Upgrade path ideas

[Dethanu]

Budget (including currency): 250-300 Euro

Country: Romania

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly World of Warcraft, World of Tanks and Eve Online.

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): 

So far I have a MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 With a little Intel i3-12100F with a Corsair 32GB kit DDR4. Dunno if it's worth to invest in that platform. Was thinking to get a used B550M board and stick a ryzen 5 5600 and call a day. Oh I forgot to mention that my GPU is a Sapphire Rx 6650  XT. What path should I take or if it's work into the Intel platform

[podkall]

Well, one thing you could consider is that 12100F is on average slower than 5600, because it has 4 cores instead of 6, meaning the 12100F has less threads to work with, and brings less headroom for background tasks,

 

ultimately though neither are terrible choices at least for WoT and similarly demanding games, 4 cores is baseline,

 

with 32GB it's hard to tell whether you'll actually need 32GB, since these older games have lot of headroom with just 16GB unless you know there's something that requires more RAM that you haven't mentioned,

 

both platforms are decent investment, AMD is little bit easier, because all you need is a decent B550 board and your scope reaches up to 5700x3D in terms of upgradeability if the board lasts (considering it's used),

 

Intel too, but with Intel you're looking at specific motherboards with strong VRMs if you want to upgrade just CPU in the future,

 

10 hours ago, Dethanu said:

MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4

is actually a quite strong board VRM wise, has plenty of power phases and VRM heatsinks so it might support something like i7 or perhaps even i9,

 

of course each has it's own strengths and weaknesses,

 

the AMD path you proposed brings you more performance right now that can last you a while,

 

the Intel path is also decent as it allows upgrades but starts off bit weaker with a 12100(f) instead of 12400(f) because 12400(f) is more similar to 5600, in performance and core count,

 

which path has better high-end options also depends, the AMD has the 5700x3D path focused on gaming, but of course you can game on Intel too, the upgrade CPU options on Intel are strong in multi-core and productivity,

 

if you're not sure which you need you can make the choice simpler, if you don't need many cores you could go for AMD for that bigger initial jump, because as nice it is to have many cores down the line when you upgrade, cores aren't everything, and aren't always required,

 

so unless you'd see yourself requiring many cores in the future AMD seems like a solid path, at least for me personally it would be.

[podkall]

Of course last thing, a peace of mind and safety is a role too, if you're saying that the Intel system wouldn't be from used parts, then you've got that new part and warranty as a +1, if you don't feel like trusting in used parts.

[_hitman_]

Go AMD path, just make sure that RAM is tested with your new board. Check board manufacturer site.

[Dethanu]

5 hours ago, podkall said:

Of course last thing, a peace of mind and safety is a role too, if you're saying that the Intel system wouldn't be from used parts, then you've got that new part and warranty as a +1, if you don't feel like trusting in used parts.

Well the motherboard and the cpu were purchased brand new so there alright for a while now but honestly I'm in a little fear to go to 14th Gen i7's since there have massive issues specially the K series skus

[podkall]

18 minutes ago, Dethanu said:

Well the motherboard and the cpu were purchased brand new so there alright for a while now but honestly I'm in a little fear to go to 14th Gen i7's since there have massive issues specially the K series skus

well you could always upgrade to 12th gen new/used that didn't have these problems

 

or you could go AMD, CPUs can last up to ~10 years so getting them used is only a partial risk based on it's condition from the seller

[Dethanu]

2 hours ago, podkall said:

well you could always upgrade to 12th gen new/used that didn't have these problems

 

or you could go AMD, CPUs can last up to ~10 years so getting them used is only a partial risk based on it's condition from the seller

What would be some good B550M motherboards with good VRM?

[podkall]

50 minutes ago, Dethanu said:

What would be some good B550M motherboards with good VRM?

Almost any B550 motherboard is good, what are some of the few cheapest you can find?

 

For example Gigabyte B550M K - this MB has no (or almost no) VRM heatsinks, just pretty well built VRM power design, and can easily run 5700x3D without any problems.