Looking to upgrade after many many years!

Hammer2001

Hammer2001

Hammer2001

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Joined
7 Oct 2009
Posts
49
The last time I upgraded my processor and motherboard was (don’t laugh) 2009!
The system has served me well but has began to show its limitations so I’m looking to upgrade.
Current system is:
I7 920 processor
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 motherboard
12GB Memory
Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB graphics card
1x crucial 256GB sad
2 x Seagate 7200rpm Sata Hdds
1 x Blu-ray RW drive
Cooler master 690 case
Dell 2209w monitor

My pc uses are for casual 1080p gaming and occasional occasional video editing.

I was looking at a Ryzen 5 3600 build with 16GB ram. Keeping my existing graphics card and monitor for now. But have some questions.

1. I’m at a loss as to which motherboard I should go for. I see there are B450 models and now B550s are in the mix. Is the 550 worth the extra?

2. I’m also thinking of adding a 500 Gb M2 NVme ssd as the main drive for a fresh install. Which brand is best to choose?

3. my pc case is old but functional. Do I need a new case for today’s systems or can I reuse it?

my budget is not huge. Maybe £400-500 max.

As you can see I don’t upgrade that often so would like to get quite a few years use out of the new build.
Your advice and opinions are most welcome.
 
Wait until October the 8th to see what the new Zen3 (Ryen 4xxx) CPU's are going to be., you've waited this long!

Get a B550 board, and buy the biggest SSD you can afford in your budget.

Don't forget to sell your X58 system as it will fetch good money, you can still get £150+ for the board, CPU and RAM, or at very least you'll get £80-100 for the board as they are in high demand.

Actually if it were me I'd just sell the whole system you have now for ~£300 (exc monitor and the HDD's) and buy a new system for ~£800. With £800, you'll easily get a great system, also SSD and RAM prices are dropping daily.

I'll dig up a spec in a little while, coffee is still filtering through, very scatter brained. :)


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Edit:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex III Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power
Case: Kolink Citadel Mesh RGB Mid Tower Gaming Case - Black USB 3.0

Total: ~£830.00

PSU is complete overkill, and I need to change that out, which will save £20-30, and the motherboard has Wi-Fi etc. but if you want a lower spec you could certainly drop down to a £120 board instead of a £150 board, swap in the R5 3600 for the equivalent new CPU probably £20 more.

I'd also see about getting a better GPU, maybe an RTX 2060(S) either new/b-grade for the same sort of price as the new cards are upon us and price/performance has moved up a notch for the performance part
 
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Go for B550 as it has PCIe 4.0 support, which helps support the latest GPUs and NVMe drives. Which means it'll help future proof your system better.

If you can wait, hold off until October time as AMD releasing new Zen 3 CPUs. Right now I'd go for the below, you can get the 3600 CPU for £180 (so -£39 below basket) so it'd be about £418. But if can wait get the Ryzen 4000 equivalent. :)

If you're after a 500GB NVMe, look up the WD Blue SN550 can be had for £62. Case is fine if still works for you. Can always swap that and re-build later if you like.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £456.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​
 
B550 offers pcie 4 for the latest gpu's and support for zen 3 next gen cpu. B450 will also offer Zen 3 .

I would suggest you get a 1tb m2 for is and games.

Quick breakdown

Amd 3600 £200
16gb 3200mhz teamgroup ram £50
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS ELITE 100
1tb western digital sn 550 m2 nvme £110

You can make some changes if you wish to spend less.
 
Hammer2001 said:
I7 920 processor
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 motherboard
12GB Memory
Click to expand...
Classic CPU - and you went all out with the motherboard and a mighty 12GB of memory (for back then).

*How old is your PSU?

Hammer2001 said:
1. I’m at a loss as to which motherboard I should go for. I see there are B450 models and now B550s are in the mix. Is the 550 worth the extra?
Click to expand...
Do you see yourself upgrading - or will this be like your previous system - build and forget for another 10 years apart from occasional GPU upgrades and drives?

If not and your casual usage doesn't change then @mickyflinn's spec is great - and, as mentioned above, ideally 1Tb NVMe as you will fill it fast. But as you upgrade so little - i would get the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX (better VRMs and guaranteed zen 3 support) - and as memory is so cheap i would get 32Gb of TEAMGROUP memory as it's great value (although sale has passed). Plus, if you can stretch, a third party 120mm cooler - as the stock fans are noisy.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £550.01 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​

If you don't have a windowed case you could get the m-ATX version of the motherboard and save some more money:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £536.05 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​

Obviously, you could can get it within budget if you bump down the size of the M2 drive and use the stock cooler. Or settle for 16GB fo memory for ~£45.
 
