Need help with an upgrade

[StephenH]

Budget (including currency): $400-$500 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Filmora video editor, photoshop, lightroom.

Other details (Have case NZXT H510, old BFG PSU (550W NOT INSTALLED),): 

Hi everyone I am new here, I'm 17 and looking to upgrade my 2015 Asus M32CD desktop, specs are: intel core i5-6400 @2.70GHz, 12GB ram, 2GB AMD FirePro GPU, and 1TB hybrid HDD(boot drive) plus more HDDs and an old samsung SSD (128GB). Video editing is slow and choppy even at 1080p and if pushed too hard crashes, In photoshop selecting and masking even small areas takes 20-60 seconds and even longer sometimes, and in lightroom selecting and applying presets can take 1-2 minutes. This is not ideal and I wish for a faster option that can also handle some 4K; not any RAW video just basic 4k from phones and my canon M50. While having these programs open task manager showed CPU 86-100% Ram usage 80-100%, and power consumption was High-very High. I presume that for video editing I need a better CPU and for PS and LR I need more RAM? If y'all don't mind could you help me find the right CPU, RAM, and possibly PSU? My budget is $400-$500USD. I have a NZXT H510 case laying around, a new coolermaster cooler (don't know model number), BFG BFGR550WGXPSU, and all my existing HDDs and SSDs. I suppose I might also need a new motherboard for new CPU. I run Windows 10, and have two 1080p displays with a third when I need it ( in the future I wish to ad a 4K display).

 

I thinks that's all the info. Again I use this for Photoshop, lightroom, and video editing along with simple tasks like documents, YouTube, etc. I originally wanted a laptop but found the price to performance ratio too high (the Dell XPS 15 lives only in my dreams). This is not a gaming PC the only thing I play on it is the 2005 Star Wars Battlefront. I will be using this for work as a Head Media Director at my local summer camp as well as personal photo/video projects.

 

P.S. I also use an old alpha networking adapter for wifi and wish to upgrade in the future.

 

Thanks you 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Psu definitely needs to be swapped, 18a per rail is complete garbage and total wattage is only a mere 400w. Should be able to get used 600-1000w for pretty decent prices on your local used market (look at cassifieds sites like fb marketplace) with massive discounts over new and far better quality than a new psu of the same price especially <50$ with quite literally no drawback aside from being used for a few years (look for ones <5 years old, usually have around 10+ years of life left in em)

 

H510 is crap for airflow but if you already have it just swap out the front panel for the airflow one or diy it and put mosquito mesh if the nzxt front panels are overpriced

 

 

For the cpu look for used ryzen 3600 or look at a new ryzen 5500 (prefer 3600 if price diff is >20$)

 

For mobo look for whatever midranger b3/450, like 50-70$ for a board like the pro4/steel legend, gaming plus/tomahawk, aorus elite/gaming *insert number*, etc. Prefer asrock due to t topology which will help with clocking a 4 dimm setup

 

For rams look for used hma81gu6djr8n in either 2666 or 3200 bin (prefer 3200 if price diff is not that much) from whoever sells a buncha used rams and buy 4 for 32gb in dual rank dual channel. For 5500 Just lazy clock to 4000-4400 20-25-25-45 1.4-1.5v and let mobo auto set subs (highly reccomended to tune secondaries and tertiaries but kinda time consuming), if you get a 3600 or 5600 lazy clock to 3600-3800 19-22-22-40 1.4-1.45v

 

As for gpu depends on how much budget is left, 300$ gets you a used 6700xt

[kitnoman]

If you can reuse your case, fans, psu, drives. You can choose either a better cpu or the higher gpu. the remaining, $30-50 can be for either a new psu or storage. There are a lot of m.2 512gb and 1tb going for $20-50.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/73XfNc

CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($111.37 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z590 Extreme ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte EAGLE Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $442.32
 

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cyfMd9

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte EAGLE Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $455.94
 

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rMQyjZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($86.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 10 GB Video Card  ($275.00 @ Amazon) 
Total: $477.94
 

[StephenH]

7 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Psu definitely needs to be swapped, 18a per rail is complete garbage and total wattage is only a mere 400w. Should be able to get used 600-1000w for pretty decent prices on your local used market (look at cassifieds sites like fb marketplace) with massive discounts over new and far better quality than a new psu of the same price especially <50$ with quite literally no drawback aside from being used for a few years (look for ones <5 years old, usually have around 10+ years of life left in em)

 

H510 is crap for airflow but if you already have it just swap out the front panel for the airflow one or diy it and put mosquito mesh if the nzxt front panels are overpriced

