Upgrade - Bundle or same components + better motherboard?

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

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Hello - another upgrade question - which motherboard please?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £951.95 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Hello OCKers - I am looking to do an upgrade and I have a case / power supply etc. Opinion seems to be that a Ryzen 3600 is the way to go for a "good" PC in terms of normal, not super gaming performance and I have looked at the OCUK Bundle (Recon A36) above but was thinking of a slightly better motherboard. So the Bundle is £467 - which include ~£25 build fee.

Would I get a better system with the improved motherboard for £483.96? Thanks, Mel
 
  • MSI B550 Tomohawk ~£160 (£45 cash back via MSI cashback offer. Offset close to B450)
  • 3600 ~£180 (the 3600X is not worth the extra)
  • Tower Cooler - ~£25
  • 32GB of TForce ~£99 (or 32GB 3600MHz of Crucial Ballistix for ~£140 - if considering Zen 3 in the future but not needed)
  • Total with cash back ~£520 - B550 has PCIe 4.0 for latest GPUs and 1x Gen 4.0 M.2 slot (not needed) and built around Zen 3 if you ever upgrade.
*Note: I wouldn't get the ASUS, way over priced - and not comparable to the quality of the MSI B450 Tomahawk.

Or

  • MSI B450 Tomahawk ~£99 (guaranteed Zen 3 support)
  • 3600 ~180
  • Tower Cooler ~£25]
  • 32GB TForce ~ £99
  • Total: ~£405
 
Hi

Both of those Asus boards are meh. If you want cheap B450 then MSI boards are better. You should also get Ryzen 5000 support as well if you ever upgrade the cpu.

The B450 Mortar is a Micro ATX board, but it will still fit into an ATX case. Basically the mATX version of the B450 Tomahawk.

Also the Arctic Freezer 34 esports is good enough for a 3600.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £424.45 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Thanks Gentlemen for your advice.

I am upgrading as I won £500 on the premium bonds a few weeks ago. I have a case, a m/b and newish modular power supply I put together for my daughter a few years ago - an ASUS A68HM Plus with an AMD A6 6400K Black. This is now pretty pathetic and for an experiment I tried the fastest Athlon 4x quad core the board would take - (second hand £25) - but still pathetic. So its all coming out - leaving a hole!

I will take your combined advice:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 4.2MHz (as above, both) - not the X
Team Group Vulcan 32GB (as above, both)
I'll stick to the Alpenfoln cooler
Motherboard - as I can get it under £500 I will go for the MSI B550 Tomohawk - I cannot see the £45 cashback but perhaps this will pop up when I register the board? Or perhaps the offer has expired?

£488 (post free as forum member), less £45 possibly.

Thanks very much, Mel
 
Plec said:
Here you go:https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/back-to-school-2020#AMD-MotherboardScroll down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for link. All ordered from OCUK, hopefully arriving Tuesday.

I have my Windows 10 "activated with a digital licence linked to my Microsoft email address" - so I am hoping that when I swop motherboards and CPU that Windows 10 will activate with no problems. It's not an OEM version but one based on Win 7 Pro I bought "standalone".

Mel
 
Mel_P said:
Thanks for link. All ordered from OCUK, hopefully arriving Tuesday.

I have my Windows 10 "activated with a digital licence linked to my Microsoft email address" - so I am hoping that when I swop motherboards and CPU that Windows 10 will activate with no problems. It's not an OEM version but one based on Win 7 Pro I bought "standalone".

Mel
Click to expand...

If not you have to select change of hardware to reactivate windows.


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....activate-windows-10-after-hardware-change?amp
 
Mel_P said:
Thanks for link. All ordered from OCUK, hopefully arriving Tuesday.
Click to expand...
No worries - hope upgrade goes smoothly.

Mel_P said:
I have my Windows 10 "activated with a digital licence linked to my Microsoft email address" - so I am hoping that when I swop motherboards and CPU that Windows 10 will activate with no problems. It's not an OEM version but one based on Win 7 Pro I bought "standalone".
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have any issues - but if you do they will resolve it during a quick MS chat.
 
Well with the update of the PC to a Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 base / 4.2GHz max boost on a B5500 Tomahawk 55 motherboard. £488 + money back.

Cinebench score = 3625 (no overclocking). Compared to around 800 on the Athlon and my ageing i7 920.

Some increase! Windows wouldn't load though but did a repair / reinstall - which lost a lot of the software!!! BUT it has reactivated using the "changed by hardware" option
 
Mel_P said:
Well with the update of the PC to a Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 base / 4.2GHz max boost on a B5500 Tomahawk 55 motherboard. £488 + money back.
Click to expand...
Solid upgrade for the money.

