Help with PC Upgrades (Motherboard and CPU)

[Emerald108]

Hey all,

 

I'm looking into purchasing a new motherboard and CPU as i'm not happy with the performance it's currently giving out so i'm wondering what would be the best budget options for both whilst also giving great performance?

 

Looking at the page for my current case, these are the limitations so I want to make sure everything fits.
 

 

 

These are my current specs:

Intel Core i5-9600KF

Nvidia RTX 2070S

32GB RAM

Intel 320 Series 600GB Drive

Seagate Barracuda 2TB Drive (2018)

Antec NX310 NX Series-Mid Tower Gaming Case

 

Thanks.

[RONOTHAN##]

31 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

i'm wondering what would be the best budget options for both whilst also giving great performance?

What are you looking to spend? Everyone on here defines budget differently, so budget for you might be under $150, while budget for someone else would be under $500. You can get good options at both price points that are faster than your current gear (the $500 option would obviously faster though), it's that we need a number to say what that would exactly be. Knowing if you would be willing to go used would also help somewhat, though admittedly advising for the used market is like trying to hit a moving target blindfolded, so don't necessarily expect all that much useful help if you are.

 

Also exact workloads would help and what isn't working to your standards on your current chip, as some games really prefer one CPU brand over another (Starfield really likes Intel CPUs, while some other games like Halo prefer AMD chips), and that will influence what we recommend. 

[Emerald108]

3 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

What are you looking to spend? Everyone on here defines budget differently, so budget for you might be under $150, while budget for someone else would be under $500. You can get good options at both price points that are faster than your current gear (the $500 option would obviously faster though), it's that we need a number to say what that would exactly be. Knowing if you would be willing to go used would also help somewhat, though admittedly advising for the used market is like trying to hit a moving target blindfolded, so don't necessarily expect all that much useful help if you are.

 

Also exact workloads would help and what isn't working to your standards on your current chip, as some games really prefer one CPU brand over another (Starfield really likes Intel CPUs, while some other games like Halo prefer AMD chips), and that will influence what we recommend. 

Around 550 for everything if possible? Can definitely go higher if needed, Willing to purchased used things but yeah it's very iffy haha. 

 

As for my workloads, just running a game like Overwatch or Valorant isn't giving good performance, I reach into the 120+ frames but from looking at others with the same GPU it's looking like it is a CPU issue. Currently my PC struggles to have both a game and spotify open at the same time.

 

Probably worth noting that i'm from Australia so things will be more expensive over here too 

[Knav]

19 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

Around 550 for everything if possible? Can definitely go higher if needed, Willing to purchased used things but yeah it's very iffy haha. 

 

As for my workloads, just running a game like Overwatch or Valorant isn't giving good performance, I reach into the 120+ frames but from looking at others with the same GPU it's looking like it is a CPU issue. Currently my PC struggles to have both a game and spotify open at the same time.

 

Probably worth noting that i'm from Australia so things will be more expensive over here too 

If possible then I would upgrade the CPU to a 12400f, motherboard to something that supports it as it doesn't have to be fancy and with what is left I would try get a 6700XT if possible. If this doesn't work out well then I can try find another combination.

[RONOTHAN##]

22 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

Around 550 for everything if possible? Can definitely go higher if needed, Willing to purchased used things but yeah it's very iffy haha. 

 

As for my workloads, just running a game like Overwatch or Valorant isn't giving good performance, I reach into the 120+ frames but from looking at others with the same GPU it's looking like it is a CPU issue. Currently my PC struggles to have both a game and spotify open at the same time.

 

Probably worth noting that i'm from Australia so things will be more expensive over here too 

OK, I was about to say $550 is a lot for a "budget" CPU/mobo until you said "Australia." Just to make sure, those are AUD and not USD (I'm assuming AUD)?

 

If you're just trying to go for a CPU/motherboard, I'd probably go for a 5700X and a B550M TUF. That would put you at around $480 and let you reuse your current RAM. If you need a cooler (if you don't have AMD mounting hardware), this should work and raise the price to about $520:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/cZHHJM

[Emerald108]

15 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

OK, I was about to say $550 is a lot for a "budget" CPU/mobo until you said "Australia." Just to make sure, those are AUD and not USD (I'm assuming AUD)?

