Question upgrade possibility

[GETMEXICAN]

I have an i510400f with a 1660 super I wanted to upgrade my CPU but I'm also on a budget and was wondering what would be the best upgrade for my rig. my motherboard is an MSI MicroATX MB so I was also thinking I was going to upgrade to an ATX board instead of the micro so if you have any suggestions on that as well that would help.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Please list your full specs, including the PSU (exact make and model) and the mobo (model/version).

What are you lookng to achieve?

 

[GETMEXICAN]

Hey there,

Please list your full specs, including the PSU (exact make and model) and the mobo (model/version).

What are you lookng to achieve?

hey thanks for the reply this is my specs

• Model #: SE 10SI-001US
• Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10400F
• Memory: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD
• PSU: 550 80 plus bronze

so I bought a prebuilt and I want to upgrade to a full ATX motherboard but I don't want to upgrade my GPU just yet.
I would like to have the option to upgrade in the future but for now, I am just looking to upgrade my CPU and my motherboard.
my buddy has a Corsair CX-M CX650M 650 W ATX12V that he is gonna give me for the new build but it's not in my current build

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

hey thanks for the reply this is my specs

• Model #: SE 10SI-001US
• Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10400F
• Memory: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD
• PSU: 550 80 plus bronze

so I bought a prebuilt and I want to upgrade to a full ATX motherboard but I don't want to upgrade my GPU just yet.
I would like to have the option to upgrade in the future but for now, I am just looking to upgrade my CPU and my motherboard.
my buddy has a Corsair CX-M CX650M 650 W ATX12V that he is gonna give me for the new build but it's not in my current build

So, your system is the MSI Aegis?

So chances are that given the size of the case, you would be limited in terms of a full ATX mobo. Maybe think in reverse.

Look at a case that supports the mobo (whichever one you choose) and try build it that way. I'm not sure about MSI pre-builds, they may include some proprietary connections which means, building your system with your CPU/Ram /GPU, SSD +HDD and getting a new case and PSU, to ensure the build is what you want.

That would be my idea of how to go about it.

CX is just okay. I wouldn't have it in a gaming build. My two cents.

 

[GETMEXICAN]

So, your system is the MSI Aegis?

So chances are that given the size of the case, you would be limited in terms of a full ATX mobo. Maybe think in reverse.

Look at a case that supports the mobo (whichever one you choose) and try build it that way. I'm not sure about MSI pre-builds, they may include some proprietary connections which means, building your system with your CPU/Ram /GPU, SSD +HDD and getting a new case and PSU, to ensure the build is what you want.

That would be my idea of how to go about it.

CX is just okay. I wouldn't have it in a gaming build. My two cents.

Thanks for the info I planned on getting a new case that fits a full ATX board I just wanted some idea on where to go from there in terms of the CPU I've been told that my CPU currently isn't the best (due to it being an older generation) I just didn't know if I should stay with intel or go AMD with it and what generation I should go with to maximize performance with a budget and yea I figured the cx was just ok it was free so I didn't mind. in your two cents should I stick with intel or go amd with it? if you have any recommendations that would help a ton I have about $400 to work with to get a new CPU and mobo

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Well, the 10400f is still a pretty good gaming CPU.

Intel make some really good chips since your 10400f. If you were to go with a B660 DD4 board, and a 12400/f, that gives you a nice bump in performance. About 15-30% depending on the task.

You could go AMD on the DDR 4 side, with a B550 and 5700x/5800x 3d. The 5800x 3d is a stellar CPU for gaming. It even ranks up there with Intel 12th/13th Gen which stole the performance crown back from AMD. The 5800x3d is phenomenal. Purely designed for gaming. The newest AMD 7xxx series are bit expensive, because it's only DDR5. But still great gaming chips.

There's lots of choice.

If I were you, I would go with MSI MAG b660 DDR gaming, and a 12th Gen 12400f, or 12600k, and be happy out. Use your existing components, and get a good PSU, and you are good to go, with a little upgrade option for CPU down the line.

 

[GETMEXICAN]

Well, the 10400f is still a pretty good gaming CPU.

Intel make some really good chips since your 10400f. If you were to go with a B660 DD4 board, and a 12400/f, that gives you a nice bump in performance. About 15-30% depending on the task.

You could go AMD on the DDR 4 side, with a B550 and 5700x/5800x 3d. The 5800x 3d is a stellar CPU for gaming. It even ranks up there with Intel 12th/13th Gen which stole the performance crown back from AMD. The 5800x3d is phenomenal. Purely designed for gaming. The newest AMD 7xxx series are bit expensive, because it's only DDR5. But still great gaming chips.

There's lots of choice.

If I were you, I would go with MSI MAG b660 DDR gaming, and a 12th Gen 12400f, or 12600k, and be happy out. Use your existing components, and get a good PSU, and you are good to go, with a little upgrade option for CPU down the line.

