Possible desktop PC upgrade time

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quickymart

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#298448 17-Jun-2022 20:09

As I mentioned in the 4K Youtube thread I may be coming to the point where I need to upgrade my desktop PC. It does run a bit sluggish sometimes, and while I realise I would need to reinstall Windows it may be good to do an upgrade if I can.

What's the best/easiest way to provide my current system specs? I think I'd only really need to upgrade the CPU as it has plenty of RAM and the hard drive space is ample - but I'm not sure if I'd need a new PSU or not.

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#2931196 17-Jun-2022 20:24

Run Speccy.

https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

Reality is, to upgrade any one component to a significant degree you have to replace everything, barring storage. But at that point, you may as well upgrade that too.

Use cases? Are you comfortable assembling the PC yourself, or would you rather buy a complete system?

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

nztim

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#2931207 17-Jun-2022 21:06

Yup CPU sockets and memory change quickly meaning an old PC wont take a modern CPU even bios becomes s problem

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quickymart

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#2931217 17-Jun-2022 21:42

What a great tool! Thanks for the tip.

This is a PB Tech custom-built machine, made in early 2018.

I use it for working from home (VPN), web browsing, watching movies, the odd bit of light gaming etc. I'd love to use two monitors but would need a larger desk.

Gordy7

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#2931218 17-Jun-2022 21:53

quickymart:

I'd love to use two monitors but would need a larger desk.

Or get a 32" 4k monitor.... great for a couple of tasks.

Gordy

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toejam316

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#2931230 17-Jun-2022 22:40

quickymart:

What a great tool! Thanks for the tip.

This is a PB Tech custom-built machine, made in early 2018.

I use it for working from home (VPN), web browsing, watching movies, the odd bit of light gaming etc. I'd love to use two monitors but would need a larger desk.

Okay, so you're in quite a unique position in that you have a motherboard that can actually take a very modern CPU.

Can you run GPU-Z (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/) and show what that says you have for your GPU?

At this stage, I'd say a bigger SSD is cheap and worthwhile, you can get a much more modern CPU with an integrated GPU, lose your current GPU (I believe it'll be slower than the intergrated GPU, unless I'm mistaken), and pop in some more RAM.

Parts list as follows

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDSAM971501/Samsung-970-EVO-Plus-500GB-M2-2280NVMe-SSD-RWMax-3 Samsung EVO 970 500GB NVMe SSD, $109.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CPUAMD05600G/AMD-Ryzen-5-5600G-6-Core--12-Threads-up-to-44GHz-M AMD Ryzen 7 5600G, $320.85 with built in GPU.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMGSK3829/GSKILL-Ripjaws-V-Series-Black-32GB-DDR4-Desktop-Me G.SKILL 32GB RAM kit, $212.

Or, you could also reduce costs a bit and opt for https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMGSK3828/GSKILL-Ripjaws-V-Series-Black-16GB-DDR4-Desktop-Me for $114.32, which is the same kit but in 16GB instead of 32GB.

Ask PB Tech to install it all, it's definitely compatible with your board but you will need to upgrade the BIOS.

Advise them of this, the BIOS is available from https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A320M-HDV/index.asp#BIOS

They will need to flash the 7.0 Beta BIOS, and then the 7.03 Beta BIOS, which will enable support for the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. You won't be able to flash back to the older BIOS,

And you could also upgrade the CPU Cooler from the OEM one if you wanted.

This will be a SIGNIFICANT jump in performance, as you're going from a quad core Bristol Ridge part (4 very old, very slow cores, equivalent to a Pentium Dual Core), to a modern 6 core, 12 thread CPU which could probably outperform your original CPU using a single core.

On top of that, the integrated GPU will be notably more performant than the GPU, which I suspect is an R7 240, and with 32GB of RAM you'll have plenty of memory to play with.

Edit:

Actually, if you do need a video card for games, image editing, etc. you could swap the CPU out for https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CPUAMD05500/AMD-Ryzen-5-5500-6-Core12-Threads-up-to-42Ghz-19MB for $240.35, and then add a GPU of your choice, be it a GTX 1650, RTX 3060, etc.

You will probably need an upgraded PSU at that point though, and this one is probably overkill but quite affordable. https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/PSUCLM4651/Cooler-Master-MWE-Gold-650W-80Plus-Gold-Fixed-Cabl

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

quickymart

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#2931232 17-Jun-2022 22:52

Gordy7:

quickymart:

I'd love to use two monitors but would need a larger desk.

Or get a 32" 4k monitor.... great for a couple of tasks.

Something like this? https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONSAM53270/Samsung-M7-32-4K-UHD-Smart-Monitor-3840x2160---2x

quickymart

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#2931233 17-Jun-2022 22:57

Thanks for all that toejam, very helpful. I should add when I say "light gaming", probably the most recent game I play is Simcity 4! I'm not much of a gamer otherwise - it's mostly VPN remote working and watching Youtube, so a standalone GPU may be a bit of overkill.

