Upgrading gaming pc

[fenrizt2t]

So I'm planning to upgrade my pc in the next few weeks, probably have a budget of around £300 -£400 or so.

It's currently a Asustek motherboard, with a AMD phenom II x6 1090T processor and 16gb DDR3 RAM. I upgraded the RAM and graphics card last year (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB), so think I'll be able to carry these over to my new PC (although might have to upgrade RAM to DDR4). The processor however is quite old and I'm getting occasional blue screening issues which I believe is due to overheating.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to upgrade the PC for gaming, probably focusing on replacing the processor and motherboard but carrying over the RAM and graphics card.

 

[jmckinney28]

So I'm planning to upgrade my pc in the next few weeks, probably have a budget of around £300 -£400 or so.

It's currently a Asustek motherboard, with a AMD phenom II x6 1090T processor and 16gb DDR3 RAM. I upgraded the RAM and graphics card last year (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB), so think I'll be able to carry these over to my new PC (although might have to upgrade RAM to DDR4). The processor however is quite old and I'm getting occasional blue screening issues which I believe is due to overheating.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to upgrade the PC for gaming, probably focusing on replacing the processor and motherboard but carrying over the RAM and graphics card.

If you are looking to upgrade to a current gen processor, you will not be able to carry your ram into your next build. DDR4 is required.

What else do you need? PSU HDD Case?

 

[fenrizt2t]

So I'm planning to upgrade my pc in the next few weeks, probably have a budget of around £300 -£400 or so.

It's currently a Asustek motherboard, with a AMD phenom II x6 1090T processor and 16gb DDR3 RAM. I upgraded the RAM and graphics card last year (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB), so think I'll be able to carry these over to my new PC (although might have to upgrade RAM to DDR4). The processor however is quite old and I'm getting occasional blue screening issues which I believe is due to overheating.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to upgrade the PC for gaming, probably focusing on replacing the processor and motherboard but carrying over the RAM and graphics card.

If you are looking to upgrade to a current gen processor, you will not be able to carry your ram into your next build. DDR4 is required.

What else do you need? PSU HDD Case?

I'm upgrading my old PC, so think the PSU should still be fine and my HDD is 1tb which should suffice for now, as i store videos, photos etc elsewhere..

 

[jmckinney28]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($41.77 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.90 @ Newegg)
Total: $471.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-21 08:39 EST-0500

Something like this will work. Ram prices are a bit high so fitting 16gb in your budget will be tough.

 

[fenrizt2t]

Thanks, that's helpful. I have a case, PSU and HDD so hopefully savings there will cover the extra 8GB DDR4. Am I likely to see much of an improvement from my current processor to the Ryzen as they are both 6 core 3.2ghz?

 

[jmckinney28]

Thanks, that's helpful. I have a case, PSU and HDD so hopefully savings there will cover the extra 8GB DDR4. Am I likely to see much of an improvement from my current processor to the Ryzen as they are both 6 core 3.2ghz?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 GAMING PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($121.95 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $461.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-21 08:48 EST-0500

I would go coffee lake then. Will game much better if that's what you are after.
Prices are going to vary a bit since I'm from the US.

And yes you are going to see a HUGE gaming performance boost from your current processor either way you go.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8400-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1090T/3939vsm417

Sorry for all the edits.
Last thing, if you can squeeze a small SSD into your build to install your operating system on, you will have a much better experience with your PC. <15 second startup times and everything will be much more responsive.

 

[fenrizt2t]

thanks, yeah the aim is for it to be a gaming pc. Is there any way to compare the intel performance against my current CPU? Mine is 3.2ghz rather than 2.8, but guessing the i5 makes up for this another way?

 

[ZRace]

Question is whether you can get you hands on an i5... still pretty rare afaik.

And regarding OP's last question: Yes, they have the same speed and amount of cores, but the Ryzen and Coffee Lake CPUs are a lot faster per core at the same speed because of the large amount of architectural changes/improvements that were done since Phenom II.

 

[genz]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. 1151 socket mobs will be replaced with the next set of processors.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

 

[jmckinney28]

thanks, yeah the aim is for it to be a gaming pc. Is there any way to compare the intel performance against my current CPU? Mine is 3.2ghz rather than 2.8, but guessing the i5 makes up for this another way?