 

 

For the cpu look for used ryzen 3600 or look at a new ryzen 5500 (prefer 3600 if price diff is >20$)

 

For mobo look for whatever midranger b3/450, like 50-70$ for a board like the pro4/steel legend, gaming plus/tomahawk, aorus elite/gaming *insert number*, etc. Prefer asrock due to t topology which will help with clocking a 4 dimm setup

 

For rams look for used hma81gu6djr8n in either 2666 or 3200 bin (prefer 3200 if price diff is not that much) from whoever sells a buncha used rams and buy 4 for 32gb in dual rank dual channel. For 5500 Just lazy clock to 4000-4400 20-25-25-45 1.4-1.5v and let mobo auto set subs (highly reccomended to tune secondaries and tertiaries but kinda time consuming), if you get a 3600 or 5600 lazy clock to 3600-3800 19-22-22-40 1.4-1.45v

 

As for gpu depends on how much budget is left, 300$ gets you a used 6700xt

Thanks I meant to say at the top that I don't mind buying used components and actually do it a lot, the only way to go at this price point too. The case was $10 at GoodWill new never used in box and I just got it because it was there. I agree the front panel is solid no io or cooling, also with 1 usb A and 1 usb C it's kind of lacking front io, I'm used to having a SD reader for my camera installed.

[StephenH]

7 hours ago, kitnoman said:

If you can reuse your case, fans, psu, drives. You can choose either a better cpu or the higher gpu. the remaining, $30-50 can be for either a new psu or storage. There are a lot of m.2 512gb and 1tb going for $20-50.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/73XfNc

CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($111.37 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z590 Extreme ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte EAGLE Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $442.32
 

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cyfMd9

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte EAGLE Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $455.94
 

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rMQyjZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($86.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($30.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 10 GB Video Card  ($275.00 @ Amazon) 
Total: $477.94
 

Thank you so much for the parts list! I am not very familiar with the amd lineup so thanks for listing those CPUs. The i5 is 6 cores @2.9GHz and Ryzen 5 5600 is also 6 core @3.5GHz does that make it better? 

 

[kitnoman]

5 hours ago, StephenH said:

Thank you so much for the parts list! I am not very familiar with the amd lineup so thanks for listing those CPUs. The i5 is 6 cores @2.9GHz and Ryzen 5 5600 is also 6 core @3.5GHz does that make it better? 

 

Well as you are playing on 1080p, generally, CPU is actually more important than in higher resolution like 1440p/4k. Just to be sure that we are on the same page, your question is the clock speed? Generally speaking, within the same generation and architecture, yes, higher clock speed is better. The one listed are just base clock, all 3 cpu would still boost higher, like 4.1-4.5(I think). If I'm not mistaken, the slowest cpu here is actually 10400f. However, when gaming, I doubt you will notice the difference. 

personally, I would go with ryzen 5500+rx 6700. That gpu upgrade from 6600 to 6700  would really make a huge difference. Plus, you have a decent future upgrade to 5800x3d, if you want. I've seen reviews wherein they tested the 5800x3d on different generation of AM4 motherboards, from the oldest x/b300 series to the most recent, x/b500 series, and found there's no to very little performance difference. What that means even a b450m should work just fine if you upgrade to the best AM4/ryzen 5000 cpu.

[StephenH]

20 minutes ago, kitnoman said:

Well as you are playing on 1080p, generally, CPU is actually more important than in higher resolution like 1440p/4k. Just to be sure that we are on the same page, your question is the clock speed? Generally speaking, within the same generation and architecture, yes, higher clock speed is better. The one listed are just base clock, all 3 cpu would still boost higher, like 4.1-4.5(I think). If I'm not mistaken, the slowest cpu here is actually 10400f. However, when gaming, I doubt you will notice the difference. 

personally, I would go with ryzen 5500+rx 6700. That gpu upgrade from 6600 to 6700  would really make a huge difference. Plus, you have a decent future upgrade to 5800x3d, if you want. I've seen reviews wherein they tested the 5800x3d on different generation of AM4 motherboards, from the oldest x/b300 series to the most recent, x/b500 series, and found there's no to very little performance difference. What that means even a b450m should work just fine if you upgrade to the best AM4/ryzen 5000 cpu.

Ok thanks. And it looks like the core count is the same (6) on all CPUs listed, that should be enough for light 4K and 1080p to playback smoothly in a time line, again not a gaming pc I plan to optimize this for video editing so I don't have to render the whole video before playing back in a timeline after adding speed ramp, effects, etc.