Looking For Help With PC Build

Skipz462

Skipz462

Skipz462

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Joined
5 Nov 2021
Posts
7
Location
UK
Hey!

I'm new to PC builds and am wanting to upgrade my current setup. I don't need top of the range but want to upgrade to keep up with current games.

My current setup is as below
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 1400
RAM - 24Gb
GPU - Radeon RX 480

As my system is a few years old now I'm also a bit confused about whether I would need to upgrade my motherboard as well. Any advise/help would be great.

Thanks :)
 
What motherboard do you have? Conceivably, as a minimum you could go for a Ryzen 3600 and try and get hold of a 3060ti FE for a very worthwhile boost.

Edit to also ask what speed is your Memory?
 
MissChief said:
What motherboard do you have? Conceivably, as a minimum you could go for a Ryzen 3600 and try and get hold of a 3060ti FE for a very worthwhile boost.

Edit to also ask what speed is your Memory?
Click to expand...

My motherboard is a Acer Aspire GX-281

My RAM speed is 2134 Mhz. Hope that is right :cry:
 
MissChief said:
So that sounds like the model of your tower, a premade desktop. We'd need more information than that. Download a program called CPU-Z and check the mainboard/motherboard section.
Click to expand...

I have just downloaded and checked that section and it says the motherboard model is Aspire GX-281
 
MissChief said:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/586742/acer-aspire-gx-281-upgrade-of-cpu says your board will only take a Ryzen 1700 or 1700x. I wouldn't bother upgrading that. Sounds like you may be better off with a new PC!
Click to expand...

Ahh that's a bummer! Thank you for your help.

In that case, any recommendations for budget PC builds. I'm confident enough to transfer my RAM and HDD over but would need more help on the CPU and GPU. As mentioned before just want something to keep me up to date with newer games such as Battlefield 2042
 
Skipz462 said:
I'd like to spend around £500 ideally
Click to expand...
For that sort of cash you'll probably be better picking up one of the new consoles as it will be a tough ask to get PC performance close to that given that you can't just drop in a newer CPU and with GPU prices ridiculous right now.

This is probably the cheapest you'll get that will give you decent performance.

1 X Intel Core i5-10400F 2.90GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail - £128.99
SKU: CP-680-IN
1 X **B Grade** MSI MAG B460M BAZOOKA (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £69.99
SKU: BG-5AO-MS
1 X Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK) - £44.99
SKU: CA-25C-CS
1 X **B Grade** Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case - Black/Red - £32.40
SKU: BG-06W-PT
1 X Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey - £49.99
SKU: MY-0AK-TG
1 X Jonsbo CR-1000 120mm RGB CPU Cooler - Black - £20.99
SKU: HS-000-JB
1 X Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £449.99
SKU: GX-39R-SP
Grand Total: £809.94

https://store.overclockers.co.uk/cart/restore/a0c050f0fd53efed4a027b24fe2f5a65
 
Last edited:
It does seem like only 1000 series processors are supported, so unless you know someone who has a 1700/x or 1800x going really cheap (and I mean cheap), then I wouldn't bother.
Most of those systems came with a single 8gb stick of 2400 ram though, so have you upgraded it yourself to 24gb? There's also a very good chance that your ram is running at the lowest spec for ddr4: 2133, but will run at 2400 (or faster) once XMP is enabled in the BIOS.

If you do actually have 24gb of ram (and it's at least 2400 speed), then I'd probably reuse 16gb of that ram, keep the GPU, and possibly any storage, and rebuild from there. If you have, or know anyone with any old gpu that could go in the old system just to get display out, then you can always sell that as a complete build.
 
Joxeon said:
For that sort of cash you'll probably be better picking up one of the new consoles as it will be a tough ask to get PC performance close to that given that you can't just drop in a newer CPU and with GPU prices ridiculous right now.

This is probably the cheapest you'll get that will give you decent performance.

1 X Intel Core i5-10400F 2.90GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail - £128.99
SKU: CP-680-IN
1 X **B Grade** MSI MAG B460M BAZOOKA (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard - £69.99
SKU: BG-5AO-MS
1 X Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK) - £44.99
SKU: CA-25C-CS
1 X **B Grade** Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case - Black/Red - £32.40
SKU: BG-06W-PT
1 X Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey - £49.99
SKU: MY-0AK-TG
1 X Jonsbo CR-1000 120mm RGB CPU Cooler - Black - £20.99
SKU: HS-000-JB
1 X Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £449.99
SKU: GX-39R-SP
Grand Total: £809.94

https://store.overclockers.co.uk/cart/restore/a0c050f0fd53efed4a027b24fe2f5a65
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help and suggestions. Will check them out
 
thedandyp said:
It does seem like only 1000 series processors are supported, so unless you know someone who has a 1700/x or 1800x going really cheap (and I mean cheap), then I wouldn't bother.
Most of those systems came with a single 8gb stick of 2400 ram though, so have you upgraded it yourself to 24gb? There's also a very good chance that your ram is running at the lowest spec for ddr4: 2133, but will run at 2400 (or faster) once XMP is enabled in the BIOS.

If you do actually have 24gb of ram (and it's at least 2400 speed), then I'd probably reuse 16gb of that ram, keep the GPU, and possibly any storage, and rebuild from there. If you have, or know anyone with any old gpu that could go in the old system just to get display out, then you can always sell that as a complete build.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've upgraded the RAM to 24Gb myself. It was originally 8Gb. Do you think the GPU is still good enough to run newer games? As if I only have to buy the CPU side of things that wouldn't be so bad
 
Skipz462 said:
Yeah I've upgraded the RAM to 24Gb myself. It was originally 8Gb. Do you think the GPU is still good enough to run newer games? As if I only have to buy the CPU side of things that wouldn't be so bad
Click to expand...

Make no mistake, an RX 480 4GB isn't a world beater by any means, but it's still a more than capable gpu for decent settings at 1080p. If it was me, as I said above, I'd take 16gb of that ram you installed, the 480, and possibly the storage, and base a new (budget )build around that. As long as you can get your hands on almost any old gpu to stick in the older system, you could sell it on as a decent every-day system.
 
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