Upgrade family PC?

[GunRunner]

I am looking to update my current family PC to future proof it for quite a few years and also the family wants to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11 in the not-too-distant future. I have tried the usual registry work around hacks found on You Tube to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11, but after two attempts it restored itself back to Windows 10 because the hacks did not work.

Current PC specification
Early this year, a new Monitor 32” iiyama G-Master GB3271QSU (1440P) was purchased.

All other parts purchased from Overclockers in 2017 consisting of:
Antec Nine Hundred Tower case (rebuilt many times now without old Hard Drives see note1).
Corsair HX 620W Modular Power Supply.
LG DVD writer
Gigabyte GA – AB350 -Gaming 3 Rev.1 (Socket AM4) Motherboard (not Windows 11 compatible)
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor (not windows 11 compatible- not on Microsoft windows 11 cpu list)
MSI nVidia GE-Force 1060 Gaming X + 6G Graphics card
RAM 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR 4 3000 (Team Group Inc)

Note1. This year, the Windows 10 Home operating system along with all data (see note2 below) cloned from my old 2TB Seagate Barracuda to a Crucial 2 TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe 2280 M.2 SSD.
Note2. The Data includes music (*.flak files) + 52 years of photographs (slides and photographs) and also videos taken with Sony Video 8 recorder and put onto DVD RAM disks (caddy less ones) and converted to *mp4 by me and now stored on the Crucial NVMe.

Back in the 1990s I ran a small business along with a friend building PCs (as well as being an RAF aircraft engineer) and personally built around 150 machines. Having had all that experience, I find myself at a loss and confused on how to proceed to upgrade because of the plethora of options available to me after being away from building for 7 years. I have been looking at the following:

Any ATX AM5 motherboard or ATX AM4 motherboard? Wi-fi not essential but which one?
Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 5 5600?
32 GB DDR RAM DDR4 or DD5?
Possible easy to assemble case such a SAMA? I could go down to a small form factor case because I have a portable USB 3.0 DVD R/RW. The only reason not to do is because of the full height nVidia Ge-Force 1060 graphics card. Perhaps sell this on?

All thoughts and suggestions greatly appreciated. Please be gentle I am an Octogerian. The PC will be used for normal day to day stuff (email browsing, accounts, photo + video editing that I need to get into and perhaps light gaming). I do not have a budget as such but would not be restrained by sensible suggestions. Perhaps around £500. This figure is not set in stone as I do not wish to buy the wrong kit nor do I want to spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tetras]

For what you describe the 5600 would be fine, but you would have more upgrade potential and newer features with AM5, so it depends how much extra you're willing to pay for it.

 

[tamzzy]

Gigabyte GA – AB350 -Gaming 3 Rev.1 (Socket AM4) Motherboard (not Windows 11 compatible)

this is incorrect, the motherboard does not determine compatibility with win 11

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor (not windows 11 compatible- not on Microsoft windows 11 cpu list)

this is correct.

the cheapest course of action (albeit can be a bit finicky) is that you or someone you know that is more well versed with computers... (sorry not trying to be patronising)
1) updates the motherboard bios (from here: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350M-Gaming-3-rev-1x/support#support-dl-bios )
2) then swap out the ryzen 1700 for the ryzen 5600 and you're good to go
3) you can then upgrade to windows 11 with no other upgrades needed

 

[tamzzy]

. del

 

[Tetras]

I have tried the usual registry work around hacks found on You Tube to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11, but after two attempts it restored itself back to Windows 10 because the hacks did not work.

If you have secure boot and TPM enabled then it should work fine with a supported CPU. I installed it without a supported CPU (no registry or other mods needed), but it only worked with the TPM and secure boot enabled.