Mel_P said:
Cinebench score = 3625 (no overclocking). Compared to around 800 on the Athlon and my ageing i7 920.
Click to expand...
That's a healthy boost - it's great how a benchmark can make you feel comforted about your hardware choices. And yours were great bang for buck.

Mel_P said:
Windows wouldn't load though but did a repair / reinstall - which lost a lot of the software!!! BUT it has reactivated using the "changed by hardware" option
Click to expand...
Yeah, Windows 10 has the ability (a lot better) at doing a straight swap - but it's still wise to do back ups and if you can do a clean install where possible. Had i known - i would have advised this - but i've had success with the quick plug and and pray method, but have always backed up users data before. I hope yours wasn't too important/irreplaceable? :/

At least the licence swapped without issues.
 
Plec said:
Solid upgrade for the money.That's a healthy boost - it's great how a benchmark can make you feel comforted about your hardware choices. And yours were great bang for buck.

Yeah, Windows 10 has the ability (a lot better) at doing a straight swap - but it's still wise to do back ups and if you can do a clean install where possible. Had i known - . I hope yours wasn't too important/irreplaceable?, At least the licence swapped without issues.
Click to expand...

Nothing valuable. I actually have a "clone" of the SSD So I can pull things of there but it was basically a "loan" pc for my grandson to play games and my daughter to do work stuff, mainly as a virtual machine. I downloaded all of their files when the returned the PC a few months ago.

When I went from the AMD A6 6400K to the Athlon on the Asus A68HM-plus windows survived the change - but going from the Athlon / A68HM-plus to the Ryzen / Tomahawk was just a step too far! Windows loaded then crashed saying some driver was missing.

Windows did a "reset, allegedly keeping the files" but seems to have failed to retain most of the software. The only tredious thing is it did not retain Office 2010 Plus. I still have the DVDs so it will be a case of reinstalling and hoping that will reactivate.
 
Bummer! Found that in the reinstall which Windows "took over" it reinstalled in Legacy mode and not UEFI !! Looks like I will have to reinstall it. + Office etc !
 
All installed. Windows and office 2010 self reactivated so it was a few hours yesterday evening and a late night and I now have a uefi based install. I am now going to have a free month of Photoshop elements to give it a try with that. Only get a week with creative cloud. Tight!!
 
Mel_P said:
All installed. Windows and office 2010 self reactivated so it was a few hours yesterday evening and a late night and I now have a uefi based install.
Click to expand...
At least the initial install is lightning fast (Assuming you have SSD/NVMe) - it's all the updates...

All running OK, otherwise (enabled DOCP/XMP)?
 
Plec said:
At least the initial install is lightning fast (Assuming you have SSD/NVMe) - it's all the updates...
Click to expand...

SS windows was fast from the MS tool - not many updates - Office 2010 - lots of updates and a service pack - but went in several batches.

Plec said:
All running OK, otherwise (enabled DOCP/XMP)?
Click to expand...

Forgot about XMP (not used to it as not relevant to my "ageing" systems!). Booted to BIOS and memory was at 2400MHz. Clicked XMP Profile 1 and rebooted - now at 3200MHz.

Thanks, Mel
 
Ok wise guys (wiser than me!). As you can see above this system gives me a "Cinebench R20" score of around 3614 - or 3640 if I overclock a bit with Ryzen Master.

This is with a quite old graphics card - a Radeon RX570. I have an RX580 on another PC which I could swap - would that increase the Cinebench score?

Alternatively, if i was thinking of updating the graphics card what would be the suggestion for a "not silly money" (£250? or less) upgrade? Would like zero rpm fans at low load like RX570 and RX580.

Any ideas please?

PS - MSI B550 Tomahawk - I can claim the £40 cashback after 30 days - so, soon!!
 
Last edited:
Mel_P said:
Ok wise guys (wiser than me!). As you can see above this system gives me a "Cinebench R20" score of around 3614 - or 3640 if I overclock a bit with Ryzen Master.

This is with a quite old graphics card - a Radeon RX570. I have an RX580 on another PC which I could swap - would that increase the Cinebench score?

Alternatively, if i was thinking of updating the graphics card what would be the suggestion for a "not silly money" (£250? or less) upgrade? Would like zero rpm fans at low load like RX570 and RX580.

Any ideas please?

PS - MSI B550 Tomahawk - I can claim the £40 cashback after 30 days - so, soon!!
Click to expand...

Drop in your 580 will be good for 1080p and keep saving, then upgrade to maybe a 3060 or 3070 .
 
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