[SOLVED] Pc part buying help please

[Tom4396]

2 questions I have today,
1. I am looking to buy some new pc parts, I have a budget of around £200, I need a new motherboard and new cpu, I have so far picked the Intel core i5-9400f 2.9ghz
ASUS AMD Prime A320M-K Ryzen/7th generation A series. Are they compatible and/or any good?
2. I currently have an old dell optiplex 7010.
Will my new motherboard fit the case ?

 

[tennis2]

Do you have DDR4 RAM?

An AMD A320 motherboard (or and AMD socket mobo) is NOT compatible with any Intel CPU. You need to look at B365 or Z390 mobos. Some other Intel 300 series mobos may be compatible, but might require a BIOS update to support 9th gen Intel since they were originally designed for Intel 8th gen CPUs. The BIOS update (if the board doesn't ship with a newer 9th gen compatible BIOS installed) would require having an Intel 8th gen CPU installed.

Gonna need a little more info on the exact Optiplex 7010 you have. These are all Optiplex 7010.

 

[Tom4396]

Do you have DDR4 RAM?

An AMD A320 motherboard (or and AMD socket mobo) is NOT compatible with any Intel CPU. You need to look at B365 or Z390 mobos. Some other Intel 300 series mobos may be compatible, but might require a BIOS update to support 9th gen Intel since they were originally designed for Intel 8th gen CPUs. The BIOS update (if the board doesn't ship with a newer 9th gen compatible BIOS installed) would require having an Intel 8th gen CPU installed.

Gonna need a little more info on the exact Optiplex 7010 you have. These are all Optiplex 7010.

It’s DDR3 ram that I’ve got, what other motherboard would you suggest instead ?

 

[tennis2]

You're going to need DDR4 ram. DDR3 isn't compatible with much any modern CPU.

You're in the UK?

Do you have a graphics card?

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 2.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H310M PRO-M2 PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£54.97 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory (£29.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £204.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-10 18:24 BST+0100

That CPU has integrated graphics (in case you don't have a graphics card already) and is 6c/6t.
The mobo supports M.2 SSDs (future upgrade perhaps)

 

[Tom4396]

I thought ram had to be compatible with the motherboard not the CPU. What does the ram have to with which CPU i have,
My GPU is a GTX 950 2GB

 

[Tom4396]

I also need to know if my new motherboard will fit in the case I currently have.

 

[tennis2]

I also need to know if my new motherboard will fit in the case I currently have.

Still waiting for you to answer my question about WHAT Optiplex 7010 you have.

 

[tennis2]

I thought ram had to be compatible with the motherboard not the CPU. What does the ram have to with which CPU i have,

mmmmm.....these days, the memory controller is on the CPU die. So the mobo obviously matches the RAM version that the CPU memory controller has. Naturally, during each the first generation of CPUs and mobos released with a new DDR version, you'll see some "oddball" mobos that support the older standard if the CPU manufacturer allows it from their memory controller design. However, that situation is almost always a single generation and not ubiquitous. Also, rarely do the mobos support two versions though (DDR3 & DDR4 for example) since each version of RAM is keyed differently (they move the notch in the middle) to prevent accidental installation into a non-compatible mobo. Generally a new version of RAM (next one will be DDR5) will break any backward CPU compatibility of a mobo/socket.

TL;DR, you need DDR4 for the age of CPUs you're looking at.....period.

My GPU is a GTX 950 2GB

Not a great GPU by modern standards, but certainly better than integrated graphics. Having that would allow you to get into a F-series Intel chip (no IGP) or Ryzen non-G-series CPU (G suffix signifies an IGP)**. The challenge there is that those two options are likely to push you out of the £55 mobo price range without potentially needing a BIOS update using a different CPU. Your budget is VERY restrictive, and clearly I've already maxed it out with my first list, so anything more is going to require a budget expansion, unless you find better prices on higher-end hardware.

**I'm still not sold on the IGP-less CPU trend these days. Even having an anemic IGP on the CPU can be a CRITICAL tool for troubleshooting if there are no display issues due to graphics card issues.