Upgrading a 6 Year Old PC (Parts could be Older)

[KageKazumi]

THE ISSUE

 

1) I can't play a few games on my PC as they do not meet the minimum requirements (one example Universe Sandbox which usually crashes after 15min - See requirements for this game at Steam if you desire). Also note I do not alter settings and leave my games at their default settings.

2) Well doing screen recordings for YouTube I often find that the video has massive lag issues. This lag is less if I have less stuff opened. An example of a typical recording would be: OBS (video capture, windows capture, etc.), A browser (usually Fire Fox) with 4 or more tabs open ranging from articles or a YouTube video.

 

I don't notice the lag during the recording and only find it out when done and I'm checking the video for basic issues (audio sync, etc.).

 

CURRENT BUILD

 

1) Case - NZXT Phantom 43.0 Full Tower https://www.nzxt.com/products/phantom-white

2) Motherboard - AsRock FM2A78M-HD+ https://www.newegg.com/asrock-fm2a78m-hd/p/N82E16813157482

3) Processor -  AMD A10-5800K APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics, 4200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

4) Ram - 12gb DDR3 Team Group Inc. (Total Physical ram 10.9; Available Physical Memory  6.09 GB; Total Virtual Memory 12.6 GB; Available Virtual Memory 6.94 GB)

5) Hard Drive - WDC WD20EADS-00S2B0 2tb (Capacity:  1.8 TB; Formatted:  1.8 TB)

6) Power Supply - LEPA N500 (https://www.newegg.com/lepa-n-series-n500-sa-500w/p/N82E16817494002)

 

My THOUGHTS & BUDGET

 

I'm looking to upgrade either the whole PC ($800-$900 USD budget, but using the same tower to save some money) or upgrade the Processor and switch the hard drive to a 2tb SSD ($400-$600 USD budget).

 

Of course the question than become would just upgrading the processor and hard drive make much of a difference or should I bite the bullet and upgrade all or most parts in my current PC.

I watched a few videos from LinusTech on budget builds under $800 for 2020, but some of the parts are not longer in stock. And I've had issues searching for processor compatible with my 6 year old mother board.

Any advice or tips would be nice.

PC HISTORY

 

I bought this PC from a eBay seller (who has since been kicked off eBay & Paypal for fraudulent activity); yes lesson learned. It was a gift to myself when graduated from college. It was purchased for about $875.

[Escapenz]

$800 USD ?

[Vandorlot]

Are you in America? I would reccomend a CPU upgrade to ryzen which would also require a motherboard(you can get them for $70 usd) and ram (16 gb is like $80)(You should get 3600 speed). You could also fit a GPU with that budget. Do you need a 2tb SSD? That seems overkill. You can get a tb SSD for 110 but you might not even need that much storage. A 500 gb drive is fine for most people. You should keep the hardrive but put windows and important stuff on the SSD and files like movies photos and large games on the hard drive.

[Vandorlot]

Just now, Vandorlot said:

Are you in America? I would reccomend a CPU upgrade to ryzen which would also require a motherboard(you can get them for $70 usd) and ram (16 gb is like $80)(You should get 3600 speed). You could also fit a GPU with that budget. Do you need a 2tb SSD? That seems overkill. You can get a tb SSD for 110 but you might not even need that much storage. A 500 gb drive is fine for most people. You should keep the hardrive but put windows and important stuff on the SSD and files like movies photos and large games on the hard drive.

You would also probably want to upgrade the PSU, if you do those upgrade because I dont think that PSU is very safe. But you can do all of this with 800 dollars.

[KageKazumi]

Yes USD, my apologies.

 

EDIT

And after looking at how much of my 2TB drive I use now (which is 1.5tb of free space) I now think it would money wise, to go with something smaller perhaps 500gb or 1tb.

[Vandorlot]

6 minutes ago, KageKazumi said:

Yes USD, my apologies.

So do you need the 2 tb SSD. Read what I read above.

[Firewrath9]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$74.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$119.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card	$224.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Enermax REVOLUTION X't 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$84.75 @ Walmart
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$864.69
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$849.69
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-21 00:35 EDT-0400

This is what'd I'd reccommend. 

Great CPU, mobo with a decent VRM (but not much else, if you can spare it, I'd spend 25$ more for a X470 Gaming Plus Max), good ram, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a fast GPU, and a quality case and a decent PSU (I'd spend 15$ more and get a great top tier one if you can spare it)

[KageKazumi]

4 minutes ago, Vandorlot said:

So do you need the 2 tb SSD. Read what I read above.

I did, I just edited the post above yours.

[Vandorlot]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$93.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Green 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$54.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB OC Video Card	$319.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic FOCUS 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.99 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$835.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-21 00:38 EDT-0400

 

You have the case. 3600x is for the better cooler. 3600 mhz ram is very important becase it doesnt cost extra but on 3rd gen ryzen it makes a sizeable performance boost.

