I'm looking to upgrade my wife's PC setup. Currently, she has an Intel i7 4790K, 16 GB of DDR3 1866 RAM, an MSI Z97 GAMING motherboard, an RTX 3070, and a 700W power supply. She mainly plays games at 1080P, with Hogwarts Legacy being the most demanding title, which the 3070 handles easily. However, she also plays The Sims with a lot of mods, so I believe upgrading to at least 32 GB of RAM is a must, as she's maxed out the 16 GB several times. She's also a fan of multitasking with multiple Chrome tabs and videos open. I want to move her up to a next-gen system, and I'm open to either AMD or Intel. If possible, I'd love to consider a DDR5 build, as long as it doesn't break the bank. My budget is flexible, ideally ranging up to 650 CAD. What upgrade options would you recommend?
4 Answers
If you're set on making a generational leap, consider the AMD 7500F along with a B650 motherboard and 32 GB of 6000MHz RAM. This setup would cost around $350 and keep your upgrade path open for the future. I wouldn't recommend going the AM4 route since it may limit your upgrade options down the line.
To get a solid upgrade within your budget, I recommend going for a Ryzen 5 9600X with a new motherboard and cooling system. You can grab a decent 32GB DDR5 RAM kit as well. A suggested build is available here: [PCPartPicker List](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/nj2xqH) which totals around $542 CAD. That'll give her great performance for both gaming and multitasking!
Without a power supply, there's a nice build here for just over $600 CAD: [PCPartPicker List](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/TtdJz6). Just use her existing power supply, GPU, and case to save costs!
It's worth considering that DDR4 RAM is more budget-friendly than DDR5 right now. You can build a solid AM4 Ryzen system that should do well, especially with a Ryzen 5 3600. Here's a rough part list that I made: [PCPartPicker](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/2QJ6KX). Pricing is usually decent for those components!
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