Long time in need of an upgrade

[Jason 57]

Budget (including currency): under 600 if possible

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Photoshop, Handbrake, Civ6, Star Wars games (old and new)

Other details 

 

I want to apologize right off the bat for the length of this post. 

I am a long time builder of PCs (first one was 1995).

I need to up grade my current rig, because it takes a while to render/process tasks. 

I recently built a new PC for my son heading off to college, so I took his old parts and upgraded mine where I could. 

 

This is what I had before I added his parts to mine:

SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PD128BW

 

msi fm2-a85xa-g65

 

AMD Athlon A10

 

G.Skill 32GB DDR3 DRAM 

 

MSI R7770 2pMDIGD5 x2 in Crossfire

 

WD 1TB Black

 

WD 3TB Green

Cooler Master Silent 750W Power Supply

 

then I upgraded with these: 

 

AMD Athlon X4 860K Kaveri Quad-Core 3.7 GHz Socket FM2+ 95W AD860KXBJABOX Desktop Processor (BLACK EDITION)

 

ASRock A88M-G/3.1 FM2+ / FM2 A88X (Bolton D4) Micro ATX Motherboard

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

 

SanDisk SSD PLUS 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SDSSDA-240G-G25

 

I kept my memory. I also bought a GTX 1070 on eBay for $200 to help in games. 

 

with the entrance now of B550, I think it is time to upgrade. I always try to keep forward compatability in mind when I upgrade. 

i have time to wait, so not needing what is in stock at this moment, because there not much right now. But really looking for feedback to what my thoughts are.

i was thinking of a MSI X570 Tomahawk for the MB. Maybe a Ryzen 5 3600 for CPU, maybe an aftermarket cooler if I can get one. 

as for a case, I still have a Rosewill Gaming R5 tower. 

my debate is, do I finally go no optical drive (I have always had one) and just get a USB to SATA adapter to use the one I have ( if that would even work), and get a nice microATX or a compact ATX case that fits my 4 drives with good airflow. 

 

Thank you all for your help! 

 

Also here is a link to the photos I took. Sadly there is A LOT of dust. I really don't clean like I should. 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1ALFvUchx-P_NzCDdBVHmEnJvObGPbfeS

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Jason 57
Wanted to put link to photos.

[Bombastinator]

Bad news is Covid has hit things kinda hard.  Everything is imported, it’s being produced, but the supply chain is overloaded and some parts are lower value while being higher shipping cost, so there are problems.  Ram and CPUs are easy to get, but PSUs and cases are in short supply.  One is heavy the other is bulky, and they’re both lower cost.  Motherboards have a different issue, they’re in flux and arranging shipping is difficult. GPUs also have a flux problem.  Nvidia is about to drop an new model, so while it hasn’t dropped yet I predict similar problems. 

Id be kinda tempted to do nothing with the thing in the very near future.  4 core still works, and gouging on parts is a bit insane for some things.  8gb memory is a bit short though. getting bigger ram sticks might actually be not the worst idea to get you to 2021 much as I hate throwing any money at all into a machine that old.  Depends on if you can get a good deal on some used ddr3.  I don’t know what ddr3 is going for atm.
 

Good news is an aftermarket cooler doesn’t do a lot of good on ryzen2.   It doesn’t overclock usefully an the stock cooler is decent.  The hard thing to get is going to be the motherboard, and possibly a PSU if it’s time for a new one.  Delaying on a gpu upgrade is the better part of valor at the moment if you’ve got anything decent already which you do.

[Jason 57]

15 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Bad news is Covid has hit things kinda hard.  Everything is imported, it’s being produced, but the supply chain is overloaded and some parts are lower value while being higher shipping cost, so there are problems.  Ram and CPUs are easy to get, but PSUs and cases are in short supply.  One is heavy the other is bulky, and they’re both lower cost.  Motherboards have a different issue, they’re in flux and arranging shipping is difficult. GPUs also have a flux problem.  Nvidia is about to drop an new model, so while it hasn’t dropped yet I predict similar problems. 

Id be kinda tempted to do nothing with the thing in the very near future.  4 core still works, and gouging on parts is a bit insane for some things.  8gb memory is a bit short though. getting bigger ram sticks might actually be not the worst idea to get you to 2021 much as I hate throwing any money at all into a machine that old.  Depends on if you can get a good deal on some used ddr3.  I don’t know what ddr3 is going for atm.
 

Good news is an aftermarket cooler doesn’t do a lot of good on ryzen2.   It doesn’t overclock usefully an the stock cooler is decent.  The hard thing to get is going to be the motherboard, and possibly a PSU if it’s time for a new one.  Delaying on a gpu upgrade is the better part of valor at the moment if you’ve got anything decent already which you do.

Thank you! I really appreciate feedback! 

 

I didn't think my Athlon A10 was a multicore, I will have to install CPUz and look. (I think I only looked at it on my son's machine when I was trying to tweak that)

As for the memory, I kept my 32GB of DDR3 from my old MB. So that is holding up for now. 