 

[GunRunner]

this is incorrect, the motherboard does not determine compatibility with win 11


this is correct.

the cheapest course of action (albeit can be a bit finicky) is that you or someone you know that is more well versed with computers... (sorry not trying to be patronising)
1) updates the motherboard bios (from here: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350M-Gaming-3-rev-1x/support#support-dl-bios )
2) then swap out the ryzen 1700 for the ryzen 5600 and you're good to go
3) you can then upgrade to windows 11 with no other upgrades needed

Thanks. I missed this! I can move forward now and update the BIOS to the latest F52 dated March 22 2024. Will I see Secure Boot and TPM selectable in the new BIOS?

 

[tamzzy]

Thanks. I missed this! I can move forward now and update the BIOS to the latest F52 dated March 22 2024.

Yes but if your bios is older than f31 you need to update to f31 before upgrading to the latest

Will I see Secure Boot and TPM selectable in the new BIOS?

Yes (most probably) I don't have your specific mobo, but at least it does on my gigabyte x570 board.

PS you can then use the workaround but the Ryzen 1700 is not officially supported by win 11

 

[MissChief]

This would be a really great Upgrade to a 5600 or 5600x for a substantial boost to CPU performance. I'd then consider the machine good for another 18-24 months easily. Pick up something like a 2070 Super or 3060ti and it could even be good for longer.

 

[GunRunner]

Update.
I contacted Gigabyte support and they gave me advice on upgrading the BIOS. The advice was much the same as a previous member said.
Support said:
lease kindly update bios with following step: F9d-->F31-->F40--F53

GA-AB350-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.x) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

How to Update Your BIOS Part 2: Q-Flash and BIOS Recovery (aorus.com)

Please kindly refer to the Windows 11-related bios settings:
CSM support disabled+AMD fTPM enabled + Secure Boot enabled
When you enable the Secure Boot option, please select the Secure Boot Mode option as Standard, and you do not need to input any keys.
If the secure boot doesn't show "active", please follow the step below:
Select secure boot mode to "custom"-->Press F10-->Select secure boot mode to "Standard"-->Press F10.
Thank you.Your GIGABYTE team
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, there seems to be a failure of some sort that I have advised them of. It is as follows:

After upgrading the bios to F31, it rebooted as it should, but on restart it stops at the GIGABYTE Logo. No matter what I do, I cannot get into the Bios using the keyboard. I have even reset the Bios several times. I even took the CMOS battery out and left it for an hour, fitted a new battery. Still no joy.
Later I removed the win10 NVME and restartarted. It then kept looking for an operating system. Naturally, I cannot get into the BIOS to change it. i have changed the Bios F31 file to GIGABYTE.bin, but the same applies.
Any advice is accepted.
The next stage if it cannot be fixed, is the very reason I started this thread. Get a new motherboard, Ryzan CPU with 32GB RAM.
I would be most grateful for any suggestions. I do not have a budget as such and will re-use the rest of my kit as listed so please advise
Thanks in anticipation.
Peter

 

[Tetras]

Any ATX AM5 motherboard or ATX AM4 motherboard? Wi-fi not essential but which one?
Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 5 5600?
32 GB DDR RAM DDR4 or DD5?
Possible easy to assemble case such a SAMA? I could go down to a small form factor case because I have a portable USB 3.0 DVD R/RW. The only reason not to do is because of the full height nVidia Ge-Force 1060 graphics card. Perhaps sell this on?

The PC will be used for normal day to day stuff (email browsing, accounts, photo + video editing that I need to get into and perhaps light gaming). I do not have a budget as such but would not be restrained by sensible suggestions. Perhaps around £500. This figure is not set in stone as I do not wish to buy the wrong kit nor do I want to spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

The next stage if it cannot be fixed, is the very reason I started this thread. Get a new motherboard, Ryzan CPU with 32GB RAM.
I would be most grateful for any suggestions. I do not have a budget as such and will re-use the rest of my kit as listed so please advise

If you want to drop the 1060 and still have some light gaming capability:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Six Core 4.3GHz (Socket AM5) APU with Radeon 760M Graphics (SKU: PRO-AMD-01797) = £218.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming A620M-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-01397) = £135.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x Kolink KLA-003 Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-053-KK) = £29.99

Total: £492.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

The case isn't very small, but it does have an optical bay for a DVD drive bay.