Journey said:
This is a duplicate thread of the https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/looking-to-upgrade-after-many-many-years.18898318/
Click to expand...
Cheers, @Journey

EDIT: OP you have multiple options to pick over - ideally if you can wait for Zen 3 then @Journey's solution would suit you - especially given your propensity to hang onto spec, as you will get more performance to the pound over the coming ~10 years.

@Space Monkey - could you do your wizardry and merge his duplicate threads.
 
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Hammer2001 said:
3. my pc case is old but functional. Do I need a new case for today’s systems or can I reuse it?
Click to expand...
Case is the longest time usable part of PC.
(mine is from 2008)
Heck, you couldn't even fit your optical drive to most current case, because of fashion of disposability/no upgradability!


mickyflinn said:
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS ELITE 100
Click to expand...
Unlike B550/X570 variants B450 Aorus Elite is garbage and scam.
Its VRM is basically good only for 65W TDP CPUs.
Besides lot better VRMs MSI is the only maker who has confirmed Zen3 support coming for their B450/X470 boards.
 
You could always try upgrading the i7 920 to an X5650 which is a 6 core CPU and only costs a tenner, that alone should give you a decent boost especially if you overclock to 4ghz+
 
Thank you everyone for your input.
Sorry I don’t know how I managed to double post!
Your suggestions have given me lots to think about.

I had heard about the possibility of the Zen 3 being released this year but didn’t know when.
I’ll definitely wait until they are available to see how they are priced and gains they offer.
I’m not likely to upgrade again anytime soon, so it makes sense to buy the most advanced set up I can afford.

I didn’t think my current cpu and motherboard would actually be worth anything. So interesting to hear they could be sold.

I can’t remember when I actually bought the power supply it’s probably about 6-7 years ago.
It’s an OCZ ZS750W 80 Plus bronze.
 
Hammer2001 said:
I had heard about the possibility of the Zen 3 being released this year but didn’t know when.

I can’t remember when I actually bought the power supply it’s probably about 6-7 years ago.
It’s an OCZ ZS750W 80 Plus bronze.
Click to expand...
Zen3 release is in 8th of next month.

While using quality capacitors rarely for OCZ, it was outdated low end design already 10 years ago.
 
Hammer2001 said:
So would you advise against using my OCZ PSU for this new build?
I’ve never had any issues with it.
Click to expand...

It would be wise to replace your psu being 7 years old, it could go on for a long time but equally it could not.

For the sake of £100 for a quality psu with a 10 year warranty it's, your call.
 
EsaT said:
While using quality capacitors rarely for OCZ, it was outdated low end design already 10 years ago.
Click to expand...
Hammer2001 said:
So would you advise against using my OCZ PSU for this new build?
Click to expand...
That's @EsaT at his most diplomatic - stating that your PSU wasn't that great even 10 years ago (although reviewed well for price/product slot) - and that it will not have matured with age and 'may' not sit well within a new build. Especially, if you eventually consider installing the new era of GPU offerings form Nvidia (30 series) or AMD (Big Navi) - which would compliment your new system nicely when/if needed.

Examples:

The Corsair RM series is a quality product - semi passive cooling and 10 year warranty (recommend the 750W at only £5 more as give you more scope for upgrades):

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​
 
Hammer2001 said:
So would you advise against using my OCZ PSU for this new build?
I’ve never had any issues with it.
Click to expand...
That PSU is rather contradictory.
On one side quality capacitors take time and use better than cheapos, like in FSP made OCZs with C(r)apXon capacitors.
But then again for example ripple as factory new was mediocre:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/ocz-zs-750w/8.html

Would rate 12V ripple good only at 60% load and below.
Good PSUs have long kept ripple below 50mV all the way to 100% load and in top PSUs it's around 30-35mV giving lot more margin for wear and tear from use.


Bitfenix Formula would be good starting point for modern (well only 10 years old) design PSU.
If you're going to use Ryzen 3600 like CPUs also in future along with mainstream graphics card, you don't need any high power PSU.
 
I’ve decided to throw a bit of extra money at this upgrade as I plan for it to last a long time, so it makes sense to future proof it as much I can.
I plan to wait wait until Black Friday to see if there are any deals. But based on your advice and suggestions I’m currently looking at:

CPU: AMD Zen 3 Replacement for the 3600
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Team group Vulcan z force 32GB (2x16GB) RAM
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 80 Plus Gold

I will keep my GTX 1060 6Gb graphics card for now, but I’ve found out that my work are planning to upgrade some pc’s later this year, and I’ll be able to take a Nvidia RTX 2070 super card in my current pc at work and install in at home. So a nice bonus!
I know this card has now been superceeded, but it will be a big upgrade to my GTX 1060 and more than adequate for my 1080p gaming needs.

I have a couple of More questions:

For the RAM, should I go for 3200 or 3600 speed?

Also I see I can buy a MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS AM4 for a similar price to the msi b550 Mag Tomahawk board.
Is this board a better option or should I stick to B550 board?
 
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