Upgrading old AMD build

[night owl]

Budget (including currency): None but trying to minimize cost

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Ori and the will of the wisps, Recording audio and creating music in cubase with plugins, watching 1080p video, surfing web with 50 open tabs,

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

My current build from 2009 or 2010 I think:

AMD phenom II X6 2.8 ghz to 3.3 turbo overclocked to 3.4 ghz all the time

Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 rev 2.0 motherboard

8 go ddr 3 ram 1866 downclocked to around 1500/1600 because of cpu overclock

Samsung 850 pro sata ssd

AMD Radeon R9 270 2gb

 

Hi, so I want to upgrade my second computer. I just build a high end intel pc a year ago and went crazy with everyting. This is different because my second pc is usually not a gaming pc but it's connected to my 1080p 50 inch tv and it's my music studio pc and my multimedia pc, i watch 1080p movies and now I just finished "Ori and the blind forest" game on it and I just want to be able to play the follow up "Ori and the will of the wisps" on it with my tv. So this is not a AAA game but i already have a pc for this. What i want is to upgrade this pc enough that it can play some games like this on my tv without costing an entire build. Obviously I'll keep what I can from it. I hope to be able to play at 1080p with 60hz. And hopefully maybe help with my music duties as plugins can be quite memory consuming.

 

 

 

Here are the specs required for Ori:

Official Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 Version 18362.0 or higher
• Processor: AMD Athlon X4 | Intel Core i5 4460
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX 950 | AMD R7 370
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 20 GB available space

 

Official Recommended Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 Version 18362.0 or higher
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 | Intel i5 Skylake
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 | AMD RX 570
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 20 GB available space

 

 

 

 

PC System Analysis For Ori and the Will of the Wisps Requirements

Ori and the Will of the Wisps will require Radeon RX 570 4GB graphics card with a Core i5-6500 3.2GHz or Ryzen R3 1200 processor to reach the recommended specs, achieving high graphics setting on 1080p. 8 GB will also be needed to achieve the Ori and the Will of the Wisps rec specs and get 60FPS. Ori and the Will of the Wisps needs a graphics card thats at least as powerful as a GeForce GTX 950 2GB/Radeon R7 370 paired with Athlon X4 880K/Core i5-4460 3.2GHz CPU to match the min specs. This PC setup will deliver 25-35 Frame Per Second at Low graphics setting on 720p resolution. Don't try and play Ori and the Will of the Wisps without 8 GB, which helps get the 30FPS You will require a DirectX 11 GPU. We suggest a 6 year old PC to play smoothly.

 

 

So I've thought about a few alternatives

 

1- buying a phenom II X6 1100t CPU so I can easily overclock into 4ghz, take back my ram overclock to 1866 maybe, and probably buy another 8gb of the same ram. And some 4gb video card I suspect unless there are better alternatives not too pricey.

 

2- change the motherboard for one that would allow me to keep the 1055t but overclock it more into the 4ghz but in the process maybe give me access to nvme support and usb 3.1 and ram that would go into the 2000mhz which i could combine with a set of 2x8gb instead of adding 2x4 in my current setup plus a graphic card

 

3- find a decent combo of "new everything". But then I'm lost. What's worth upgrading to, what's not just gonna become useless in two years? This build lasted me 10 years with just ssd and ram improvement and OC. I'd like to keep things at 6-8 cores AMD. I like the idea that after having build the ultimate Intel I will keep this one AMD.

 

So these are the things I'm open to change in total:

Cpu/mobo/ram/graphic card/ssd

 

So what do you think? Is it crazy expecting anything else than a complete reset of my config or is it possible to stay inside my current config a little bit to save $$$$.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

Edited May 23, 2020 by night owl
missing graphic card info

[Bombastinator]

“Surfing the web with 50 open tabs” says more than 8gb of memory to me.  Especially for chrome.  “Recording audio” says Mac to me but that’s not an option it seems.  Unless it is.  The issue with old systems is intel couldn’t or wouldn’t make improvements in their CPUs and the result was there was a period where old CPUs remained viable for a very long time.  This I personally think was an anomaly and may not be seen again.

[Ertman]

What is you GPU? I might have completely missed that.

 

Personally, I don't know how much the motherboard and CPU is locally for you. My guess is that its too much. I personally don't think its worth throwing more money at the existing system if it can be used to buy parts better suited for your needs.

 

I guess the cheapest option would be running anHDMI cable from your gaming computer to the TV you want, but this isnt feasible for most people.

[night owl]

Current graphic card in this build is AMD radeon r9 270 2gb. Sorry I forgot it.

 

I am against any mac product so thats not an option.

 

And both Pcs are two floor aparts so that would be an increadibly long hdmi cable lol.

 

I'm using firefox as browser btw.

