Motherboard bundles or simply a new desktop pc?

anotherquestion

Hi folks,

I have a 2010 pc from PC specialist has given me good service, an Asus M4A785TD V EVO motherboard, AMD 945 phenom CPU, 12 GB RAM has had a number of upgrades, A Samsung EVO 2TB SSD less than an couple of years old, A Corsair PSU probably 10-12 years old, still going good, and a few Internal Sata drives as well which gives me plenty of disk space which I like. An Nvidia 710 GPU

The case is a Coolmaster silio 500 which has the sound proofing foam in it.

The PC is Triple boot, with Windows 10 on 2 partitions and Windows 11 (on unsupported hardware on another) which can't be upgraded to the latest version of 11 because of CPU limitations.

I have had a few problems these last few weeks, which at the moment I seem to have sorted out but would like to start researching a new motherboard +CPU (+16GB Ram which I do need)

I know you can get a new pc for around £500 or so but I am also considering the Option of getting a Motherboard bundle with 16GB RAM as well

Though I am not a total novice as regards doing little upgrades myself, I would probably get the local PC shop to do this for me, probably hoping they can do the labour part for £100-150 at most.

The PC came initially with Windows 7 but I did get a Microsoft promotion with Windows 8 for £14.99 many years ago, and on checking that is still showing retail tied to my Microsoft account, so it seems a change of hardware from what I have been advised by AI should work on an upgrade to Windows 11 pro.

Another consideration is I need a fairly silent system, not a heavy gamer but do try a bit of video editing which even with my current PC I am able to do

Any advice gratefully appreciated as to the Pro's and con's of my Options.

Many Thanks.

Neil_Jones

Memory prices have shot up through the roof recently and no sign this will change any time soon:
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/ram-and-storage-is-ridiculously-expensive-right-now-because-of-drumroll-ai-of-course-and-theres-little-reason-to-think-prices-will-drop-any-time-soon/

If you can find DDR5 for less than triple digits you're doing well, there are some DDR4 single stick 16Gb modules I've seen on Amazon for what is a relatively decent prize, considering I paid £62 for one back in November and that particular one has now doubled in price, near enough.

You can keep the SSD and potentially the power supply, though if you do replace the graphics card they may be more power hungry so your hand may be forced.

Exodi

Personally, due to the ongoing RAM (and now SSD) crisis, I'd quickly do a scan of all the marketplaces to see if there's any pre-built offerings that have not priced in the market increases… it may be too late, I don't know.

The problem is, 16GB of DDR5 RAM could well set you back ~£200 on it's own (unless you intend to purchase older DDR4, but that's gone up also). Then the price of the mobo and labour of £100-£150 you mentioned. That's not even considering that the CPU is 17 years old, the PSU is 10-12 years old, the GPU is about 10 years old, etc so you should probably anticipate needing to replace them in the not too distant future.

I think given the pricing issues at the moment, buying the components individually and building your own PC (or upgrading) is in a bit of an awkward place at the moment. Many people on the PC building forums I frequent have put their projects on hold. I upgraded my setup around Christmas time (embarrassed to say, my components were 'only' 6 years old at the time - insane that are double/triple that!).

anotherquestion

I know you can get a new pc for around £500

I don't know what your spec requirements are, but if you can meet them for around £500 then this feels like a no brainer given what you've said (though you may have to cannibalise the RAM from your existing setup, I expect you'll struggle to get a PC with 32GB for £500). By technology standards, your setup is ancient (except the SSD!).

vacheron

My main PC used to be a 2015 Intel 6700K processor with 32gb of DDR4 memory which was still serving me perfectly for demanding CAD apps and the games I play until the motherboard failed last summer.

I replaced the CPU and motherboard with an MSI MPG B550 and AMD Ryzen 5700X, which were not only significantly faster, but also drew considerably less power (so no need to change the PSU), plus less power = less heat, so my fans run slower / quieter, and I save electricity.

As this processor is also compatible with DDR4 memory I was able to keep my 32GB of RAM too, and the purchase of an adapter for my Noctua CPU cooler meant I could keep this also, so the whole upgrade was less than £200.

