I'm looking to upgrade my very old PC from 2017 for light gaming and development. I'm planning to get a 14th gen i9 and an RTX 5060, and I want to save some money by reusing my m.2 SSD that I upgraded only a year or two ago. However, RAM prices are pretty high right now, and I was considering getting a DDR4 motherboard for around $100 to utilize my 32GB DDR4 RAM from my old setup. My thought is that I could upgrade to DDR5 RAM and a new motherboard later on when prices come down. Is this a good plan or should I reconsider?
6 Answers
You might notice a big performance boost just by upgrading your GPU. If you have something like a Ryzen 2600, it won’t be totally left behind by a GeForce 5060.
Your plan seems reasonable, but I wouldn’t skimp on the motherboard quality. Always do thorough research, just like you would with any other component, because cheap motherboards can lead to issues down the line.
Going with a DDR4 system is totally fine! It might not be as fast as DDR5, but it's much more budget-friendly right now. Just make sure to stick with a reputable brand and avoid used motherboards.
Why are you opting for the i9? That seems like a lot of power for light tasks!
If you're mostly doing light tasks, a less powerful CPU might save you money to put toward DDR5 RAM. Just curious why you chose such a high-end CPU!
Oh, I can get Intel chips for half off, so it’s not a big price jump for me.
What's the speed of your current RAM? If it’s something like 2400 MHz, it might hinder your CPU's performance a bit. You could run CPU-Z to check and share images if that helps! Also, what’s your budget for upgrades?
I’m not near my computer right now, but I think it’s the slower DDR4.
I can actually get it at half price, so it makes it more affordable for me.