[SOLVED] Upgrade advice -CPU and MOBO upgrade?

Apr 21, 2022
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I’m looking to upgrade my current low-medium end PC so I am able to play games at just above 60 FPS. I currently play a lot of rust and I know it is not a very optimized game but I run about 50 FPS so I think an upgrade to my ancient motherboard and CPU might be the golden ticket to 60+ FPS.
My budget is around $200-$300 if that’s possible, here is a link to my part list.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8WCqmr


I’m really nervous about upgrading my motherboard as I originally bought a prebuilt and just upgraded the RAM, GPU and PSU, please let me know of anything that I should absolutely know if you could. Thank you for your time.
 
Solution
Man that sounds great! Do I need to do anything special to remove the CPU? The new 5600x comes with a stock cooler and I've seen videos where people use thermal paste will I need to buy that to put on the CPU or will I need to remove any previous paste from my previous CPU? This was originally a prebuilt I got in 2017. I'm planning on keeping it on stock settings. I can just stick those little things on the black chips and it will keep them cool? THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Yes. The new cooler will come with pre-applied paste, though you can use your own if you want.

  1. Turn the system on, warm it up a bit with some games or something (this is to loosen the thermal paste)
  2. Update the BIOS...
I’m looking to upgrade my current low-medium end PC so I am able to play games at just above 60 FPS. I currently play a lot of rust and I know it is not a very optimized game but I run about 50 FPS so I think an upgrade to my ancient motherboard and CPU might be the golden ticket to 60+ FPS.
My budget is around $200-$300 if that’s possible, here is a link to my part list.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8WCqmr


I’m really nervous about upgrading my motherboard as I originally bought a prebuilt and just upgraded the RAM, GPU and PSU, please let me know of anything that I should absolutely know if you could. Thank you for your time.
Compatibility Notes at bottom of Pcpartpicker is good place to start. Otherwise you'd have to start by picking platform (AMD or Intel) first. then pick a CPU, after that a proper platform MB and eventually a chioset on it. Then you check MB's specification and CPU and RAM compatibility list as well a BIOS version for CPU compatibility.
For RAM look at compatibility list for that MB and if you can't find or don't want any from that list find some other RAM with same characteristics as any on that list.
Also answer question fro WHY_ME
PS. That 1500x on that list of yours is waaaaay too expensive. Are those $USD prices ?
 

Eximo

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Shockingly that motherboard will take everything up through the 5000 series.

About the only useful upgrade would be to drop in a CPU. Something like the 5600X would make a significant impact (though Rust is an outlier) Just need to make sure to update your BIOS right before swapping the CPUs.
 
Apr 21, 2022
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Shockingly that motherboard will take everything up through the 5000 series.

About the only useful upgrade would be to drop in a CPU. Something like the 5600X would make a significant impact (though Rust is an outlier) Just need to make sure to update your BIOS right before swapping the CPUs.
I would love to upgrade to a 5600x I think I would see huge performance gains. Is this safe for my motherboard or will it overheat or zap it dead or something hahaha? someone said something about VRM but I'm not familiar with that.
 
Apr 21, 2022
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Here is a link to the parts of my current machine. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8WCqmr

I really want to upgrade my CPU and apparently my motherboard can handle that 5600x but I just want to make sure as some people have posted on Reddit months ago that it is concerning. I am going to learn how to update the bios which according to Asus will make it work. Just wanted to make a post to make sure all would go well, someone said something about vrm I'm not sure if that would zap my motherboard or make it overheat but please let me know. Thank you for your help.
 

Eximo

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It is true that the motherboard VRMs are somewhat limited. You can offset that with a fan pointed directly at them to keep them cool.

You can even stick some heatsinks on them. They are the little black chips next to the big grey cubes surrounding the CPU socket.

But leaving the 5600X at stock settings should be alright. After all, you've been running a 6 core CPU on the board this whole time and it hasn't blown up yet.

These would stick right on.

https://www.performance-pcs.com/air...tapes-thermal-sink-8-pack-mdy-3m-8810-ts.html
 
Apr 21, 2022
16
2
15
It is true that the motherboard VRMs are somewhat limited. You can offset that with a fan pointed directly at them to keep them cool.

