Upgrading Mobo/CPU/Ram for 1080p gaming

Mockingbird

Mockingbird

Mockingbird

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21 Jun 2011
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Hello folks,

I have an old (2012) PC build that is starting to creak around the edges on more demanding titles and I'm looking for some component guidance.

For a 12-year old build it's been amazingly good to me, playing everything up to CP2077 adequately. It's dodged planned upgrades on no fewer than four occasions by coming back from corrupted bios, the availability of a second hand CPU replacement, or cancellation due to the intervention of a massive car repair bill etc, but I think I finally have the money, time and opportunity to upgrade.
(last time I asked about this machine is here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/replacement-cpu-mobo.18882069/)

GPU was upgraded in 2019 (Sapphire Radeon Rx580 Nitro+ 8Gb) and I assume this will do just fine for the forseeable future if I'm not going over 1080p, so have not planned to replace it.

This will be for 1080p gaming pretty much exclusively. I realistically need to do this streamed in-home with Sunshine/Moonlight as what used to be my desktop gaming space has had to be sacrificed to the combined pressures of WAH and children.

I want to have a system that is as low power and close to silent as possible, particularly when idle - It'll be under the desk where we work from home so I can't have it blasting my partner's ears off in meetings. This may be hard given it's in a full ATX Centurion 5 from coolermaster, which has too many mesh panels to be easily quieted I think, and the Sapphire Rx580 isn't what you might call stealthy, but if it's possible to lean that way then yay.

Current spec:

Intel i5-3570k with an aging AIO cooler.
Gigabyte z77-D3H mobo
8 GB DDR3
Radeon RX580

Browsing recent threads seems to suggest that a Ryzen 5 7600 or 7600x in a B650(m?) motherboard is a very common recommendation for this type of build. If I do go that route then I think I'd like to include a 2Tb nvme M.2 drive as currently it has a hodgepodge of old mechanical drives and SSDs - if I can get rid of the mechanicals then that's another source of noise out the door.

Total budget - if I can keep it under £400 I'll be a happy man, but can stretch to £500 if it makes a significant difference.

Expect to buy: motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, RAM, M.2 SSD, speed controlled case fans. Have I missed anything obvious?
 
Whilst I know you just want to upgrade the core components, you'd get a better overall experience with a full rebuild including a gpu
the rx6600 performance sits in between the gtx 1080 and gtx 1080ti in old money (the rx580 for comparison is roughly equivalent to the gtx 1060 6gb), so its a significant performance increase which will allow you to run at a higher fps or higher image quality even at 1080p

the ryzen 5600 comes with an okay stock cooler, it isn't the best, and if you want a cooler, then my recommendation would be: "Thermalright AssassinX120 SE ARGB WHITE" - this is not available from ocuk, but is available elsewhere for less than £15
i wouldn't bother with fans unless you have spare cash lying around, but if you do want fans, then my recommendation would be: "Thermalright TL-C12C" you can get this as a 3-pack for less than £11, or a 5-pack for less than £16
If you want RGB fans, then "Thermalright TL-C12C-S X3" this is a 3-pack for less than £13

Assuming your PSU is semi-decent, this is my 2 pence, for what it's worth:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £495.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)​
 
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
CP-3D2-AM
£150 (incl. VAT)
£90 (incl. VAT)
FREE DELIVERY
Find out more
Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI AM4 Socket Micro-ATXMotherboard
MOT-GIG-02687
£85 (incl. VAT)
£73 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Kingston Fury Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit
MY-295-KS
£53 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
GX-1AD-PC
£200 (incl. VAT)
£180 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
WD Blue SN580 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive
STO-WDC-00541
£105 (incl. VAT)
£100 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
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Gotta say, that is a crapton of upgrade you've managed to cram into that budget. It did not even I occur to me that a new GPU would be in range. I appreciate the take, thank you.

I had kind of assumed AM4 would be a no-go but on your recommendation I'll check out some benchmarks for the 5600.

The PSU is indeed decent - having lost a motherboard and GPU to a crappy one many years ago I no longer buy budget or no-name when it comes to PSUs.
 
Mockingbird said:
Gotta say, that is a crapton of upgrade you've managed to cram into that budget. It did not even I occur to me that a new GPU would be in range. I appreciate the take, thank you.

I had kind of assumed AM4 would be a no-go but on your recommendation I'll check out some benchmarks for the 5600.

The PSU is indeed decent - having lost a motherboard and GPU to a crappy one many years ago I no longer buy budget or no-name when it comes to PSUs.
Click to expand...
Would advise to stretch to a B550 motherboard so you get native support out the box for the 5600 otherwise the b450 may need a bios update to get it working.
 
Mockingbird said:
Gotta say, that is a crapton of upgrade you've managed to cram into that budget. It did not even I occur to me that a new GPU would be in range. I appreciate the take, thank you.
Click to expand...
what can i say, i like to cram :P

Mockingbird said:
I had kind of assumed AM4 would be a no-go but on your recommendation I'll check out some benchmarks for the 5600.
Click to expand...
it's still a decent platform for users on a budget and who don't upgrade often
also if you do get the ryzen 5600, you do still have an upgrade path to the 5700x3d - this cpu is the gaming equivalent of AM5's ryzen 7600, so no slouch either
though, if you have MM access, i would recommend that is where you should look first for an AM4 platform rather than buying new

mickyflinn said:
Would advise to stretch to a B550 motherboard so you get native support out the box for the 5600 otherwise the b450 may need a bios update to get it working.
Click to expand...
got to be incredibly unlucky these days to get any mobo without out-of-box support for ryzen 5000 lol :cry:
i think the only reason i'd go b550 is for pcie 4.0
 
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There's an i5 13600kf bundle (ddr5) ok the members market for under 400. Benchmarks look good in comparison to the AMD options in my price range - any reason I should steer clear of the intel if the price is right?
 
Mockingbird said:
any reason I should steer clear of the intel if the price is right?
Click to expand...
there no reason to steer clear of intel except (a) higher power draw (b) dead platform (c) silicon degradation issues, esp for the i7/i9 - i5 should be relatively spared
but for £400...i'd rather get a 7500f from china for 2/3 of the spend overall for (1) cheaper (2) less power draw (3) not a dead platform
the only reason why the 13600kf makes sense is if you need the multicore prowess for non-gaming workloads

for example:
(new from china) 7500f £100-110
(new) b650m hdv/m.2 £110-120
(new) 32gb ddr5 6000 £90-100, (used) £50-70

so even buying new and at the highest end of the price range, it's still significantly cheaper than the used 13600kf bundle

when i built an AM5 rig for my colleague's kid this was what i bought the items for:
(new from china) 7500f £93
(used from MM) b650m £96
(used from MM) 32gb ddr5 6000 £ 55
= £244 :cry:

paired it with a used 4070 super and the full total build cost was less than £750
 
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