Need a new PC and could use some advice

[FlexpertHamilton]

Here are my specs:

CPU: Intel Core i5 6600 @ 3.30GHz
GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (EVGA)
RAM: 20GB DDR4 (4+4+4+8)

Chassis: RAIDMAX Viper II Mid-Tower ATX gaming case (white/black)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 120mm Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ Copper Cold Plate 120mm Fan
Mobo: ASUS Z170-K ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, 1 SATA Express, 6 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2
PSU: Corsair CX650M CX Series Modular 80 PLUS BRONZE

Drives:

• 120GB Sandisk m.2 SSD
• 3GB Toshiba HDD
• 1TB Pioneer SSD
• 500 GB Western Digital SSD
• 8 TB Seagate HDD

Accessories:

• WiFI Adapter: GIGABYTE 867 Mbps Wifi + Bluetooth Dual Antenna PCI-E Adapter
• Fan Controller: Lamptron CM430 LCD Panel
• Mouse: Logitech G403 Hero RGB (25,600 dpi)
• Keyboard: Logitech G213 Prodigy Mechanical RGB backlight
• 2.1 Logitech Speakers

I built PC way back in 2016 so I don't know if it's typical for hardware to start to "rot" after this long or if my specs simply won't cut it anymore. I think it's the former not the latter; certain games that I used to run quite well now have really bad performance issues. So something is wrong.

Last night I completely cleaned out the PC, did cable management, and reseated CPU with good thermal paste and did a fresh Windows reinstall and it didn't help either. Tried all sorts of tricks too like adding more virtual memory, aggressively disabling Windows bloatware, playing around with UEFI/Nvidia settings, etc.

I could maybe get $800 for this system, and I'd be willing to dish out another $200 or so on top of that. Could a $1000 desktop PC offer better performance than what I have? Like I said, even if I bought something that's a "downgrade" it might still have better performance since it won't be 8 years old. I don't need something top of the line just enough to play games at 1440p 60fps and use editing software like Premier.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

Did you want to buy a system ready to go or build your own? There often are some decent deals on desktop rigs:

Desktop Computers Deals, Sales & Special Offers - October 2026

Looking for Desktop Computers deals? Check out the latest sales & special offers. Start saving money today!

www.techbargains.com

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Did you want to buy a system ready to go or build your own?

Whatever is cheaper. I am not convinced it's cheaper to build your own PC anymore, since manufacturers have cost-saving agreements/partnerships and economies of scale to significantly cut down on costs. A good GPU alone can run you $500, but you might be able to buy a prebuilt system with the same GPU for only $1000 total.

I would strongly prefer to build it myself but at this point I don't care about that as much as I care about the price/performance.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

Look at the link I added. I’m trying for find the deal tracker link I used to use.

edit: https://www.newegg.com/Newegg-Deals..._sp=EventStore-categorydeal-_-computersystems

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Look at the link I added. I’m trying for find the deal tracker link I used to use.

edit: https://www.newegg.com/Newegg-Deals/EventSaleStore/ID-9447?N=100006550 4841&cm_sp=EventStore-categorydeal-_-computersystems

The link from your other post had nothing good but newegg had some good stuff.

This one in particular has a RTX 4060! https://www.newegg.com/msi-codex-r-13nuc5-075us/p/N82E16883151327?Item=N82E16883151327

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Whatever is cheaper. I am not convinced it's cheaper to build your own PC anymore, since manufacturers have cost-saving agreements/partnerships and economies of scale to significantly cut down on costs. A good GPU alone can run you $500, but you might be able to buy a prebuilt system with the same GPU for only $1000 total.

I would strongly prefer to build it myself but at this point I don't care about that as much as I care about the price/performance.

The difference is you can buy retail boxed parts for the same price(or a little less if you get them on a sale) as the OEM quality stuff you get in pre-built computers.

Basically it's a quality issue. Retail boxed parts will last longer in general than OEM which are the ones that are "not good enough" to be retail boxed as they have some issues or imperfections.

I've built my own since I was in my teens and have gone thru about 4-5 different ones since then. Always upgraded due to need before they died out.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

There’s also the benefit in only dealing with one vendor when you need hardware support, as opposed to separate vendors and varying warranties.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

The difference is you can buy retail boxed parts for the same price(or a little less if you get them on a sale) as the OEM quality stuff you get in pre-built computers.

Retail boxed parts will last longer in general than OEM which are the ones that are "not good enough" to be retail boxed as they have some issues or imperfections.

