[SOLVED] Upgrades at budget of 500

Nov 20, 2019
5
1
15
Hi everyone, I'm posting this for a friend who has a PC, he wants it to play more demanding games.

These are the components he has right now:

GTX-780
AMD FX(tm) 8350 8core
ASUS M5A78L motherboard
8gb RAM

I don't know much about computers but basicly he wants to start upgrading starting with a budget of 500.

What should he should be upgrading first
do you think?

Thanks
 
Solution
If possible I'd reuse the Case, Storage & GPU then get this. After the rebuild do a clean install of Windows onto the SSD and motherboard/GPU drivers.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£83.14 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£33.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £455.88
Prices include shipping...
I think he might be better off investing the money in a new system.
I think that CPU is getting old and isn't going to be able to push much more than a GTX 1080 maximum.
If he insisted on upgrading what he has....he could upgrade the GPU (up to a 1080 I would say).
He could up the ram to 16 GB.
....and if he isn't running an SSD.....I'd definitely get an SSD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J3e3tx

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
If possible I'd reuse the Case, Storage & GPU then get this. After the rebuild do a clean install of Windows onto the SSD and motherboard/GPU drivers.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£83.14 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£33.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £455.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 19:38 GMT+0000


Edited for UK.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: J3e3tx
Solution
Nov 20, 2019
5
1
15
If possible I'd reuse the Case, Storage & GPU then get this. After the rebuild do a clean install of Windows onto the SSD and motherboard/GPU drivers.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard (£83.14 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£33.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £455.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 19:38 GMT+0000


Edited for UK.
Thanks for the breakdown, only issue I'm getting when putting these into the picker is:

"Some AMD B450 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Matisse CPUs, upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU" :S
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Thanks for the breakdown, only issue I'm getting when putting these into the picker is:

"Some AMD B450 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Matisse CPUs, upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU" :S
Most of the B450 boards require a BIOS update to use the 3rd gen Ryzen CPU's however MSI made the MAX version boards to be compatable with 3rd so it will work out of the box. They also have a feature called flashback which allows you to update the BIOS without the CPU.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkXunUAriE
 
  • Like
Reactions: J3e3tx