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Midrange Gaming Pc upgrade from 2016 Build

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  • 08-10-2022 8:02pm
    #1
    mno101
    Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭


    HI all,

    I am planning an upgrade to a gaming PC built for my son in 2016 (got a lot of help here !).

    Here is the current spec. The budget to upgrade is ~€500

    Processor Intel Core Skylake Processor i5-6500/3.2 GHz Processor CPU

    GPU Nvidia Geforce GTX 1660 Super

    RAM HyperX FURY Black Series 8 GB 2133 MHz DDR4 CL14 DIMM Memory Module (Skylake Compatible)

    Case NZXT CA-S340MB-GB - Source 340 Midi-Tower Case - Blue Window

    SSD Crucial MX300 275 GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive with 9.5 mm Adapter - Grey/Blue

    HDD WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch

    MOBO Gigabyte H110M-S2H Motherboard (Socket 1151, H110 Express, DDR4, S-ATA 600, Micro ATX)

    PSU Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX Series CX450M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 Plus Bronze 450 W Power Supply Unit

    Monitor Dell U2715H 27-Inch Widescreen IPS LED Monitor

    Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 103 CPU Cooler "RR-H103-22PB-R1, 3 Heatpipe, 1x 92mm PWM Blue LED Fan, Intel / AMD"

    OS Windows 10 Pro 

    We are hoping to upgrade the CPU/GPU ...but still trying to figure out what will remain compatible (MOBO, RAM...?)

    Appreciate any advice.

    thks

    mno101



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    #2
    jhud
    Registered Users Posts: 695 ✭✭✭jhud


    Looked at this myself but ended up doing full upgrade.

    To upgrade and keep mobo and ram 2 processors you could get are i7-7700k €160 or i5-6700k €75 which are generally only secondhand CEX is where I went but CPU provided was dead and not packaged good but return was to my local shop and no issues.

    GPU would be a couple of options you can do GPU compare to see if the upgrade is worth it.

    New rtx 3060 expensive still.

    Or secondhand

    Rtx 2070 €360 cex or rtx 2080 €450 cex

    You would probably need to upgrade power supply to 550w or 650w.



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    #3
    cornholio509
    Registered Users Posts: 112 ✭✭cornholio509


    @mno101 . Going to be honest here with you . Depends on what you mean by upgrade . There is a huge question mark here . The word gaming is broad as you can get when it comes to PCs . It all depends on the games you play and what games you want to play as they are released . I wouldnt say no to upgrading the to the i7-7700k . Its compatible with your motherboard and a secondhand GPU would be the best option . I would pay €300 Euro for a new in box 5 year old discontued CPU . You can buy another SSD to relace the hardrive . 1tb SSD cost between 80 and 100 euro . SHould a a big increase in performance with that alone . No need for more ram or new GPU .

    THat said black friday is 5 weeks away . My advice is to do some research and maybe open up the purse strings for a new PC build if you can . all the latest and greatest hardware is launching this month and the first week of november . SO not only are you cgoing to see surrent generation hardwarew drop price . YOu will most likely have a sale on lowering prices even further . YOu may even come across good bundles . However do your research first . Hardware has changed by leaps and bounds since you last built that system .



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    #4
    kippy
    Registered Users Posts: 18,584 ✭✭✭✭kippy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119728772#Comment_119728772

    The hardware still does what it did 6 (and more) years ago. Leaps and bounds is a bit of a stretch.

    I do agree however with the remainder of the post. What does the OP wish to gain?

    Personally. I'd upgrade to SSD and pocket the 400 bucks towards a full new PC in 2 or 3 years time. The kid might have grown out of gaming by then, saving ya another few bob!



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    #5
    Homelander
    Registered Users Posts: 4,412 ✭✭✭Homelander


    You need a new CPU far more than a new GPU is needed, so I would just get a new CPU, motherboard and fast RAM.

    Ryzen 5600, a basic motherboard, and 16GB of DDR4 3600mhz, or similar.

    You can get a 2nd hand i7-6700 or i7-7700 for small money, but they are still fairly outdated CPU's and would need replacing again in the near future, plus the RAM speed is very slow.

    Upgrade the core, and stick with the GTX1660 Super. It's still a reasonably OK card for 1080P.



