Looking for a motherboard/cpu upgrade

[leksaloffe]

Currently I have a Intel Pentium G3258 and a Z97 pc mate motherboard with 8 gb ddr3 ram. Whenever I'm gaming, my cpu is using 90-100% while my GTX 1050 Ti is only using 20-30%. So I'm looking to upgrade the cpu to stop it from bottlenecking my gpu, but to do that i need a new motherboard as well, and for a new motherboard I'd need ddr4 ram. So would an MSI Z370-A PRO with Intel Core i3-8100 3,6 GHz and 1 stick of 8gb ddr4 work? Would it help with bottlenecking?

 

[rgd1101]

budget?

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

That would be a valid upgrade, and you sorely need it. However, for even more futureproofing, I would suggest maybe even an I5.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Go with a Ryzen 5 2600, B450 motherboard, and 2 sticks of RAM. That will be your best price/performance ratio.

 

[jeremyj_83]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $320.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 10:41 EST-0500

No need for a CPU cooler as AMD includes a good boxed cooler. Going with 16GB RAM future proofs you as well.

 

[leksaloffe]

budget?

around 250€-350€

 

[jeremyj_83]

budget?

around 250€-350€

What country are you in?

 

[leksaloffe]

budget?

around 250€-350€

What country are you in?

Finland

 

[jeremyj_83]

budget?

around 250€-350€

What country are you in?

Finland

Sadly there isn't a pcpartpicker for Finland so prices there I cannot easily find. However, here is a CPU, Motherboard, and RAM combo from Germany.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€159.90 @ Alternate)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€75.99 @ ARLT)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€109.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €345.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 18:28 CET+0100

Going with AMD will give you 6 cores and 12 threads, cpu cooler that is good, and a socket that won't be changed until 2020 at the earliest.

 

[leksaloffe]

budget?

around 250€-350€

What country are you in?

Finland

Sadly there isn't a pcpartpicker for Finland so prices there I cannot easily find. However, here is a CPU, Motherboard, and RAM combo from Germany.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€159.90 @ Alternate)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€75.99 @ ARLT)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€109.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €345.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 18:28 CET+0100

Going with AMD will give you 6 cores and 12 threads, cpu cooler that is good, and a socket that won't be changed until 2020 at the earliest.

I have a Cryorig H7 as my current cpu cooler, will it fit on a micro atx? It's quite big. And also, is amd better for gaming? Is it cheaper or more worth the money?

 

[jeremyj_83]

budget?

around 250€-350€

What country are you in?

Finland

Sadly there isn't a pcpartpicker for Finland so prices there I cannot easily find. However, here is a CPU, Motherboard, and RAM combo from Germany.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€159.90 @ Alternate)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€75.99 @ ARLT)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€109.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €345.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 18:28 CET+0100

Going with AMD will give you 6 cores and 12 threads, cpu cooler that is good, and a socket that won't be changed until 2020 at the earliest.

I have a Cryorig H7 as my current cpu cooler, will it fit on a micro atx? It's quite big. And also, is amd better for gaming? Is it cheaper or more worth the money?

Theoretically the H7 will fit, but you are going to have to have the AMD bracket for it. When it comes to gaming the Intel chip is about 3-7% faster Clock for Clock over the AMD. However, the equivalent Intel chip costs more than 10% extra so the value is with AMD. Also since you have a GTX 1050Ti you wouldn't notice any difference between the AMD and Intel CPUs as you will be GPU limited. The ~10% difference in gaming is when benchmarks are run on GTX 1080's or faster. The AMD chip can also be overclocked on the B450 motherboard so you have added value there.

 

[spdragoo]

Not sure about the cooler fitting. As an alternative, however, you could simply keep your existing system & replace the Pentium with a Haswell CPU. Your motherboard is compatible with Haswell, Haswell Refresh, & some Broadwell CPUs (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-PC-Mate#support-cpu), provided you update to the right BIOS version, & you can get an i5-4690K for about 340 euros from Germany (https://de.pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu/#s=12,13,26&f=34,40&sort=price&page=1). That way, you don't have to worry about trying to reactivate Windows after the upgrade (or worse, have to reinstall it from scratch).

