15 Year Old Rig - Now time for a NEW build (AM5 7600/x)

[RoryVonCory]

Hey everyone on the OC forum!

Just wanted to introduce myself as I'm new here and getting back into PC building after a long time away! My current rig is ancient – rocking an i5-2500k from about 14/15 years ago! It's served me well, but the case USB ports are on their way out, and I think it's finally time for an upgrade.

I'm aiming for a new build that'll last me another 10 years if possible, and I've got a budget of around £650. It'll mainly be a family PC, used for organising photos, a bit of photo editing, and maybe some light gaming (1080p at most, definitely not chasing ultra settings on AAA titles!).

I'm leaning towards an AM5 platform, but since I tend to keep my PCs for so long, I'm not sure if the upgrade path will really benefit me in the long run. For now, I'll be carrying over my (very) old 1050sc GPU and my 1TB SSD. I'm planning to use a new M.2 drive for the OS, programs, and games.

Ive been reading quite a bit and have the bug back, looking forward to putting together a new build after all this time! From what ive seen the 7600 or 7600x seems to be where the consensus is on the forums/reviews/reddit.

Any thoughts, improvements, comments or feedback would be greatly welcome!

Thanks

Rory

EDIT TO REMOVE LINKS (APOLOGIES!)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor]
**CPU Cooler** | [Deepcool AG400 75.89 CFM CPU Cooler
**Motherboard** | [MSI PRO B650M-B Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard]
**Memory** | [Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory]
**Storage** | [Crucial P3 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive]
**Case** | [Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case
**Power Supply** | [Corsair RM650 (2023) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply]

|

 

[RoryVonCory]

yep


agreed
asrock b540m hdv-m.2 is the one to get, and not much more than the b650m-b


i would also get a better ssd, this one has QLC nand, which is slower and has less endurance
the wd sn580 is a better alternative (not 100% sure on the pricing though, should be similar-ish)


what graphics card will you get in the future when you replace your 1050?

perfect ill take a look at the SN580. GPU wise, i havent landed on one yet, just coming to terms with whats out there (as well as the prices!)

 

[RoryVonCory]

You could save a small amount of money with this and it sounds like for your usage there wouldn't really be a downside, but future CPU upgrades takes a hit:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-69X-IN) = £149.99
• 1 x MSI PRO B760-P DDR4 II (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03380) = £124.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £55.99
• 1 x Team Group MP33 PRO 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-02682) = £92.99
• 1 x Montech AIR 903 Base Midi-Tower Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CAS-MON-01227) = £49.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 750W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-061-AS) = £79.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £23.00

Total: £576.94 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Hey Tetras, cheers for this - i am not going to lie, ive been reading up on and catching up on the changes in tech since ive last been in the game - everything has been so heavily weighted to AMD that i havent even considered intel, ill take a look - and thanks for the suggestions! appreciate it!

 

[RoryVonCory]

what @tamzzy is getting at is the 650w psu will be under powered for more new GPU's you would want 750 minimum 850w would be a safe option, and 1000w if getting a 5090 type gpu

Ah i hear you - perfect i will take that in to consideration when landing on a PSU - great shout thanks!

depending on your budget and which "tier" of gpu you get would influence the size of the power supply (and how much you spend)

if you're never going to get something more powerful than a xx50/xx60(ti) class gpu then 550w would be fine
if its xx70 tier then 650w is fine
xx70ti and over should ideally be looking at 750w+
xx80 and above then 850-1kw

Perfect, i hear you - thanks!

The 12600K is actually faster than the 7600 in most productivity apps, but with DDR4 I think it'll be slower in gaming.

I wouldn't recommend buying a 13th-14th gen CPU (because of the degradation issues in the tech news) and 15th gen (Core Ultra) is probably out of your budget anyhow.

i5 13/14th gen should be okay, it's the i9k (and some i7k) with silicon pushed to within an inch of their life that i would be more concerned with
i would get the 13600k/14600k if prices are similar to the 12600k, because better single-thread P-core performance

perfect, need to do some research around Intel and properly research my options - i'd been initally swayed by just reading the AMD hype (and some intel hate!) so it looks like I'll need to do much more reading around to see what suits me before I settle on the final build

 

[RoryVonCory]

Assuming it's a boot drive, you won't notice any performance improvement over the SATA SSD. Just plug the SSD into your new PC and boot off it. Just make sure you have all the drivers on a USB stick. That said, you should check the SMART info on your SSD to find out how worn it is and replace if necessary.

I will certainly check this as it's getting on 8 9 years old. Thanks!

Left field option, but have you considered an APU,

The 8700g is a good all rounder, at the moment is only circa £60 dearer than the 7600 on ocuk, will play games at 1080p with Nvidia gtx1650 levels of performance, which is 50% faster than the 1050 you currently have.

Depending on the games you play this could save you buying a GPU for some time.

In terms of productivity, it will most certainly serve your purpose and be a significant upgrade to what you currently have. you've had the current pc for 15 years and state the reason for upgrade is the usb ports, so the performance has been adequate for your needs.

I haven't checked out the g suffix chips. 50% faster than my 1050! Definitely worth exploring!

And you are right the performance has been adequate for my use case. The usbs on the case failing were just a signal (excuse) to look at another build!

Thanks for this I'll check out the 8600g too.

Decisions decisions eh!;

 

[RoryVonCory]

No GPU ? Not judging you but what kinda parent are you (j/k)

Mind you being 15 surely (s)he is going through GCSEs ?

My son is coming up to 15 and has completely stopped gaming on his PC on his own accord He's on my old 3060

Haha sorry for clarity I meant my rig is nearly 15 years old! Haha

I wouldn't go down the APU route if gaming is going to be a large part of what you do on the pc. The only way a 8700g hits GTX1650 performance is by running at 720p and upscaling that to 1080p and it's only in a few games with settings set to low. Most games will have it struggling at 1080p with anything but low details and that won't make for a pleasant gaming experience. While onboard graphics have come a long way and AMD's APU's are way ahead of Intel's they have a long way to go before they are suitable for mainstream gaming. For a office or general purpose pc they are fine bordering on overkill as a standard cpu's onboard graphics would be enough for that type of use. APU's are in a strange position, too powerful for a office/internet pc yet not powerful enough for 1080p gaming with details turned up.

Gaming will be 20% of what I do I reckon and if I don't will be older games at 1080p max but I hear your points! Thanks!

Might as well just get something like a Minisforum UM790 Pro, tiny, does what a APU will do, and will be better than a 1050, and they ~£500 with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

Yes quite right right. I did investigate these but I need one last build in my life before I migrate to something like this when I'm older (and less wiser!) haha