Upgrading my Media PC - mobo and CPU suggestions

Dark Eyes

Dark Eyes

Dark Eyes

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Hello all,

I have a Windows PC that I mainly use for playing videos (1080p & 4k) with MPC-HC and MadVR. It has a GTX1060 3GB GPU that I might upgrade in the future, but it is sufficient for my needs currently. The PC was last updated in 2012 and uses an Intel i5-3570 @ 3.4Ghz with 8GB DDR3 RAM on an HP motherboard, so it isn't Windows 11 compatible. I'm not looking for anything too powerful, as I don't game.
I was trying to keep the budget around £250-300, and from some initial research, it looks like the Ryzen 5600 or Intel i5 14400F the most suitable CPUs; I'll probably get 16GB of RAM for it as well.
Quite a few of the video apps I use on it are single-core, so I suppose I need to factor single-core performance into it.
However, I have no idea about motherboards these days, except that it needs 4 SATA ports, a PCIe x16 for the GPU, a PCIe x8 and a PCIe x4 for 2 other cards. I think the current one is a Micro-ATX. Any suggestions?
Any issues with running a NVidia GPU with an AMD board and CPU?

It doesn't need to be upgradeable, as it probably won’t get updated for at least 5 or more years, by which time it will probably all be old hat.
 
I have a media pc made up of old parts including a 3570k with 16gb RAM and have no problem playing @ 1080p with onboard graphics so should imagine your GPU is all you need for 4k playback.

I use Emby through Windows Media Centre so am still on W7.

It is set up and works perfect so am reluctant to upgrade Windows and i will lose Media Centre.

Personally, i would save your money and just carry on with what you have and use Rufus to install W11.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, however, part of the reason for wanting to upgrade it, apart from improving performance, is that I want the old components for a SnapRAID build. Some of the video apps I use on it are a bit laggy, so hopefully that will improve with newer components.
 
if you do want a new pc then:
1) ryzen 5600 + any AM4 motherboard (though if you get something other than a a520/b550 board then you may need to do a bios update)
2) intel 12400(f) + h610/b660/b760 board (just note that intel does have both ddr4/ddr5 versions so just double check the board before you buy/bid)
 
tamzzy said:
2) intel 12400(f) + h610/b660/b760 board (just note that intel does have both ddr4/ddr5 versions so just double check the board before you buy/bid)
Click to expand...
I'd recommend stretching to the 12500. It has a much stronger iGPU (UHD 770 vs the 12400's UHD 730) and two media engines instead of one. Should only be about a tenner more.
 
AyeAyeAhoy! said:
I'd recommend stretching to the 12500. It has a much stronger iGPU (UHD 770 vs the 12400's UHD 730) and two media engines instead of one. Should only be about a tenner more.
Click to expand...
Is the iGPU significant, if I'm using a Graphics Card?
It is currently £56 more expensive on OC.
 
Oof, that's quite a lot more. I paid £95 for mine, used, about 15 months ago.

No, if you have a gfx card then it's not. However, I was assuming you'd be skipping a card for this kind of build - keep it quieter, lower powered and potentially smaller. That iGPU should be more then enough for what you're doing with it, and is particularly good for transcoding in Plex etc.
 
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