rated -6k

Total -86k

2 Likes
4

I really do want to chose this route, but I have obligations so might not get to upgrade at once. By the time I would save up enough or gather parts one at a time, Ryzen 10-series should arrive.

I actually did saved enough for a new PC around Navratri but saw my RX470 was doing just fine and PC had sbsolutely no problem so gave it to my mother to buy the new freezer. A week later of this decision the Skyfalls, this is the 2nd freezer that runs on the same rails as my PC and perhaps the root cause.

I also have to sell my friend’s hardware. So a good option would be me buying their parts and drag the PC for another year or two, except I’ve used the AMD Polaris chip for 10 years and no longer wish to continue on that platform, gaming is ok but now I need encoders more, polaris encoders are dogshit (CPU encodes faster and 4th gen Intel iGPU has higher quality output).

How about this?
I just change the PSU and buy a GPU then later sell the entire thing except these two for the new gen PC?

5

There are so many old games worth playing. Don’t get used to debt at this age.

Assuming you want to play games going forward, my advice is to make do with minimum until you can afford better. Its a shit hardware market anyway. Give priority to what you need for study/work.

I used to play on igpu for the longest time. Had fun with many games too, we dont need the latest shiny stuff. With 580, atleast your vram isnt so bad and you should be able to use higher res textures for most of these older games.

My experience with gaming laptops ( or power heavy laptops in general) is that they suck for Indian conditions. They cost more for the performance and get choked full of dust within a year or 2, too much effort to clean and more risky too. I ended up destroying my laptop dgpu long ago this way. It only lasted 1 year until temps were too much. Now that may not happen for all, but still it doesnt seem worth it to me unless you need mobility, but in that case i would rather buy steam deck.

2 Likes
6

Buy a console for gaming and a laptop for productivity.

7

Yes, I’m totally against debt.

The thing is I no longer “feel” the feels I felt when I used to game on iGPU. I had started a challange to complete my game library (all pre 2020 games) before I upgrade my PC, because I thought the same, my RX470 could plough through all of my library at high with 90+fps, but can’t even do that now.

I’m starting to think to stay away from games for some more time and be back when life gets stable enough would be a good idea.

8

This makes the most sense, especially given:

  • The current shit show of a market
  • Debt traps

I gave up PCs and gaming for 6 years when I started working towards earning better for myself and leaving behind my old job that paid peanuts. I used to play emulators on my second-hand phone.

My tower alone is worth 2.8L today, which I upgraded after I achieved the above (with normal RAM prices). Bought parts over time, not at once. Not a single one on EMI.

4 Likes
9

Unless gaming is getting in the way of work/study, you can still play todays games which dont need high end systems. If burnt out, or its getting too addictive, yeah step away.

Just for example i am playing Shogun showdown and its a very good roguelike.

Nuclear throne is the best of them, and it should run on a potato. I still give it 50+ hours every year. FTL, old rpgs say baldur gates/planescape torment etc etc. If my gpu goes bust, i might play these type of games more until its replaced.

Loads of games like this, explore indie games and/or other genres. You can play AAA games of today some other day. Play with optimized/lower settings.

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