[SOLVED] Upgrading a prebuilt PC

Nov 26, 2020
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It's that time of year for upgrading pc components, but I have limited pc knowledge and need a little help understanding what I actually can upgrade. I'm looking to upgrade either the CPU or GPU, but I'm not sure if my current motherboard and PSU can support the newest Ryzen CPU's or the 3000 series GPU's. The current motherboard is (apparently) an "AMD B450" and it has a 600 Watt PSU. Would these specs be able to support a Ryzen 5000 series CPU and/or a 3000 series GPU? Full specs here, let me know if I'm missing info.
Thanks for any advice :)
 
Solution
While they specified the wattage of the PSU, they didn't specify the brand of the PSU, and they're not all the same. While the Ryzen 5000 CPU's are good, and don't draw too much power, the 3000 series Nvidia GPU's will pull a pretty hefty amount. Your full wattage pull could be in the neighborhood of 350-450 watts at full tilt, and that would be within 100 watts of the max 12v load (540watts as spec'd by the manufacturer page). Without knowing the brand of PSU, I wouldn't trust it until that's clarified.

Besides, ideal full tilt draw should be 50ish percent of your max PSU capabilities to hit the highest efficiency point, so a 350-400 watt draw would suggest a 700-800 watt 'quality' supply (I really like the Corsair RM750x). That...
It's that time of year for upgrading pc components, but I have limited pc knowledge and need a little help understanding what I actually can upgrade. I'm looking to upgrade either the CPU or GPU, but I'm not sure if my current motherboard and PSU can support the newest Ryzen CPU's or the 3000 series GPU's. The current motherboard is (apparently) an "AMD B450" and it has a 600 Watt PSU. Would these specs be able to support a Ryzen 5000 series CPU and/or a 3000 series GPU? Full specs here, let me know if I'm missing info.
Thanks for any advice :)
Why do you want to upgrade ? What are your perceived limitations ?
 

alexbirdie

Respectable
seems your motherboard will be supported for zen3 ( if your b450-pro and the b450-pro4 are identical):


But:

Your PSU should be changed, if you plan to use 3080-gpu. And please buy a top PSU with at least 800 W. If 3070-gpu, than 750 W will be enough.
 
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Nov 26, 2020
4
0
10
seems your motherboard will be supported for zen3 ( if your b450-pro and the b450-pro4 are identical):


But:

Your PSU should be changed, if you plan to use 3080-gpu. And please buy a top PSU with at least 800 W. If 3070-gpu, than 750 W will be enough.
Thank you, much appreciated
 

Rookie_MIB

Distinguished
While they specified the wattage of the PSU, they didn't specify the brand of the PSU, and they're not all the same. While the Ryzen 5000 CPU's are good, and don't draw too much power, the 3000 series Nvidia GPU's will pull a pretty hefty amount. Your full wattage pull could be in the neighborhood of 350-450 watts at full tilt, and that would be within 100 watts of the max 12v load (540watts as spec'd by the manufacturer page). Without knowing the brand of PSU, I wouldn't trust it until that's clarified.

Besides, ideal full tilt draw should be 50ish percent of your max PSU capabilities to hit the highest efficiency point, so a 350-400 watt draw would suggest a 700-800 watt 'quality' supply (I really like the Corsair RM750x). That would give you more than enough headroom for any spikes - and there have been some very high spikes on the 3000 RTX cards which could trigger the OCP if you don't have enough capacity.

As for the 5000 series CPUs, ASrock has been pretty good about getting the AGESA updates to enable the newer Zen processors. However, that's not always a guarantee. While it's nice to upgrade to the latest and greatest, unless you're really needing the extra CPU grunt, the Ryzen 2700 isn't really lacking in power. Yes, the 5700 is going to have a good boost in IPC, but it's always been pretty true that the GPU is a bigger boost in gains. That being said, you need to know your exact model for the board (download and install CPU-z and it'll tell you your exact mainboard model and revision, or take it apart and find the model number), then look on the ASRock website for a BIOS update with AGESA 1.1.0.0 or higher.

So - short version, you'll need to update the PSU, and make sure your motherboard has a BIOS with AGESA 1.1.0.0 or later.
 
Solution
Nov 26, 2020
4
0
10
While they specified the wattage of the PSU, they didn't specify the brand of the PSU, and they're not all the same. While the Ryzen 5000 CPU's are good, and don't draw too much power, the 3000 series Nvidia GPU's will pull a pretty hefty amount. Your full wattage pull could be in the neighborhood of 350-450 watts at full tilt, and that would be within 100 watts of the max 12v load (540watts as spec'd by the manufacturer page). Without knowing the brand of PSU, I wouldn't trust it until that's clarified.

Besides, ideal full tilt draw should be 50ish percent of your max PSU capabilities to hit the highest efficiency point, so a 350-400 watt draw would suggest a 700-800 watt 'quality' supply (I really like the Corsair RM750x). That would give you more than enough headroom for any spikes - and there have been some very high spikes on the 3000 RTX cards which could trigger the OCP if you don't have enough capacity.

As for the 5000 series CPUs, ASrock has been pretty good about getting the AGESA updates to enable the newer Zen processors. However, that's not always a guarantee. While it's nice to upgrade to the latest and greatest, unless you're really needing the extra CPU grunt, the Ryzen 2700 isn't really lacking in power. Yes, the 5700 is going to have a good boost in IPC, but it's always been pretty true that the GPU is a bigger boost in gains. That being said, you need to know your exact model for the board (download and install CPU-z and it'll tell you your exact mainboard model and revision, or take it apart and find the model number), then look on the ASRock website for a BIOS update with AGESA 1.1.0.0 or higher.

So - short version, you'll need to update the PSU, and make sure your motherboard has a BIOS with AGESA 1.1.0.0 or later.
Thank you for the detailed reply. I went with your suggestion of getting a lower tier processor, and the advice on the psu and motherboard components will be quite helpful as I look into gpu’s.