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    #6
    Kirby
    Registered Users Posts: 13,084 ✭✭✭✭Kirby


    500 euro is doable but fairly tight. My advice is to save a few hundred more and do it properly. Wait longer, save more and replace the CPU, motherboard, RAM and PSU with modern alternatives. 300 for the cpu, 200 for the mobo, 100 for the ram and another 100 for the PSU will get you good specs. Maybe another 100 for a new case although if you like the one you have its an option.

    The Monitor, hard drive, SSD and graphics card can kept but everything else will need to go.



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    #7
    Homelander
    Registered Users Posts: 4,412 ✭✭✭Homelander


    I think that's a bit overkill for a kid. Why would he need a 200 euro mobo realistically? A 200e Ryzen 5600 and a decent 80e motherboard would be completely fine and a titanic upgrade.

    PSU is also completely fine for a big but affordable upgrade like an RTX3060 or Radeon RX6600.

    A Ryzen 5600 + RTX3060 at full hypothetical power load on both, the whole system would only consume around 260w, and realistically less than that the majority of the time. Leaves tons of headroom for the PSU to operate perfectly fine and well below spec.



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    #8
    Kirby
    Registered Users Posts: 13,084 ✭✭✭✭Kirby


    80 for an older board? Absolutely. Thats an option. But my motto always is "If you are going to do something, do it right". Buying a new motherboard from this year will mean in several years time he can upgrade the cpu. With an older board, he can't do that.



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    #9
    wotzgoingon
    Registered Users Posts: 14,309 ✭✭✭✭wotzgoingon


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732475#Comment_119732475

    That's all well and good if you are loaded. It's for a kid who isn't playing on a high end 4k high refresh monitor. I agree with Homelander. There is still the 5800X3D he can always upgrade too in a few years time when it would be a cheap upgrade and pair it with a better graphics card then too.



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    #10
    cornholio509
    Registered Users Posts: 112 ✭✭cornholio509


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119728822#Comment_119728822

    NOt really a stretch . Then again its a anrgument for another time as its a moot point on a €600 budget .

    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058266617/midrange-gaming-pc-upgrade-from-2016-build

    You have 2 options i think since you know best on what you need for your PC .

    First option would be a 7700k used from CEX . €160 euro isnt spoilt and its still a viable CPU for gaming today . As kippy said i would buy an ssd and replace the itb Hdd . 1TB crucial SSD can be got for €75 on amazon .

    The other option would be to buy a B550 mothoreboard for around €150 and a ryzen 5 5600x cab be got for 250 -190 euro . Just need to shop around . This will leave you with an upgrade path later on if you want to ryzen 7 processor . Something like the 5800x3d wihcih in a couple of years will be probably a €200 processor . Then have a budget a bit larger for a good mid tier gpu .

    Again you wont need to buy anything else for the system no matter which route you choose . ram , GPU , and PSU along with the drive are all compatible .



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    #11
    Homelander
    Registered Users Posts: 4,412 ✭✭✭Homelander


    I probably would just go straight for a new CPU. By spending that money on a 7700K you're only kicking the can a few yards down the road, already in some of the major new releases it's significantly slower than modern processors and has way lower average and 1% low frames.

    While it's true it's generally still okay, some major games it's slow with noticeably poor performance and that will only get worse in the near future.

    Have to remember, that it's around the same speed now as a $99 i3-10100.

    I think a 5600X and B550M with 16GB 3600mhz RAM for whatever now is affordable, and will last for years without any issue. It's worth going for, combined with a 1GB NVME for the primary hard drive.

    The GTX1660 Super is still totally fine for the next while for a standard 1080p build at good graphics settings.



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    #12
    Jon Doe
    Registered Users Posts: 253 ✭✭Jon Doe


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732475#Comment_119732475

    ATM it's not a matter of board; it's a matter of socket. AM5 is still expensive. And Intel changes sockets more often than a women change her purse...



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    #13
    Jon Doe
    Registered Users Posts: 253 ✭✭Jon Doe


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119744169#Comment_119744169

    B550 for 150€ ??? Look harder: https://www.playox.de/asrock-b550m-hdv-90-mxbdj0-a0uayz-13012053



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    #14
    Jon Doe
    Registered Users Posts: 253 ✭✭Jon Doe


    @mno101 if your machine is still working, my advice is "buy during Black Friday", +-30 days from now. By then, AMD will have put more hardware on the market, reviews will be out and there will be loads of shops competing for your money. Keep it in your pocket for 30 more days.



