Switching from Intel to AMD to Make Use of Black Friday Deals

sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 12:31

I am looking at using black friday deals to switch my out dated intel PC to AMD. I am wanting to utilise parts I have already to save money. Overall, I have a budget of $1000.

I know that I will need to replace the motherboard, CPU and GPU. Are there any other parts that may need to be replaced?
My current motherboard is an ASUStek z87m-PLUS. My CPU is an intel i7-4770 and my GPU is a Nvidia 970.

Is the switch to AMD as simple as swapping these three items out? What should I be looking for to fit into the $1000 budget? I have heard that I will need to replace my RAM going from Intel to AMD, is this correct?

Computing AMD Computer Component CPU Intel

Comments

  • skid on 21/11/2020 - 12:52
    +5

    Yes, you will need to replace the RAM, but not because of the switch to AMD. Your current RAM is DDR3, but todays CPUs require DDR4.

    You don't have to switch your GPU if you don't want to.

    Current motherboards have a fewer number of SATA ports so if you more than 4 internal drives, you might need to forego some.

    What is your PSU rated for (in watts)?

    • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:03

      I have a EVGA supernova 750 80 gold plus. I think this means 750 watts? Ok, it is good to know that I will require new RAM.

  • p1 ama on 21/11/2020 - 13:18
    +2

    What's your main use case? If you're mostly gaming, upgrading the old 970 will do much more than upgrading your CPU and platform.

    • ItsMeAgro on 21/11/2020 - 15:48

      This. Your CPU is still fairly fast (and has 4 cores / 8 threads)

      CPU performance advances slowly these days, the latest gaming CPUs are only about 20% to 40% faster than your i7-4770, not say twice as fast or 4 times as fast, which is what you want if you're going to bother upgrading.

      But the latest GPUs are twice as fast, e.g.: the RTX 3070 will give you around twice as many FPS in games as your GTX 970.

      • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:04

        Thanks for this information. I had some water damage to the PC a year ago and whilst it works fine now, I am not sure how long that will last, So i thought if i replaced most of the things to avoid any issues I may as well switch to AMD as I heard they are giving better bang for your buck.

      • This Guy on 21/11/2020 - 17:33

        5600X is around 30% to 70% faster for productivity.

        It also gives OP the chance to install NVMe storage if that ends up becoming a thing required by PC games.

        If OP is purely gaming, a GPU upgrade is the way to go. It just depends on OP's use case.

      • MontyMacaw on 22/11/2020 - 08:36

        CPU performance just took a quantum leap with Apple's M1 chip.

        • ItsMeAgro on 23/11/2020 - 13:34
          +1

          Not quite.

          The excitement is about the M1 having similar performance to AMD and Intel CPUs.

          That's very impressive (especially given the power draw) and could mean Apple will widen their lead in future.

          But so far it's not a significant jump in performance, let alone a "quantum leap".

          Don't forget it will still be a lot more expensive than it's competition too.

      • Ultimate Gattai on 22/11/2020 - 11:28

        I wouldn't say CPUs advance slowly, AMD is making alot of leaps over the past few years, I'd recommend a GPU upgrade as well, then look at the CPU (pretty sure you'll struggle at 1080p with a new GPU), especially if he's playing at 1080p, CPU bottlenecks are worse at lower resolutions (we do have online calculators for this, even if they're not 100% accurate).Depending on stock levels, it might be hard to get a new GPU this year though (if you see one of the new GPUs and you want it, jump on it before the scalpers do).

    • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:01

      Yea I mainly use it for gaming. I wasn't sure if the modern GPUs would work on my CPU as I thought my CPU would be irrelevant for these days.I mostly play world of warcraft but I enjoy dabbling in some FPS like Battlefield/COD. I would like to play on ultra settings without huge frame rate drops.

      • p1 ama on 21/11/2020 - 18:59
        -1

        I would like to play on ultra settings without huge frame rate drops.

        What resolution are you targeting? No way you can get Ultra on everything with a $1000 budget, you'd have to be looking at twice that. You might be able to hit Ultra on everything with a 3070.

        For a $1000 budget, you'd probably be looking at targeting 1440p medium on AAA games.

        • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 19:06

          I'm not sure if world of war craft is considered triple A but I am aiming for high FPS on high settings.