You can even stick some heatsinks on them. They are the little black chips next to the big grey cubes surrounding the CPU socket.

But leaving the 5600X at stock settings should be alright. After all, you've been running a 6 core CPU on the board this whole time and it hasn't blown up yet.

These would stick right on.

https://www.performance-pcs.com/air...tapes-thermal-sink-8-pack-mdy-3m-8810-ts.html
Man that sounds great! Do I need to do anything special to remove the CPU? The new 5600x comes with a stock cooler and I've seen videos where people use thermal paste will I need to buy that to put on the CPU or will I need to remove any previous paste from my previous CPU? This was originally a prebuilt I got in 2017. I'm planning on keeping it on stock settings. I can just stick those little things on the black chips and it will keep them cool? THANK YOU SO MUCH!
 
Apr 21, 2022
16
2
15
It is true that the motherboard VRMs are somewhat limited. You can offset that with a fan pointed directly at them to keep them cool.

You can even stick some heatsinks on them. They are the little black chips next to the big grey cubes surrounding the CPU socket.

But leaving the 5600X at stock settings should be alright. After all, you've been running a 6 core CPU on the board this whole time and it hasn't blown up yet.

These would stick right on.

https://www.performance-pcs.com/air...tapes-thermal-sink-8-pack-mdy-3m-8810-ts.html
I also believe that this CPU only has 4 cores, at least that is what is says in task manager. A "Quad-core processor"
 

Eximo

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Man that sounds great! Do I need to do anything special to remove the CPU? The new 5600x comes with a stock cooler and I've seen videos where people use thermal paste will I need to buy that to put on the CPU or will I need to remove any previous paste from my previous CPU? This was originally a prebuilt I got in 2017. I'm planning on keeping it on stock settings. I can just stick those little things on the black chips and it will keep them cool? THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Yes. The new cooler will come with pre-applied paste, though you can use your own if you want.

  1. Turn the system on, warm it up a bit with some games or something (this is to loosen the thermal paste)
  2. Update the BIOS https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/PRIME/PRIME-A320M-K/HelpDesk_BIOS/
  3. Turn the system off, unscrew the CPU cooler. Remove the CPU cooler by using a twisting motion (This is to prevent pulling the CPU out of the socket)
  4. Undo the lever holding the CPU and remove the CPU (You can opt to clean the CPU before this step to prevent damaging the pins)
  5. Place down the new CPU in the socket, close the lever.
  6. Install CPU cooler.
 
Solution
The concern is how much the VRM can safely push power wise. Since there's no heat sink on it, you can't really push a whole lot of power through it. However, I don't think a 5600X is going to be that bad. Even then you can probably tweak it a little so it consumes less power without much of a loss in performance.
 
Apr 21, 2022
16
2
15
Yes. The new cooler will come with pre-applied paste, though you can use your own if you want.

  1. Turn the system on, warm it up a bit with some games or something (this is to loosen the thermal paste)
  2. Update the BIOS https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/PRIME/PRIME-A320M-K/HelpDesk_BIOS/
  3. Turn the system off, unscrew the CPU cooler. Remove the CPU cooler by using a twisting motion (This is to prevent pulling the CPU out of the socket)
  4. Undo the lever holding the CPU and remove the CPU (You can opt to clean the CPU before this step to prevent damaging the pins)
  5. Place down the new CPU in the socket, close the lever.
  6. Install CPU cooler.
Wow!! This is perfect. Thank you so much for all your help and I'll let you know how it goes! I appreciate this more than you know!!!
 

Eximo

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"
Thank you so much. Detailed and perfect explanations I'm going to order the part and the heatsinks. Someone replied to another post of mine saying that I should be worried about how much power can be pushed through the vrms without creating a power problem in my PC. Does this seem like it could be a problem?
"

In looking at Tom's reviews of the two chips. They did a torture test of the 1500X which reached 70W, 5600X at stock settings under a similar torture test, 70W-74W.