9
Help me justify upgrading my pc (programming.dev)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by joshcodes@programming.dev to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have a B450 motherboard, 16gb DDR4 3200 RAM, 1660 Super gpu and a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU. I don't plan on updating the GPU this time, because I don't play a lot of games that require anything more, I'm playing a lot of older titles currently. The problem is this also makes me feel like I shouldn't update the pc at all.

I think I mostly just want to mess around with a decent home lab, but because I dont have an intended use case I'm struggling to justify. I also had parents who don't like to spend money on this sort of thing and I've got their disapproving voices in my head.

The plan is to upgrade to a 5900XT and 64 gb of ram and probably run a lot of virtual machines in a little lab environment but I'm not sure how often I'll have them all running so it could be overkill. The upgrade is about $700 all up too so not small but not too much. I know I'm extending the lifespan of a computer instead of e-wasting the entire thing but I'm still a little apprehensive.

Good idea or nah?

P.S. I run Linux Mint on all my machines if that somehow changes anyone's mind or is somewhat helpful? Can't let the arch users be the only ones to announce.

Edit: thanks for the replies. I went to bed so I'll try to reply to people as today goes. Thanks for the ideas and the one person who asked if I was a sex worker, you've made me laugh and think.

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

You could upgrade, but if you actually want to learn tech I would recommend getting a server. Grab an old HP or similar machine and chuck a few HDDs into it and install proxmox. Keep all the VMs off your main system and then you can shut down without impacting them. If you mess up badly you will still have your main system to help recover from the mistake.

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

In terms of learning tech, I'm not looking to learn in the traditional "home lab" sense. I work in cyber, and the vms I'd be running are likely different from a regular home lab. I'd be learning how to make a windows domain and how to attack/defend/configure. Realising now I should have said that in the post.

I do like the idea of having a server rack but I don't have any storage space for that so it's a future idea at the moment. Hence upgrading the tower to effectively be a server but also gaming.

[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 1 month ago

I'm still getting used to people shortening "cybersecurity" to "cyber."

It just seems like you're saying you work a sex chat line for a living. No disrespect if you do, but I assume that's not what you meant.

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

Lol what part about that said sex worker/chat line? Well, you got me: For only $99.90 per hour I'll talk to you about zero trust best practice that'll get you rock hard. You'll be begging me for a vulnerable endpoint to appear in my network sooooo bad. And I might even let you phish one of my users but I'll make you my bitch first.

I'm really not sure of that's what sex chat lines are like but I think it'd do something for half of lemmy...

[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 month ago

"Cyber" is short for cybersex.

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

That's like people calling Tech "the industry" I suppose.

[-] RagingToad@feddit.nl 5 points 1 month ago

You could buy a second hand SFF machine. These are cheap (100€/$) and can run a lot of containers.

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

My first question is storage, how much do they come with and how easy is that to upgrade? Cos my pc is a tower I can easily upgrade by adding bigger drives and I've got like 3 full size drive bays plus some smaller ssd holder things. Point is I'm a little space conscious and while I'm happy to investigate, I've got space in my pc for any extra storage requirements.

[-] Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

So, uhm. Computer? With bigger specs? It go brrrrr.

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

More brrr more better? Huh. More brrr more better.

[-] Magister@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Try a mini PC, like a beelink, some have very good eGPU, they are a marvel of engineering, a small PC 5"x4" more powerful than full ATX tower

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

Might be a dumb question but how would these go for storage? Can you plug a lot of drives into them?

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

I had a very similar system, but with an old R9 380, and upgraded to a 5700x and 64GB RAM. I picked up an RTX 3060 too. Now, I agree with your doubts - the upgrades didn't make much difference for day to day usage, and did feel like a waste sometimes. However, I like to take photos, and was using Photoshop with the AI features (before I realised how shit they are), and the upgrades made a huge difference.

My older games were mostly running smoothly with everything set on the highest graphics settings anyway, but now run perfectly even with half a dozen Firefox windows full of family tree research tabs open. I've played games while Firefox is using 32GB without issue. Minecraft can run at around 1,000 fps, which means that I can turn the settings up or have lots of mods installed.

I bought another motherboard and built the old parts into a computer for my kid, which is more powerful than my media server. The media server has about a dozen different Docker containers running things like the Arr suite, Immich, Navidrome, and a few others. I've got two small Minecraft servers and a magic mirror running on it too. I'm using these to learn more about Linux and networking, and generally improve my knowledge.

You'll enjoy the upgrades, and will have to do them eventually anyway, so you might as well enjoy them now 😁

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

I did a stint of YouTube gaming and coding tutorials at one point, I've sometimes considered getting back into it. I doubt I would because I'm a little too privacy conscious these days but it's a consideration.

Plus running Minecraft and other older games at 1k fps sounds hilarious. I think I'm realising I can find use cases for the upgrades

[-] cloudless@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

A lot of virtual machines for what?

[-] joshcodes@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

I'm a nerd with a thing for punishing myself so setting up a small fake corporate environment that I can hack or configure would be fun. There's a tool called velociraptor that you can use to hunt over multiple devices which I want to learn.

Also just learning how to configure a domain, group policy, etc. I'd do like an 8 computer network if I had a machine that could run it. Setting up something like network segmentation, then "hacking" in and configuring attacker infrastructure sounds fun if not, again, totally overkill for what I want to do. I'd be phishing myself at the end of the day but it'd be fun to try.

this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
9 points (100.0% liked)

PC Master Race

17830 readers
3 users here now

A community for PC Master Race.

Rules:

  1. No bigotry: Including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
  2. Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  3. No NSFW content.
  4. No Ads / Spamming.
  5. Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘stupid’ questions. The world won’t be made better or worse by snarky comments schooling naive newcomers on Lemmy.

Notes:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
_MoveSwiftly@lemmy.world
Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world
IowaMan@lemmy.world
BobaFett26@lemmy.world
The_Vampire@lemmy.world
Fudgeknuckles98@lemmy.world
CatZoomies@lemmy.world
Xeon@lemmy.ml
geosoco@kbin.social