PC upgrade - advice needed

[coolguywithabeanie]

Hello! Looking to upgrade my PC because the current CPU is getting quite old and I'm starting to see some slowdowns. Also I wanna get a new SSD and I'd be limited to SATA on the old system, so seems like a good time to upgrade.

 

Budget (including currency): 200~400 eur for the CPU; rest should follow from that

Country: Estonia (so prices might differ from NA ones) 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming and random multitasking (running 20 chrome tabs at once while having a game open while watching a movie etc). I mainly play big open world games (AC, Witcher, Deus Ex, Dragon Age, Cyberpunk if it gets fixed, Path of Exile).

Monitors: I'm using a 1080p 144hz monitor, and have no complaints, but I guess it's not out of the question that I'd upgrade to 1440p in the future

Peripherals: Peripherals/OS are not needed

Other details: I probably don't wanna bother with overclocking or watercooling because I'm lazy. Oh and I don't care about RGB or glass sidepanels

 

Here's my current PC:

• GPU: EVGA GTX 1080
• CPU: Intel i5-4690
• RAM: 2x8GB DDR3
• Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41
• PSU: Seasonic S12II-620 Bronze
• Storage: 2x250GB SSD (SATA) - Crucial/Samsung; 1TB Seagate HDD
• Case: Fractal Define R5

I'm thinking I can keep the GPU, so the main upgrade will be the CPU, which means upgrading the mobo and RAM as well. I put something together on PCPartPicker: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	€324.90 @ Jimm's
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	€129.90 @ Jimm's
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory	€108.00 @ Jimm's
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€168.00 @ Jimm's
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card
Case	Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case	€109.90 @ Jimm's
Power Supply	SeaSonic M12II 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€840.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-31 22:26 EET+0200

 

The case/GPU/PSU are just there for reference, since I already have them.

 

Questions: 

1. Can I keep the current PSU and case?
2. Should I get a custom CPU cooler?
3. Any objections on the choices? I don't have a lot of experience, so I'm not very confident with the choices

 

Thanks for your time and happy new year!

[Hairless Monkey]

Looks pretty good. Swapped the SSD. You can keep the case, but you should replace the PSU.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	€324.90 @ Jimm's
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard	€129.90 @ Jimm's
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory	€108.00 @ Jimm's
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€142.90 @ Jimm's
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card	Purchased For €0.00
Case	Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case	Purchased For €0.00
Power Supply	BitFenix Formula Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	€83.90 @ Jimm's
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€789.60
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-31 22:41 EET+0200

 

[coolguywithabeanie]

Thanks for the input! The ADATA SSD does seem to be a lot cheaper. 

 

Since you're suggesting a PSU with a similar wattage, is it because the current one is pretty old at this point? If I'm going to upgrade anyway, would there be a decent (semi) modular option at that price range? PSU is definitely the component I feel the most insecure about.

[brob]

The M12II psu is a good, but dated design without some of the protections available on more modern designs.

 

If you do want to replace the unit you might consider the Seasoning Focus GX series or Corsair RMx. 550W would be suitable, although you might want 650W - 750W if you anticipated getting a newer gpu.

[Hairless Monkey]

9 minutes ago, coolguywithabeanie said:

Thanks for the input! The ADATA SSD does seem to be a lot cheaper. 

Yes and the performance is on-par.

9 minutes ago, coolguywithabeanie said:

Since you're suggesting a PSU with a similar wattage, is it because the current one is pretty old at this point?

Your PSU is aging. Despite being non-modular, the Formula Gold is very good. But here are some other options:

 

https://fi.pcpartpicker.com/product/bqVD4D/corsair-rmx-2018-550w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020177-na

https://fi.pcpartpicker.com/product/DQx9TW/bitfenix-whisper-m-650w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-bp-wg650umag-7fm

 

And the tier list if you want to give it a look:

 

[su01]

Watch out for PSUs which have very few outlets for peripherals (SATA,Molex) if you intend to have more than a few hard drives.

This is the main reason i get the EVGA 1000W units.

[coolguywithabeanie]

Thanks guys! I think I'll go with the BitFenix PSU then.

 

I guess the stock AMD CPU cooler is fine since nobody has objected?

 

One last question: the pcpartpicker page has a warning about potentially needing a BIOS update. How do I know if the specific unit I have needs it? Or should I do it anyway just in case? 

[Hairless Monkey]

1 minute ago, coolguywithabeanie said:

I guess the stock AMD CPU cooler is fine since nobody has objected?

Whoops for got to answer that one. Yes it'll do just fine  

 

1 minute ago, coolguywithabeanie said:

One last question: the pcpartpicker page has a warning about potentially needing a BIOS update. How do I know if the specific unit I have needs it? Or should I do it anyway just in case? 

At this point it should come with a Ryzen 5000 compatible BIOS. In case it doesn't, the board has a BIOS Flashback feature which will allow you to update the BIOS without a CPU installed.

 

I always at least check the BIOS rev with a new board, and I update if the changes in the change log seem significant.

 

PS. be sure to "@coolguywithabeanie" or reply like I did above so that members are notified when you respond.