There is a lot more to CPU performance than core count and clock speed.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8400-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1090T/3939vsm417
Either CPU is going to give you almost double the performance of your old one.

 

[fenrizt2t]

Yeah just checked and can see I5 is like gold dust atm. Figured coffee lake CPUs would be faster, but is there an easy way to compare CPUs as the stats for many seem to be similar, but obviously there are huge differences between them.

 

[jmckinney28]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. Intel's socket will not.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

Also you would be able to fit in a new PSU and SSD into the budget if you go ryzen. I was just building purely based on gaming performance.

 

[fenrizt2t]

thanks, yeah the aim is for it to be a gaming pc. Is there any way to compare the intel performance against my current CPU? Mine is 3.2ghz rather than 2.8, but guessing the i5 makes up for this another way?

There is a lot more to CPU performance than core count and clock speed.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8400-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1090T/3939vsm417
Either CPU is going to give you almost double the performance of your old one.

Thanks, love that tool, exactly what I was after, makes my life a lot easier.

 

[fenrizt2t]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. Intel's socket will not.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

Also you would be able to fit in a new PSU and SSD into the budget if you go ryzen. I was just building purely based on gaming performance.

Why would I need a new PSU and SSD? I know SSD allows much faster access speed and is on my to do list, but surely I could get by with my current HDD in the meantime?

 

[genz]

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8400-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1600/3939vs3919

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?dir=desc&q=i5%2B8400&sort=multicore_score

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?utf8=✓&q=Ryzen+5+1600

Remember, an overclocked 1600 IS a 1600X.

 

[jmckinney28]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. Intel's socket will not.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

Also you would be able to fit in a new PSU and SSD into the budget if you go ryzen. I was just building purely based on gaming performance.

Why would I need a new PSU and SSD? I know SSD allows much faster access speed and is on my to do list, but surely I could get by with my current HDD in the meantime?

Not saying you need a new PSU and SSD. A good PSU just gives you piece of mind that your hardware is safe and that you wont burn your house down. SSD is just fantastic for your operating system, was just throwing out ideas with the budget you listed.
What is your current PSU?

 

[fenrizt2t]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. Intel's socket will not.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

Also you would be able to fit in a new PSU and SSD into the budget if you go ryzen. I was just building purely based on gaming performance.

Why would I need a new PSU and SSD? I know SSD allows much faster access speed and is on my to do list, but surely I could get by with my current HDD in the meantime?

Not saying you need a new PSU and SSD. A good PSU just gives you piece of mind that your hardware is safe and that you wont burn your house down. SSD is just fantastic for your operating system, was just throwing out ideas with the budget you listed.
What is your current PSU?

Pretty sure it's this one

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/pro-series/pro-series-650w-psu-80-bronze-p1-650s-nlb9

 

[jmckinney28]

You will see a massive jump in performance going from a Phenom 2 to a Ryzen 5. Clock for clock a Ryzen is 35% faster.

You will also have the benefit of being able to upgrade just the CPU later to much more cores without having to buy a motherboard and possibly new RAM as a result. AM4 will last through Ryzen 2 and possibly 3. Intel's socket will not.

Finally, that i5 8400 is actually almost the same performance as the Ryzen without overclocking. It's non-K so will not be able to overclock and will be quite a bit slower than the Ryzen once overclocked. Ryzen's about 10% slower per thread, but together they pull 19% better performance due to HT giving them twice as many threads as the 8400... without overclocking.

Honestly. Coffee Lake loses for the cost.

Also you would be able to fit in a new PSU and SSD into the budget if you go ryzen. I was just building purely based on gaming performance.

Why would I need a new PSU and SSD? I know SSD allows much faster access speed and is on my to do list, but surely I could get by with my current HDD in the meantime?

Not saying you need a new PSU and SSD. A good PSU just gives you piece of mind that your hardware is safe and that you wont burn your house down. SSD is just fantastic for your operating system, was just throwing out ideas with the budget you listed.
What is your current PSU?

Pretty sure it's this one

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/pro-series/pro-series-650w-psu-80-bronze-p1-650s-nlb9

That's a decent PSU, you shouldn't need to upgrade.

