Question GA-78LMT-S2 Processor upgrade

[matencio]

Hello!
I have the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 with the AMD FX 4300 quad-core 3800 MHz chip.
I make YouTube shows and animations for my class (I teach history to 6th graders), and I use Adobe Creative Cloud. I need a faster processor, but I don't want to buy a new PC until the prices go down. I can buy a new power supply if I need to and a better graphics card, as long as I don't have to buy a new PC. I saw several faster chips on Amazon, but I thought I'd defer to people more in the know. What would be a better setup with this board?
Can I use the AMD FX-Series FX-9370 FX9370 Desktop CPU Socket AM3 938 with better cooling and a power supply change?
I have a Venus VN 500W power supply.
If so, what power supply should I get (how many watts) and what cooler system do I need? Next is a graphics card, and finally, how the heck do I change the BIOS? I imagine it isn't too hard because I had to reinstall everything, including flashing the bios, but how do I change to a different bios? Where do I get it, etc.?
Thank you for taking time for an old school teacher.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can I use the AMD FX-Series FX-9370 FX9370 Desktop CPU Socket AM3 938 with better cooling and a power supply change?

No. FX-9370 is not supported on this board.
Board supports cpus up to 95W. FX-9370 is 220w.

How much can you spend on cpu upgrade?
You could upgrade to Intel core 4th gen (i7-4790 or i7-4770) + compatible motherboard .
That way you could reuse your old ram modules.

 

[matencio]

No. FX-9370 is not supported on this board.
Board supports cpus up to 95W. FX-9370 is 220w.

How much can you spend on cpu upgrade?
You could upgrade to Intel core 4th gen (i7-4790 or i7-4770) + compatible motherboard .
That way you could reuse your old ram modules.

What board do you recommend? It's still a quad. Is it faster with the current 500 watt power supply?

 

[SkyNetRising]

What board do you recommend? It's still a quad. Is it faster with the current 500 watt power supply?

Any H81,B85,H87,Z87,H97,Z97 board would be compatible with Intel 4th gen cpus.
Some combinations may require BIOS update.

Can you specify your upgrade budget please?

 

[geofelt]

The FX line is all but obsolete.
No sense in spending a dime more on it.
The FX9370 on amazon sells for $120
It has 8 threads and a passmark rating of 6056 when all 8 threads are fully utilized.
The single thread performance rating is 1684.
You would need a high end FX990 based motherboard and a very good cooler to run that chip.
A current gen Intel I3-12100 costs about $100.
It also has 8 threads, but with a 14540/3550 passmark rating, essentially double thefx9370
An inexpensive lga1200 motherboard will be <$100, and 16gb of ddr4 ram would be $40 or so.
It comes with a stock cooler as well as integrated graphics.
No psu change would be needed.

 

[matencio]

Update 6/21/23
I made some changes to the original parts list below based on contributors comments. I have deleted the parts that wouldn't work and replaced them with links to ones that will. The parts list below is what I actually purchased if anyone wanted to build a PC like mine. Everything will play nice with each other and work together.
Mike
=====================================================
This is my new setup. I went with your advice and went to these:
Three cooling fans. LED - -Big whoop. I'm going for cooling.

upHere 120mm RGB Case Fan Fan,Quiet Edition High Airflow LED Case Fan for PC Cases-3 Pack,RGB123-3


YEYIAN Blade 2101 Gaming PC Case, Acrylic Mid Tower ATX/Micro ATX, 1 RGB LED Fans, SPCC Chassis, Metal Mesh Air Flow, 3 USB/Audio Ports, 16.33"x7.08"x18.85", ROHS CE Certified, Black


ASUS Prime B550-PLUS AMD AM4 Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 & 3rd Gen Ryzen ATX Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, ECC Memory, 1Gb LAN, HDMI 2.1, DisPlayPort 1.2 (4K@60HZ), Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and Aura Sync)



BENFEI SATA Cable III, 3 Pack SATA Cable III 6Gbps Straight HDD SDD Data Cable with Locking Latch 18 Inch Compatible for SATA HDD, SSD, CD Driver, CD Writer - Black


Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold 600W SLI/Crossfire Ready Continuous Power ATX 12V V2.4/EPS V2.92 Non Modular Power Supply 5 Year Warranty PS-TPD-0600NNFAGU-2


Kingston FURY Beast RGB 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MT/s DDR4 CL16 Desktop Memory Kit of 2 | Infrared Syncing | Intel XMP | AMD Ryzen | Plug n Play | KF432C16BBAK2/32


AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics

Western Digital 1TB WD Blue SN570 NVMe Internal Solid State Drive SSD - Gen3 x4 PCIe 8Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 3,500 MB/s - WDS100T3B0C

I didn't get a graphics card because AMD has a pretty good one on the processor. I can get a GPU later. This setup was around $500.00, including shipping and tax. I think it was a damn good deal as long as it all syncs and works.
Thank you for your help. Your comments helped me make a tough decision, and I got exactly what I wanted.
Mike

 

[matencio]

Any H81,B85,H87,Z87,H97,Z97 board would be compatible with Intel 4th gen cpus.
Some combinations may require BIOS update.

Can you specify your upgrade budget please?

