New Year Upgrade!

[Jager]

Happy New Year Hexus Users

I hoping you can help me upgrade my motherboard and CPU to newer ones

Last year I had the misfortune of my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 iP55 Socket 1156 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard) breaking on me after around 10 years which caused random freezing at first which then progressed to full on black screen power losses. I bought a cheap similar Gigabyte mobo on Ebay to test and confirm it was the motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 DDR3 REV 1.1 LGA1156). That has been ok for a couple of months but I think now it's time to upgrade to something that will last me several years and a motherboard that will actually detect all my RAM instead of only half

I've been out of the PC world for a while so please don't get too technical. I built this current system myself but most parts are around 10 years old now. It's good for what I use it for nowadays so will probably just upgrade the motherboard and CPU first and look into SSDs in the future, then maybe other components later on

What motherboard and CPU would you guys recommend? One that will work with my other components
Would be good to get some price ideas and go from there. Obviously it might not be worth spending too much as my other components are top of the range compared to the stuff around nowadays. Would under £500 be realistic?

One thing that might be worth noting is that my monitor doesn't have a HDMI port

Ask me for any more info

Thanks for the help


My system:

- (Broken) Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 iP55 Socket 1156 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
- (Cheap Ebay motherboard) - GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 DDR3 REV 1.1 LGA1156

- Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache Processor

- EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 FTW Signature2 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

- Corsair Vengeance LP Performance Memory modules 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz CL9 Blue

- OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm Fan

- Antec 300 case (Mid tower, standard ATX)

- Windows 10 64-bit Home Premium

- 1x Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD
- 2x Western Digital Blue 500GB HDDs

[spacein_vader]

It would be helpful to know what you do with your computer. Gaming? Image/video editing? Office work?

[Jager]

Lol savage. Pretty much only do console gaming now so PC gaming is rare. Used to play games like Portal, GTA San Andreas, Modern Warfare 1. Might come back to it if the odd good game shows up.

Dabble in video editing using Sony Vegas every now and again.

[spacein_vader]

Lol savage. Pretty much only do console gaming now so PC gaming is rare. Used to play games like Portal, GTA San Andreas, Modern Warfare 1. Might come back to it if the odd good game shows up.

Dabble in video editing using Sony Vegas every now and again.

Sorry, wasn't meant to be abrupt. Memory and SSDs are cheap currently, but CPUs (and AMD CPUs in particular,) as well as the most recent GPUs are either unavailable or silly money. Given £500 I'd go for this:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DyxNBc

That would be a major upgrade on your current system giving you a 4c/8t CPU, modern mobo and a 500gb NVME SSD for your boot drive. Use the on board graphics or your existing GPU and you don't need to worry about connectors to your monitor either. It'd give you circa £150 for a GPU which would just about squeeze you into a Geforce GTX 1650. If your current PSU is still capable that'd up your GPU budget to around £200 but weirdly that doesn't buy you much improvement in the current market unless you want to go second hand.

For AMD you could swap out the CPU for a Ryzen 3 3100 and a B550 based motherboard but the CPUs are hard to find and the boards (IMO,) a bit overpriced.

[Jager]

Sorry, wasn't meant to be abrupt. Memory and SSDs are cheap currently, but CPUs (and AMD CPUs in particular,) as well as
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DyxNBc

Ffs just typed out my reply and Chrome crashed again. This is why I need an upgrade, as soon and the RAM get to 6GB it crashes as the mobo is only detecting 8GB instead of my 16GB

Can't believe I forgot to add that bit of important info haha. My apologies

So it doesn't seem like it's worth salvaging many components form my current system then?. I guess everythings moved on which forces me to upgrade more than I need to (DDR3 > DDR4, 1156 LGA > New boards etc). I spent over £200 for this current GPU so it amazes me that I can get a much better one for £150, those prices certainly do seem quite low. I mean I think my current PSU might be able to hang on. I have had it for 10 years now, so I guess run it until it breaks maybe? or might that risk damaging other components? hmm. I guess I'd consider second hand. You run the risk of things failing and losing your money but if they work you can grab yourself a bargain. It would have to be a big saving to justify losing out on a 1 year manufacturer warranty etc I think

Could be an option if that's a lot better. Depends how much of a price difference it is compared to going Intel

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AM4 has the advantage of a very good upgrade path,however many Intel CPUs are cheaper and also come with an IGP,if you don't want to use a dGPU. Your GTX660 should still be fine with older games.

