Upgrading a 10 year old system (Ryzen or Intel)

bLaXe

bLaXe

bLaXe

Associate
Joined
6 Aug 2018
Posts
11
Hi, looking at some advice for a much needed upgrade.

My current system is pretty old now and the GPU appears to have finally dies on me. I want to replace the CPU, MOBO, GPU and RAM, while keeping my current PSU (650w), case (Lian-Li PC-V1000) and SSDs/HDDs for the time being. I need this to be a good all-round system that can handle video and photo editing in Premiere, AE and Photoshop, as well as the odd bit of gaming. I'd also like enough power to experiment with Blender or something similar but not at a professional level. On the gaming front I don't need to have the absolute best graphics going. I just played through the last Doom game on my current system as well as Breath Of The Wild via Cemu and was happy enough (though the GPU was screaming). I haven't been a console gamer since the N64 and don't have an HD TV so my expectations aren't the highest.

My current system is:

Intel i7 930 2.8ghz
Gigabyte GA-x58A-UD3R (rev 2)
16GB RAM
eVGA GTX-470

The system has been great to me for the last 10 years so I haven't kept up with developments in the slightest and now everything has changed. Have to choose from a range of AMD CPUs (never would have been a consideration back then) in comparison to Intel chips. I'm stuck in the rabbit hole so advice would be nice.Looking at around £1000 all in. Options are:

Ryzen 5 3600x
Ryzen 7 2700x
Ryzen 7 3700x
Intel i5 8600k

Read a lot about RAM compatibility issues with Ryzen and would like to run 32GB but maybe that isn't really necessary (?).

As for the GPU my instinct was to go for a GTX 1070 or 1080 but there are so many options that I'm having a hard time making sense of it. 10 years ago I had to make sure I had Mercury playback capabilities but maybe it's not as specific nowadays.

Sorry for the long post and any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I vote 3700X for what you want to do. Also, unless you are shopping used (and get good pricing) consider a new 5700XT rather than a new 1070/1080.
 
As stated above, the Radeon RX 5700 XT is probably a better option. Decent non-blower style versions should be ~£400-£410.

Assuming your motherboard is still working well, you could update to latest BIOS, then swap your CPU for a compatible 6 core / 12 thread Xeon for less than £10. Once overclocked, should perform reasonably well. If it doesn't work out, only lost ~£10 and the GPU can still be used for the new PC.
 
the smart money upgrade is a x5650 for £10-15 (and then a 5700xt dual fan for £410)





of course, if you want new and shiny, then the smart money for that is ryzen 3600+b450
 
the smart money upgrade is a x5650 for £10-15 (and then a 5700xt dual fan for £410)
Click to expand...

So I have actually tried this. I had a lot more system crashes since doing it though and lots more weird behaviour at startup. Assume it’s the chip so maybe I could try another one.
 
an0nym0us said:
Assuming your motherboard is still working well, you could update to latest BIOS, then swap your CPU for a compatible 6 core / 12 thread Xeon for less than £10. Once overclocked, should perform reasonably well.
Click to expand...

So having tried this I never managed to get much of an overclock on it without it crashing. Maybe the MOBO is on the way out as well.
 
Best combo is the MSI B450 + Ryzen 3600 + 5700XT, but depending on your use, if you can get the 3700X, that would be an upgrade on top of the already good 3600. As mentioned, I would, also, recommend a new PSU. Don't need to be an overkill. Quite a lot of decently priced 650-750W Gold available, and if doing so, get one with 7-10 years warranty. Happy with mine EVGA.
 
Any recommendations for an Nvidia card? Forgot to mention that I’d like to connect the system to an Nvidia Shield so I can game on my tv occasionally. I’m not sure the Radeon would let me do that and also seems to be quite bad for Cemu.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom