Give advice on PC upgrades to your friend.
Give advice on PC upgrades to your friend.
Hello, my friend recently purchased a prebuilt PC from our local store two years ago. It comes with an i5 9400f with a stock cooler, a H310 motherboard, two 8GB 2400MHz RAM sticks, a GTX 1660 6GB, a CoolerMaster MWE 500W V2 cooler, and a RGB case compatible only with MicroATX motherboards. He mentioned he wanted higher FPS in MOBA games such as LoL, Dota 2, and fast-paced shooters like CSGO or Valorant, along with an overall faster CPU. I advised him to upgrade his CPU/motherboard and RAM.
His budget is approximately $684 (around 75000 dinars), but since we live in Serbia, parts tend to cost more than in the US. I suggested he consider this configuration: a Ryzen 5 5700X, 26.7k dinars; MSI PRO B650M-A WIFI, 24.5k dinars; two 16GB Patriot Viper Venom 5600MHz RAM sticks, 14k dinars; an Arctic Freezer i35 ARGB, 4.3k dinars. What are your thoughts?
I believe there’s no need to upgrade the GPU just yet, as the only GPU-heavy games he plays on PC are Ark Survival Evolved, occasionally Resident Evil, and Forza Horizon 4—all of which the GTX 1660 can run at 1080p. The LGA 1151 socket is outdated; even with a better motherboard, it would be unstable. So I thought about switching to a brand new platform. It would make a huge difference in performance.
The 5700X offers 8 cores, 16 threads, and a 4.6GHz boost clock, with overclocking capability—ideal for gaming for years to come. My main reason for choosing AMD is its ease of upgrading. If he finds the 5700X insufficient, he can easily upgrade to a Ryzen 9 7900X3D later.
I think the motherboard is a solid choice—it’s MicroATX with four DIMM slots and good VRM cooling compared to other MicroATX boards. It also includes WiFi 6, which he’ll appreciate. I believe it will handle the 5700X smoothly.
The RAM brand might be unfamiliar to people from our region, but it’s a reputable one. Will the 5600MHz fit him well? Or should we go up to 6000MHz? Can we buy a 5600MHz stick and overclock it to 6000MHz?
I think the Arctic Freezer i35 ARGB will suffice for him.
There are some RGB cases designed only for MicroATX motherboards.
What model did you choose?
The case you have might be due to an incorrect motherboard or processor because of socket mismatch. To use the B650 chipset, consider a Ryzen 5 7600x. For the Ryzen 7 5700x, a B550 chipset board is necessary.
A few aspects of your friend’s current setup are hindering compatibility. I recommend upgrading the GPU in addition to the motherboard, CPU, and RAM.
I completely mixed things up, I wanted to mention Ryzen 5 7600X instead of 5600X... My mistake.
Either way, the R5 7600X is 32k din, still within our budget, so we’re probably going with that.
We don’t know the exact case model because the whole PC was bought prebuilt without a case name, so we can’t identify it. What we do now is check that the case has a closed front panel, three fans at the front that don’t really work since airflow is blocked, an exhaust fan in the back that makes loud noises and is hard to hear through Discord calls, and two unused 120mm fan slots on top. His next upgrade will likely be a new case plus fans, focusing on upgrading the GPU or PSU last, as he doesn’t play many GPU-heavy games.
AM5 seems like a solid option.
or for now, opt for a 12600 and later upgrade to a 14700. it's a good deal either way. I don't think the 14700 will become outdated in at least five years. The benefits of having strong 2-way competition are clear. You can reuse the RAM, which is a plus. It gives you money to spend on peripherals upgrades if he's interested, and it's quite valuable. Having a good set of keyboard, mouse, chair, and mousepad is essential for a great experience XD
We already bought the above mentioned combo with a 7600X, just waiting for things to arrive xD.
He already has good peripherals, so no worries about that