I would aim for either a Ryzen 5 3600 or a Core i5 10400/10400F. What is your budget??

[DanceswithUnix]

I spent over £200 for this current GPU so it amazes me that I can get a much better one for £150, those prices certainly do seem quite low.

Such is the way of technology, things get smaller/cheaper/faster.

Your GPU is at least faster than integrated graphics, but not by a massive amount at about 50% faster than AMD's Vega 11. You can get a rough guide from the chart here: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-spec...e-gtx-660.c895

This is why you are asked about usage, if you are gaming then 3GB of vram is limiting but if you aren't then it should be fine. But then if you aren't gaming there may be other options. Something like an ASUS PN50. I have an Antec 300 here, and it uses a lot of space if you don't need a graphics card. You would even find a modern laptop would be faster than your old desktop.

Another question is if you have a Windows licence you can carry over to the new machine? Modern hardware tends to only come with Windows 10 drivers, and there are places you get get a licence for a fiver but not everyone is happy using those so it might be an extra expense.

I would also strongly consider replacing the storage. Hard drives are fairly reliable and they can last decades, but the MTBF figure is only valid in warranty period.

[Jager]

Sorry guys, I'm really bad with these abbreviations Been out of the PC world for too long

All the top high graphics games I will play on console so this PC would likely only get used for less demanding games. Plus if I ever did use it for some games I certainly won't be running them on max settings and would be happy with the medium

I think my current budget is below £500. I guess scrapping those whole system (maybe keeping just the case?) could be an option but I was hoping just to swap out as few things as possible initially.
Is there any option which will be better to future proof it? because 1156 LGA was here and then pretty much gone over night leaving me stuck for upgrading.

My PSU is still a worry of mine as I've had it for 10 years. Could it cause damage if it breaks or is that rare? Should I upgrade or just run it until it dies?

[quote]You would even find a modern laptop would be faster than your old desktop.[/qoute]
The harsh truth damn!

I'd like it up to gaming spec if needed, rather than saving a few quid on something less powerful

I have the genuine Windows 7 keys still. Last year I upgraded to Windows 10. If you don't know, it let me enter my Windows 7 keys to upgrade to a genuine version of Win10. But now I've swapped the motherboard out I have the 'Activate Windows' watermark in the bottom corner. I haven't activated it again yet as I'll be switching out the parts again soon obviously. Cheap keys would be my backup plan

[quote]Hard drives are fairly reliable and they can last decades, but the MTBF figure is only valid in warranty period.]
How long is the warranty period usually?. Edit// Just checked, bought my current main/boot drive in Nov 2019. Other 2 are a lot older

Thanks a lot for your help guys!

[Zhaoman]

I think £500 is plenty of money to substantially upgrade this system. Even just looking at Scan you can get:

CPU £150-£180:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...ail-plus-wrait
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...cie-40-65w-oem

Mobo £64-£90:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...-gen1-microatx
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...gen1-micro-atx

RAM £72:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/16gb...amd-ryzen-opti

Storage £100:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-...-410-405k-iops

With money to spare from £500.
This will give you a system to last another 10 years imo because you can easily drop in a 5000 series processor in a few years time, drop in more RAM and upgrade the GPU when you see fit.

[Jager]

Those prices don't seem too bad.

One thing I did notice is that the B450M motherboard had a bad review on Scan stating the board has issues with the M.2 Interface. Apparently lots of people have been having issues with it on the Gigabyte boards? Don't know how true that is?. Might cause issues with the NVMe SSD

is there much difference between an NVMe SSD and a regular SSD?. Could just go for the cheaper of the two

[Zhaoman]

In that case, just go for the MSI for £70: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...en1-a-microatx
I've never had a problem with MSI boards ever and they have a decent reputation for good long-term support. Ryzen 2000 and 3000 ready on the box but just double check with the retailer if you decide to go for the 3600 processor.
These are just from quick searches so you might be able to find better deals elsewhere.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You could go with this list of components:

Ryzen 5 3600 ~£179

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-3...mputers&sr=1-3

16GB Crucial 3200MHZ DDR4 ~£64~£70

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-Bal...mputers&sr=1-8

Make sure you select Amazon as the retailer. Uses Micron E-die chips and tends to work well with Ryzen CPUs.

