# I want to upgrade my CPU from a FX 8350 to an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X but I don't know what other things I'll need to upgrade once done.



## Balloon_Fish (Jan 16, 2021)

As stated in the title I'm looking to upgrade my pc. My current specs are:

CPU: AMD FX 8350 Eight-Core
Ram: DDR3 24 GB
SSD: MKNSSDSR500GB
HDD: ST1000DM010-2EP102
GPU: Radeon RX 570
Baseboard: 970a-ds3p

What do I need to do in order to improve my computer? My CPU seems to max out a lot when playing games. It is fan cooled. Not a specific budget here but I am not educated in hardware so I would like to know the direction I should turn in.


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## xu^ (Jan 16, 2021)

You will need to replace at minimum

Motherboard
Ram DDR4
CPU

The rest you can carry into the new system and swap out when you can at a later date


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## Mussels (Jan 16, 2021)

Motherboard
CPU
DDR4 RAM

probably need todo a clean install of windows, and i highly recommend an SSD - it will make a very large difference in day to day use.


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## xu^ (Jan 16, 2021)

1st thing to upgrade after that would be the gfx card as its not that strong anymore, it would no doubt struggle in most newer games in 1080p in high.


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## biffzinker (Jan 16, 2021)

Mussels said:


> Motherboard
> CPU
> DDR4 RAM
> 
> probably need todo a clean install of windows, and i highly recommend an SSD - it will make a very large difference in day to day use.


He lists a 500GB SSD as part of the old build.


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## Toothless (Jan 16, 2021)

xubidoo said:


> 1st thing to upgrade after that would be the gfx card as its not that strong anymore, it would no doubt struggle in most newer games in 1080p in high.


A 570 is plenty fine at 1080p. If OP wants a better processor then we'll be helping them with that first.


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## xu^ (Jan 17, 2021)

Toothless said:


> A 570 is plenty fine at 1080p. If OP wants a better processor then we'll be helping them with that first.


Yes it will run games, but wont be great, its quite a bit slower than mine which isnt exactly state of the art, it was just a suggestion after he has upgraded the basics, which i already replied to.


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## biffzinker (Jan 17, 2021)

For an Intel build the i5-10400/F with a Z490 board would be a bang for buck way to go. For another AMD build the 3600/XT was the sweet spot but with the price increases on hardware your better off looking for the 5600X with a B550 board. If you can find a 3600 at a low price it would be a nice processor to start with.


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## ColinB123 (Jan 17, 2021)

Get a motherboard that has at least 1 m.2 slot (better: 2). An mvne drive is significantly faster than a regular SSD. 
A good B450 board has excellent price/performance for your 3600x


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## Mussels (Jan 17, 2021)

biffzinker said:


> He lists a 500GB SSD as part of the old build.


Yes, but i was thinking of (and forgot to actually type) that he wouldnt lose any data, and could treat them as seperate systems at first.

Not everyone cares about that, aaaaaand i forgot to explain what i meant.


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## JustAnEngineer (Jan 17, 2021)

Copying drives is easier than you might think.  I used Macrium Reflect to clone the 500 GB SSD from an old PC onto an old 640 GB hard-drive (and even stretched the partition in Windows disk management to use all of the capacity).  Thus, the old PC is still usable (though even slower than before), and I've got the SSD to re-use in a newer system.

Back to the OP's question:
See if your budget will reach to a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, a B550 motherboard and 2x8 GiB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory.  If the budget is really tight, Ryzen 5 3600 and a B450 motherboard still provide quite a bit of computing grunt for a small cost.


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## Mussels (Jan 17, 2021)

Cloning is easy, but its also a good way to slow down and bloat your new system with things you no longer need... and it *can* lead to driver issues


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## biffzinker (Jan 17, 2021)

JustAnEngineer said:


> See if your budget will reach to a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU


Amazon has the 5600X advertised at $403.98 vs 199.99 for the 3600. I think the 3600 is the winner for performance/price.