The new processor is also Windows 11 compliant (not that I have any intention of moving from Windows 10).

In your case, as mentioned above, getting RAM will be the killer as prices have gone through the roof and no modern platforms are compatible with the DDR3 ram you currently own.

There is no need to get DDR5, as the improvements are marginal, but even DDR4 is expensive at present.

If you can somehow source some cheap memory first, or as part of a pre-built, there are myriad options from there!

anotherquestion

Thanks for all replies, well I see this offer, what do you think, and if I bought it, rather than fiddle around installing it myself, no doubt with a good few headhaces, how much would you expect a local PC show to charge.

Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9Ghz (Turbo 4.4Ghz) Six Core CPU, Prime A520M-K Motherboard & 16GB 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM Pre-Built Bundle : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

vacheron

Looks like a decent deal. The CPU fan will be fairly basic though so may be worth getting a better more quiet one if silence is one of your high priorities… but that said, compared to 15 year old cooling, even a "loud" fan now will almost be silent most of the time, so probably worth trying it first and see what you think.

One other question given the age of your PC. are all your drives SATA, as this board won't have any IDE ports. Also, does your current PSU have the 8 pin CPU power connector for the motherboard?

Regarding having it built, do you not know someone who can give you a hand for a beer and / or a takeaway? A lot of people usually know someone who can do a fairly simple motherboard swap. Especially if you are planning to install a new operating system from scratch.

EDIT: Also, if you are planning to get a PC shop to do the work, why not pop in to a local shop before you buy and see what they can do you similar spec components for? This would make it easier in the event of a fault in the future (as their first approach would probably be to blame the components which they didn't supply, and they would make some profit off the components, so may be able to do you a better deal when supply and installation are done together?

anotherquestion

Thanks for reply, yes the two drives are sata, not sure about the PSU 8 pin, will have a look, I was hoping that somehow the current windows 10 would boot ok without doing a re-install (a tonne of software on there that I don't really fancy having to load again) probably if I had to it would be straight to Windows 11.

According to AI I can notify a change of hardware and use the Windows 8 retail key tied to my account.

I think that motherboard is not really a branded one, don't know if that matters.

I will have a word with the local repair shop as well to see what they can do ..

vacheron

Having been installing windows on PC's since Windows version 3.0, and DOS since version 4.0, so when I swapped my motherboard and CPU I expected to be hit with a complete failure to boot, along with a few BSOD's thrown in for good measure.

I was therefore prepared for a total re-install (something I hadn't needed to do for over 10 years as new windows is so much more reliable than older windows versions in this regard), so I had a LOT of programs that I would have had to re-install, but thought I'd try it anyway.

To my complete amazement, it just rebooted first time, installed all the new hardware, restarted itself, and worked perfectly! 🤯

The only thing to look out for though is that modern motherboards are factory set to boot your operating system in UEFI mode. So your boot drive will need this to be changed to legacy mode in the BIOS before it will boot. You can then run a few windows commands to permit UEFI booting in future if desired.

The motherboard is just listed as "Prime", but this is an ASUS model range, so a well regarded manufacturer. 👍️

forgotmyname

Current prices have gone a bit mad, I have a 480GB drive that I paid £32 in 2022 which now costs £97.

Looking at some other costs I paid £249 for 64GB RAM which would now cost £800+

Shop around you may get a system where the parts are worth more than tha asking price.

Cisco001

Don't bother spending £100 on local PC shop, not worth it in my option

You either upgrade the PC yourself, or possibly buy a secondhand machine.

Secondhand DDR4 2 x 8GB Say £60

AMD 5600GT £117 + MSI B550-A Pro £95

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81928397#Comment_81928397

That's a good idea but the OP would have to reuse their case or buy another one and also a PSU, cooler and all the cables as the current pc is 15 years old.

Where would you suggest buying these 2nd hand parts from, Cex or eBay?

I agree the computer components have gone through the roof and I can't see them returning any where near to what they were for at least a year.