MSI B550 PRO-A ~ £135

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Motherb...mputers&sr=1-2
https://www.cclonline.com/product/32...board/MBD2851/

The MSI B550 PRO VDH looks a decent alternative at around £100,but reviews on the US retailer Newegg don't look so hot!

With the cheaper motherboards VRM cooling is what you need to look at - a Ryzen 5 3600 is probably fine with most AM4 motherboards,but the higher end models probably will push the VRMs more,especially WRT to peak power. It depends on whether you think you will upgrade to a higher end Ryzen model at some point.

WD SN550 500GB ~£54

https://www.cclonline.com/product/30...Drive/SSD1123/

Seasonic Gold GC 500W~£60

https://www.cclonline.com/product/29...-Unit/PSU1719/

The total comes to around £500.

Another alternative is if you don't care about PCI-E 4.0,is to get a B450 motherboard like this one:
https://www.cclonline.com/product/29...board/MBD2689/

The VRM is quite solid and the CPU side has a decent VRM heatsink.

Saves you around £64 over the MSI B550 PRO-A,and for another £25 more you get a Ryzen 7 3700X:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-3.../dp/B07SXMZLPK

The Ryzen 7 3700X also comes with a much better stock cooler too. OTH,you could just pair the Ryzen 5 3600 with the MSI B450M Mortar,and put the money saved towards more system RAM,or a larger SSD.

[wazzickle]

Assuming your graphics card, case and hard drives are all in reasonable working order, leave them as they are.

Given your needs, you don't need to spend anywhere near £500. Without looking in detail at individual reviews of components, I would be going with something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-10100F 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£78.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H410M-HDV/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (£83.25 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL16 Memory (£63.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Patriot P300 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£31.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£67.97 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £325.37


The PSU would be optional in that list but given you have the budget, and it's well out of warranty by now, and it's the most damaging individual component when it fails, it's worth springing for a new one.
Assuming you have other better things to spend £185 on, I would save your money. If you want to get back to gaming or need more oomph for your video editing, you should get a 1660 or something like that.
128gb is more than enough for your OS and core programs and having both on M.2 NVMe will blow your mind. If your video editing is for large files and/or resolutions you should probably consider upgrading that to 256 or 512, 1tb seems overkill to me but in this area I'll defer to those with more knowledge of video editing. However the 256gb Patriot P300 isn't much more and I would call that £11 well-spent to double the capacity.

Make sure to register your windows (assuming bought legit) before you transfer over otherwise you may have a bit of trouble reregistering on your new hardware, I ran into that problem recently and had to buy a new license.

[Xlucine]

Is there any option which will be better to future proof it? because 1156 LGA was here and then pretty much gone over night leaving me stuck for upgrading.

We're in a bad spot for future proofing. AMD's AM4 socket has lasted well from 2017 (albeit without support for all AM4 CPUs on the earliest boards), but it's close to the end of it's run - we'll probably see AM5 this year. During AM4's run intel has gone through two different (and incompatible) flavours of LGA1151, and their latest LGA1200 should have another gen of CPU available for it (but beyond that is unlikely, going by intel's history). AMD's new socket is likely DDR5, so that's another RAM change (and we'll see that on intel soon after). Getting 10 years of good service out of a first gen core i chip is doing pretty well, I'd be surprised if it was possible to avoid a ram change over that timescale during any part of computing's history

My PSU is still a worry of mine as I've had it for 10 years. Could it cause damage if it breaks or is that rare? Should I upgrade or just run it until it dies?

A PSU on the way out will probably (assuming dried out caps, most likely issue to come up) provide poorer stability of the voltage rails with occasional dips under load. If you're running hardware monitoring software you can spot these (play games for a while and see what minimum voltage you end up with on the 12v rail), if it gets really bad you'll get random reboots when heavily loaded.