This is what the GPU app said:

My SSD is barely half full, btw - I only use it for Windows and installing applications. Everything else is on my other two (spindle) hard drives.

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toejam316

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#2931234 17-Jun-2022 23:04

You can definitely pass on the SSD upgrade, but it's significantly faster, and I'd highly recommend it, because it costs so little but you'll find everything notably snappier, and it'll give you the space you need to keep the system running into the future, with Windows 11, etc.

The integrated GPU should be plenty for you then, it'll actually be fast enough to run most modern games on low at 720p.

Edit: If you want to move to a larger screen, you'll probably need a discrete GPU or a new motherboard anyway, as the built in ports on the motherboard don't support HDMI 2.0.

In that case I'd recommend a GTX 1650, because that'll have a few modern bells and whistles and again last you quite some time.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

Handle9

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#2931263 18-Jun-2022 06:16

Even a 3400G would be a huge upgrade from what you have now. They are around second hand and well priced for what you get - 4 cores, 8 threads and an adequate iGPU

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/computers/components/cpus/amd/listing/3639492630

A 5600G is a much better processor but is good enough good enough? If you buy second hand and you decide to move it on you'll get most of your money back again. I'd definitely post on here for second hand Ryzen with an iGPU.

Given the nature of your system I wouldn't go near 32GB of RAM. There's no need for your use case. 8GB is probably fine, 16GB is heaps. It looks like that Motherboard is only 2 channel but 16GB won't bottleneck your system.

Upgrade one component at a time and see if that's all you need. Saying that Ryzen loves fast RAM so if you can go 3200Mhz or up you will get a decent performance uplift but you need to enable it in BIOS - I made that mistake.

quickymart

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#2931286 18-Jun-2022 09:15

toejam316:

You can definitely pass on the SSD upgrade, but it's significantly faster, and I'd highly recommend it, because it costs so little but you'll find everything notably snappier, and it'll give you the space you need to keep the system running into the future, with Windows 11, etc.

The integrated GPU should be plenty for you then, it'll actually be fast enough to run most modern games on low at 720p.

Edit: If you want to move to a larger screen, you'll probably need a discrete GPU or a new motherboard anyway, as the built in ports on the motherboard don't support HDMI 2.0.

In that case I'd recommend a GTX 1650, because that'll have a few modern bells and whistles and again last you quite some time.

Would the monitor Gordon mentioned above eliminate my need for two screens? (Would also save me having to fork out for a new desk).

Another possible contender, albeit a bit more expensive: https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONPHS421328/Philips-328B175-32-4K-UHD-Business-Monitor-3840x21

shk292

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#2931288 18-Jun-2022 09:27

quickymart:

Would the monitor Gordon mentioned above eliminate my need for two screens? (Would also save me having to fork out for a new desk).

Another possible contender, albeit a bit more expensive: https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONPHS421328/Philips-328B175-32-4K-UHD-Business-Monitor-3840x21

I upgraded to a 28" 4k monitor for WFH recently and it's amazing how much more space it gives you, over a FHD monitor. This is the one I bought, and the picture quality is excellent. has 2xHDMI plus Displayport but no USB-C input

ratsun81

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#2931291 18-Jun-2022 09:45

Toejam pretty much nailed it. Either get a G series ryzen with integrated GPU or a non G model and a GPU.

One thing that i notice, you are running a single stick of memory according to speccy. That is performance left on the table. getting a matched pair of memory sticks will also give a good performance increase.

cddt

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#2931320 18-Jun-2022 11:04

A couple of comments:

1. If you decide to upgrade your CPU as advised in this thread, you will need to update your BIOS. Otherwise it won't boot.

2. I think you got ripped purchasing an A8 CPU in 2018, since Zen 1 (e.g. Ryzen 1xxx series) were available since mid-2017.

Gordy7

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#2931324 18-Jun-2022 11:09

shk292:

quickymart:

Would the monitor Gordon mentioned above eliminate my need for two screens? (Would also save me having to fork out for a new desk).

Another possible contender, albeit a bit more expensive: https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONPHS421328/Philips-328B175-32-4K-UHD-Business-Monitor-3840x21

I upgraded to a 28" 4k monitor for WFH recently and it's amazing how much more space it gives you, over a FHD monitor. This is the one I bought, and the picture quality is excellent. has 2xHDMI plus Displayport but no USB-C input

A 4k monitor would allow you to run up to 4x FHD tasks on screen.

I chose a 32" 4k monitor because I had cataracts.... now with my eyesight fixed the monitor is great.

I use my monitor with HDMI on an Intel i7-7700k (5 years old) with integrated graphics.

Mainly use the computer for Web browsing, email, MS Office apps, electronic CAD, minor SW and web design and the occasional look at games.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

cruxis

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#2931336 18-Jun-2022 11:30

Never Mind, Saw the beta Bios, Quickymarts suggestion is a Nice upgrade.

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