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    #15
    mno101
    Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭mno101


    thanks all for the replies....

    here is where we are landing

    Ryzen 5600X £195 €223

    RAM 16GB 3600 £56 €64

    1TB NVME £97 €111

    B550M £128 €146

    total £476 €544

    prices are from amazon...have not shopped around yet...but these should come down for black friday.

    going to take the advice to hang on to the GPU for another while...that can be the next upgrade.!

    i will update here with further prices etc as we get closer to black friday


    thanks again



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    #16
    K.O.Kiki
    Registered Users Posts: 18,707 ✭✭✭✭K.O.Kiki


    Instead of 5600X get the "regular" 5600 and save yourself 60-70 euro.

    I just realised I already said this 😅



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    #17
    mno101
    Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭mno101


    HI all,

    the budget has gone up! ...and coupled with some price drops here is now where i am at (all prices from amazon.de)

    • AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Box Processor - €257.99
    • Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 Enthusiast RGB LED Lighting Memory Kit- €112.16
    • Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Motherboard Socket AM4 (ATX, Ryzen, PCIe 4.0, Intel 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, 2x M.2 with Coolers, SATA 6 Gbps, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Aura Sync) - €169.95
    • WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 1TB High Performance NVMe SSD, Gaming SSD, PCIe Gen4, M.2 2280, with up to 5150 MB/s Read -€78.99

    Total €619.09 (not incl. shipping)

    can anyone tell me what "Box Processor" means ?


    I should have mention in the original post that the first 2016 Pc has served us weel for 6+ years...and the objective is to get similar timeline from the upgrade. mostly for gaming...but games have gone from mostly minecraft to COD,GTA ets.


    thanks again for comments

    mno101

    Edit:

    pcpartpicker gave met these warnings

    • Warning: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor does not include a stock CPU cooler. Adding a CPU Cooler to your part list is recommended.
    • Warning: The Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard supports the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor with BIOS version 1004. If the motherboard is using an older BIOS version, upgrading the BIOS will be necessary to support the CPU.

    the first one i am ok with...i will need to get a cooler.

    the second one ....i am assuming a BIOS upgrade is an easy enough task ?



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    #18
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,078 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Given the (low) price of storage, I honestly don't think 1TB is enough unless you're on a very tight budget, since SSDs slow down once over 70% full.

    I have almost "filled" 2TB with only a handful of games and a recovery partition.



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    #19
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users Posts: 13,995 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119898347#Comment_119898347

    You just delete and redownload, its not worth holding onto them(Warzone excluded).



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    #20
    minitrue
    Registered Users Posts: 739 ✭✭✭minitrue


    The Asus ROG STRIX B550-F has bios flashback so you can update the bios if needed without having to use an old processor so that shouldn't be a problem. There's a slim chance it goes wrong but at this point I'd really expect the board to come with a new enough bios anyway considering 1004 is over 2 years old.



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    #21
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,078 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119898592#Comment_119898592

    I have 25Mbps broadband (been waiting 6 months for a fibre install). Downloading games without disturbing the streaming habits of my household is extremely time consuming!



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    #22
    Jon Doe
    Registered Users Posts: 253 ✭✭Jon Doe


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119898324#Comment_119898324

    pcpartpicker gave met these warnings

    • Warning: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor does not include a stock CPU cooler. Adding a CPU Cooler to your part list is recommended.
    • Warning: The Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard supports the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor with BIOS version 1004. If the motherboard is using an older BIOS version, upgrading the BIOS will be necessary to support the CPU.

    1) Box Processor means retail, it comes in a pretty box; that's what you want;

    2) this here https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-model/helpdesk_bios/ tells us the 1008 is a 2yo bios. You're buying new, and the Strix sells like hotcakes so you have nothing to worry about in that regard;

    3) just go on pcpartpicker and pick a CPU cooler: AM4, at least 50€; the "be quiet! Dark Rock 4" should be able to handle the 5800X's 105W.



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