Upgrade Advice - What Components?

[Templeton]

My current setup isn't compatible with Windows 11 so I'm needing to do some upgrades.

I used to dabble quite a lot when I was younger but as life moves on I find it's been almost 15 years since I last did a full new build, (currently running an Intel Core i5-2500), so am looking for advice / ideas of what would be a good setup.

The budget would be somewhere between £500 - £600, and I'm looking at CPU, Motherboard, and RAM.

I don't do much gaming nowadays, and if I do it will be older games from the 90's and early 2000's. The computer is mostly just used a basic home computer, Internet stuff, YouTube ect.. so nothing too taxing, but I'd like something that will still be going strong for a number of years and not need upgrading again soon.

I was aware that AMD do CPU's with integrated graphics which I believe would suit what I need and save on the cost of a Graphics Card, and I've recently noticed that Intel also offer this with some of their CPU's. From what I understand these are quite capable / competent unless you wanted to play more modern games? I'm not fussed either way re AMD / Intel, it would solely come down to which is considered to offer the most at the price point.

Obviously motherboards are CPU dependent, but would ideally like something with the option to add a Graphics Card at a later date if ever needed (though I don't foresee this).

Thanks.

 

[hornetstinger]

You might want to try a modded version of W11, you can get it working with older hardware.

 

[Templeton]

You might want to try a modded version of W11, you can get it working with older hardware.

Yes, I know there're ways around installing W11, I'm just seeing it as an opportunity to upgrade a 14 year old system.

 

[Craig_d1]

My

I was aware that AMD do CPU's with integrated graphics which I believe would suit what I need and save on the cost of a Graphics Card, and I've recently noticed that Intel also offer this with some of their CPU's. From what I understand these are quite capable / competent unless you wanted to play more modern games? I'm not fussed either way re AMD / Intel, it would solely come down to which is considered to offer the most at the price point.

Obviously motherboards are CPU dependent, but would ideally like something with the option to add a Graphics Card at a later date if ever needed (though I don't foresee this).

Thanks.

problem with the amd 8000 series is that in order to get the bigger igpu on the die, then cut the l3 cache in half..the cpu also has fewer pcie lanes, so once you then upgrade down the line and stick a dedicated gpu in your pc, the performance then suffers because of the L3 cache limitations...
better to get a cheap 7400f/7500f from china and buy a 2nd hand gpu that go combined route
HU unboxed did a 2nd vid on it recently...sec

 

[Craig_d1]

think that's the one. worth a watch

 

[Tetras]

I was aware that AMD do CPU's with integrated graphics which I believe would suit what I need and save on the cost of a Graphics Card, and I've recently noticed that Intel also offer this with some of their CPU's. From what I understand these are quite capable / competent unless you wanted to play more modern games? I'm not fussed either way re AMD / Intel, it would solely come down to which is considered to offer the most at the price point.

Obviously motherboards are CPU dependent, but would ideally like something with the option to add a Graphics Card at a later date if ever needed (though I don't foresee this).

The AMD AM5 CPUs all have integrated graphics (except -F models, these do not), but the models with a G, e.g. 8600G, have much better integrated graphics.

If you only intend YouTube and other Internet stuff and very old games, then even the basic graphics in the regular CPUs would be enough, but otherwise you'd need a -G CPU. Though, even the G CPUs aren't great, so don't expect to be running recent AAA games on anything except the lowest settings.

This can give you an idea what they're capable of, the 8500G is the basic model and not one I'd recommend for a long-term upgrade:

The graphics in Intel's 245K and 265K is much stronger for gaming than their previous CPUs, but it still gets beaten easily by an entry-level graphics card.

Right now, you can get a 245K for under £200 and a 265K a chunk under £250, which are strong CPUs at those prices.

 

[Templeton]

Thanks for the help so far, given me a few pointers to start looking at.

For what I need the integrated graphics will be more than capable, so the idea of getting a dedicated GPU at a later date can be scrapped.

From what I've learned so far the Ryzen 5 8600G and the Ryzen 5 5600G seem to be considered the best available with onboard graphics at the price point I am looking at. Reports suggest the Radeon graphics used on the 8600G are a big step up on the Vega graphics on the 5600G

So as one uses the AM4 socket and one the newer AM5 socket I would guess the better 'future-proof' would be the AM5 socket. I'm edging towards the 8600G but just want to be sure I'm not missing anything important.

 

[Tetras]

From what I've learned so far the Ryzen 5 8600G and the Ryzen 5 5600G seem to be considered the best available with onboard graphics at the price point I am looking at. Reports suggest the Radeon graphics used on the 8600G are a big step up on the Vega graphics on the 5600G

So as one uses the AM4 socket and one the newer AM5 socket I would guess the better 'future-proof' would be the AM5 socket. I'm edging towards the 8600G but just want to be sure I'm not missing anything important.

I would definitely go AM5 instead of AM4, not necessarily because of the future proofing (we don't know for sure how many upgrades it will get), but just because the Vega graphics are really old at this point and have a lesser feature set. DDR4 is also really expensive new, so there's not the cost benefit AM4 had before.