Upgrading from Ivy Bridge - sanity check!

[EvanJackPenn]

Hi all,

I built my system in 2012 and haven't really touched it since. I'm looking to finally upgrade my CPU, but I haven't been following all the latest developments and need a quick sanity check before I buy.

Current system:
i5-3570k, ASUS Maximus V Gene (mATX), MSI RX480, 4x4GB DDR3, Corsair H100 cooler, Fractal Arc Mini case, 500GB SATA SSD, 3TB HDD

Plan of action:
£300 budget
R5 3600 ~£175
Ditch the H100 and use stock cooler (can replace later if necessary)
A B450 mATX (maybe Gigabyte B450M DS3H, Asus B450M-K?) ~ £70
2x8GB DDR4 (e.g., https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B016A29PWA, can add extra later) ~£50

I've seen on Reddit about needing to flash the BIOS of some motherboards for the latest generation of Ryzen. But I don't think that's the case here?

I've seen the following bundle on offer at AWD and it seems really good value: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-5...pu-bundle.html

Would it make sense to buy that, RAM and away we go? I think I read that RAM speed is more important nowadays?

Regarding compatibility with my old parts, I should be able to just transfer my windows licence and everything else will be fine without a clean install?


Thanks in advance!

[Domestic_Ginger]

I'm in the same boat. I have a 3470 setup. Cex sell a 2600 for £100. I need to sell my 3470 (£18) and 7950 (£40) for vouchers, the exchange looks OK. I was going to put my faulty mobo and ddr3 on eBay.

Looking around I was thinking of either a MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX or a asrock b450 pro4-f. If you find out anything about the former; I am very interested. Both are £62.

Ramwise the 3600 for £62 is no longer on offer it seems it has bumped in price overnight! So £50 seems a good deal.

Pcpartpicker is a great search engine for parts in one place. Hukd sometimes lists good parts too.

Do you not have the am4 mounting bracket for the h100? There must be a universal am to 775 or whatever mounting bracket somewhere.

I would do the clean windows install.

[cptwhite_uk]

Best mATX B450 Motherboards:

MSI B450M Mortar Max (ATX size, no BIOS update required)
Asrock B450M Steel Legend (mATX size, BIOS upgrade may be required)
Asrock B450M Pro4 (mATX)

From a price to performance / features ratio, I don't think you can beat the Asrock B450M Pro4...can be had for around £62 from Scan or CCL....compare the image below between the Asus B450M-K and the Pro4...no contest in build quality and feature set.

Gigabyte had poor VRMs on the B450 series, so avoid. Asus was so-so but generally overpriced as always, I'd definitely pick the Pro4 over the Asus B450M-K, which doesn't even have any VRM heatisnks).

Asus B450M-K:


Asus B450M Mortar Max:


Asrock B450M Pro4:


Asrock B450M Steel Legend:

[Domestic_Ginger]

MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX


Based on looks I thought it was okay.

The power delivery top left looks exactly the same as the mortar?

[Phage]

A 4xx board will require the BIOS to be flashed to update to the latest 3xxx series chips. No biggie though

[GamingLexus]

Following thread with interest. Also running Ivy Bridge 3770k and starting to get that urge to upgrade

[DanceswithUnix]

A 4xx board will require the BIOS to be flashed to update to the latest 3xxx series chips. No biggie though

I bought one recently that said 3000 series ready on the box. Depends on when it was made, rather than the chipset, and 3000 series has been out a while now.

[[GSV]Trig]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one..

I'm still running a i7-3770, 16Gb RAM, RX580 and 500GB SSD...

I'm struggling to actually justify the upgrade though as I dont get as much time to game these days and the 580 isnt that bad a card.

[Apex]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one..

I'm still running a i7-3770, 16Gb RAM, RX580 and 500GB SSD...

I'm struggling to actually justify the upgrade though as I dont get as much time to game these days and the 580 isnt that bad a card.

i5-4690K 16Gb Ram RX480 myself so this is interesting; was pricing a 3950X setup but means i need to change my case has there aren't any decent mATX mobos on the x570 chipset but then nothings set in stone due to costs.

[[GSV]Trig]

Yeah I’d have to stick to mATX as well due to existing case..

[DanceswithUnix]

Annoying isn't it. The board sizes seem to have settled into: mini ITX for luxury builds, uATX for mass market cheap disposable builds, ATX for "gamer" builds. For all the motherboards on the market, there doesn't seem much choice if you want to build a decent mATX machine or a cheap ITX box to hide away somewhere.

[Xlucine]

- If you buy a bundle, the BIOS *should* have been updated so it POSTs with the CPU you get (one less thing to worry about). That bundle is ~£20 less than the components go for individually on scan, so it looks like a great deal
- The cheapest A320 boards can officially support the 3950X, so just about any board will happily run any 3rd gen chip (provided it has the right BIOS) - the VRM requirements are not very demanding, they're frugal chips. The overclock you get might be 100 MHz slower, but zen2 boost is so good that there are very few use cases where manually overclocking makes you better off
- I second the call for an AM4 mounting bracket for your cooler, if it's still working. Corsair are very likely to sell one for a small fee, or potentially free
- Since you bought the windows licence separately it'll transfer, but I recommend a clean install

[EvanJackPenn]

My thinking on the H100 is that it's now 8 years old, the fan speed can only be changed by pressing a button, and I've already had to tinker with it due to a faulty/noisy pump. I think I'd be happy to stick to stock and upgrade later on if needed.

I'd rather not flash a BIOS if possible. Is there no midrange chipset for Ryzen 3?

[[GSV]Trig]

I’ve also got an AIO cooler, H50 or something like that, if I can get a mount that’d do but the bundles I’ve been looking at come with a stock cooler anyway so not overly fussed..

Wonder if we can do a buy 2 get 1 free deal somewhere lol

[DanceswithUnix]

My thinking on the H100 is that it's now 8 years old, the fan speed can only be changed by pressing a button, and I've already had to tinker with it due to a faulty/noisy pump. I think I'd be happy to stick to stock and upgrade later on if needed.

I'd rather not flash a BIOS if possible. Is there no midrange chipset for Ryzen 3?

People are using the B450 or X470 based boards for that market, there isn't a B550 chipset.

The big lose for that is a lack of PCIe 4, AMD turned it off for everything apart from X570 boards in one of their AGESA updates

There are B450 motherboards that support all the CPUs. For example, MSI released their MAX range specifically because their BIOS chip ran out of room for the boot code for the latest chips. So get one of those, and it will boot a 3000 series.

Then there are those (Asus ROG?) which have a BIOS flash button so you don't need a CPU or ram to update the BIOS. That's a bit more money though, and at that point you are probably better off just getting an X570.

[cptwhite_uk]

B550 should be coming soon, but honestly unless you need PCI-E Gen4 (for Gen4 NVME SSD's), the B450 is fine,

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max for ATX
Asrock B450M Steel Legend for mATX
MSI B450I Gaming Plus for ITX

That's all you need to know really, they're be best bang per buck / cheap with good build quality and components, in each category.