Sweet thanks for the help!!

 

[Eximo]

I would say stick with the CPU, or grab a heavily discounted i7-11700 or 11700k.

For games, the GPU matter more. So an upgrade from a 1660 to a 3060 or more would be more beneficial. With a new PSU.

If you are for swapping out the motherboard, you might as well build from scratch and sell your system as is.

 

[GETMEXICAN]

I would say stick with the CPU, or grab a heavily discounted i7-11700 or 11700k.

For games, the GPU matter more. So an upgrade from a 1660 to a 3060 or more would be more beneficial. With a new PSU.

If you are for swapping out the motherboard, you might as well build from scratch and sell your system as is.

yea that was a possibility as well just trying to get more opinions/ information before I made any major purchases I found some cheaper than MSRP cards but didn't know if I should change my CPU and mobo (what I was leaning towards) but now I think I'm going to head into a different direction with it might just start from scratch and use that PC for a work station or sell

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I would say stick with the CPU, or grab a heavily discounted i7-11700 or 11700k.

Yeah, good point. I wasn't sure if it could take an 11th Gen. Couldn't check the system support to see which mobo it was, and if there was a bios to allow the 11th Gen. There was no info there at all, which was quite odd.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

yea that was a possibility as well just trying to get more opinions/ information before I made any major purchases I found some cheaper than MSRP cards but didn't know if I should change my CPU and mobo (what I was leaning towards) but now I think I'm going to head into a different direction with it might just start from scratch and use that PC for a work station or sell

If you have a budget, or even just get a good idea of a decent build with quality parts, we can gladly recommend some stuff.

You have a lot of options out there right now.

 

[Lafong]

The newest generation Intel i5-12400F has a 39% higher single thread benchmark score than the 10400F.

The multi-core score is 60% higher for the 12400F.

Both are 6 core/12 thread 65 watt processors.

You can certainly get a good motherboard and a 12400F for 400 dollars.

Hard to say how much difference that might make for your use case without knowing how you use the PC. It would make very little difference in some cases.

If gaming, you might get much more bang for the buck with a new video card.

 

[GETMEXICAN]

If you have a budget, or even just get a good idea of a decent build with quality parts, we can gladly recommend some stuff.

You have a lot of options out there right now.

so if I had a $700 budget to build from scratch would an AMD build be more bang for the buck or could I find a decent intel build for that? $700 is a median that I would be happy to spend but I could spend a bit more than that amount. i would be more comfortable to me to build from scratch at that price have any suggestions? the case wouldn't be included in the 700 that would be mainly for internal components

 

[Lafong]

If you need only 2 parts:

Motherboard and CPU

You could buy up closer to the top of the line for motherboard and CPU for either AMD or Intel, rather than restrict yourself to a mid-level i5 Intel.

Are you trying to restrict yourself to just those 2 parts?

Or does "from scratch" mean you are thinking of those 2 parts plus case, cooler, power supply, GPU, etc....for 700 dollars?

 

[GETMEXICAN]

If you need only 2 parts:

Motherboard and CPU

You could buy up closer to the top of the line for motherboard and CPU for either AMD or Intel, rather than restrict yourself to a mid-level i5 Intel.

Are you trying to restrict yourself to just those 2 parts?

Or does "from scratch" mean you are thinking of those 2 parts plus case, cooler, power supply, GPU, etc....for 700 dollars?

I would say that from scratch would mean everything besides the case. the case would be a different expense I would put like top 150 in for a case after the 700 if need be but I'm thinking I could find a case for less than 100 I just need something that i could game with at 1080-1440 but also have the capability of an average work station I have family that uses my computer to do school work and stuff like that occasionally. I can run mw2 no problem now I just want a full ATX case so I would need to upgrade the mobo if I went with a full ATX case and I was thinking at the same time just upgrade my CPU with a better board and i could keep my 1660 super (or upgrade as well), and keep the ram and memory I have

 

[Eximo]

A MicroATX board will fit in an ATX case.

I'm not sure the logic of transplanting that system to a new chassis, and keeping the GPU.

Swapping out the GPU but keeping the MSI case, there will be some limitations due to size, but there are plenty to pick from.

If the plan is new CPU/Motherboard, new case, and a GPU? Then $700 might be enough. But then you have to take parts from the old system, which makes it useless. If you leave it intact, it could be a secondary computer. Maybe buy a cheap GPU to put in it and keep using your 1660 Super temporarily and look at a new RTX 40xx or RX7xxx when the mid-range models come out next year?

 

[Eximo]

Just swap the GPUs.

PSU pricing is a little out of whack, too many people buying up the good ones for the RTX 40 series cards. Might want to shop around some more.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($300.00 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B660 Pro RS ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Dark Za 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 550 - 512 2 GB Video Card ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM550x (2021) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $891.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-17 16:10 EST-0500

 

[GETMEXICAN]

A MicroATX board will fit in an ATX case.

