[SOLVED] Looking to upgrade my PC (intel or maybe ryzen?)

[Iain101]

I'm looking for some help with upgrading my pc (motherboard, cpu & ram) i'd like to keep the rest as is for now and maybe upgrade them next year sometime.

Current spec is

CPU - intel G3420
MB - Asus B85-Plus
RAM - 8gb curcial tactical ddr3
GPU - gigabyte G1 1050 Ti
HDD - 1tb Western Digital black
PSU - cooler master GX 650w

I mainly use it for Photoshop & Gaming (Destiny 2, Overwatch and some older games) with the odd bit of video editing now and then in Hitfilm 4 and I have about £300 in the budget but can go over a little if its worth doing so.

I've been looking at the i5 9400f mainly as i'm more familier with intel, having not use AMD since the athlon days, but with the prices of the ryzen 5 2600 & 2600x coming right down they are hard to ignore. The problem is that i see a lot of posts on here and other forums, YT etc about some AMD motherboards having heat problems with all the added cores (VRMs?) and only certain types of RAM working with Ryzen along with low performance in older games?

Are these things really a massive problem? is Ryzen more of a hassle to get working or if i was to go the Ryzen route would it be as simple as feel the more familier intel route would be?

Anyway i have a few builds here, but any help & build suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/iain101/saved/#view=DHfWbv

 

[WildCard999]

Most of those issues with memory and Ryzen have been ironed out so I wouldn't worry about it. For your budget I'd get this...

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£70.76 @ More Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.61 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £311.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-09 20:37 GMT+0000

Disregard the error message as the MSI MAX boards support 3rd gen Ryzen right out of the box.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

The main concern with VRMs is when you throw a $500 CPU into a $55 A320 motherboard.
This is not exclusive to AMD and the same thing happens if you throw an $500 Intel I9 into a cheap $55 H310 motherboard. Intels 9th generation CPUs tend to have worse cooling and VRM issues as they draw more power than comparable AMD CPUs.

Most of the ram issues regarding 1st and 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs have been ironed out with BIOS updates. 3rd generation Ryzen has a very good integrated memory controller far superior to previous AMD Ryzen CPUs.

Low performance in older games could be due to these games utilizing 1 or 2 cores and favor Intel's better single threaded performance over 1st and 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs. Ryzen 3rd generation will change this.

For video editing, photoshop, and games, look at the AMD Ryzen 5 3600. For games it performs just behind the Intel I7 8700k and the 3600 is superior to the I7 for photoshop and video editing. The 3600 would blow the 9400f out of the water.

 

[Iain101]

Thank you, you've both been very helpfull indeed!

Since seeing your awnsers i've been reading the reviews for the R5 3600 (i had not looked at it before tbh), it's definitely a much better option over the ones i was looking into.

As for the build you posted Wildcard, i may just go for that it looks great. I haven't used MSI before but they seem very popular for Ryzen builds and knowing that the MAX versions will support the 3rd gen Ryzen's out of the box is great.