Suggest an upgrade for my Phenom 965

[hatethisbit]

My Phenom X4 965 has done me really well over the years but i feel like its starting to struggle with games like Ghost Recon Wildlands and the division. Ideally i would like to only purchase a new motherboard/cpu/mem as the rest of my system has been upgraded bit by bit. I have heard there are some new Ryzen cpu's coming out soon but i have no problem with Intel. I only really game on my pc, do a little bit of autocad for work but thats about it. My budget is between 200-300 but i am willing so stretch a bit further to get something that will last me as long as my current CPU.

Current specs are;
AMD Phenom II X4 965 black edition
M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard
2x Corsair XMS3 4GB memory sticks
Nvidia GTX 960 8gb
2x Corsair Force LS Series 120GB SSD's (and a 1T drive for storage)
NZXT Lexa S case (im hoping to reuse this to save money)

Let me know what you think, im only a casual old gamer scrub though so go easy with the jargon

 

[Plec]

What is the brand/model/age of the PSU?

 

[Holst1981]

What gpu and resolutions are you playing at?

At that budget second hand may be better value.

Ryzen will be £500.

Definitely worth upgrading, I had a 965 before upgrading (5820k) and I really notice the difference. Probably my most noticeable cpu upgrade. M2 ssd was also a big boost for me.

 

[hatethisbit]

My psu is a Swift 750W V2 Silent Power Supply which i purchased from OC a few years ago. Gpu is an Nvidia geforce GTX 960. My desktop resolution is 1842x1036, i play Overwatch in 1920x1080. I cant check what i run the division in as at work but its at least 1080, wildlands suffers quite a bit at the same resolution.

 

[hatethisbit]

I've heard good things about the Ryzen 7 1700 3.7gz

 

[hatethisbit]

For gaming, would it be beneficial to go for a more expensive dual core processor with quicker core speeds, over say an 8 core with slower clock speeds (hope im understanding that right)

 

[Borealis]

Upgrading is definitely worth it. I would recommend getting a new PSU. I've never heard of that brand and I wouldn't want to trust a new build with an aging PSU of unknown quality.

Ryzen is the best value at the moment for cores/threads per £. A lot more games are now making use of more cores/threads, so The Ryzen 1500 with 4c/8t would be a good step up from what you already have. You're probably looking at a cost of about £320-350 for a Ryzen 1500X, motherboard and 8GB RAM. You can always purchase more RAM later to upgrade to 16GB. The 1700 is £300 so that would be your whole budget on just the CPU!

I built a small PC 2 years back with the Pentium G3258. Great little chip that overclocked to 4.2GHz. It did cope fairly well with games back then, but as newer titles came out, it struggled. I've now put my old i5 4670K in that system and it runs much better with 4 cores at 3.8GHz stock speed.

 

[hatethisbit]

Thank you i really appreciate your advice, are there any PSU brands known for their reliability or is it pot luck? I have never delved into overclocking before, what are the benefits/risks for a casual gamer such as myself, would it require extra cooling?

Apologies for all the questions!

 

[Borealis]

If you're only going to running a single graphics card, then a good quality 550W unit is all you're going to need. Any of these would be a good choice:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-truepower-classic-550w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-202-an.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitf...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-22b-bx.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-023-ea.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-026-ea.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020090-uk-ca-208-cs.html

The Antec is cheaper because it's not modular. All of these have quality internals. In various PCs, I have the G2 650W and GS 550W units. In my main system I have a G2 850W from when I ran two graphics cards.

Overclocking increases heat, so yes you need up-rated cooling. Ovecrclocking is also a lottery. No two chips are the same. E.g. one might hit 4.2GHz, the other might only get to 4.0GHz. I'm currently running my i7 5930K at the stock speed of 3.6GHz and I don't have any issues with it. If I want to, I know that my chip can hit 4.4GHz. You can also find the OCing makes the system unstable. I've had to dial my overclock back occasionally because the system wasn't stable.

The PentiumG3258 was a bit special because you were able to significantly OC it on the stock Intel cooler as it was only a dual core CPU. The more cores you have, the more heat you get.

 

[hatethisbit]

Thats great thank you, i think i will go with a modular one as historically i have been pretty lazy with my cable arrangements and planned to be a bit tidier this time round!

 

[Borealis]

Reviews of said PSUs here:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=382
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=503
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=438
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=429
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=452

The wattages aren't the same, but the internal build quality will be. These guys know their stuff about PSUs and don't recommend something unless it's a good unit.

 

[mistersprinkles]

My psu is a Swift 750W V2 Silent Power Supply which i purchased from OC a few years ago. Gpu is an Nvidia geforce GTX 960. My desktop resolution is 1842x1036, i play Overwatch in 1920x1080. I cant check what i run the division in as at work but its at least 1080, wildlands suffers quite a bit at the same resolution.

Why are you off raster for your desktop res? There are no 1842x1036 monitors. Run at your native res. Use scaling if you need to see the letters big.

 

[hatethisbit]

My partner uses my computer when editing photos and i was happy to leave the resolution at one she found useful, does an off raster res cause problems?

 

[hornetstinger]

You should always use native desktop resolution

 

[hatethisbit]

Righto, thanks for helping an old geezer out

 

[hatethisbit]

I hope you dont mind me reviving this thread but i went ahead and purchased some upgrades and to be blunt, it isnt going well. I got myself a B350 tomahawk motherboard with a ryzen 5 1600 and 8gb of corsair vengeance ddr4 3000mhz memory. Did a bit of readiupon boong that suggested to swap the new bits over before formatting my existing drives but booting up for the first time i was hit with a black screen, no beeps, no led error lights showing up on the motherboard. Unplugged it all and redid it all in case i'd not sat something properly, this time the GPU LED light was showing but the bios splash screen thingy (where you hit DEL for options F11 for boot screen) came up. A screen then came up saying windows wasnt installed properly which i thought was weird but shrugged off as a problem with new hardware and wanted to format anyway.

Long story short i have formatted and reinstalled windows but i have no idea how, because every time the pc reboots im hit with a black screen, sometimes nothing at all happens, sometimes the GPU LED comes on and i see the bio splash screen and my mouse lights up (i now cant enter the bios no matter which option i try), and after the splash screen goes again nothing but black. The furthest i have managed to get is when windows fully installed, i straight away updated my graphics card drivers, but after the necessary reboot it just seems totally random whether i see the splash screen then into blackness, or just blackness. Please help!

Edit; i dont know if it means anything but in my old system i had daisychained a lot of molex connectors together for the fans and what not but as this board has enough sys_fan pins i havent done that.

 

[Plec]

List your full spec/build and note which parts are new.

Did you flash to the latest BIOS straight away? (ideally you would have with minimum setup when you first started to but the build together)

If not are you able to get into the BIOS consistently and stably now?

 

[hatethisbit]

AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (new and used the included wraith cooler)
MSI B350 tomahawk (new)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4 3000MHz (new)
Nvidia GTX 960 8gb
2x Corsair Force LS Series 120GB SSD's (and a 1T drive for storage)
NZXT Lexa S case

I didnt flash the bios as i am unaware of how to do this, although i have downloaded the bios update from MSI. It seems like i am totally unable to see anything now, the past 10+ reboots/power offs i have nothing but a black screen

 

[Plec]

PSU?

You need to a minimum setup

• Unplug all peripherals and drives/cables from the motherboard
• 1 stick of memory
• keep the GPU connected (no onbard gfx with Ryzen)

And see if you can get into the BIOS.

*Check all power connections to the motherboard and that the motherboard is securely fixed.

 

[hatethisbit]

Sorry the PSU is a seasonic 520Bronze. What about fans?