Just looking for a bit of advice on upgrading my PC to something Ryzen-based.

Right now I’ve got a 3rd gen i7 system — it still works fine, but it’s feeling a bit slow compared to my new work laptop. I mostly use the desktop for general browsing and light tasks (no gaming), and it runs Linux only, so I don’t need anything powerful.

I’m thinking of replacing the motherboard, CPU (with cooler), and RAM. Open to new or used parts. Planning to keep my existing PSU and SATA SSDs for now, and I’ve also got a GTX 750 GPU lying around.  Here are a couple of options (new parts) I found online (mostly on AliExpress and Amazon):

Option 1 (AM5 ):

Gigabyte B650M Gaming WiFi – $155 NZD

Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 16GB (2x8GB) 5200MHz – $93 NZD

Ryzen 5 8400F (PassMark 24,537) – $150 NZD

Total: $398 NZD (incl GST and shipping)

Option 2 (AM4 ):

Gigabyte B550M K – $124 NZD

ADATA XPG Gammix D35 DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 – $65 NZD

Ryzen 5 5500 (PassMark 19,329) – $110 NZD

Total: $299 NZD (incl GST and shipping)

Thoughts?

Also, if I get a motherboard with 4 RAM slots, is it easy enough to upgrade from 2 sticks to 4 later on? Or will it cause issues if they’re not all exactly the same?  (Had a laptop once that was very fussy about a matching pair)

Thanks