Righty ho, as is tradition I'm asking you guys for help I haven't done a proper upgrade since I upgraded for Skyrim back in 2011 :O Other than changing to an SSD and maybe putting in some extra RAM. I can't exactly afford it right now but the mobo seems to be dying a death; it'll randomly disconnect from the internet yet insists I'm still connected to the route. Internet isn't down coz Niall is sitting next to me still happily connected on his PS4. Considering I mainly play MMOs this is a big issue for me!

Budget I'm considering between £600 - £1000. Never spent this much before but never waited 9 years before either. I will need:
Motherboard
Graphics card
CPU
RAM (no clue what mine is but I'm sure it's out of date, if there's a chance it isn't though I can find out so you can advise me)
Sound card (usually stick with on board but want to really enjoy RDR2 - I won't be buying new speakers though so stereo output is all I'll have, I do have surround sound headphones though)
SSD - I have a 250gb one already but that's basically full with 3 MMOs + one random single player game I may have on at any time so need a spare one. That however is low priority as I'm coping with that for now so it can always come at a later date. I believe there are some new ones called M2 or something that's like a stick of RAM? I know my current one isn't one of those so mobo will need a slot for the old kind

Not got any massively system straining games at the moment other than Red Dead Redemption 2; this is my baby that I want to run on max graphics really. Everything else is older MMOs though suffering (WoW is on around medium graphics these days) and of course I want to future proof. Who knows what BG3 will need. I'll stick with the same case which is an old, full size tower.

I usually use scan.co.uk for my pc parts so pricing/links to there will be good though I'll shop around.

To be honest since the change to i5/i7 naming conventions I'm totally lost on what's good so I bow to your superior knowledge

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/tp-link ... rk-adapter

Your budget is not going to be enough for max everything in RDR2.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4TgfA ... bGkrcf.png

The minimum GPU would be roughly 300£
The CPU would be 370£
The mobo would be 200£
Ram would be 75£
500gb ssd would be 70£
PSU would be 40£

And this is only for 1080p, if you would to go for 1440p, multply everything with 1.5
If i remember correctly, the space req for RDR2 was over 100gb (officially its 150gb) and you need to keep 25% free on SSDs below 500gb capacity.
Also you should upgrade your case as well for usb3. Won't recommend any after market usb3 upgrades. Had one and it drove the machine insane. It kept booting up by itself and doing all sort of crazy sh*t.

You could make it work if you went for used CPU & Ram. Won't recommend used mobo unless its really high quality or very little used.

Jesus that's terrifying! My current rig runs RDR2 but lowest everything. Honestly, I was shocked it ran it at all. That's where most of my SSD space has gone currently as like you say it's around 100gb. Mind you, adding up those prices it's only a litlte over the max in my budget so could probably stretch to it. I mean I shouldn't be getting one at all since I've been off sick for 14 months but I'm trying to go back on low hours this month and have a bit of sick pay owed me plus the network messing around is forcing my hand.

I don't know how it works with hd etc. I don't intend to get a 4k monitor so those options can be toned down but I don't know if it's just such a thing these days that it's pretty much part and parcel in all gfx cards? I also didn't realise the case affected USB? Upgrade may be needed there too then. My poor SSD must hate me, never knew about keeping 25% free. I think at one point I had 5Gb spare space

You would have access to the usb3 ports on the mobo. You would have to attach a thumbdrive/ext.hdd behind the case to get the good speed. New cases have it on front panels for easy access. If this not an issue, might as well keep the case.

Small capacity SSDs take a large penalty to speed when they have less than 25% free. Do note that the percentage and speed hit varies somewhat for different manufacturers. But SSD speed will affect ingame Frames-per-second count.

Ok yeah well I don't use the USB that often for external stuff. Mouse and keyboard are of course plugged in the back and front is only used for my external hdd for back up. I don't do this very often; in theory every 6 months, in reality far less so case can be ignored.

Right I'm looking and just getting confused. I'm getting extra sick pay I wasn't expecting plus Niall and my parents are willing to put some towards it for my birthday, though no clue how much. So let's say I'm looking between £1000 - £1500. Tell me precisely what I should be looking at (options are nice!)

CPU:
GPU:
RAM:
SSD:
Mobo:
Sound:
PSU:

Treat me like a total n00b please. 1080p is fine, no 4k needed. Sound is only going to be stereo.

Considering that the task is to get a good gameplay experience of RDR2 at 1080p60fps@ultra, the following is the setup I would go with

CPU: Intel Core i7 9700KF, S 1151 (if available, i wouldn't want any integrated gpu crap in my machine)
GPU: ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (gpu-wise i would always choose Asus, not once have they failed on me)
RAM: 16GB (1x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-21300 (2666)
SSD: 500GB Samsung 860 EVO, 2.5” SSD (can go for bigger if budget allows)
Mobo: MSI Z390-A PRO, Intel Z390, S 1151 (just to save money and usb-c is a nice bonus)
Sound:
PSU: 700W EVGA GD, 80 PLUS Gold

Remember if the budget allows, kick up the GPU. It is going to give the biggest boost.

Thanks Peltz. I've priced all that up plus this sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy FX 5.1 Soundcard PCI Express OEM though not really sure that's needed and it comes to £1065.20 so that's not bad at all, although it's with the CPU KF on pre-order so that might have to get changed. Also logging in it seems I actually did do an upgrade in 2014 so it isn't as old as I thought, but still due one.

Any reason you chose a normal SSD over an M2? I'm looking on Scan and it seems there isn't a huge price difference (£10 extra for the Samsung 500GB M2) with the same read/write speeds. I was under the impression they're the latest, 'better' thing but might as well save a tenner if I'm wrong?

Sorry I'm asking so many questions, I've been so out of upgrading for ages I really have no clue.

You should probably go for the m2 version. From what i gathered from watching video comparisons is that if something takes 60 seconds to load on a SSD the m2 will get it done in 52 seconds. This should apply to Samsung models, not sure about others. Just be careful, as it ain't got much of a protection around it.

Ok a couple of things went out of stock/haven't been in stock since Dec so how does this look?

CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K Unlocked 9th Gen Desktop Processor/CPU Retail (KF has apparently been on pre-order since Dec so guessing it isn't coming in any time soon)
GPU: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB DUAL EVO V2 OC Edition Turing Graphics Card (the one I looked at before went out of stock about 2 hours ago
RAM: 16GB (1x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX Black, PC4-21300 (2666)
SSD: 500GB Samsung 860 EVO, 2.5” SSD (will put my current 250gb SSD in with it for extra space)
Mobo: MSI Z390-A PRO, Intel Z390, S 1151
PSU: 700W EVGA GD, 80 PLUS Gold

If it's all looking good and still in stock I'll order tomorrow.

Well i checked the prices on scan, and you should change up the gpu for 2070 non-super version. Its the same price but more fps. Probably go for the MSI one.

PS! Make sure long GPUs fit in your case.

This one? https://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-gef ... 620mhz-boo

Will do, I mean I assume they will as it's a standard sized case, not one of these small ones but will double check. Thanks Peltz!

Yup that's the one.

Woo! Well, ordered it. Should get it Friday (it's coming via DPD who seem to struggle with our carpark barrier though). Can't wait. Once it's up and running I'll spam some amazing RDR2 screenies hopefully.

Thanks again for the all the help and putting up with my questions