I'm looking to upgrade my nephew's gaming PC as it's been a while since we built it. The current specs include an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X, a GTX 970 graphics card, and 32GB of RAM. He mostly plays Fortnite at 1080p, but I want the new setup to last around five years, especially as he plans to switch to a 1440p monitor soon. I'm considering getting him a used 2070 Super as a replacement GPU, but I'm also in need of suggestions for a mid-range AMD CPU and motherboard combo. I plan to keep his storage, but I'm concerned that the power supply may need replacing and that the RAM might be DDR3, which I'd rather avoid due to costs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
If you're aiming for a 5070 Super in the future, you might be looking at a significant upgrade. For mid-range CPUs, consider the Ryzen 5 5600X or even a 7800X3D for great performance. DDR5 RAM is quite pricey at the moment, so sticking with AM4 and using his existing DDR4 RAM with a B550 motherboard could be a smart move. That way, when DDR5 becomes more affordable, you can do a full upgrade later.
That makes sense! Just curious, what advantages would the B550 board have over the current one? I know the A boards aren’t the best, but how much better is B550 in practical terms?