[QuantumAbacus77]

You're going to have to replace that motherboard for sure. You won't find any new processors compatible with it. This means you'll probably have to replace the ram as well, as current motherboards have ddr4 slots. But with your budget you should easily be able to build a decent gaming rig. For only $800 USD I'm making my pc vr ready, replacing everything except for the case, SSD, and PSU.

[Escapenz]

14 minutes ago, Vandorlot said:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$93.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Green 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$54.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB OC Video Card	$319.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic FOCUS 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.99 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$835.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-21 00:38 EDT-0400

 

You have the case. 3600x is for the better cooler. 3600 mhz ram is very important becase it doesnt cost extra but on 3rd gen ryzen it makes a sizeable performance boost.

bet me to it  

[Vandorlot]

20 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$74.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$119.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card	$224.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Enermax REVOLUTION X't 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$84.75 @ Walmart
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$864.69
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$849.69
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-21 00:35 EDT-0400

This is what'd I'd reccommend. 

Great CPU, mobo with a decent VRM (but not much else, if you can spare it, I'd spend 25$ more for a X470 Gaming Plus Max), good ram, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a fast GPU, and a quality case and a decent PSU (I'd spend 15$ more and get a great top tier one if you can spare it)

That PSU isnt very good. 3600 mhz ram is importnat.

[KageKazumi]

Alright so I increased my budget and pretty much picked most of the parts Vandorlot suggested. If you have any other tips or criticism just let me know. New total without shipping & Taxes: $981.90

 

 

[Firewrath9]

9 hours ago, Vandorlot said:

That PSU isnt very good. 3600 mhz ram is importnat.

You can easily OC the Micron E-die to 3600mhz.

That PSU is tier B on the legendary OP mega praise lord jesus LTT tier list that everybody worships here like a saint. It's good enough.

[Firewrath9]

4 hours ago, KageKazumi said:

Alright so I increased my budget and pretty much picked most of the parts Vandorlot suggested. If you have any other tips or criticism just let me know. New total without shipping & Taxes: $981.90

 

 

Don't get AS5, better pastes like MX-4 and NT-H1 exist. Get the WD Blue SN550, as it uses TLC dram instead of QLC, get a R5 3600 as its the exact same as the 3600 (maybe 1% difference), and instead of buying a case and a fan, just get a better case, like this

https://www.newegg.com/black-phanteks-eclipse-p400a-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811854085?Description=p400a&cm_re=p400a-_-11-854-085-_-Product&quicklink=true

you get a TG side panel too

[Vandorlot]

6 hours ago, KageKazumi said:

Alright so I increased my budget and pretty much picked most of the parts Vandorlot suggested. If you have any other tips or criticism just let me know. New total without shipping & Taxes: $981.90

You don't need thermal paste as the 3600x has it pre applied and its good. You can still buy it for the future if you ever want to remount the cooler. The P1 isnt a very good nvme drive. Just get the crucial mx500 drive. Theres one thats in the m.2 format so you won't have to worry about wires, but its the same speed as the 2.5 inch drive(still better than the P1).

[Vandorlot]

2 hours ago, Firewrath9 said:

You can easily OC the Micron E-die to 3600mhz.

That PSU is tier B on the legendary OP mega praise lord jesus LTT tier list that everybody worships here like a saint. It's good enough.

3200 and 3600 is the same price. Why wouldnt you just get the 3600 so you won't have to overclock. Plus you could lower the timings if you wanted to overclock and you would still get better performace.

My bad on the PSU call.

[Firewrath9]

1 hour ago, Vandorlot said:

You don't need thermal paste as the 3600x has it pre applied and its good. You can still buy it for the future if you ever want to remount the cooler. The P1 isnt a very good nvme drive. Just get the crucial mx500 drive. Theres one thats in the m.2 format so you won't have to worry about wires, but its the same speed as the 2.5 inch drive(still better than the P1).

the MX500 is worse than the P1, except in very certain situations. I don't know what BS you're spouting but it ain't true.

1 hour ago, Vandorlot said:

3200 and 3600 is the same price. Why wouldnt you just get the 3600 so you won't have to overclock. Plus you could lower the timings if you wanted to overclock and you would still get better performace.

My bad on the PSU call.

any 3600 kit out there is probably some shit/mystery die, especially with the CL18. Micron rev.E is wayy better than mystery dies, and you know what you're getting. At the very best, that G skill kit contains CJR, which imo is worse than micron rev. e.

 

[KageKazumi]

The reason I selected that case (above images) is my current build also has a data hub & DVD/cd drive. So I needed a case with at least two openings in the front.