Upgrading from my A6-6400k

[clairebear01]

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete novice that would like to change her CPU and would be grateful for any advice. I've been researching for the past couple of days, mostly getting completely lost, but i think i've narrowed down my search.

Currently i have (i hope this is the relevant info)......

A6-6400k
F2A78M-HD2 (rev 3.1)
520w Battery
Windows 7

So i've learnt my motherboard takes AMD A series processors, has a A78 chipset and has a TDP of 65w-100w. From what i can see the A8 series would be a good upgrade for what i want (a couple of extra cores to help with small video editing tasks etc). I've been looking at processors that have A78 chipsets only (as i think these are the only ones that'll work) and i've come up with a couple of possibilities the A8 6500 or A8 6600k. I've looked at the A10 6700 too but I'm not sure if it'll fit my motherboard or if it's that much different to the A8's for what i need it for.

I like the look of the 6600k but it's a 100w compared to the 65w i have now.

Do you think the 6600k will be ok and would i have to change my power supply to anything bigger? Of course everything i think i've learnt over the past couple of days could be wrong and I'm completely barking up the wrong tree :/ I may have lost my mind somewhere between Mhz and DDR3

As you can see, any help would be appreciated.

 

[Blas]

Unless you can get the new CPU for very little money, it's kind of a waste to upgrade on that platform. It's quite old, it was never a good performer, and there's (much) better either in stores, or coming.

It is true that, with a 6600K, you would get two more cores, and thus double its performance when doing multithreaded things, like video editing. And incidentally, you would have no problem with your current PSU (Power Supply Unit. It's not a battery ). And your motherboard would accept the 6600K with no issues (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-F2A78M-HD2-rev-31#support-cpu). So you did your homework nicely.

But any new CPU would be much faster than the 6600K. However, all new CPUs would require you to buy a new motherboard and new RAM on top of the new CPU. A very basic set of CPU+mobo+RAM could be (i'm taking the prices from a german retailer, mindfactory.com):
- CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 (2 cores, but 4 threads, it's way, way faster than the 6600K), at around $85
- Mobo: there are models for socket 1151 as from $45 (chipset H110)
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4 2133 as from $70

So $200 for a new computer that would be much better than what you have, on the cpu side, and as good as what you have (on the integrated GPU side). In a couple of weeks a new generation of Intel CPUs is out, and in the first half of next year, AMD will launch their new APUs, based on the Ryzen architecture that is quite good (and not expensive).

So you have many options, although i would recommend if that's possible to spend a little more later on and buy a reasonable, modern computer, than investing in upgrading parts for a sub-par, obsolete platform.

In any case, good luck with it!

 

[clairebear01]

Unless you can get the new CPU for very little money, it's kind of a waste to upgrade on that platform. It's quite old, it was never a good performer, and there's (much) better either in stores, or coming.

It is true that, with a 6600K, you would get two more cores, and thus double its performance when doing multithreaded things, like video editing. And incidentally, you would have no problem with your current PSU (Power Supply Unit. It's not a battery ). And your motherboard would accept the 6600K with no issues (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-F2A78M-HD2-rev-31#support-cpu). So you did your homework nicely.

But any new CPU would be much faster than the 6600K. However, all new CPUs would require you to buy a new motherboard and new RAM on top of the new CPU. A very basic set of CPU+mobo+RAM could be (i'm taking the prices from a german retailer, mindfactory.com):
- CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 (2 cores, but 4 threads, it's way, way faster than the 6600K), at around $85
- Mobo: there are models for socket 1151 as from $45 (chipset H110)
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4 2133 as from $70

So $200 for a new computer that would be much better than what you have, on the cpu side, and as good as what you have (on the integrated GPU side). In a couple of weeks a new generation of Intel CPUs is out, and in the first half of next year, AMD will launch their new APUs, based on the Ryzen architecture that is quite good (and not expensive).

So you have many options, although i would recommend if that's possible to spend a little more later on and buy a reasonable, modern computer, than investing in upgrading parts for a sub-par, obsolete platform.

In any case, good luck with it!

Wow, thank you for that excellent and really informative reply!

I had a feeling it wouldn't be worth changing the CPU for one of those I mentioned as there a little old now. But I didn't even think about changing the motherboard etc. Now you've mentioned that I've had a search and found some good i7 bundles for around £450.

I'll forget my original idea, wait a little longer, save some more pennies and invest in something half decent as you suggested.

Thanks for the homework compliment by the way. You're far too kind, it took 3 days to get to where i am (and yet i still called it a battery!) 😉