Looking for advice on replacing my motherboard
Back in 2022, Tildes helped me build my current PC (Thanks everyone!). Back then I knew that eventually I would have to replace my motherboard, which underwent corrosion and became unreliable. I never turn off or even put my PC to sleep because, otherwise, it won't turn on for hours. I'd like to change that. I'm pretty confident that is an issue with the motherboard, which underwent repairs before. Other components are much newer and my power source is top notch.
Here's the machine on PC Part Picker. Should I just buy the same motherboard again? I mean, I don't have any complaints, I just happened to live by the sea back then, leading to premature failure. But it's still working. It's cheap, too.
I might be up for a better processor, but price is a concern. What would be the next affordable step from what I have now? In any case, the CPU is rarely an issue for any of my tasks, and the only game I play that could use a more powerful processor is World of Warcraft, which I only play intermittently anyway. Maybe it isn't worth it.
I'm getting a 1TB SSD, those seem to have gotten much cheaper since 2022!
Because, unlike me, most Tildes users are in the US, Canada, and Europe, when taking prices into account, multiply them by 5 in your head to have a sense of what that expense means in my country.
Thanks!
If the board still works fine after it’s sat a bit it sounds like it could just be a busted cap on your board. If you can pop the board out and have a look, check for any capacitors that are bulging/don’t have flat tops. Make a note of the capacitance written on it and you can replace it for a few cents and some solder.
That's quite a bit beyond my abilities, but maybe I can find someone to help me out with that. Thanks ;)
If you're going to buy a new board anyways and if you can get access to a soldering iron from a friend/DIY-type space, it's worth giving it a shot because at that point you're essentially playing with house money. It's not super difficult and worse case scenario you have to buy a new board anyways.
Also, if you do buy a new board, you might have difficulty finding a b450 board for a decent price. Keep in mind you can use a b450/x470/
x570chipset with that CPU (avoid the b550 unless you can return it, any support for Ryzen 2000G series is unofficial) so go with whatever is available and cheap. If there is no price difference, go with thex570x470.Edit: The 2000G is only officially compatible with the b450/x470.
Given the price sensitivity, and the fact that you are fine with your current performance, you're probably right that it's not worth the CPU upgrade.
Though to give some context on what you can do: you're actually in a position for a decent CPU upgrade. Your motherboard is compatible with AMD's 5000 series CPUs, which is two generations newer than what you have. You'd enjoy a pretty sizeable performance lift, and many of the better CPUs in that generation have been coming down in price (in North America atleast). (I recently did a CPU upgrade from a CPU in the same generation as yours to the 5700x for around $150 USD).
Under the assumption that you're looking for the cheapest solution here, getting the same (or another motherboard compatible with the rest of your current build) would probably make the most sense.
Getting a more recent motherboard for AMD or Intel would require that you update other parts of your PC simulatenously (RAM + CPU).
You may be able to find an open box/refurbished motherboard for relatively cheap.
If there's nothing wrong with the speed of your current system, there's nothing wrong with getting another of same motherboard. When you want to upgrade the CPU in a couple of years, look into a used 5800X3D.
Upgrading to the a B550 motherboard isn't worth it unless there's a feature you really want, and upgrading to a B650 would mean getting a new CPU which sounds expensive for your country.
That is very reasonable. Thanks!
I don't seem to find the exact same motherboard for a decent price. Do you think this one is pretty much the same as the
Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboardthat I have? Its naming implies that it is a new version of that one.They do appear to be pretty much the same, yes.
Yes, you likely won't notice any difference. Typically these kinds of version changes happen if the internal wiring changes or something like that.
Is that 2TB SSD any good? https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3QXJ7P/kingston-nv2-2-tb-m2-2280-pcie-40-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-snv2s2000g
It's got no onboard RAM which is going to hurt performance, I personally would avoid.
One thing to look out for when buying SSDs is if it has a "DRAM Cache" (sometimes just called Cache). It's not always mentioned on the product page but good reviews will say.
Since the storage itself isn't usually fast enough to keep up with big writes, like downloading a game, the cache is like a fast temporary storage that holds the data until the SSDs catch up.
The one you've selected doesn't have this. It's still fine day-to-day, but doing big writes or lots of small writes, you'll notice a difference.
I bought this one which is pretty good.
Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe