Upgrade to current gaming PC

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T08:39:25+0000

Hi all, I hope everyone is well. I am looking for some advice on my current pc setup. I bought this pc a couple of years back from Currys as a gaming pc (I know, my mistake)! I am fairly new and learning around components, hence the post here. My current pc has the following:

Processor- AMD 6-core RYZEN 5 3500
Graphics- NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 4GB
Memory- 16GB DDR4 Memory
Hard Drive- 1TB

It will no doubt be very basic compared to most. My son is getting into PC gaming (more than what I play at the moment). He plays the likes of Fortnite, racing games etc along with flight sims. Could I upgrade these parts or would I be better off starting from scratch? I am looking to make the pc perform better and quicker. It takes a while to start up and even when browsing, it takes a while for the windows to open! Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T09:15:50+0000

Hi and welcome.

Can you tell us what name and model of the pc so we can check what spec ?

Mainly to see what case , motherboard and power supply it has.

Alternative download cpuz and click on motherboard it should tell us , power supply you would have to look in the case

CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

CPU-Z for Windows® x86/x64 is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system : Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels. Mainboard and chipset. Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD). Real time...

www.cpuid.com

Rob_B · 2024-11-13T09:22:29+0000

Is it a hard drive or SSD?
What motherboard do you have? a cheap CPU upgrade could help. What cooler do you have?
What is your budget?

Very likely a cheapish upgrade is feasible. A list of specs and model number of all components would help.

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T09:55:38+0000

mickyflinn said:
Hi and welcome.

Can you tell us what name and model of the pc so we can check what spec ?

Mainly to see what case , motherboard and power supply it has.

Alternative download cpuz and click on motherboard it should tell us , power supply you would have to look in the case

CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

CPU-Z for Windows® x86/x64 is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system : Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels. Mainboard and chipset. Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD). Real time...

www.cpuid.com

Hi, The make and model are:

Make- Acer
Model- Nitro N50-110

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T10:36:44+0000

Stokie05 said:
Hi, The make and model are:

Make- Acer
Model- Nitro N50-110

Ok.

According to the spec it has a 500w psu and the motherboard is an Acer special.. use cpuid and tell me what motherboard it is.

Looks like the hard drive is an old mechanical drive so maybe you could add an SSD which would make a big difference if you can get your operating system and games on it .

Do you have the ability to do this ?

Graphics card upgrade but that depends on the PSU connections .

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T10:51:37+0000

Rob_B said:
Is it a hard drive or SSD?
What motherboard do you have? a cheap CPU upgrade could help. What cooler do you have?
What is your budget?

Very likely a cheapish upgrade is feasible. A list of specs and model number of all components would help.

Hi Rob,

It is a hard drive (I had thought of upgrading this to SSD). I am not sure on the cooler, I would need to check.

mickyflinn said:
Ok.

According to the spec it has a 500w psu and the motherboard is an Acer special.. use cpuid and tell me what motherboard it is.

Looks like the hard drive is an old mechanical drive so maybe you could add an SSD which would make a big difference if you can get your operating system and games on it .

Do you have the ability to do this ?

Graphics card upgrade but that depends on the PSU connections .

Hi Micky, The motherboard details are:

Acer N50-110
Bus specs- PCI-Expree 4.0
Chipset- AMD Ryzen SOC
Southbridge- AMD X570
LPCIO- ITE IT8732

Is that what you wanted?

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T10:56:13+0000

Stokie05 said:
Hi Rob,

It is a hard drive (I had thought of upgrading this to SSD). I am not sure on the cooler, I would need to check.

Hi Micky, The motherboard details are:

Acer N50-110
Bus specs- PCI-Expree 4.0
Chipset- AMD Ryzen SOC
Southbridge- AMD X570
LPCIO- ITE IT8732

Is that what you wanted?

Did you get that information from cpuid ?

I'm trying to find out if it's an Acer board or a regular motherboard like gigabyte

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T10:58:45+0000

Yeah, I got that from cpuid.

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T11:04:13+0000

Stokie05 said:
Yeah, I got that from cpuid.

Ok .

I would like to check if the hard drive is an old mechanical type or an SSD .

Download speccy and check storage it an all in one info program.

Download Speccy | Find your computer specs, free!

Speccy - find the details of your computer's specs. Great for spotting issues or finding compatible upgrades. Download the latest version today.

www.ccleaner.com

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T11:08:41+0000

Hard drive info from program:

ST1000DM010-2EP102
Manufacturer- Seagate
Heads 16
Cylinders 121,601
Tracks 31,008,255
Sectors 1,953,520,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number ZN1LF36N
Firmware Version Number CC46
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 165 times
Power On Time 9.2 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 931 GB
Real size 1,000,204,886,016 bytes
RAID Type None

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T11:48:18+0000

Yes it's an old mechanical drive so an SSD would be beneficial , you could just install an SSD or clone it so it CPUs over everything from your old drive, but are you confident to do that.

