Need help figuring out my next build / upgrade

BeeFifty8

Hey guys,

So I’ve been running a Lenovo IdeaCentre Gaming 5i (Intel) that I bought about 2 years ago and it’s been great but I’m starting to feel the limits. Specs are:

• 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
• 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
• 512GB SSD

It’s handled most stuff fine but lately I’ve had to lower settings on games like Wukong, Warframe, Elden Ring, etc and my storage is basically full. I also have an LG UltraGear 144hz monitor with G-Sync (need to double check the exact model).

One thing that kinda pushed me to think upgrade was when I downloaded Throne & Liberty. I was hyped to try it but literally just sitting at the main menu my fans kicked up so loud I turned the PC off because I didn’t want to risk frying it. Didn’t even try messing with settings after that.

Also when I play CoD at my friend’s place on his PS5 it feels so much simpler and looks great right out of the box, while I’m over here having to re-do all my settings after each update just to get decent FPS (I know CoD is bad with optimization but still).

What I’m looking for:

• Something that’ll last me at least 5 years
• Be ready for GTA 6 when it drops
• Run my current games at high settings
• Doesn’t have to be top of the line, just really solid performance

Budget: around $2000 total (including a monitor if it makes sense to upgrade that too)

So I’m kinda stuck deciding…

• Should I upgrade what I have piece by piece or just build new?
• What CPU/GPU combo makes sense right now?
• Any RAM/storage upgrades you’d suggest?
• Is it even worth doing this now or should I just ride it out and maybe grab a PS5 when GTA 6 finally comes out?

Appreciate any advice or sample builds you guys can throw at me 🙏

magarity

I watched a teardown review of that Lenovo and it appears the main two problems are that the CPU cooler is the tiny Intel stock cooler combined with very small slits on the sides of the case front to let in cool air. This explains why the poor fan is running its hardest. Honestly most of those prebuilt systems suffer from this exact same problem.

Throne and Liberty's "recommended" system requirements are way lower than this Lenovo. I very, very strongly suspect the CPU and GPU are both thermal throttling themselves in that horrible case with the terrible ventilation.

The 12700 is a really good gaming CPU and the 3060 is still pretty good. You could consider getting only a new motherboard (standard layout), a decent tower cooler, and a new case that has proper ventilation with a standard power supply. This would be probably around 500 or 600 and would be a noticable difference. You could re-use the CPU, SSD, RAM, and 3060. Since you are running low on space, a motherboard that supports a second SSD would let you get another one for more storage without having to deal with reinstalling everything.

You can always get a better graphics card after that, but really the 12700 is good for gaming.