Intel/DDR5, keep your 1060 (no DVD drive bay on this case):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £160.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01) (SKU: MY-0BB-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x B Grade Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: BG-06C-PT) = £39.91

Total: £436.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

I'd highly recommend swapping the 12400F for the discounted 12600KF (around £150-£160).

If you wanted a graphics upgrade too (RX 6600 would be cheaper, but I don't know if that would impact your photo/video editing):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £119.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 WindForce OC LHR 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1FH-GI) = £269.99
• 1 x Kolink KLM-003 Micro-ATX Case - Black (SKU: CA-054-KK) = £27.95

Total: £550.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

I assumed you re-use your DDR4 memory.

Rough comparison of the performance of each CPU (single thread, multi thread):

Ryzen 7 1700: 1999, 14819
i5-12600KF: 3935, 27426
i5-12400F: 3511, 19539
Ryzen 5 8600G: 3839, 25195

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 vs Intel Core i5-12600KF vs Intel Core i5-12400F vs AMD Ryzen 5 8600G [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

 

[mickyflinn]

Did your clear the CMOS using the jumper on the motherboard?

Manual page 12 number 14

 

[GunRunner]

Did your clear the CMOS using the jumper on the motherboard?

Manual page 12 number 14

Update.
I contacted Gigabyte support and they gave me advice on upgrading the BIOS. The advice was much the same as a previous member said.
Support said:
lease kindly update bios with following step: F9d-->F31-->F40--F53

GA-AB350-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.x) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

How to Update Your BIOS Part 2: Q-Flash and BIOS Recovery (aorus.com)

Please kindly refer to the Windows 11-related bios settings:
CSM support disabled+AMD fTPM enabled + Secure Boot enabled
When you enable the Secure Boot option, please select the Secure Boot Mode option as Standard, and you do not need to input any keys.
If the secure boot doesn't show "active", please follow the step below:
Select secure boot mode to "custom"-->Press F10-->Select secure boot mode to "Standard"-->Press F10.
Thank you.Your GIGABYTE team
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, there seems to be a failure of some sort that I have advised them of. It is as follows:

After upgrading the bios to F31, it rebooted as it should, but on restart it stops at the GIGABYTE Logo. No matter what I do, I cannot get into the Bios using the keyboard. I have even reset the Bios several times. I even took the CMOS battery out and left it for an hour, fitted a new battery. Still no joy.
Later I removed the win10 NVME and restartarted. It then kept looking for an operating system. Naturally, I cannot get into the BIOS to change it. i have changed the Bios F31 file to GIGABYTE.bin, but the same applies.
Any advice is accepted.
The next stage if it cannot be fixed, is the very reason I started this thread. Get a new motherboard, Ryzan CPU with 32GB RAM.
I would be most grateful for any suggestions. I do not have a budget as such and will re-use the rest of my kit as listed so please advise
Thanks in anticipation.
Peter

Yes!!!!

 

[mickyflinn]

Yes!!!!

Try booting with just one stick of memory.

 

[GunRunner]

Try booting with just one stick of memory.I

I tried that no joy!

 

[mickyflinn]

I tried that no joy!

Take a look at this which I reccomended in another thread with the same board.

How to force Gigabyte motherboard to boot in the backup bios by shorting pins on the bios chip?

I have a bios update for my motherboard on the Gigabyte website and flashed it using qflash (because I had problems with my old bios). After the update reached 100% my pc turned off automatically,...

superuser.com

Bricked Gigabyte AB350 Gaming motherboard?

We installed FIFA 23 on my sons PC yesterday, it came up with the secure boot is not enabled error, we went into the BIOS to enable secure boot, and now we've got nothing. The 4 red LEDs for VGA, CPU, BOOT and DRAM just cycle continuously, no BIOS screen, nothing at all. I've tried removing...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

 

[GunRunner]

If you want to drop the 1060 and still have some light gaming capability:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Six Core 4.3GHz (Socket AM5) APU with Radeon 760M Graphics (SKU: PRO-AMD-01797) = £218.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming A620M-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-01397) = £135.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x Kolink KLA-003 Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-053-KK) = £29.99

Total: £492.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

The case isn't very small, but it does have an optical bay for a DVD drive bay.

