Contemplating an upgrade - feedback welcome!

[alphawhisky]

Budget (including currency): £500 (~$575 USD)

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Work machine, mostly running Adobe Creative Suite but also some development (Python). Light gaming (otherwise use Xbox Series X for gaming!) Need a machine capable of managing a ridiculous number of Chrome 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): 

 

I currently run an i7-6700 on an H110M Pro-VH motherboard with 32GB of RAM (Corsair Vengeance 3200) with a Radeon RX 590 graphics card. The machine is beginning to show its age a little, with slowdowns. The motherboard is something of a restricting factor. I can't go above 32GB of RAM, no M.2 storage options (so running a SATA SSD boot drive), and although gaming isn't a big factor, I can't go beyond PCIe 3. (Though I guess this also impacts storage options!)

 

I know Black Friday is coming up and with a slew of recent releases, I'm hoping slightly older tech will come down in cost. Here's what I've pulled together today. To save money, I'll be recycling some of the components from my existing system, by keeping the RAM and graphics card, as well as moving over the storage (1x 8TB mechanical hard drive, plus 2x 2TB SATA SSDs). 

 

Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (£100 via Scan)

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (£100 via Scan)

Boot Drive: WD Black SN770 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe (£80 via Scan)

PSU: EVGA 750 B5 80 PLUS Bronze 750W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80 via Scan)

Case: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Mid Tower (£90 via Scan)

 

That brings the total to £450, so definitely within my budget. A few questions if I may!

• Thoughts on performance of the 5600 vs my existing i7-6700? Worthy upgrade path?
• Could save a buck by keeping my existing PSU (Thermaltake Smart RGB 80+ White 700W) though I'd prefer a fully modular PSU if possible... 
• Is the included cooler with the Ryzen good enough?
• I've done PC upgrades previously, but never built my own system. Is it worth waiting for Black Friday for a budget pre-built? 
• And, on a similar theme, do you think component prices will drop significantly during Black Friday itself? 

Thanks for reading. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

[PDifolco]

22 minutes ago, alphawhisky said:

Budget (including currency): £500 (~$575 USD)

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Work machine, mostly running Adobe Creative Suite but also some development (Python). Light gaming (otherwise use Xbox Series X for gaming!) Need a machine capable of managing a ridiculous number of Chrome 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): 

 

I currently run an i7-6700 on an H110M Pro-VH motherboard with 32GB of RAM (Corsair Vengeance 3200) with a Radeon RX 590 graphics card. The machine is beginning to show its age a little, with slowdowns. The motherboard is something of a restricting factor. I can't go above 32GB of RAM, no M.2 storage options (so running a SATA SSD boot drive), and although gaming isn't a big factor, I can't go beyond PCIe 3. (Though I guess this also impacts storage options!)

 

I know Black Friday is coming up and with a slew of recent releases, I'm hoping slightly older tech will come down in cost. Here's what I've pulled together today. To save money, I'll be recycling some of the components from my existing system, by keeping the RAM and graphics card, as well as moving over the storage (1x 8TB mechanical hard drive, plus 2x 2TB SATA SSDs). 

 

Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (£100 via Scan)

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (£100 via Scan)

Boot Drive: WD Black SN770 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe (£80 via Scan)

PSU: EVGA 750 B5 80 PLUS Bronze 750W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80 via Scan)

Case: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Mid Tower (£90 via Scan)

 

That brings the total to £450, so definitely within my budget. A few questions if I may!

• Thoughts on performance of the 5600 vs my existing i7-6700? Worthy upgrade path?
• Could save a buck by keeping my existing PSU (Thermaltake Smart RGB 80+ White 700W) though I'd prefer a fully modular PSU if possible... 
• Is the included cooler with the Ryzen good enough?
• I've done PC upgrades previously, but never built my own system. Is it worth waiting for Black Friday for a budget pre-built? 
• And, on a similar theme, do you think component prices will drop significantly during Black Friday itself? 

