Question Christmas PC upgrade

[clittle3030]

How's it going everyone? I'm wanting to upgrade my computer as a Christmas gift. I'm struggling with whether I should upgrade the CPU or Motherboard first. Thoughts?

Here are the specs :
CPU : AMD FX(tm)-6350 Six-core Processor 3.90 Ghz
GPU : AMD RX 570
HDD: 3TB 7200RPM
Ram: 24GB DDR3 (8 + 4 + 8 + 4 dual channel)
Motherboard : M5A99FX PRO R2.0

I know the HDD instead of SSD can make loading things much slower but does that actually affect anything inside the game once it's loaded? Am I totally off base and it's the DDR3 Ram that's holding the computer back at this point? Any information is helpful, Thanks!
Thanks!

 

[ThatVietGuy]

The whole computer is holding you back, the best course of action is to jump to a new platform which will require upgrading everything.

Barring that, the one upgrade that will perk the computer up the most is going from the spinning mechanical drive to a SATA SSD.

 

[clittle3030]

The whole computer is holding you back, the best course of action is to jump to a new platform which will require upgrading everything.

Barring that, the one upgrade that will perk the computer up the most is going from the spinning mechanical drive to a SATA SSD.

That's what i was worried about. You don't think its salvageable with a motherboard upgrade then slowly replacing the parts? i was thinking starting by getting a MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi ProSeries Motherboard to have more flexibility with upgrades. This would also force me into getting a AMD Ryzen 3 3100 to keep the budget manageable for the time being.
If you do think that still wouldn't help much please let me know so I don't waste the money and can save up for a complete overhaul.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

There's very little from your current build that you can carry over.

The motherboard and CPU you're looking at will be a huge leap over what you have now, but you'll need DDR4 RAM (you will NOT be able to keep the current DDR3 RAM).

Furthermore, AM4 has been supplanted by AM5 so you'll technically be in a dead-end since AMD won't be making any more AM4 CPUs. On the other hand, Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs are still strong CPUs and you can use them with that motherboard choice.

Really the only thing from the current build that can carry over would be the GPU, but it's still a low end GPU.

 

[clittle3030]

There's very little from your current build that you can carry over.

The motherboard and CPU you're looking at will be a huge leap over what you have now, but you'll need DDR4 RAM (you will NOT be able to keep the current DDR3 RAM).

Furthermore, AM4 has been supplanted by AM5 so you'll technically be in a dead-end since AMD won't be making any more AM4 CPUs. On the other hand, Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs are still strong CPUs and you can use them with that motherboard choice.

Really the only thing from the current build that can carry over would be the GPU, but it's still a low end GPU.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help, this is what i'm thinking now
ASUS Prime B560M-A LGA 1200 - would allow a lot better flexibility with future upgrades
Intel Core i5-10400F - Would be slightly better than the AMD ryzen 3 3100
and TEAMGROUP T-Create Classic 10L DDR4 16GB Kit

this would actually be slightly cheaper and potentially better for upgrading in the future? thoughts?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

What is your current budget for this upgrade?

This is vastly more helpful to know than anything.

 

[clittle3030]

What is your current budget for this upgrade?

This is vastly more helpful to know than anything.

Currently im trying to stay around 300ish but ill be able to throw more money at it in about 6 months. Getting to a place I can build off of is the goal but if its not worth it than i would have to wait 6-12 months to do a complete overhaul

 

[Lafong]

You could replace ONLY the drive, moving from a HDD to an SSD, and get rid of the HDD completely.

If you did only that, what size would you need?

2 TB? That would cost at least 150.

4 TB? That would cost 250 to 300.

You could go with a much smaller SSD, say 500 GB, and put ONLY Windows and applications on it. Keep the HDD and put your games on it.

That might cost you 60 or 70. The SSD could later be carried over to any other PC you might have 6 months or a year from now.

For a decent rebuild, you need motherboard, CPU, and probably 16 GB of RAM.

For 300 dollars, you can't do much for those 3 parts. Something, yes, but you'd really be at the lower end.

For just those 3 parts, I'd try to wait till I could get 400. Split it up to maybe 60 RAM, 120 motherboard, and 220 CPU. Something like that. Keep the HDD temporarily until you get more money.

If you replace ONLY the HDD now for say 60, would that delay the time when you could afford another 400 for CPU, RAM, motherboard? If yes, I'd probably live with the HDD for a while and concentrate the first 400 on CPU, RAM, motherboard.

 

[clittle3030]

You could replace ONLY the drive, moving from a HDD to an SSD, and get rid of the HDD completely.

If you did only that, what size would you need?

2 TB? That would cost at least 150.

4 TB? That would cost 250 to 300.

You could go with a much smaller SSD, say 500 GB, and put ONLY Windows and applications on it. Keep the HDD and put your games on it.

That might cost you 60 or 70. The SSD could later be carried over to any other PC you might have 6 months or a year from now.

For a decent rebuild, you need motherboard, CPU, and probably 16 GB of RAM.

For 300 dollars, you can't do much for those 3 parts. Something, yes, but you'd really be at the lower end.

For just those 3 parts, I'd try to wait till I could get 400. Split it up to maybe 60 RAM, 120 motherboard, and 220 CPU. Something like that. Keep the HDD temporarily until you get more money.

If you replace ONLY the HDD now for say 60, would that delay the time when you could afford another 400 for CPU, RAM, motherboard? If yes, I'd probably live with the HDD for a while and concentrate the first 400 on CPU, RAM, motherboard.

Thanks for the advice. That was my worry after realizing how old the motherboard and CPU were. I was mainly hoping to get something started now because saved money gets spent elsewhere with a family lol. But if that's the best course of action I'll try to follow it through

 

[ThatVietGuy]

I agree that the best course of action is to save more money in order to upgrade to something more substantial so that you don't have to spend even more money down the road to upgrade further.

 

[dontlistentome]

I've upgraded older computers. An SSD for the OS and programs makes such a big difference in general usability that you'll wish you had got one long ago. It does not help game framerate. If you got 60 fps with a hard drive, you'll get 60 fps with an SSD. It helps with loading assets ingame though. You can still use your old hard drive in addition to the SSD. In terms of a new motherboard/CPU/ram upgrade, even moving up to an i3 10100f will be a night and day difference. Your 570 will still get the job done at 1080p, so unless you have a big videocard upgrade planned, I wouldn't worry too much about maxing out CPU speed. I'd probably go for an i3 12100f with motherboard and DDR4 ram before I'd go for a i5 10400. If I was going with an older gen CPU I'd want to keep spending to a minimum. If you were going to spend a bit more, then I'd go with the newer gen 12100f. The exception would be if you could get the 10400 for near 10100 cost where you are.