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## TumbleGeorge (Jan 17, 2021)

JustAnEngineer said:


> 2x8 GiB of DDR4-3200


From his 24GB to 16GB downgrade, why? Today 2X16GB has good prices for normal models (non B-die).


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## Bones (Jan 17, 2021)

Balloon_Fish said:


> As stated in the title I'm looking to upgrade my pc. My current specs are:
> 
> CPU: AMD FX 8350 Eight-Core
> Ram: DDR3 24 GB
> ...


As others here have said, CPU, board and RAM since an FX-8350 is an AM3+ socket and uses DDR3 RAM, Ryzen is AM4 and it's DDR4 based meaning a basic rebuild of the system.
You cannot use DDR3 in a DDR4 based system and vice-versa, you cannot interchange sticks between the two.

The suggestions about replacing the CPU, board and RAM are required in this case, nothing based on those three things will swap over to the new build but all else can be as another has said.

However as it's also been mentioned cloning the drive could be done but the best way is a new/fresh OS install to avoid any driver issues from the old OS copy.
If you decide to upgrade the GPU you'd need to figure out what GPU you'll be getting and another thing is the PSU.

How old is it and of what wattage is it rated for?

If you're going to do a build, getting a newer PSU isn't a bad idea and, based on the exact GPU you plan on getting that will change things concerning power needed for it all to run.

In truth I'd have to say:
CPU
board
RAM
And _possibly_ the PSU too.

Tell us what you currently have and we'll let you know if it's useable or that you may want to consider a new unit.


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## JustAnEngineer (Jan 17, 2021)

biffzinker said:


> Amazon has the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X advertised at $403.98 vs 199.99 for the 3600. I think the 3600 is the winner for performance/price.


There are other scalpers selling that $300 CPU for $500+, too.  I wish bad things on them.  
There's no doubt that the 3600 is still the best value, but the performance benefits of Zen3 over Zen2 are real, if they fall within the budget.



TumbleGeorge said:


> From his 24GB to 16GB downgrade, why? Today 2X16GB has good prices for normal models (non B-die).


I've been putting 2x16 GiB in my PCs for a while, but only a few games take advantage of more than 16 GiB.  If the budget is tight now, that $70 savings could allow a better CPU and motherboard.  It would be extremely easy to add more memory later when more funds are available.



Mussels said:


> Cloning is easy, but its also a good way to slow down and bloat your new system with things you no longer need... and it *can* lead to driver issues


I wasn't advocating that the OP should transfer the Windows install from the old system to the new one (although that surprisingly works much of the time with Windows 10).  I was just addressing your suggestion of wanting to assemble and debug a new PC before completely dismantling the old one.


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## TumbleGeorge (Jan 17, 2021)

JustAnEngineer said:


> If the budget is tight now,


Then after upgrade will sale older CPU; RAM and MB and will return to his wallet money for one of new parts.


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## Kissamies (Jan 17, 2021)

ColinB123 said:


> Get a motherboard that has at least 1 m.2 slot (better: 2). An mvne drive is significantly faster than a regular SSD.
> A good B450 board has excellent price/performance for your 3600x


For basic usage, a SATA SSD is more than enough. I had a NVMe drive and I saw the difference only in Crystaldiskmark.



TumbleGeorge said:


> From his 24GB to 16GB downgrade, why? Today 2X16GB has good prices for normal models (non B-die).


16GB is more than enough for gaming. When I had 32GB on my X99 build, I saw memory usage going over 16GB only twice while gaming and that was in FF XV which is pretty demanding.


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## HD64G (Jan 17, 2021)

B450 motherboard and a 3600 is the best for budget gamers. Will be able to upgrade to any better and used AM4 CPU later without any problem.


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## xu^ (Jan 17, 2021)

HD64G said:


> B450 motherboard and a 3600 is the best for budget gamers. Will be able to upgrade to any better and used AM4 CPU later without any problem.