I'm sorry for not answering earlier. I went down the research rabbit hole. I watched about 20 PC build videos and went shopping on Amazon. I spent about $500. I couldn't afford it, but I'll write it off as a teaching expense next year because that's what I'm using it for. Making animations to teach history to kids The computer I have just can't do the rendering.
Do you think once my hard drive is in the new setup, Windows will recognize it and upgrade to Windows 11, or will I have to buy a new OS again?
The board should have the new BIOS on it, but I don't know how that will work. I guess I'll figure it out. Thanks again.
Mike

 

[SkyNetRising]

Do you think once my hard drive is in the new setup, Windows will recognize it and upgrade to Windows 11, or will I have to buy a new OS again?

On new system it's recommended to do clean install of OS.
Trying to reuse OS drive from some other pc often results in several problems:

boot mode compatibility - system doesn't boot,​

driver incompatibilities - BSODs, crashes, bad performance,​

windows activation problems - can not activate windows.​

​

I have some notes about your new build.
Motherboard comes bundled with 2 sata cables. Unless you have more than 2 sata drives, you didn't need to get additional sata cables.
For memory configuration you should have gone with 2x16GB kit instead of two 2x8GB kits. This can cause memory compatibility issues.

 

[matencio]

I knew they came with the case. I have my old pc that can use a couple of new cables and I'll use them That's the memory I thought I bought. Lol Time for an exchange so that's easily fixed. Thanks again. Mike

 

[matencio]

On new system it's recommended to do clean install of OS.
Trying to reuse OS drive from some other pc often results in several problems:

boot mode compatibility - system doesn't boot,​

driver incompatibilities - BSODs, crashes, bad performance,​

windows activation problems - can not activate windows.​

​

I have some notes about your new build.
Motherboard comes bundled with 2 sata cables. Unless you have more than 2 sata drives, you didn't need to get additional sata cables.
For memory configuration you should have gone with 2x16GB kit instead of two 2x8GB kits. This can cause memory compatibility issues.

I did a return and bought these instead. I preferred a brand I knew.
Kingston FURY Beast RGB 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MT/s DDR4 CL16 Desktop Memory Kit of 2 | Infrared Syncing | Intel XMP | AMD Ryzen | Plug n Play | KF432C16BBAK2/32

 

[geofelt]

You can download a legit version of windows directly from Microsoft.
After 30 days, you can keep using it for free with a few restrictions.
A faint watermark reminder will be present on your display and the personalization capability is absent.
You still get maintenance.
Of course, you can buy a license later at any time.
Do not try those cheapo $30 licenses, they are not legit and may not work after a time.

Apevia is considered as a very bad psu that might put your nice new parts in danger.
Check out reviews on the unit.
A PSU is the last place you want to go cheap on.

 

[matencio]

Thanks for that very important info. I'm returning it ASAP unused. I'm getting this instead.
Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold 600W SLI/Crossfire Ready Continuous Power ATX 12V V2.4/EPS V2.92 Non Modular Power Supply 5 Year Warranty PS-TPD-0600NNFAGU-2 Is this a good choice? It's on sale from Thermaltake's Amazon website.

Thanks for the info about Windows 11 OS. I'm not surprised MS Windows has some features locked. 11 should be better for my octo core pc over 10, right?

 

[Misgar]

No, Aresgame is another brand that is NOT recommended. It's shown as 'Tier F - Replace immediately' on the web link below.

https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

Only consider PSUs in Tier A (High-end), Tier B (Mid-range) or Tier C (Low-end).

Anything below Tier C is asking for trouble. Check your particular choice carefully in this list before buying.

Thermaltake is probably fine.

 

[Misgar]

I've been using PhotoShop for many years but I did not like it when Adobe switched from standalone products (with optional annual updates) to the Creative Cloud monthly charging system.

If you're paying a substantial annual subsription for Adobe Creative Cloud, have you considered their cut down video editor Adobe Premiere Elements with its one-off purchase price. There's also a range of free video editors.

CC has the advantage of a sophisticated suite of utilities with regular updates, but it's not exactly cheap.

Eventually you might consider upgrading to a discrete plug-in PCIe GPU card for faster graphics OpenCL/GL processing. It can make a big difference with long videos.

 

[matencio]

I've been using PhotoShop for many years but I did not like it when Adobe switched from standalone products (with optional annual updates) to the Creative Cloud monthly charging system.

If you're paying a substantial annual subsription for Adobe Creative Cloud, have you considered their cut down video editor Adobe Premiere Elements with its one-off purchase price. There's also a range of free video editors.

CC has the advantage of a sophisticated suite of utilities with regular updates, but it's not exactly cheap.

Eventually you might consider upgrading to a discrete plug-in PCIe GPU card for faster graphics OpenCL/GL processing. It can make a big difference with long videos.

I'm very fortunate. Adobe lets me have the teacher subscription for $19.99 a month. Expensive, but not compared to everyone else with the regular license. I hate the online subscription too.
I had CS6 and loved it. No monthly payments, but the old HDD died and I didn't have the serial number anymore, so I lost it. At $20 a month, I can do a lot, but Adobe sucks for offering that expensive subscription to its customers without a one-time purchase option for just what we want.

Hopefully, this build will resolve the rendering issues I had during the year. I wasted so many hours in front of a screen doing nothing but stare. And then it would crash.
I'm going to get a RX 580 GPU when I can afford it. I should be okay until then, as suggested by AMD tech support.