Upgrading a childs gaming PC

john_smith

john_smith

john_smith

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Joined
19 Oct 2010
Posts
3,156
Hi

A parent at our local school posted online asking for help upgrading their sons PC. They have zero technical knowledge so needed help. I usually ignore these type of posts but I felt sorry for the guy. This was the sort of advice he was engaging with....

Is it just the RAM chips he wants to upgrade or is it graphics chips and sound card etc?
RAM is quite easy, as long as the motherboard has the slots, or he only has SIMM chips, and can fit DIMM ones, graphics and sound are ornally plug and play replacement PCI cards, again easy enough. If he wants to get into though, I suggest getting yourself a "clean room" type area and an anti static strip for him to prevent damaging the components!
Click to expand...

Anyway, I DM'd the guy an olive brance.

The kid has "about £250" but they will also help him out. This is the PC: *Edit, see below* and he is struggling to play Jedi Survivor.

I've suggested a 5800x3d and a matching 8gb ram stick taking him to 16gb.

Current unknowns are the PSU spec and Cooler spec. Potentially they might need an upgrade too?

What do you think, how would you slice this cake?

Cheers
 
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Edit, i've removed link *** don't hint either *** incase I get put into forum jail. The PC is: Tornado R3 Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 3, GTX 1650, 512 GB SSD

Edit2, LOL. The name get's starred out now! I'm not trying to circumvent any rules, just show what he has and ask for advice on upgrading it.

Technical specifications for Tornado R3 Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 3, GTX 1650, 512 GB SSD
OVERVIEW
Type
Gaming PC
Operating system
Windows 11 (64-bit)
PERFORMANCE
Graphics card
- NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650
- 4 GB
RAM
- 8 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz)
- 64 GB maximum installable RAM
Processor
- AMD Ryzen 3 4100 Processor
- Quad-core
- 3.8 GHz / 4.0 GHz
- 6 MB cache
Storage
512 GB SSD
Motherboard
ASUS PRIME A520M-K
 
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What PSU is in that?

I'd bump up to 16gb of ram, grab a second hand 3600 or so (there's plenty knocking around for not a lot ATM) and maybe stretch to an AMD 6600 GPU.
 
Ok. The cooler looks to be a stock amd one.

Psu is a Corsair vs350. Annoyingly the ram is 2x4gb so that needs to be binned. It does give us scope for a “nicer” 2x8gb kit though.
 
john_smith said:
Ok. The cooler looks to be a stock amd one.

Psu is a Corsair vs350. Annoyingly the ram is 2x4gb so that needs to be binned. It does give us scope for a “nicer” 2x8gb kit though.
Click to expand...

Another alternative is the Ryzen 5 5500. Get whatever is cheaper - the Ryzen 5 3600 supports PCI-E 4.0,unlike the Ryzen 5 5500 but the A520 lacks support for it. The Ryzen 5 5500 is slightly faster as it is Zen3 based but the lack of L3 cache makes it closer to the Zen2 based Ryzen 5 3600.

Is the cooler the Wraith Spire or Wraith Stealth? If it is the Wraith Stealth try and make sure the CPU is set to stock,and not any of the performance "enhancing" options which tries to push freqeuncies higher.

The RX6600 might work OK on a VS350,as the RX6600 is an efficient card:
hexus.net

Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 Pulse

A no-nonsense card that works well.
hexus.net hexus.net

AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review: RDNA2 Goes Mainstream at $329

AMD's RX 6600 takes on Nvidia's RTX 3060
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

If you check the reviews,with a high end CPU,even under Furmark,power consumption is just over 250W at the wall. Under normal gaming loads it is just over 200W at the wall. But if a better PSU can be included it would be better for any more longterm upgrades.
 
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john_smith said:
Ok. The cooler looks to be a stock amd one.

Psu is a Corsair vs350. Annoyingly the ram is 2x4gb so that needs to be binned. It does give us scope for a “nicer” 2x8gb kit though.
Click to expand...
You will need a bigger psu the Vs is pants and you could save £10 on the GPU but the saphire is worth it imo

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £312.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

​
​
​
 
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mickyflinn said:
You will need a bigger psu the Vs is pants and you could save £10 on the GPU but the saphire is worth it imo

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £312.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

​
​
​
Click to expand...

If we went for that and then maybe added this.

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail

Order AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

How does that look? I appreciate we've nearly doubled the budget...mum and dad are going to have to pony up :-)
 
john_smith said:
If we went for that and then maybe added this.

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail

Order AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

How does that look? I appreciate we've nearly doubled the budget...mum and dad are going to have to pony up :)
Click to expand...
Yes that's good but the 5600 is cheaper with minimal performance difference .

www.overclockers.co.uk

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail

Order AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
 
Thanks for your help.

We're going for 5600, 16gb kit, PSU and a 6600. That's coming in around £440 inc vat. Going to wing it on the cooler initially.

Should there be a better way to spend then start shouting now before we order.

Thank you.
 
john_smith said:
The RX 6600 appears to be a great value card. The 1650 it replaces appears to cost similar money and it also punches above the 3050. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Let's us know how you get on.

Don't change all the parts at once so you can pin point if any problems arise, start with the psu.

Want a decent cheap cooler take a look at the thermalright assassin x 120 refined se
 
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All ordered.

AMD 5600
RX 6600 linked to above
650w be quiet! PSU linked to above
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory

Nipper wants to be involved and learn during the install so i'll probably do it over the upand coming half term.
 
Almost got put in forum jail. Sigh.

OC have done over £250 from this one thread. Much more than they have lost from somebody potentially finding a potato pc from another supplier that nobody here would ever be stupid enough to buy.
 
john_smith said:
Almost got put in forum jail. Sigh.

OC have done over £250 from this one thread. Much more than they have lost from somebody potentially finding a potato pc from another supplier that nobody here would ever be stupid enough to buy.
Click to expand...
Cheap cooler with good performance when funds allow

thermalright assassin x 120 refined se

Let us know how the upgrade goes.
 
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Did this update yesterday. Kid wasn't interested in getting involved. Knew everything despite knowing nothing. Everying worked as expected. Decent upgrade, cheers for the advice.
 
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