Upgrading an 8 year old system for video editing / media

[Mark101]

My home-built PC is getting quite slow doing the media-heavy tasks (audio and video production) which I do every day.

I was tempted to get a new processor, but my motherboard can only support up to the i7-7700K which is slower than much cheaper modern processors. Is it time for a complete new rig, or are there parts of this one I can salvage?

• MSI H110M Motherboard
• i5 6500 @ 3.20GHz
• 16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM
• GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
• EVGA 430W PSU
• Corsair 88R case
• 1TB and 250GB SSDs

 

[Tetras]

The i7-7700K would likely be a nice boost if your video work is heavily multithreaded, but their cost rarely justifies it compared to a ~£70 5500/12100F, or a ~£100 i5-12400F/Ryzen 5600.

If you don't mind having a go at modding, you could try loading a modded BIOS for the 8th/9th gen CPUs, since something like a i5-8400 wouldn't be a bad improvement for ~£30.

 

[Rob_B]

Do you have a budget? You could pick up a cheap A320 and (if BIOS allows) whack a 5000 series CPU in there and reuse your RAM for not much. 7700Ks seems to be going for £100 still!

 

[Mark101]

If it will get me good improvements, I'm happy to spend up to maybe £600-800 or so. Of course if I can get a lot of improvement by spending more like £200-300, that would be preferable.

Certainly happy to get a new mobo — it's been a long time since I built a system, am I right in saying that a A320 mobo would fit in my case / work with my RAM and GPU? Would also be keen to expand storage with an M.2 drive so this could kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Rob_B]

It'd work fine, it's budget end AM4 so I was really using it for an example, you might want to buy a better one with that budget though.
Not sure what your case is but assuming it'll take an mATX as I think the H110M is?..

I reckon you can easily buy a motherboard, 5000 series CPU and some more storage for £200 (Mobo ~ £50, storage ~ £50 leaving £100 for CPU). Not easy to buy new really, OCUK only have B550 boards for ~ £100 and I'd personally not pay that much for AM4. If you want to spend £600-£800 you'll get a decent platform upgrade but then you need to consider new PSU etc too.

Do remember that it's sort of a dead end platform now though, you've got your 5800X3D for gaming as top end, and the higher core count CPUs still aren't exactly 'cheap' so you could upgrade to a low end now, then to a better chip later on, or do the whole thing now.

2nd hand you might be able to get a mobo/CPU bundle with a 5800X/5900X (over £200 though) which would destroy your 6500

 

[Tetras]

If it will get me good improvements, I'm happy to spend up to maybe £600-800 or so. Of course if I can get a lot of improvement by spending more like £200-300, that would be preferable.

Certainly happy to get a new mobo — it's been a long time since I built a system, am I right in saying that a A320 mobo would fit in my case / work with my RAM and GPU? Would also be keen to expand storage with an M.2 drive so this could kill two birds with one stone.

I'd suggest something like this as a middle ground, which would get on a new platform with future CPU upgrades.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £188.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BE-GI) = £164.95
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £89.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £24.95

Total: £468.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Intel alternative to keep your memory, I'd strongly recommend you avoid 13th-14th gen until we know they are fixed:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-69X-IN) = £176.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B760M Gaming X AX (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-02854) = £139.99
• 1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £24.95

Total: £341.93 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Bye, bye budget option:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Twelve Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DU-AM) = £359.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B650M-A WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-378-MS) = £159.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5600Z40) (SKU: MY-4DL-CS) = £176.00
• 1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 Dual Tower CPU Cooler -120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02719) = £38.98

Total: £742.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Some numbers:
CPU: single thread, multi thread
i5-6500: 2109, 5626
Ryzen 5 7600: 3915, 27128
i5-12600K: 3950, 27719
Ryzen 9 7900 4152, 48868

Intel i5-6500 vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600 vs i5-12600K vs Ryzen 9 7900 [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

I'd recommend waiting until the Ryzen 9000 CPUs release in August, if you're going to buy into AM5 and/or blow the whole budget.