Exactly what i went for to keep the price down, i can upgrade cpu at a later date, but for now its an excellent performer.


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## Splinterdog (Jan 17, 2021)

I was faced with a similar situation a couple of years ago and it's a major upgrade - memory, CPU and motherboard.
I eventually added an M.2 SATA when funds permitted and later on an NVMe. Much depends on the budget, but i would definitely spend the extra for NVMe support.


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## PooPipeBoy (Jan 17, 2021)

Even though you might not strictly need it when upgrading the CPU and mobo, I try to upgrade the SSD at the same time. Because boot drives are a pain in the ass to work with. The motherboard serial number is tied to your Microsoft keys and so you'll need to do a Windows reinstall during the upgrade, but also again a few months later when you inevitably change your mind and want a better SSD. These days you can get a 500GB M.2 NVMe drive for like $75? Long term it would probably make more sense to opt for a 1TB capacity for $150. Huge upgrade in speed and capacity.

Swapping out the SSD for a new one also means you can keep the old Mushkin drive with your FX8350 and continue using it as a secondary backup system. Bonus.


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## Durvelle27 (Jan 18, 2021)

This is what I recommend as a great upgrade, Yes Zen 3 is a decent performance boost over Zen 2 but Zen 3 is currently harder to source. Not to mention Zen 2 is still a very large upgrade over Piledriver which barely matched Ivy Bridge

OP can always get a Zen 3 CPU later down the line if he truly wanted to once stocks are more readily available 




			https://pcpartpicker.com/list/L4GKwh


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## Sunny and 75 (Jan 19, 2021)

JustAnEngineer said:


> See if your budget will reach to a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, a B550 motherboard and 2x8 GiB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory. If the budget is really tight, Ryzen 5 3600 and a B450 motherboard still provide quite a bit of computing grunt for a small cost.


^^^THIS^^^

And make sure that ram is certified as CL14 which RYZEN chips benefits most from. If you couldn't get that then 3200 CL16 is also fine so no worries.


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## Mussels (Jan 19, 2021)

Adc7dTPU said:


> ^^^THIS^^^
> 
> And make sure that ram is certified as CL14 which RYZEN chips benefits most from. If you couldn't get that then 3200 CL16 is also fine so no worries.


CL14 ups the cost for almost no gain, except in benchmarks.

Shit, here in Au CL14 ram doesnt even really exist on the market - CL16 costs extra as it is


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## Sunny and 75 (Jan 19, 2021)

Mussels said:


> Shit, here in Au CL14 ram doesnt even really exist on the market - CL16 costs extra as it is


Like I said CL16 is also fine so no worries. There is performance uplift at 1080p gaming when using CL14 but it matters less if OP uses 1440p as bottleneck shifts towards GPU and there are literally no gains at 4K.


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## Durvelle27 (Jan 19, 2021)

Adc7dTPU said:


> Like I said CL16 is also fine so no worries. There is performance uplift at 1080p gaming when using CL14 but it matters less if OP uses 1440p as bottleneck shifts towards GPU and there are literally no gains at 4K.


Even at 1080p CL14 don’t hold much gains vs faster speeds


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## Sunny and 75 (Jan 19, 2021)

Durvelle27 said:


> Even at 1080p CL14 don’t hold much gains vs faster speeds


I literally said "CL16 is also fine" three times now. It is clear as the sun that GPU is the real deal when it comes to gaming, it was and is still and going to be so for all times. But if he/she can afford CL14 so why not, wouldn't hurt to do so and CL14 b-die has better overclocking potential. And we don't even know what his/her budget is like.



JustAnEngineer said:


> See if your budget will reach to a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, a B550 motherboard and 2x8 GiB of DDR4-3200 or faster memory. If the budget is really tight, Ryzen 5 3600 and a B450 motherboard still provide quite a bit of computing grunt for a small cost.


Maybe he/she can afford that 5600X, if not then there is the 3600/B450 option. That's the beauty of PC, you can choose from a vast majority of components and have a good overall experience.


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