Looking to upgrade my PC

[Tyler1999]

Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my PC gradually as I feel like its best for the upcoming games I am looking to play and due to my finding some performance of some games, its now time. I game at at 1440p.

Case PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU) AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER
1st Storage Drive 1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650
Processor Cooling Corsair H80i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans

Looking for recommendations on what I should upgrade first OR if Its best to collect the parts over time and do a full build ?

I have decided on the Fractal North XL case and been told it may be best to hold off on a GPU until Q1 2025 as new Nvidia cards will drop.

(Recently had a post for case fans breaking which I replaced and had some feedback on there on new components)

Thanks

 

[TonyCarter]

Where is it lacking performance?

The GPU should still be good for 1440p, but if you were to upgrade to a newer GPU you may find your 'office-spec' PSU will restrict what you can fit.

I'd also suggest that if they games are installed on the HDD, then you might be bottlenecking their asset loading due to it's very low speed...as most games now recommend being installed to an SSD (a fast m.2 NVMe one, rather than a 'slow' SATA one).

 

[Tyler1999]

Where is it lacking performance?

The GPU should still be good for 1440p, but if you were to upgrade to a newer GPU you may find your 'office-spec' PSU will restrict what you can fit.

I'd also suggest that if they games are installed on the HDD, then you might be bottlenecking their asset loading due to it's very low speed...as most games now recommend being installed to an SSD (a fast m.2 NVMe one, rather than a 'slow' SATA one).

Just found on some of the most recent games, I am having to drop to low/medium settings to get anywhere close to 144fps, even then its a struggle. OR the games I am playing just aren't optimized.

So getting a m.2 could be an easy upgrade potentially to make things load much quicker ? I install all my games on my SSD and manage it quite well with uninstalling games I no longer play etc. Would this be a noticeable difference from using a SSD ? Would it then be ideal to install my OS on the SSd or on the M.2 If I was to get a 2tb one or something ?

 

[TonyCarter]

You really want your games on a second SSD - and preferably a gen4/PCIe4 one at that (that motherboard will support them).

Having them on the second drives means the game is not competing for the same single SSD resources with the rest of the system (all those background tasks are running on the OS drive, remember).

The difference can be huge. For example:

• HDD = up to 150MB/s
• SATA SSD = up to 550MB/s
• gen3 m.2 SSD = up to 3500MB/s
• gen4 m.2 SSD = up to 7000MB/s

In your situation I'd buy a fast gen4 512GB m.2 SSD for Windows/Apps/Launchers...fast = Crucial P3 Plus (£50), faster = Solidigm P44 Pro (£60), fastest = Crucial T500 (£65)...and a slightly slower 1-2TB Solidigm P41 Plus (£60-£110).

 

[Tyler1999]

You really want your games on a second SSD - and preferably a gen4/PCIe4 one at that (that motherboard will support them).

Having them on the second drives means the game is not competing for the same single SSD resources with the rest of the system (all those background tasks are running on the OS drive, remember).

The difference can be huge. For example:

• HDD = up to 150MB/s
• SATA SSD = up to 550MB/s
• gen3 m.2 SSD = up to 3500MB/s
• gen4 m.2 SSD = up to 7000MB/s

In your situation I'd buy a fast gen4 512GB m.2 SSD for Windows/Apps/Launchers...fast = Crucial P3 Plus (£50), faster = Solidigm P44 Pro (£60), fastest = Crucial T500 (£65)...and a slightly slower 1-2TB Solidigm P41 Plus (£60-£110).

Okay yeah that makes sense as my OS is installed on my SSD along with my games. My HDD is not being used for anything really.

So your saying something like 'Crucial T500 500GB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD, Up to 7200MB/s' for my OS.

The a 2nd one, could I get the 'Crucial P3 Plus SSD 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 Internal SSD, Up to 5000MB/s' ?

Does my motherboard have two M.2 slots ? Would I then remove the SATA SSD completely ?

 

[TonyCarter]

Yes that's correct.

You can leave the SATA SSD and HDD in there if you wish (and use them as backup or storage drives), as there are plenty of ports in that motherboard:

• 2 x PCIe 4.0x4 m.2 sockets
• 8 SATA connections

 

[Tyler1999]

Yes that's correct.

You can leave the SATA SSD and HDD in there if you wish (and use them as backup or storage drives), as there are plenty of ports in that motherboard:

• 2 x PCIe 4.0x4 m.2 sockets
• 8 SATA connections

View attachment 41679

Okay perfect thanks.

This may be my first upgrade then to hopefully speed up my PC slightly.


Any other recommendations, feel free