So what's your budget for upgrades ?

GPU and SSD is where you would gain most performance.

Stokie05 · 2024-11-13T11:51:56+0000

mickyflinn said:
Yes it's an old mechanical drive so an SSD would be beneficial , you could just install an SSD or clone it so it CPUs over everything from your old drive, but are you confident to do that.

So what's your budget for upgrades ?

GPU and SSD is where you would gain most performance.

Thanks Micky, I am not sure if i would do the clone so install of SSD would probably be the way. Budget wise, i would like to keep it realistic. What would you suggest?

mickyflinn · 2024-11-13T12:26:26+0000

Stokie05 said:
Thanks Micky, I am not sure if i would do the clone so install of SSD would probably be the way. Budget wise, i would like to keep it realistic. What would you suggest?

GPU that will depend on what connectors are available from the PSU so next task is to find the model number of the PSU..

I'm going to tag a few others into this thread that may have more knowledge .

@Tetras @Craig_d1 @JollyJamma @freddie64

JollyJamma · 2024-11-13T12:33:34+0000

Does the motherboard have an NVMe M.2 slot or not?

It should have at least one.

If that PSU is proprietary, which is a good chance, I’d consider replacing the whole PC.

Tetras knows more about that GPU but it’s an entry level model and adding anything even remotely midrange might be too much for that PSU (it depends on a few things tho).

I’m sure you could add a 5700X3D and an SSD and see a big improvement but it really depends on what OP wants to do with the rig.

tamzzy · 2024-11-13T12:36:45+0000

JollyJamma said:
I’m sure you could add a 5700X3D

Depends if Acer released a bios update to support the CPU. As the board is probably a custom OEM, I would be extremely doubtful.

JollyJamma · 2024-11-13T12:37:36+0000

tamzzy said:
Depends if Acer released a bios update to support the CPU. As the board is probably a custom OEM, I would be extremely doubtful.

A very valid point. Didn’t think of that and is another reason I’d probably just sell it.

tamzzy · 2024-11-13T12:52:08+0000

It depends.
The 3500 is not a bad CPU, yes, it's low end but it's not horrendous for Joe average user.

If the PSU has a pcie 8pin connector, then I'd just chuck in a SSD, a better GPU and then call it a day.

A SSD will be the best quality-of-life upgrade for any computer without one, and a cheap GPU like the rx6600 would be a nice fit with the Ryzen 3500. Getting both won't cost the earth either.

JollyJamma · 2024-11-13T12:59:13+0000

An RX6600 would be a good upgrade.

Tetras · 2024-11-13T13:07:51+0000

mickyflinn said:
GPU that will depend on what connectors are available from the PSU so next task is to find the model number of the PSU..

I'm going to tag a few others into this thread that may have more knowledge .

@Tetras @Craig_d1 @JollyJamma @freddie64

I agree with what you advised, get a SSD. That should be the biggest change in quality of life and general responsiveness of the PC, especially since the OP mentioned this:

Stokie05 said:
I am looking to make the pc perform better and quicker. It takes a while to start up and even when browsing, it takes a while for the windows to open!

You can get an adapter to convert 3.5 bays to 2.5, which would hopefully solve the problem if there are no free bays for a SATA 2.5" SSD.

M.2 drive would be even better, if there's a slot available (I'd assume so).

JollyJamma said:
Tetras knows more about that GPU but it’s an entry level model and adding anything even remotely midrange might be too much for that PSU (it depends on a few things tho).

There are GTX 1650 which have a power connector, but I'd say most of them do not. Hopefully the PSU does have a power connector (6 or 8 pin), but if not that is tricky because I personally would not consider a 3050 6GB worth the upgrade.

A 6600 would be a much bigger upgrade than the 3050 6GB, they're pretty compact, has fairly minimal power requirements and runs well with underpowered CPUs.

tamzzy said:
The 3500 is not a bad CPU, yes, it's low end but it's not horrendous for Joe average user.

Yeah, it is plenty good enough to run something like a RX 6600 and feel a nice difference in the majority of games.

freddie64 · 2024-11-13T14:43:48+0000

@Stokie05 Any chance you could post some photos of the inside of the PC so we can see what PSU connectors you have and how much space is available for the GPU

I use imgBB to upload pics and copy and paste the full BBCode.

Could not find a teardown video of yours, but from what i have seen on line (Intel version) the PSU may have a 6/8 pin GPU connector.

I agree with others, SSD is a must and something like the RX6600 (if you have the connector).

Don't think you will be able to update the bios to take a newer CPU, but you may be able to get a Ryzen 3600 or 3700X to work. I am not sure about this so be aware that it may not work.