 

If you're just trying to go for a CPU/motherboard, I'd probably go for a 5700X and a B550M TUF. That would put you at around $480 and let you reuse your current RAM. If you need a cooler (if you don't have AMD mounting hardware), this should work and raise the price to about $520:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/cZHHJM

Yeah it's all AUD, They seem pretty good for what i'm looking for, What do you mean by AMD mounting hardware?

 

Would this motherboard be good as well? https://www.centrecom.com.au/msi-b550-a-pro-am4-atx-motherboard?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhfipBhCqARIsAH9msblcWWHQKTQW-YWOoXifICLLflPW4AOCwhuuKeT4itVtamJQL18jkRwaAv3BEALw_wcB

 

Thanks

[leclod]

Your current system is not bad. You're sure the cpu and motherboard need to be changed ?

[Emerald108]

4 minutes ago, leclod said:

Your current system is not bad. You're sure the cpu and motherboard need to be changed ?

I mean considering that it's struggling to have consistent frames with only spotify and valorant open, i'd say so.

It's lasted me a while but probably does need an upgrade, i'm planning on keeping my GPU though

[leclod]

9 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

I mean considering that it's struggling to have consistent frames with only spotify and valorant open, i'd say so.

It's lasted me a while but probably does need an upgrade, i'm planning on keeping my GPU though

I mean, it could be something else. Like messy software.

Something a reinstall would fix.

For example your ssd must be old. And it is slow.

Maybe a new ssd and, or a windows reinstall would solve the problem.

I guess you could check your Valorant experience against other players.

Edited October 30, 2023 by leclod

[Emerald108]

4 minutes ago, leclod said:

I mean, it could be something else. Like messy software.

Something a reinstall would fix.

For example your ssd must be old.

Maybe a new ssd and, or a windows reinstall would solve the problem.

I guess you could check your Valorant experience against other players.

Yeah it could be that, I've gone to like two repair shops and they couldnt find anything wrong with it which is why i'm so lost lmao.

 

I've always thought that my SSD might be bad but since I don't really know much about this technical side of computers i'm not sure where to start 

 

I might try reinstall tonight and see how it goes, havent reset my pc in a while

[leclod]

11 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

Yeah it could be that, I've gone to like two repair shops and they couldnt find anything wrong with it which is why i'm so lost lmao.

 

I've always thought that my SSD might be bad but since I don't really know much about this technical side of computers i'm not sure where to start 

 

I might try reinstall tonight and see how it goes, havent reset my pc in a while

Sequential Read Performance Up to 270MB/s

Sequential Write Performance Up to 220MB/s

Today SSDs are Up to 15000MB/s (but 4000MB/s is fine)

And this is best case scenario which was 12 years ago. How's the drive's health ? check with crystaldiskinfo.

Change ssd before reinstalling and before changing cpu

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by leclod

[Emerald108]

51 minutes ago, leclod said:

Sequential Read Performance Up to 270MB/s

Sequential Write Performance Up to 220MB/s

Today SSDs are Up to 15000MB/s (but 4000MB/s is fine)

And this is best case scenario which was 12 years ago. How's the drive's health ? check with crystaldiskinfo.

Change ssd before reinstalling and before changing cpu

 

Is this good? Not gonna lie I have no idea what any of this means lol.

 

I'd change the SSD but I don't just have one laying around, i'll go buy one if it does seem to be the problem but yeah

[Knav]

18 minutes ago, Emerald108 said:

Is this good? Not gonna lie I have no idea what any of this means lol.

 

I'd change the SSD but I don't just have one laying around, i'll go buy one if it does seem to be the problem but yeah

A cheap 1tb gen 3 SSD would be good for your boot drive if you were looking for something around $50 aud

[leclod]

4 hours ago, Emerald108 said:

Is this good? Not gonna lie I have no idea what any of this means lol.

 

I'd change the SSD but I don't just have one laying around, i'll go buy one if it does seem to be the problem but yeah

83% isn't bad, but it isn't good.

I'd change the OS to another current drive first, before changing cpu.

You can keep the drive but use another for OS.

Go M.2 NVMe if you've got an M.2 slot which you probably do.