 

[fenrizt2t]

So after a bit of searching I'm thinking about the following, and thoughts?

Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (4GBx4) £158 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MTSWMVQ/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3KVRDYTU3VULM&colid=YHD69QCCW33M
MSI Intel B250M Mortar 7th/6th Gen USB2 Motherboard £74 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01NBR0M3R/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1X92DF7408HOK&colid=YHD69QCCW33M

Intel Core i5-7640X £189 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0731SG7KF/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IYABS0RL9CDET&colid=YHD69QCCW33M

 

[genz]

So after a bit of searching I'm thinking about the following, and thoughts?

Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (4GBx4) £158 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MTSWMVQ/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3KVRDYTU3VULM&colid=YHD69QCCW33M
MSI Intel B250M Mortar 7th/6th Gen USB2 Motherboard £74 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01NBR0M3R/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1X92DF7408HOK&colid=YHD69QCCW33M

Intel Core i5-7640X £189 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0731SG7KF/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IYABS0RL9CDET&colid=YHD69QCCW33M

Thats a socket 2066 CPU. Skylake X. It's about twice the size of the motherboard socket for the suggested chip and the motherboards start at $150. It's the entry level chip of the super-up to 2000 core variant of socket type. That's why it appears good value for money.

 

[fenrizt2t]

Is that also true of the Intel Core i5-7600K?

 

[jmckinney28]

Is that also true of the Intel Core i5-7600K?

No, the I5-7600k will work with socket 1151 in B250 and Z270 motherboards. It is recommended that if you get a K series CPU that you get a Z270 motherboard as the K series are the unlocked versions for overclocking, and only Z270 boards allow you to overclock. Also, K series CPUs do not come with a CPU cooler, so you would have to buy one separately. If you are going to go with Intel I would recommend that you go with the Coffee Lake CPUs, the 8000 series chips which would require a Z370 mother, as they are much better. If you can't get ahold of the 8000 series chips then it is probably recommended that you go with a ryzen build. Ryzen 5 1600 being your best bet, with a B350 motherboard. Also, if you go with ryzen you will should look for higher speed ram, around 3000 MHz, as the system performs better overall with faster ram. Ram speed is less important with an intel system. Hope this helps!

 

[fenrizt2t]

Is that also true of the Intel Core i5-7600K?

No, the I5-7600k will work with socket 1151 in B250 and Z270 motherboards. It is recommended that if you get a K series CPU that you get a Z270 motherboard as the K series are the unlocked versions for overclocking, and only Z270 boards allow you to overclock. Also, K series CPUs do not come with a CPU cooler, so you would have to buy one separately. If you are going to go with Intel I would recommend that you go with the Coffee Lake CPUs, the 8000 series chips which would require a Z370 mother, as they are much better. If you can't get ahold of the 8000 series chips then it is probably recommended that you go with a ryzen build. Ryzen 5 1600 being your best bet, with a B350 motherboard. Also, if you go with ryzen you will should look for higher speed ram, around 3000 MHz, as the system performs better overall with faster ram. Ram speed is less important with an intel system. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the heads up, I might try the I5-8400 with this motherboard then:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Socket-Chipset-Z370A-Pro-Motherboard/dp/B075NFFNPJ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1511297302&sr=1-1&keywords=+Z370

 

[genz]

I can see you're committed to going Intel. It's your loss, but then bear in mind your i5 8400 will not overclock at all. It is not a K model. It's also slower without an overclock, both per-core and multicore in gaming. The distorted average benchmarks are because AMD have a non-gaming UMA mode for graphics apps/server which pump out lower benchmarks. The 1600 can get within 5% of even the 8600K.

Effective speed box on user bench is not accurate. Peak OC and

ALL AMD chips and boards overclock. That and future proofing of the chipset are the primary reason a cheaper and better chip has been recommended to you. If you wish to defy gravity then by all means be my guest but the best hardware at this time for the best price has already been offered to you.

 

[fenrizt2t]

I can see you're committed to going Intel. It's your loss, but then bear in mind your i5 8400 will not overclock at all. It is not a K model.

I'm not committed to intel, as I don't use them atm, they just seem the most reasonably priced when looking at the benchmarking, unless I'm missing something?