upgrade path advice, the 8 month plan

i am upgrading my pc as a way of improving my performance gaming at 2k resolution, i dont play many demanding games right now but my parts are just that dated that i feel a change is in order, so my parts will be a mix of used and new and not all be at once so there is "room for changes" but i feel ive stuck a balance of what id like to see and what is available within my budget. im not going to socket up to am5, thats just off the table for the time being and i dont really need it, i play a lot of older games but a new cpu would not go unwanted with multi-processing, a gpu improvement would be nice for light video and image work alongside my gaming, and the 2k screen is a brand new addition and i feel i could just be doing the whole experience that much better with the improvements im making i will explain my though process with each phase and listing:

phase 1: the light stuff

this i would be doing immediately, this will let me come to grips with these critical parts first so that when the rest comes down the pipe in 6 months im not suddenly getting buyers remorse. and because money is tighter right now but will become more plentiful (god willing) later on, and it gives the second stage parts more time to congeal in the used market, or move down the price range as new products come out (in theory) im also going to be surrendering myself to the gods of laser lightshows and letting rgbesus take the wheel here, i just have always desired a PC that is more then an ugly miscolored brick inside, or an all black monolith. so id like to keep things color coordinated as best able:

fractal designs pop XL air full tower: its a white case as i said im moving away from the ugly black brick, it sports a 5inch drive bay for my old dvd/cd combo block i still use from 2006, its a fossil but it still works perfectly i mainly use it for watching old movies and playing my old hardcopy games and losing that functionality would break me, i dont have a console of any sort anymore having opted for an emulator handheld instead to replace that part of my life, its got a design that lets me go watercool if i want down the line and is affordable enough in my country (canada)

corsair vengeance RGB pro SL 16 gb, 3200mhz: mainly cause thats the current limit on my asua prime a320m (which im aware is not a white mobo but i will simply take this in stride) for compatibility without an immedeate bios flash, it lets me upgrade from my current mismatched 12gb of kingston (2x4 and a single 4 stick), its white like the case with rgb lights, reputable make in the past.

hyper 212 halo white: matching the other two, fits existing build, improvement over my current stock cooler, i have debated going water cooling in the past but always viewed it as something above my smooth brains capacity to fit and finish, i do tend to overclock my cpus and my residence does not have very good ventilation so case temps are abnormally high as a result anywayyy, so if someone can recommend an affordable easy to install and setup water cooler and wants to make a case for an alternative ill listen, or some other fan.

phase2: meat and potatoes (under 3 months from now)

ryzen 5600: i like hexacores, and always have since my beloved 1065t, it "enough" of an upgrade for me, i dont need the crown prince of cpus, at the same time it will improve my preformance from my current cpu which is not deliviering my the preformance i would ideally like to see in certain cpu heavy applications and games i do play, i feel this is not a "huge" step up but it will do for now and exists at a price point im pleased with

WD blue sa510 ssd: image my existing 2tb HDD over, be done with hard drives forever, makes sense

phase 3: the big push (5-8 months from now)

MSI RTX 3050 Ventus 2x 8gb: not my ideal, i mean id prefer a 3060 i generally know better then to take 50 series nvidia cards, but theres "enough" of a generational gap that ill see improvements anywayyyy and with gpu prices the way they are its at a price point i find acceptable, it may even lower enough in the wait time or become cheap enough on the used market by then (though unlikely). thought i dont know if my aging OCZ psu is up for the task, if its not ill swap up to a 750 or something

This all seems reasonable, but I do have a few suggestions for your GPU. I just got an RX 6600 (not XT) on sale for under $200 US, which is cheaper than I have ever seen a 3050. The 6600 gets better performance and uses the same amount of power, around 132w. The only downside is AMD struggles with ray tracing, but you should not do that with either of these cards anyway.

But if you are an Nvidia guy, I'd also keep an eye on RTX 4060 prices. It isn't selling that well, and I suspect there will be some good discounts on Black Friday. Plus, they improved power consumption down to 111w for the base model, and it runs well on PCIE 3 boards.

The 3050 is by no means a bad card, and if you see one cheap then go for it.

i see a lot of used 2060 supers in the area and my older 1060ti is long in the tooth the 1660 didn't feel like enough of a change so the 3000 series seemed wise and the 4000 i just assumed would be strictly a 500+ cost bracket and im trying to avoid spending more then 300-310 on a single part and its not like these things are going away, i use the old components in a F@H box cause im a cool dude like that and folding is an awesome thing to do. my current folding box is a 970 and ryzen 1600, and those parts will be the ones that get sold on to a new home

im not an nvidia fanboy, but its rather that I've been through the brand transfer more then once in my life and its a hassle im not particularly interested in doing, thats 8400gs to hd 3870 was not fun, nor was jumping from hd 5830 to the gtx 970, im gonna assume both brands still want your undivided attention and make the process as annoying and frustrating as possible as you go hunting down geforce experience files and Nvidia control panel uninstall's exe file before your finally rid of the beast

I'll push for 3060 you'll be a lot happier. You want fps and visual uplift, 3050 you may end up choosing between fps or visual boost. 5600 or any Vermeer are the best choice indeed, avoid cezanne CPU. Also hey it's ionus 👋

@Bikouchu35: *waves back from his underground lair*

@ionusX: Yeah, they hide a buncha crap everywhere. Tried doing it manually, but there wer a couple things I couldn't delete because they were in use even in safe mode. But there is a free program called Display Driver Uninstaller that makes it easy. Just ran that and it took care of everything.

bit of an update, my gtx 1060ti went out it her sleep, she past quietly and painlessly as the reaper came for her so i need to go get a replacement, my sideman the HIS 6950 ever the consumate champion has stepped up to fill in for him till i replacement can be found. rest in peace forever to the homie

my question is, i have an ocz 650 ZS, will she be suitable for a 6650xt? they are on sale right now locally and so i can grab one for 300 new, which is more then id like to pay but acceptable. will i need a new power supply as well?

@ionusX: A 650w power supply will be fine. 500 would even cut it unless you want to overclock and have multiple hdds.

@judaspete: i have 2 HDD's and 1 SSD

@ionusX: 650w should cover all that.