where to begin on an upgrade

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so i used to build pc's many years back (win 95 up to 7) so a while back and lost touch till a couple of years back and i built my current pc just for browsing, general pc work and light gaming, now i want to upgrade and get back into light gaming, so looking for some help as i was just going to drop a 5600 in and live with that then add a radiator.
But what would you recommend with the following ?
Thanks

msi b450 gaming pro carbon
ryzen 5 2600
Radeon rx580
teamgroup 2 x 8Gb ddr4-3200
define s2 case
 
A 5600 is a very sensible upgrade. What sort of rad are you thinking of adding ? 5600 is a low power chip so no need for extreme cooling.

Would be a decent system so when you wanted to you could upgrade gpu, the B450 is only pcie 3 so would be best to avoid 6600 gpus but 3060 or 3060ti or 6700xt would be a good fit. I assume your psu is half decent, RX 580 was quite power hungry iirc so should be ok.

Certainly got many years of use out of that Define S2 , are the original fans still spinning ?
 
the B450 is only pcie 3 so would be best to avoid 6600 gpus but 3060 or 3060ti or 6700xt would be a good fit. I assume your psu is half decent, RX 580 was quite power hungry iirc so should be ok.

If there's a good deal on a 6600 / 6600 XT, I'd still take it, especially for light gaming, but the 6500 or 6400 I would not (but they're not an upgrade to a 580 anyway).

i was just going to drop a 5600 in and live with that then add a radiator.

The 5600 is a good value cpu and an easy upgrade, the 5700X possibly if you need the cores, but sounds like it would be overkill here.

What kind of games and general pc work do you plan to do? If it is really light usage, I'm not sure I'd even bother to upgrade, especially if you're keeping the RX 580
 
A 5600 is a very sensible upgrade. What sort of rad are you thinking of adding ? 5600 is a low power chip so no need for extreme cooling.

Would be a decent system so when you wanted to you could upgrade gpu, the B450 is only pcie 3 so would be best to avoid 6600 gpus but 3060 or 3060ti or 6700xt would be a good fit. I assume your psu is half decent, RX 580 was quite power hungry iirc so should be ok.

Certainly got many years of use out of that Define S2 , are the original fans still spinning ?
the psu is a 650W Seasonic FOCUS Plus Gold and 3 years old, case fans were swapped to corsair ML120 pro and ML140 pro at build time and i just through the 5600 in as i dont mind going higher if needed

 
If there's a good deal on a 6600 / 6600 XT, I'd still take it, especially for light gaming, but the 6500 or 6400 I would not (but they're not an upgrade to a 580 anyway).



The 5600 is a good value cpu and an easy upgrade, the 5700X possibly if you need the cores, but sounds like it would be overkill here.

What kind of games and general pc work do you plan to do? If it is really light usage, I'm not sure I'd even bother to upgrade, especially if you're keeping the RX 580
i would just call it general pc work, browsing email youtube sorting and light editing photos and as for gaming world of tanks, age of empires, c&c but looking to expand the games but not to the latest and fastest
 
What benefit are you going to see? This is the first question you should ask, before you spend anything.
 
What benefit are you going to see? This is the first question you should ask, before you spend anything.
thats the problem i have been out of the loop for so long now, i just thought that in this day and age that everything would just open/run quicker
 
i would just call it general pc work, browsing email youtube sorting and light editing photos and as for gaming world of tanks, age of empires, c&c but looking to expand the games but not to the latest and fastest
From what you've said. Don't really see the need to upgrade.
 
thats the problem i have been out of the loop for so long now, i just thought that in this day and age that everything would just open/run quicker

Given you use case you may as well stick with what you have, then in 12-24 months grab a super cheap used 5xxx series CPU and maybe a GPU update, unless you have a really change in what you are using it for. :)
 
thats the problem i have been out of the loop for so long now, i just thought that in this day and age that everything would just open/run quicker
Maybe have a look at an SSD/nvme if your not already using one, as for your other use cases what you have currently seems perfectly fine.
 
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