OTOH there is also a slimmer possibility that it fails in a more exciting fashion, and provides too much voltage. This can be fatal to the rest of the system, so after 10 years I'd get a new one just to be safe

How long is the warranty period usually?. Edit// Just checked, bought my current main/boot drive in Nov 2019. Other 2 are a lot older

So long as you have the data backed up somewhere else (or don't care about the data on them, e.g. a bunch of games off steam that can be re-downloaded), there's nothing wrong with running hard drives until they die

[DanceswithUnix]

My PSU is still a worry of mine as I've had it for 10 years. Could it cause damage if it breaks or is that rare? Should I upgrade or just run it until it dies?

This is why you don't buy the really cheap £10 PSUs, which thankfully you didn't. Good power supplies are designed with things going wrong in mind. There is always a chance of some freak catastrophic fault, though the really good PSUs have something called a crowbar circuit to protect you even in that case, but I've had plenty of power supplies let go and the only time it took other parts with it was something like 25 years ago when PSUs really weren't as well built.

There are a couple of concerns though.

A very real concern is the capacitors in a PSU age, so after some years the amount of power the PSU can deliver goes down. At 600W you started with plenty spare, your graphics card is going to be pulling something like 200W. If you go with Cat's component list, the CPUs there are only 65W so adding a bit for storage and a few watts for RAM you aren't going to be pulling much more than 300W worst case.

The other problem is that modern CPUs can quickly go from taking a 100W peak down to taking half a watt. Modern power supplies are designed to cope with those very rapid fluctuations, but you might get some stability problems if yours isn't able to cope. There are actually several ATX power supply specs as requirements change over time, so that matters as much as the connectors changing.

is there much difference between an NVMe SSD and a regular SSD?. Could just go for the cheaper of the two

NVMe is faster than SATA, though SATA is still quite good enough. But cheap NVMe drives are starting to overlap in cost with SATA drives, which makes SATA less appealing and probably a dying technology.

Compared to a 2.5 inch laptop drive style SATA SSD, M.2 drives are so much more compact and neater when built. I love the lack of power supply and data cables.


A couple of not obvious gotchas:

1/ A big SSD is faster than a small SSD in the same drive family. More chips gives the controller more room to play with, and that buys speed. So you aren't just buying more capacity.
2/ Cheap motherboards may have two M.2 SSD slots for SSD cards, but often one can only take a SATA M.2 SSD.

My standard purchase atm is a 1TB NVMe drive. The WD Blue drives people are recommending here are pretty good value.

[Pob255]

There's more to SSD than that, but you generally don't fall into it unless you start going to the very cheap end, eg there's a few m.2 ramless SSD's (ie it doesn't have a ram cache) which are very slow (ssd slow, so an HDD is still slower)
Also with SSD's not is it just larger tends to be faster but also the fuller they get the slower they go, if I remember my numbers correctly, at 50%full you get a very minor slowdown, at more than 75-80% is where it get very noticeable (although it's still going to be fast, just no as fast)

There's a few things I'll say concerning long term upgradability of pc parts, if you're not playing the latest biggest games you don't need that much, I've been putting off upgrading from an amd FX cpu for a while as nothing I've played has really been an issue for it, up until I got cyberpunk so I'm in a similar situation to you.
Now I did upgrade my gtx560ti to a gtx970 (2nd hand) mainly because it was struggling with some of my games at 1440p (when I upgraded my monitor) but again I'm mostly playing older/indie games.
to my point, intel has since the core i series cpu's required a new chipset with every new generation of cpu, they've also swapped out the socket a lot, and my understanding here is that it's been less about needing a new socket and more about about stopping backward compatibility, there are some very interesting motherboards from china that use supposedly incompatible chipsets and sockets (which have been recycled from other boards) but with custom bios work . . .

I don't think that physical sockets are anywhere near as limiting as people think, chipset and power delivery is the bigger limiting factor, although we've also seen bios size start to be an issue too.
great example here is the amd b450 chpset this is known to be compatible with any ryzen, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 5000 series cpu, however the bios size limitations means that it just cannot hold a data table big enough for all the cpu's encompassed in those series, this is why some b450 boards support the 5000 series cpu's with "beta" bios, the beta bios drops support for the older cpu's to make space for the newer ones.

It's one thing I really like about AMD, they've kept up with the idea of being able to use multiple generations of cpu across chipsets, you might not get all the whistles and bells but it works.
intel has been talking about making the next cpu's backwards compatible but will they?