I'm not following you here...what do you mean by retail boxed parts? I don't see how there is any difference between hw components in retail vs prebuilt. The price is completely inconsistent and another discussion though.

Here’s a comparable one that’s a bit cheaper

https://www.newegg.com/p/3D5-002P-00044?sdtid=17257540

I have 32gb ram in mine, but I think it’s overkill for what I do. You can always add RAM later.
I would add an NVMe as your boot drive and use the SSD for storage

That looks solid I might go with that.




Also does anyone actually know if my original point stands? Is "hardware decay" a thing? Again I'm talking like, 5+ yrs, since I built mine in 2016. I always thought hardware either worked or didn't, I don't really know what degraded performance even means if you can rule out overheating. My CPU in particular seems like it's always working near capacity, in spite of having liquid cooling and reapplied thermal paste.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

Are you using it for gaming? Will you overclock? There things require running the system much harder, as I'm sure you realize. Anything under stress will age more quickly.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Are you using it for gaming? Will you overclock? There things require running the system much harder, as I'm sure you realize. Anything under stress will age more quickly.

Yes, lots of gaming. I've always figured the reasons most PCs because slow over time is due to software rot/bloat not hardware (once you rule out cooling performance)

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

Usually a quad or 8 core i5+ is going to be fine as long as you can upgrade your graphics card IMO. The other thing I’d do is find a version of windows that is pared down for gaming, meaning services turned off and background services turned off unless critical- every cycle counts. I also used to wipe my drive and reinstall the OS at least once a year.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

The other thing I’d do is find a version of windows that is pared down for gaming, meaning services turned off and background services turned off unless critical- every cycle counts. I also used to wipe my drive and reinstall the OS at least once a year.

Yes I do OS reinstalls often as well but not once a year. But I have clean installed Windows on other drives to test games and it never makes any difference anyway except in the case of games crashing due to errors. I always aggressively disable windows services/bloatware too.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

There’s also the benefit in only dealing with one vendor when you need hardware support, as opposed to separate vendors and varying warranties.

I'm a software engineer. I usually end up giving the support people the support in the end since they usually don't know what the fvck they are talking about.

More than once I ended up calling places back once I figured out the issue myself when they said they couldn't help with it because they claimed it had nothing to do with their product(usually lies they tell when they can't figure it out and that's their catch all bucket) to let them know what the issue was and next time someone calls in with my issue to tell them try what I did.

However, the bigger point is that by using retail parts, you will almost eliminate these situations. I've rarely had a retail part go bad...plenty of OEM parts go bad.

 

[MatureDJ]

Drives:

• 120GB Sandisk m.2 SSD
• 3GB Toshiba HDD
• 1TB Pioneer SSD
• 500 GB Western Digital SSD
• 8 TB Seagate HDD

8 TB drive? You must have an awful lot of pr0n.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

I’m sure the assembled have seen the config files you can install windows with that disable stuff to make a gaming rig install easier. Just a thought.

 

[MatureDJ]

Usually a quad or 8 core i5+ is going to be fine as long as you can upgrade your graphics card IMO. The other thing I’d do is find a version of windows that is pared down for gaming, meaning services turned off and background services turned off unless critical- every cycle counts. I also used to wipe my drive and reinstall the OS at least once a year.

I simply terminate all unnecessary processes using Process Hacker.

It's far too painful for me to wipe & reinstall everything on such a regular basis (I've got A LOT of apps installed).

 

[MatureDJ]

I always aggressively disable windows services/bloatware too.

Absolutely.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

https://www.newegg.com/p/3D5-002P-00044?sdtid=17257540

I ended up buying this, and I already have offers for my current PC for $900 so I'm somehow making $$ from this

I simply terminate all unnecessary processes using Process Hacker.

It's far too painful for me to wipe & reinstall everything on such a regular basis (I've got A LOT of apps installed).

Process Hacker is great, but you still run into software decay over time. I think a lot of that comes the registry getting bloated over time. And Windows Update always breaks things too so I have kept it disabled and activate windows with a KMS. Though you can actually clean up the registry using Revo Uninstaller, it searches for all of a programs reg entries when you uninstall it and lets you remove them.

8 TB drive? You must have an awful lot of pr0n.

Nah, I torrent 4k blueray movies and entire TV shows. As you can see i'm currently using nearly 4tb worth just for that. In the process of setting up a media server with Kodi.

 

[Pierce Manhammer]

I use Plex

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Isn’t it interesting how a lot of dudes have no clue how to find a good bargain? Translates to how they manage their financials

Is that the case? I'm out of touch with what the everyman experience is.

I use Plex

Whats the difference