My current system is now over 5 years old and in some games is struggling a bit. I don't want a new system as cost has to come into it. I was wondering how much of the old system I can 'salvage'?

My initial thought was to just buy a new CPU (I have a 7th gen Kabylake mainboard) but that idea ended when I saw the price and availability of these discontinued CPU's. Plus I felt that I would be holding myself back if the basic architecture was over 5 years old.

I haven't built my own PC for over 10 years,I don't understand what's what anymore. I've always favoured Intel builds,is AMD competitive now?

This one I own now was an off the shelf model with a few upgrades. After a little research I was hoping to get away with just a mainboard/CPU upgrade and keep everything else. I realise the GPU is a little dated but for now it will have to suffice.

Current specs...

Intel Core i5-6600 3.30GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor
Kingston Fury Black 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz
Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive (O/S drive,I have others for games,data etc)
Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCI-Express Sound Card

Thanks for any input

I'm only ever current on the tech in the month after I decided to build a new box

I built my current box a year ago. Here's the thread

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4468869/red-screen#Post4468869

I went AMD on the CPU for the first time since 2002 and I've been very happy with it. As you can tell from that thread I was looking to get great bang for the buck, and with the AMD processor, the GTX 1660Ti and not being silly about the power supply I think I did exactly that. It runs everything I play at the highest settings.

Thanks for the reply. I did spend last night reading reviews etc and it looks like an AMD CPU looks to be the better bet.

I need a board that will take my M.2 SSD (not sure if all AM4 boards do) and I'm seeing some confusion over some AM4 boards not supporting full bandwidth of these drives.

I'm also not entirely sure if I can utilise my DDR4 2400 mhz memory and if I do will it bottleneck the system. I didn't want to replace the memory due to cost. I realise I could sell my old parts but I don't do eBay and I really don't want the hassle. I'll probably just end up donating it to my nephew.

I'll grab a coffee and go and read your thread Mr Bond

I'm too far out of the loop at the mo to give you much advice.

I went with a MSI B450-A PRO mainboard for my box (AM4). That board supports

1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667Mhz (by JEDEC)
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)

If you want to re-use your sticks just be sure to check the specs first.

My board has one M2 slot for what it's worth. It was inexpensive too. I finally wised up with this build and stopped buying bells and whistles I never take advantage of.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-A-PRO

Thanks. A B450 board was what I was thinking of getting. As for the CPU I was looking at a Ryzen 5 3600 as a possible purchase but was worried about the std cooler. I don't plan to overclock so maybe I can get away with it.

I just watched a Linus Tech Tips video on memory speeds and AMD CPU's but to be honest the whole thing left me more confused. As for Infinity fabric? My head.

Memory speed seemed to make a difference in performance but this wasn't huge so maybe not a deal killer.

FWIW, I didn't double check:

In the past, memory makes a very slight (measure but not "see") difference up to 2666MHz. So, 2400 should be good. Also, some memory can be overclocked slightly (probably not worth the effort). AMD has an overclocking application you can download. I've used it, just for fun.

I've made some PCs using the AMD stock coolers. One (a Ryzen 7 2700X) for my Grandson to use professionally (he uses all the cores and threads for some work -- no problem overheating). Also made a Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 3 1200. Stock coolers seem to work fine, if not deliberately overclocking.

I have non-stock cooling on my main system (mainly because it was "left over" from the previous system), but I don't bother overclocking -- my system automatically boosts above stock on all cores. Your "mileage may vary" slightly depending on the exact MB, CPU etc.

When I put my build together I thought the Ryzen 2600 came with the Prism cooler, but it came with the Wraith Stealth. So I decided to upgrade that, but until then I would use the stock cooler. I'm still using it. It works great and this is a relatively cool running box. So I agree with Allen and the stock cooler should be fine at default clock speeds.