I'm not sure the logic of transplanting that system to a new chassis, and keeping the GPU.

Swapping out the GPU but keeping the MSI case, there will be some limitations due to size, but there are plenty to pick from.

If the plan is new CPU/Motherboard, new case, and a GPU? Then $700 might be enough. But then you have to take parts from the old system, which makes it useless. If you leave it intact, it could be a secondary computer. Maybe buy a cheap GPU to put in it and keep using your 1660 Super temporarily and look at a new RTX 40xx or RX7xxx when the mid-range models come out next year?

I do get that the old system would be useless if I took components out so that's y i was going to upgrade my CPU and mobo to a full ATX and scrap the MSI case ( not that big of a fan of the case ) and the old CPU and mobo and just keep the ram, GPU, and the memory for the new build with the possibility of a memory upgrade also

 

[Lafong]

What is the strongest reason you want full ATX rather than micro ATX?

 

[Eximo]

I do get that the old system would be useless if I took components out so that's y i was going to upgrade my CPU and mobo to a full ATX and scrap the MSI case ( not that big of a fan of the case ) and the old CPU and mobo and just keep the ram, GPU, and the memory for the new build with the possibility of a memory upgrade also

DDR4 is pretty cheap right now. I would say keep it all together, sell it as a working system, or just keep it around and then you have two working computers. One for schoolwork and light gaming, and one for your more heavy duty gaming.

Pick up a used monitor at a thrift store. Get a cheap keyboard and mouse. Probably already have some headphones or earbuds laying around etc.

That is what I would do.

 

[GETMEXICAN]

What is the strongest reason you want full ATX rather than micro ATX?

the strongest reason is everything is tight in the case I have now I would just like something a bit bigger so that when the time comes I could put in a bigger GPU and better cooling the case I have now only has the CPU cooler fan and a separate fan on the case itself that blow out of the case if I had a full tax I could get a decent size case that could fill a bigger GPU eventually and I would have to worry about how cramped everything looks in the case itself and I realise I could probably just buy a case and put everything in that and just scrap the old case but I was thinking if I did that why not just upgrade some stuff in the process

 

[GETMEXICAN]

DDR4 is pretty cheap right now. I would say keep it all together, sell it as a working system, or just keep it around and then you have two working computers. One for schoolwork and light gaming, and one for your more heavy duty gaming.

Pick up a used monitor at a thrift store. Get a cheap keyboard and mouse. Probably already have some headphones or earbuds laying around etc.

That is what I would do.

yea I do already have a decent headset and monitor I could use a mouse and keyboard but I don't really use those much (I'm a controller player mostly ) not that I can't use mouse and keyboard I just find the controller a bit easier so I wouldn't need those I built my first computer a few years back but sold it and been gaming on my Xbox since but this year my buddies were all getting back into gaming so I decided to buy a prebuilt and I can say I was a bit disappointed so now the end of the year is upon us so I thought why not upgrade some things. but seeing as I haven't been too involved in the pc market for a couple of years I've become a bit out of practice so I was looking for some advice as to what's out there currently that wouldn't break the bank. my buddies have some ideas but they all have a bit bigger budget than me so they only really recommend the expensive side in this market

 

[Eximo]

That 13600k build above could be downgraded to an i5-12400F, aside from that it is more or less entry level high end. Big difference for a gaming PC is the GPU, and to go up a few notches is going to be most of the budget. RX6800 or RTX 3070 is going to set you back $500, and you would want an even higher end PSU than the one have access to. Waiting on a lower power next gen GPU makes some sense.

I also failed to find any significant CPU upgrade information for the MSI. I imagine a 10700 wouldn't have too much trouble in there, but not sure if an i9-10900 would do. No idea on an 11th gen. The socket supports it, but without confirmation, hard to say. The 11700 is probably the best option there for an upgrade without having to swap platforms, but it seems like you want to do that anyway.

 

[Lafong]

the strongest reason is everything is tight in the case I have now I would just like something a bit bigger so that when the time comes I could put in a bigger GPU and better cooling the case I have now only has the CPU cooler fan and a separate fan on the case itself that blow out of the case if I had a full tax I could get a decent size case that could fill a bigger GPU eventually and I would have to worry about how cramped everything looks in the case itself and I realise I could probably just buy a case and put everything in that and just scrap the old case but I was thinking if I did that why not just upgrade some stuff in the process

I was referring to motherboards. Not cases.

A micro ATX motherboard will fit in full ATX cases.

What is your strongest reason for a full ATX motherboard?

 

[GETMEXICAN]

I was referring to motherboards. Not cases.

A micro ATX motherboard will fit in full ATX cases.

What is your strongest reason for a full ATX motherboard?

there’s not a strong reason for the board it’s just what I had in the past and I like it then but as for having a different board like an itx or other variants I have no problems with it’s just what I’m used to