 

[jeremyj_83]

Not sure about the cooler fitting. As an alternative, however, you could simply keep your existing system & replace the Pentium with a Haswell CPU. Your motherboard is compatible with Haswell, Haswell Refresh, & some Broadwell CPUs (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-PC-Mate#support-cpu), provided you update to the right BIOS version, & you can get an i5-4690K for about 340 euros from Germany (https://de.pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu/#s=12,13,26&f=34,40&sort=price&page=1). That way, you don't have to worry about trying to reactivate Windows after the upgrade (or worse, have to reinstall it from scratch).

Going with a new CPU, Motherboard, and RAM would require a full reinstall of Windows since the drivers aren't going to be compatible between the old and the new. It is more to get the i5 Haswell than the full Ryzen setup, but with the Haswell i5 you don't have to reinstall Windows. However, that i5 is more of a bandaid solution as the bare minimum CPU cores as modern games want 4 cores or more.

 

[leksaloffe]

Not sure about the cooler fitting. As an alternative, however, you could simply keep your existing system & replace the Pentium with a Haswell CPU. Your motherboard is compatible with Haswell, Haswell Refresh, & some Broadwell CPUs (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-PC-Mate#support-cpu), provided you update to the right BIOS version, & you can get an i5-4690K for about 340 euros from Germany (https://de.pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu/#s=12,13,26&f=34,40&sort=price&page=1). That way, you don't have to worry about trying to reactivate Windows after the upgrade (or worse, have to reinstall it from scratch).

Going with a new CPU, Motherboard, and RAM would require a full reinstall of Windows since the drivers aren't going to be compatible between the old and the new. It is more to get the i5 Haswell than the full Ryzen setup, but with the Haswell i5 you don't have to reinstall Windows. However, that i5 is more of a bandaid solution as the bare minimum CPU cores as modern games want 4 cores or more.

I'm fine with having to reinstall everything, but does reinstalling windows require me to buy it again? Because I really don't want to do that.

 

[jeremyj_83]

No you won't have to buy Windows again. You can run this command to get your product key: From PowerShell or elevated Command Prompt: wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
If that doesn't work download this free utility and get the key: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

 

[leksaloffe]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $320.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 10:41 EST-0500

No need for a CPU cooler as AMD includes a good boxed cooler. Going with 16GB RAM future proofs you as well.

Okay, thanks. So you recommend me going with this stuff? Is there going to be any problems going from intel to amd? And I feel like I need a full atx motherboard because of my cooler. Let me know if you know any affordable ones.

 

[jeremyj_83]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $320.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 10:41 EST-0500

No need for a CPU cooler as AMD includes a good boxed cooler. Going with 16GB RAM future proofs you as well.

Okay, thanks. So you recommend me going with this stuff? Is there going to be any problems going from intel to amd?

Since you are already going to have to go and reinstall Windows, there won't be any issues at all. All programs that run on Windows will run on either AMD or Intel.

 

[leksaloffe]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($160.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $320.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-28 10:41 EST-0500

No need for a CPU cooler as AMD includes a good boxed cooler. Going with 16GB RAM future proofs you as well.

Okay, thanks. So you recommend me going with this stuff? Is there going to be any problems going from intel to amd?

Since you are already going to have to go and reinstall Windows, there won't be any issues at all. All programs that run on Windows will run on either AMD or Intel.

I feel like I need a full atx motherboard because of my cooler. Let me know if you know any affordable ones.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Going with a full ATX would bring the cost up almost 20 Euros. https://www.alza.de/asrock-ab450-pro4-d5360133.htm?kampan=pcpartpicker_de_komponenty_zakladni-desky_amd_as258c1&utm_source=pcpartpicker_de&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=pcpartpicker_de_komponenty_zakladni-desky_amd_as258c1&IDP=8504
Physical size of mATX vs ATX is minimal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroATX with both mATX and ATX being the same width, but mATX being shorter.

 

[leksaloffe]

Going with a full ATX would bring the cost up almost 20 Euros. https://www.alza.de/asrock-ab450-pro4-d5360133.htm?kampan=pcpartpicker_de_komponenty_zakladni-desky_amd_as258c1&utm_source=pcpartpicker_de&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=pcpartpicker_de_komponenty_zakladni-desky_amd_as258c1&IDP=8504
Physical size of mATX vs ATX is minimal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroATX with both mATX and ATX being the same width, but mATX being shorter.

Alright. Thanks for the help!