Intel/DDR5, keep your 1060 (no DVD drive bay on this case):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £160.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01) (SKU: MY-0BB-TG) = £99.95
• 1 x B Grade Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: BG-06C-PT) = £39.91

Total: £436.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

I'd highly recommend swapping the 12400F for the discounted 12600KF (around £150-£160).

If you wanted a graphics upgrade too (RX 6600 would be cheaper, but I don't know if that would impact your photo/video editing):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £119.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 WindForce OC LHR 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1FH-GI) = £269.99
• 1 x Kolink KLM-003 Micro-ATX Case - Black (SKU: CA-054-KK) = £27.95

Total: £550.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

I assumed you re-use your DDR4 memory.

Rough comparison of the performance of each CPU (single thread, multi thread):

Ryzen 7 1700: 1999, 14819
i5-12600KF: 3935, 27426
i5-12400F: 3511, 19539
Ryzen 5 8600G: 3839, 25195

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 vs Intel Core i5-12600KF vs Intel Core i5-12400F vs AMD Ryzen 5 8600G [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Thanks. Excellent information. I appreciate it.

I am leaning toward doing the following:

Keeping:
Antec Nine Hundred Tower case. It has excellent cooling with 1 large top fan + 4 others (2 front 1 side and 1 rear) to
Corsair HX 620W Modular Power Supply.
LG DVD writer
MSI nVidia GE-Force 1060 Gaming X + 6G Graphics card
Crucial 2 TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe 2280 M.2 SSD.

So all I would need to do is fit the following:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £160.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01) (SKU: MY-0BB-TG) = £99.95

But swapping the i5 12400F for the discounted 12600KF.

Does this make sense?

Regards Peter

 

[Tetras]

So all I would need to do is fit the following:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AR-IN) = £124.99
• 1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £160.00
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01) (SKU: MY-0BB-TG) = £99.95

But swapping the i5 12400F for the discounted 12600KF.

Does this make sense?

Yep! Though, the 12600KF doesn't have a cooler in the box, so I'd look at something like the Assassin Spirit (£15) or if you want to go all-out, the Phantom Spirit (£35).

 

[Quartz]

I am looking to update my current family PC

As I'm sure you know, the ladies prefer PCs to be small and quiet so you should look at ITX or mATX. If you were not limited by budget I would suggest one of the higher-end uSFF boxes like the Beelink GTR7 Pro.

 

[GunRunner]

As I'm sure you know, the ladies prefer PCs to be small and quiet so you should look at ITX or mATX. If you were not limited by budget I would suggest one of the higher-end uSFF boxes like the Beelink GTR7 Pro.

Well, I never. There is a coincidence!!!!!!
I was keeping it quiet because I went down that route. I was embarrassed and did not want to pad out my original thread.
I purchased a Beelink GTR7 from Amazon 1 month ago and found there was a problem with graphics in Windows 11.
I had two 1440p monitors at the time. A BenQ 1440p that was 7 years old and my new iiyama 1440p. The Beelink would only see them as 1080p. There were other issues as well. I even joined their forum. If you look it is full of people complaining about issues.

Within 7 days I contacted Amazon. I have been a Prime member for many years, and in the end returned it and got a full refund.

Now I am here and staying.

 

[GunRunner]

Yep! Though, the 12600KF doesn't have a cooler in the box, so I'd look at something like the Assassin Spirit (£15) or if you want to go all-out, the Phantom Spirit (£35).

Thanks. I also need thermal paste.
I did not see the 12600KF discounted on Overclockers. Is it?
I would prefer the motherboard without wifi. I wired my lounge and two bedrooms in my house with cat 5 in the 1990s, so wifi not essential. This was when I ran a game server in the data center in New York.....from my house near Oxford.