upgrade thread - £500 budget

lauybob

lauybob

lauybob

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Current specs are:

Case: BitFenix Phenom MATX Cube
CPU: Intel i5-6600K
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4
RAM: TeamGroup Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black Grey
GPU: Radeon RX 6500 XT ITX 4GB
OS Drive: Samsung SM951 128GB PCIe NVMe M.2
Storage: Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB SATA
PSU: Super Flower Leadex GOLD 550W Fully Modular '80 Plus Gold'

Looking to upgrade (CPU and RAM mainly) as its pretty dated and can't even install Windows 11 :D

Main uses are browsing/work (like Office rather than anything demanding) and gaming (Football Manager and League of Legends mainly and sometimes F1)

Planning to reuse the case, GPU, hard drives and PSU.

What can I do with £500 to upgrade this?
Thanks
 
Are you happy with the performance of your pc? If you are then I'd suggest that you don't upgrade.
Instead, you can install windows 11 on your current computer with rufus. Rufus allows you to bypass win 11 requirements and install on "non-compatible" hardware


Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way
rufus.ie
 
tamzzy said:
Are you happy with the performance of your pc? If you are then I'd suggest that you don't upgrade.
Instead, you can install windows 11 on your current computer with rufus. Rufus allows you to bypass win 11 requirements and install on "non-compatible" hardware


Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way
rufus.ie
Click to expand...

Would say I'm mostly happy with it atm. Just at times the CPU (+ RAM) seems to be at 100% load a lot for some reason so thought I could do with an upgrade.

Any reason for not upgrading? Assuming its to do with the current prices of RAM?
Thanks for your advice :)

And thank you for the rufus advice. Any issues in upgrading to Windows 11 with non compatible hardware? Or 'safe' to do so?
Thanks again
 
Last edited:
lauybob said:
Any reason for not upgrading? Assuming its to do with the current prices of RAM?
Click to expand...

correct, ram and ssd prices
though £500 would put you at an entry level AM4 ryzen build with DDR4 RAM
you could potentially reuse your current 16GB RAM and add on another 16GB to make a total of 32GB - though by using 4 sticks of RAM, there is a chance it may not run at advertised speeds
 
Another vote for potentially going down the AM4 route, worth checking if you can throw in a motherboard and one of the X3D chips - would make a solid upgrade.
 
Unfortunately the AM4 X3D chips are highly sought after now, the 5800X3D is now cost more than a 9950X3D, if you can buy one at all. It is a hard truth, but £500 during the time of ramageddon isn't quite enough, for any meaningful CPU upgrade the 2*8GB DDR4 OP using is really going to hold the system back....
 
Last edited:
lauybob said:
Current specs are:

Case: BitFenix Phenom MATX Cube
CPU: Intel i5-6600K
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4
RAM: TeamGroup Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black Grey
GPU: Radeon RX 6500 XT ITX 4GB
OS Drive: Samsung SM951 128GB PCIe NVMe M.2
Storage: Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB SATA
PSU: Super Flower Leadex GOLD 550W Fully Modular '80 Plus Gold'

Looking to upgrade (CPU and RAM mainly) as its pretty dated and can't even install Windows 11 :D

Main uses are browsing/work (like Office rather than anything demanding) and gaming (Football Manager and League of Legends mainly and sometimes F1)

Planning to reuse the case, GPU, hard drives and PSU.

What can I do with £500 to upgrade this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I’d start with an Intel B580 at £250(ish) and look for a used CPU upgrade to a in i7 6700K (or whatever) if the CPU is cheap.

But a cheap AM4 CPU and motherboard is going to be better value for the money, an AMD 5600X or 5700X would be a significant upgrade.
 
An am4 5700x, 5800, 5800x (Not a 5700 - it has half the cache of the others) and a cheap motherboard is the best bang for buck you can get. around £250 2nd hand. any of those chips are much faster then the 6600k

16gb is still plenty enough to do the things that you have listed.

If your desperate to spend the other money a 512gb or even 1tb nvme drive would be the other nice to have.
 
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