 

I've been thinking I could buy a second nvidia 1080x like my main pc so that one day i can combine both in my main but the old CPU would probably bottleneck with this config its just world aparts.

[Ertman]

I wouldn't worry too much about the new gpu being bottlenecked by your current CPU, Id be more concerned whether or not the CPU will provide the experience you'd want.

 

If everything else is going fine, I also don't know how much your interested in paying for an upgrade to play a single game.

 

Personally, if upgrading is a must, then your looking at $300-400 with all new parts before the GPU, then I would go with a b450 motherboard (look at some reviews for a quality one, or someone else will chime in), just about any Ryzen cpu (2nd gen or 3rid is preferred), and 16gb of ram

 

At least with the this option you have a significant upgrade path in the future.

[night owl]

I've seen the phenom II X6 1100t between 150 and 250 used on ebay.

 

And the memory is around 80-150 for a 2x4 or 150 to 250 for a 2x8

 

For the board I'm just not sure which AM3 board is the best.

 

 

I'm open to suggestion for an entire new build but I'm not as knowledgeable with the new AMD stuff as intel or my old AMD rig. I'm guessing today's standards are all about ryzen 8 core ddr4 cpu/mobo and 8gb videos cards. I don't see quite a lot of builds under 1300$ or 1600$ on newegg.

 

I've been playing a few other games on this PC, usually older games like star wars games with upgraded textures. The biggest game I've been able to run on it was LOTR shadow of war on low settings. It's not necessarily that I don't want to game on it it's just that my tv is plasma 1080p so if I want to play 1440p with with games like assassins creed I will use my other pc but there are tons of older or still nice looking games in 1080p that are nice to play on a bigger screen.

Edited May 23, 2020 by night owl

[mariushm]

Wait a few weeks and buy a B550 motherboard and a good processor like a Ryzen 2600 or a Ryzen 3300x ... a B550 board will allow for future upgrades to a processor in the 4xxx series when they'll show up.

Ryzen 2600 (around 120$) or 3300x (around 100 us dollars) will have 6 cores or 12 threads (for the 2600) or 4 cores / 8 threads (for the 3300x) but the IPC (performance per core) of the 3300x is better so the overall performance is actually nearly the same as 2600

The 3300x may be better for your audio applications due to higher ipc (performance per core) and lower memory and "between cores"  latency  as all 4 cores are in a CCX inside the cpu die (2600 has 6 cores, but 3 cores per CCX and you have super fast communication between cores inside a CCX but a bit of latency when a core from one CCX talks to a core from the other CCX)

 

Also wait for B550 because most likely they'll come with better integrated sound cards like ALC1200 or ALC1220 ... the current cheaper B450 boards still use older ALC 887 or ALC892 sound chips.

Maybe you have your own separate higher end sound card, or external (usb) dac/sound system but still it's a good idea to have something better as base.

 

 

[night owl]

@mariushm

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes I have a lovely steingberg UR22 as my sound card. And even though it sounds amazing, I may have to get a more expansive one soon because I need more channels.

 

I've been thinking since it appears a new build is preferable I might actually take a few parts from my main pc and improve both as a result. I.e ryzen runs under ddr4 ram at 3000mhz for those boards which I have on my main but I was waiting to upgrade it to 4200mhz some day because memory was so pricey in the last 2 years i didn't want to buy that last time. I was also waiting to buy a bigger ssd so I may as well take the one inside my main too. That would leave only mobo/cpu/gpu to buy for the AMD and SSD/ram on my main.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, night owl said:

@mariushm

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes I have a lovely steingberg UR22 as my sound card. And even though it sounds amazing, I may have to get a more expansive one soon because I need more channels.

 

I've been thinking since it appears a new build is preferable I might actually take a few parts from my main pc and improve both as a result. I.e ryzen runs under ddr4 ram at 3000mhz for those boards which I have on my main but I was waiting to upgrade it to 4200mhz some day because memory was so pricey in the last 2 years i didn't want to buy that last time. I was also waiting to buy a bigger ssd so I may as well take the one inside my main too. That would leave only mobo/cpu/gpu to buy for the AMD and SSD/ram on my main.

Memory pricing seems to vary wildly and quickly.   If you need to catch a dip perhaps set some sort of automatic price update thing.  Pcpartpicker has one.  It’s kind of annoying though.  I set one for monitors some time ago and I can’t figure out how to turn it off.

[night owl]

@bombastinator

 

That's a good idea. The problem is I don't know if I can wait until black friday but the best deals usually are between october and december. I guess I have time to think about all that.

[Ertman]

Ryzen 3 3100/3300

B450 Motherboard

16GB of ram (price depends on speeds)

$300-370

 

Seems like a much better deal then upgrading your current setup, given he prices you mentioned and allows you to upgrade in the future to meet new demands. 

 

Waiting for the B550 might be worth while for features but also upgrade path.