Be carefull if you do reinstall Windows on another drive, it might conflict with the current OS. I'd erase the current ssd and disconnect every storage except the one while installing windows.

Edited October 30, 2023 by leclod

[Emerald108]

33 minutes ago, leclod said:

83% isn't bad, but it isn't good.

I'd change the OS to another current drive first, before changing cpu.

You can keep the drive but use another for OS.

Go M.2 NVMe if you've got an M.2 slot which you probably do.

Be carefull if you reinstall Windows on another drive, it might conflict with the current OS. I'd erase the current ssd and disconnect every storage except the one while installing windows.

From what I can see on my motherboard's specification site, I can't find anything saying it has a M.2 slot unless it's been worded differently, so that may be out of the question most likely.

1 hour ago, Knav said:

A cheap 1tb gen 3 SSD would be good for your boot drive if you were looking for something around $50 aud

Yeah for sure, I'll probably get something cheap like that and see how it goes, that way I can actually see if it is my drives or not.

[Knav]

1 hour ago, Emerald108 said:

From what I can see on my motherboard's specification site, I can't find anything saying it has a M.2 slot unless it's been worded differently, so that may be out of the question most likely.

Yeah for sure, I'll probably get something cheap like that and see how it goes, that way I can actually see if it is my drives or not.

You should be able to get an m.2 pcie adapter card to add to your motherboard if possible 

[RONOTHAN##]

6 hours ago, Emerald108 said:

Yeah it's all AUD, They seem pretty good for what i'm looking for, What do you mean by AMD mounting hardware?

 

Would this motherboard be good as well? https://www.centrecom.com.au/msi-b550-a-pro-am4-atx-motherboard?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhfipBhCqARIsAH9msblcWWHQKTQW-YWOoXifICLLflPW4AOCwhuuKeT4itVtamJQL18jkRwaAv3BEALw_wcB

 

Thanks

Yeah, that board is fine. As for AMD mounting hardware, AMD has different cooler mounting holes than Intel does so the cooler you have likely won't work unless you have the appropriate AMD gear. 

[Emerald108]

33 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, that board is fine. As for AMD mounting hardware, AMD has different cooler mounting holes than Intel does so the cooler you have likely won't work unless you have the appropriate AMD gear. 

Ah alright, Where would you suggest I buy this kind of thing?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, Emerald108 said:

Ah alright, Where would you suggest I buy this kind of thing?

It depends on what cooler you currently have. Some cooler makers will send it to you if you email them, others sell kits on Amazon, others it's basically impossible to get and you might as well just get a whole new cooler. 

[Emerald108]

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It depends on what cooler you currently have. Some cooler makers will send it to you if you email them, others sell kits on Amazon, others it's basically impossible to get and you might as well just get a whole new cooler. 

From what I can see, looking at that pc part picker site, the fan you listed comes with this kind of mount, this should be suitable yeah?

 

If that's right, i'm probably just gonna go with what you listed on there since it's pretty cheap considering everything lol

 

This is the final build i'm gonna buy with what you showed, I changed the CPU from what was originally listed to something with 8 cores since i'd rather be safe in the long term that should be alright yeah?

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/emerald114/saved/4P86Bm

 

Appreciate the help

[RONOTHAN##]

1 hour ago, Emerald108 said:

From what I can see, looking at that pc part picker site, the fan you listed comes with this kind of mount, this should be suitable yeah?

Yeah, that's correct. I was referring to if you were to reuse the cooler in your system, not buy a new one. 

 

1 hour ago, Emerald108 said:

This is the final build i'm gonna buy with what you showed, I changed the CPU from what was originally listed to something with 8 cores since i'd rather be safe in the long term that should be alright yeah?

The 5700X that I originally listed has 8 cores and is a bit faster than the 5700G actually. Also you don't need thermal paste, the cooler will come with some. 

[Emerald108]

10 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, that's correct. I was referring to if you were to reuse the cooler in your system, not buy a new one. 

 

The 5700X that I originally listed has 8 cores and is a bit faster than the 5700G actually. Also you don't need thermal paste, the cooler will come with some. 

Ah I see, well looks like i'll buy those and see how it goes.

 

Really appreciate the help