Salvaging 8 year old PC

San2021

San2021

San2021

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Joined
18 Apr 2021
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8
My PC from 2013 has served we well but its time for an upgrade. I am new to PC building so would like to keep things as simple as possible.
My PC specs:
Coolermaster mid tower gaming case (hopefully I can keep this)
PSU: Corsair 650W
CPU: Intel i5-3570K
SSD: 240GB Kingston SATA 6
GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 (Only thing I have upgraded so far, planning to keep)
RMA: 16GB Samsung Dual-DDR3 1600Mhz

Really nothing much there I can keep. Planning to move to AMD (Ryzen 5 5600X). So need a good motherboard. If I go stage by stage (CPU and motherboard first), memory and SDD second, will that work? Will I be able to use my 650W PSU or do I need an upgrade? Will I be able to keep the case and only just change the motherboard and CPU?

Cheers!
 
How much are you looking to spend?

Is your case ATX form factor?

Depending on the PSU, it should be OK. Given though it is 8 years old or possibly older a replacement may be needed.

You can swap out to a B550 or X570 and 5600X and keep the rest, then upgrade the SSD down the line. You may need to update the BIOS on a B550 but it's not a board I've worked with. X570 I would recommend but they can come quite costly.
 
What's the precise PSU model number?
High quality PSU would be still usable with such light load.
But Corsair also has low end models not designed to last.

Again case is definitely usable, unless it was garbage outdated already before you bought it.
(mine is aproaching 13 years age)


Unless planning to keep PC for 5+ years, no sense to pay X570's price extra over B550.
 
I was in a similar situation and decided to pretty much do a whole new build. All that I carried across from my old build (from 2011 I think) was the recently upgraded GTX 1660 Super, a few storage drives and two fans. I popped my GTX1550Ti in the old build and hooked up a monitor to give me a backup computer whilst doing the new build, plus it gives me lots of time to start transferring over stuff.

This is what I ended up buying which has ended up a very nice built, very fast, hopefully future proof and very quiet. The larger and better designed case made cable management much easier as well:

MY-29C-KS Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit
HS-05C-AL Alpenfohn Brocken 3 Black Edition CPU Cooler Dual Fan Edition - 140mm
CA-05G-AS ASUS TUF Gaming GT501VC Midi-Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass
CP-3CC-AM AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
MB-351-MS MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard
HD-065-CS Corsair Force MP510 series 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F960GBMP510B)
Corsair RM750x [CP-9020199-UK]
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes it is ATX form factor. If possible I would like to keep things simple, so might go for a motherboard which can work out of the box rather than updating BIOS. So maybe an entry level X570?
Digital X said:
How much are you looking to spend?

Is your case ATX form factor?

Depending on the PSU, it should be OK. Given though it is 8 years old or possibly older a replacement may be needed.

You can swap out to a B550 or X570 and 5600X and keep the rest, then upgrade the SSD down the line. You may need to update the BIOS on a B550 but it's not a board I've worked with. X570 I would recommend but they can come quite costly.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks.
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE. that's the model I have. I do plan to keep the PC for a while (I don't upgrade that often) so might go for X570. Me being new to this, I am really hoping to keep the case and just start with a processor and MB replacement as a first step.

EsaT said:
What's the precise PSU model number?
High quality PSU would be still usable with such light load.
But Corsair also has low end models not designed to last.

Again case is definitely usable, unless it was garbage outdated already before you bought it.
(mine is aproaching 13 years age)


Unless planning to keep PC for 5+ years, no sense to pay X570's price extra over B550.
Click to expand...
 
Well I would love to go down that route but TBH not so confident plus trying to keep spending a bit on the lower side. If I can get away with the same case, PSU etc (which looks like is possible) I would rather do it step by step :-)
ninjag said:
I was in a similar situation and decided to pretty much do a whole new build. All that I carried across from my old build (from 2011 I think) was the recently upgraded GTX 1660 Super, a few storage drives and two fans. I popped my GTX1550Ti in the old build and hooked up a monitor to give me a backup computer whilst doing the new build, plus it gives me lots of time to start transferring over stuff.

This is what I ended up buying which has ended up a very nice built, very fast, hopefully future proof and very quiet. The larger and better designed case made cable management much easier as well:

MY-29C-KS Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit
HS-05C-AL Alpenfohn Brocken 3 Black Edition CPU Cooler Dual Fan Edition - 140mm
CA-05G-AS ASUS TUF Gaming GT501VC Midi-Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass
CP-3CC-AM AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
MB-351-MS MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard
HD-065-CS Corsair Force MP510 series 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F960GBMP510B)
Corsair RM750x [CP-9020199-UK]
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Click to expand...
 