Thanks for reading. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

• Thoughts on performance of the 5600 vs my existing i7-6700? Worthy upgrade path?
  • Would be defo better like +50% faster all over the board, less stutters, etc, and cheap
• Could save a buck by keeping my existing PSU (Thermaltake Smart RGB 80+ White 700W) though I'd prefer a fully modular PSU if possible... 
  • Yes, you don't need to upgrade the PSU. BTW you could get a cheaper NVme like a SN570 (a few bucks less)
• Is the included cooler with the Ryzen good enough?
  • Yes it's fine but you can add a £30 ish cooler to get better temp/less noise
• I've done PC upgrades previously, but never built my own system. Is it worth waiting for Black Friday for a budget pre-built? 
  • dunno...
• And, on a similar theme, do you think component prices will drop significantly during Black Friday itself? 
  • dunno...

[alphawhisky]

Thanks, @PDifolco! Appreciate your advice. Any recommendations on a cooler for the Ryzen if I don't use stock? Thanks again

[GeorgeMKane]

33 minutes ago, alphawhisky said:

Budget (including currency): £500 (~$575 USD)

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Work machine, mostly running Adobe Creative Suite but also some development (Python). Light gaming (otherwise use Xbox Series X for gaming!) Need a machine capable of managing a ridiculous number of Chrome 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): 

 

I currently run an i7-6700 on an H110M Pro-VH motherboard with 32GB of RAM (Corsair Vengeance 3200) with a Radeon RX 590 graphics card. The machine is beginning to show its age a little, with slowdowns. The motherboard is something of a restricting factor. I can't go above 32GB of RAM, no M.2 storage options (so running a SATA SSD boot drive), and although gaming isn't a big factor, I can't go beyond PCIe 3. (Though I guess this also impacts storage options!)

 

I know Black Friday is coming up and with a slew of recent releases, I'm hoping slightly older tech will come down in cost. Here's what I've pulled together today. To save money, I'll be recycling some of the components from my existing system, by keeping the RAM and graphics card, as well as moving over the storage (1x 8TB mechanical hard drive, plus 2x 2TB SATA SSDs). 

 

Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (£100 via Scan)

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (£100 via Scan)

Boot Drive: WD Black SN770 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe (£80 via Scan)

PSU: EVGA 750 B5 80 PLUS Bronze 750W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80 via Scan)

Case: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Mid Tower (£90 via Scan)

 

That brings the total to £450, so definitely within my budget. A few questions if I may!

• Thoughts on performance of the 5600 vs my existing i7-6700? Worthy upgrade path?
• Could save a buck by keeping my existing PSU (Thermaltake Smart RGB 80+ White 700W) though I'd prefer a fully modular PSU if possible... 
• Is the included cooler with the Ryzen good enough?
• I've done PC upgrades previously, but never built my own system. Is it worth waiting for Black Friday for a budget pre-built? 
• And, on a similar theme, do you think component prices will drop significantly during Black Friday itself? 

Thanks for reading. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

I would go with a 5600X instead. You can definitely get a better PSU as well, that'll help carry over for when you get your next gpu too. Building the pc is going to be cheaper than a pre-built, and with pre-builts they tend to cheap out on certain components like the memory, case, motherboard, etc.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/g7v6d9

[PDifolco]

2 minutes ago, GeorgeMKane said:

I would go with a 5600X instead. You can definitely get a better PSU as well, that'll help carry over for when you get your next gpu too. Building the pc is going to be cheaper than a pre-built, and with pre-builts they tend to cheap out on certain components like the memory, case, motherboard, etc.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/g7v6d9

I'm not convinced the 5% better perf of the 5600X is worth the additional £30 , or am I wrong somewhere ?

 

[alphawhisky]

I had looked at the 5600X. On Scan, anyway, it's £30 more. On the basis of the performance I've seen, I'm not convinced it's worth it. But that's from my perspective with a limited knowledge in this area

[GeorgeMKane]

14 hours ago, alphawhisky said:

I had looked at the 5600X. On Scan, anyway, it's £30 more. On the basis of the performance I've seen, I'm not convinced it's worth it. But that's from my perspective with a limited knowledge in this area

Depends on your use case. For just gaming? Not worth it. If you're doing a lot more, and you want it to last you longer (especially for your other tasks), I would recommend it more. It also has a better overclock, if you plan to do that in the future. If not, then definitely go for the 5600 instead.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Z3XPNc

[NF-A12x25]

15 hours ago, GeorgeMKane said:

I would go with a 5600X instead

but why? it’s not worth it for any use case over the 5600 except XOC. @PDifolcoand @alphawhiskyare correct. If the build needs more CPU performance than a 5600 a 5700x is a smarter upgrade.