          • Ultimate Gattai on 22/11/2020 - 11:30

            @sosuto: Word of War Craft is pretty minimal spec-wise (alot of MMO are designed to play on potatos), 1080p should be easy to drive, if you want to play at 1440p or 4k, you'll need a much stronger card.

  • Ryanek on 21/11/2020 - 13:20

    What is your power supply?

    • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 16:59

      I have a EVGA supernova 750 80 gold plus. Reckon this will be enough for a modern PC?

  • predominance on 21/11/2020 - 13:32
    +2

    I'd highly recommend using pcpartpicker.com for your new build. It will check system compatability for you and filter compatible parts, as well as compare pricing between multiple retailers in AUD currency.

  • pharkurnell on 21/11/2020 - 13:38

    have you looked at some of the pre-built offerings recently? Might end up better value.

    • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:05

      Yea I was looking at this deal https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/582696

      However I thought if I would just replace certain bits then I could save some money and use that money elsewhere (more games).

      • pharkurnell on 21/11/2020 - 17:09

        if your budget is 1000.. that is 1000 and will be better than a partial upgrade and a bit more future proof.

        • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:15

          True, as a lay person I saw the bronze PSU and thought that might be suboptimal when I have a gold. I realise that my old gold would probably be worse than a modern bronze; and I looked at the reviews of the ryzen 5 3500x and they weren't very promising.

          • Ironic fear on 22/11/2020 - 11:01

            @sosuto: Nah PSU is the longest lasting part, gold rated beats bronze :)

      • Ultimate Gattai on 22/11/2020 - 11:44

        Did you look at PCCG's upgrade kits/bundles?

        https://www.pccasegear.com/search?query=bundle&hierarchicalM…

  • AustriaBargain on 21/11/2020 - 14:05

    Maybe use your whole old computer as a media server and torrent box.

  • uelmo on 21/11/2020 - 14:54
    +2

    https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/nMLNz7

    You have a good enough GPU for most gaming needs unless you plan to play above 1080p. I would also make sure PSU you have is good and if you buy a new one, make sure you buy a PSU that can handle whatever graphic in the future you plan to buy. But rest you should be able to reuse.

    • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:07

      I have a EVGA supernova 750 80 gold plus, so I think this means 750 watts. So do certain GPUs have a wattage requirement? I never knew. Thank you for that tip and I will make sure to have a look before buying anything.

      • pharkurnell on 21/11/2020 - 17:09
        +1

        overall the complete machine will have power requirements inc just the GPU - depending on which certain hardware you are running.

        • sosuto on 21/11/2020 - 17:12

          Very true, might have to include a better PSU in that case.

          • Ultimate Gattai on 22/11/2020 - 11:32
            +1

            @sosuto: Probably not, 750 watts is pretty beefy, even if PSUs do lose performance over the years, I'd look at GPUs first and then determine if you really need a new PSU (I'm guessing you probably won't), there are even online PSU calculators for this kind of thing if you want to make sure you can supply enough power to your PC parts.

  • scrimshaw on 21/11/2020 - 18:44

    If you are going to upgrade, I would upgrade everything in one go. Upgrading your CPU means your old GTX 970 GPU is going to be the bottleneck

    Upgrading your GPU means your CPU will be the bottleneck (though only in some circumstances).

    that said a mid-range GPU upgrade in the price range of $600 — likely something like a RTX 3060 if it exists something in January next year— will be a massive improvement over the old 900-series GPU

  • ShannonN on 21/11/2020 - 20:14

    <aybe just buy a pre built amd for around the 1 k heep the ontel its still good for a lot of stuff, I restored a burnt out intel system (cpu) burned out due to overclock, it was a 15 4570 still runs well and used as a scanning printing wp system

  • Boomstick on 22/11/2020 - 10:01
    +2

    Looking at your PSU, it’s a good unit. Don’t. Red to change it.

    Keep your current storage solution and upgrade to a B550, find a used 20 series video card on eBay or something like a 2070super. Can get a 2060s for about 500 new or $350-400 used and this motherboard and ram will do you for a long time with CL16, support for 5000 series cpus and the 3300x has been proven to be able to keep up with up to a 2070 super.

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

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