San2021 said:
Thanks for the reply. Yes it is ATX form factor. If possible I would like to keep things simple, so might go for a motherboard which can work out of the box rather than updating BIOS. So maybe an entry level X570?
Click to expand...
Entry level X570 boards have mostly cheapo VRMs and also otherwise very cut down features.
£200 level is where good X570 boards start.
And even super expensive price doesn't automatically mean good chipset cooler design with only Gigabyte and MSI having (mostly) properly designed cooler.
 
Thanks for that. Reading this and other comments think I am better off with a B550 board. MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk seems like a reasonable choice.
One more question around cooling. Can I start with the stock cooler and upgrade later or will it be easier just to get a cooler from the get go? I use the PC for gaming as well as 3D editing (like Zbrush which is heavy on CPU)? Any budget cooler recommendations over the stock cooler that comes with the CPU? Somthing like HS-074-AR (Artic Freezer) is good enough? Thanks!
 
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San2021 said:
Well I would love to go down that route but TBH not so confident plus trying to keep spending a bit on the lower side. If I can get away with the same case, PSU etc (which looks like is possible) I would rather do it step by step :)
Click to expand...

Totally understand, that was my intention as well but as usual one thing led to another and the price started to escalate! lol I also started to worry about bottlenecks so figured I may as well update the whole lot - plus it kept me a working computer whilst building the new rig.

Fortunately, I can still use all of my old components in my son's build once I get the new build fully up-to-date software wise.
 
Apologies if it has already been mentioned, but in the opening post you seem to be suggesting that you’re planning to keep the existing memory for a while. You can’t, it won’t fit in any modern board.
 
bremen1874 said:
Apologies if it has already been mentioned, but in the opening post you seem to be suggesting that you’re planning to keep the existing memory for a while. You can’t, it won’t fit in any modern board.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that tip! is it due to the lower clock speed (Dual-DDR3 1600Mhz)? I can push the boat out and get some memory (if there is no choice)
 
Makes sense! It's just that I got a budget PC for wife a few months back so missed my chance to hand own my pc and go for a completely new build :-(
However at this rate I might end up with a new build and just use the GPU!
ninjag said:
Totally understand, that was my intention as well but as usual one thing led to another and the price started to escalate! lol I also started to worry about bottlenecks so figured I may as well update the whole lot - plus it kept me a working computer whilst building the new rig.

Fortunately, I can still use all of my old components in my son's build once I get the new build fully up-to-date software wise.
Click to expand...
 
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Thanks! Will have a look. Also my current PC has water cooling (Corsair H40 Hydro), which has like two tubes coming out of the cooler and going into the fan at the back. I aasume when I get the new motherboard+CPU and install an air cooler, I just have to get rid of all those stuff? i.e. no need to connect anything to the fan at the back?
mickyflinn said:
Cant go wrong with the arctic 34 if you want near silent and a have 165mm clearance the this is a good choice

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-brocken-3-cpu-cooler-140mm-hs-05a-al.html
Click to expand...
 
San2021 said:
Thanks! Will have a look. Also my current PC has water cooling (Corsair H40 Hydro), which has like two tubes coming out of the cooler and going into the fan at the back. I aasume when I get the new motherboard+CPU and install an air cooler, I just have to get rid of all those stuff? i.e. no need to connect anything to the fan at the back?
Click to expand...

The air cooler's heatsink doesn't need anything connected to it, unlike a liquid cooler. But the fan (or fans) on the heatsink will need plugging into a motherboard fan header (CPU_FAN). Usually if it brings two fans it also brings a splitter so yeah, you'll only need one cable plugged into the board.
 
Arctic Freezer 34 is bang per buck choise at £25.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-freezer-34-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-077-ar.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-freezer-34-co-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-079-ar.html
It does very well for basic level CPUs like 5600X:
That second fan for £10 more does very little with that size heatsink and you're just paying for that gaming hype.

£30 Alpenfohn Brocken Eco Advanced would be slightly beefire.
Though Brocken 3 is really that next step up, if you later want to update to high core count CPU.

For memory 2x8GB costs £80
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...-3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-blac-my-0a3-tg.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...dual-channel-kit-pvs416g360c8k-my-104-pa.html
 
Should check out the 11400F + B560 combo as its within a few % of the 5600X and only costs half the price. Put the savings aside for a better GPU once prices and availability improve.
 
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