I am curious if I need to update the PSU. That CM Silent 750W 80+Gold I think is still good. I should figure out a way to see how much it is still outputting. 

With the market in so much flux, I am probably just going to wait until Black Friday and see what kind of deals I might be able to come across. 

 

I didn't realize I had a 4 core processor. Geez, I wld think I knew that.

For memory, I am still running my 32GB of DDR3 from my old setup. 

I think my CM Silent 750W 80+ Gold is still good to power what I want. 

 

Hopefully by Black Friday, things will look better. I was just hoping not to wait so long. Lucky I am not under time crunch. I am going to wait for what I want. 

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Jason 57 said:

Thank you! I really appreciate feedback! 

 

I didn't think my Athlon A10 was a multicore, I will have to install CPUz and look. (I think I only looked at it on my son's machine when I was trying to tweak that)

As for the memory, I kept my 32GB of DDR3 from my old MB. So that is holding up for now. 

I am curious if I need to update the PSU. That CM Silent 750W 80+Gold I think is still good. I should figure out a way to see how much it is still outputting. 

With the market in so much flux, I am probably just going to wait until Black Friday and see what kind of deals I might be able to come across. 

 

I didn't realize I had a 4 core processor. Geez, I wld think I knew that.

For memory, I am still running my 32GB of DDR3 from my old setup. 

I think my CM Silent 750W 80+ Gold is still good to power what I want. 

 

Hopefully by Black Friday, things will look better. I was just hoping not to wait so long. Lucky I am not under time crunch. I am going to wait for what I want. 

An a10 should be 4/8. AMD did some unusual things with those chips where they called them 8 core but thy were really more like 4/8, but with a better system of multithread than intel had.  There was a lawsuit.  

[Jason 57]

Looks like I'll have to install CPUz and take a look. I thought I had done that already, but maybe it was just my son's computer I did it to. 

 

FYI, I did edit the original post to include a link to photos. 

[Jason 57]

On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 9:59 AM, Bombastinator said:

An a10 should be 4/8. AMD did some unusual things with those chips where they called them 8 core but thy were really more like 4/8, but with a better system of multithread than intel had.  There was a lawsuit.  

So I found out that the AMD Athlon X4 860K Kaveri Quad-Core 3.7 GHz Socket FM2+ 95W AD860KXBJABOX Desktop Processor (BLACK EDITION) is a 4 core/4 thread processor. I did a side by side comparison with the A10, and it was really negligible.

And it seems that my GTX 1070 buy was much needed, and glad I got that last year. (I kept thinking of getting the RTX 2060 KO) I really need a CPU/MB upgrade.

So if I can find a compact Mid-tower case, I'll hopefully go with an X570 Tomahawk with a Ryzen 5 3600. That way I upgrade from 4 cores to 6 for some better workload stuff.

I do more workload than gaming.

My daughter draws all the time, and I do mostly Handbrake work (converting DVDs and VHS tapes to digital files.)

 

I do thank you for all the help! Lucky I get to keep contemplating this for months, until supplies become available. Because I am not going to buy from 3rd party seller, if I can get away with it.  

[boggy77]

4 minutes ago, Jason 57 said:

X570 Tomahawk with a Ryzen 5 3600

you don't need that much motehrboard for a 6 core cpu. wile x570 tomahawk is great, it's really aimed at high end 12 and 16 core cpus. you can get a decent mobo that works well with the 3600 for half the price.

[Nena Trinity]

 I upgraded from Athlon X4 880K to a Ryzen 3600, you should make sure local prices is not inflated if not then you should grab a 3300X or 3600 unless both is out of stock then go for 3700x at one point in my country that was the situation x-x

[Jason 57]

4 hours ago, Nena Trinity said:

 I upgraded from Athlon X4 880K to a Ryzen 3600, you should make sure local prices is not inflated if not then you should grab a 3300X or 3600 unless both is out of stock then go for 3700x at one point in my country that was the situation x-x

Yep, that is the plan. I am hoping by this fall supply will be back in at the 1st party sellers.

 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Jason 57 said:

Yep, that is the plan. I am hoping by this fall supply will be back in at the 1st party sellers.

 

Hope is nice.  My personal suspicion is 2021-22 if the world doesn’t just collapse.  I’m a bit negative about this whole thing though.

[Jason 57]

4 hours ago, boggy77 said:

you don't need that much motehrboard for a 6 core cpu. wile x570 tomahawk is great, it's really aimed at high end 12 and 16 core cpus. you can get a decent mobo that works well with the 3600 for half the price.

I typically do that kind of purchase. That way I have more than enough room to upgrade years down the line.

Heck, I am upgrading from what, 6 or 8 year old parts, that still run MUCH better than the Core i3 7100 I have to use at work!

[Jason 57]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

Hope is nice.  My personal suspicion is 2021-22 if the world doesn’t just collapse.  I’m a bit negative about this whole thing though.

I try to have some ray of hope in the darkness that is enveloping this planet.