I'm building a budget PC using a prebuilt system as a base, and I've upgraded the power supply to a 400w platinum unit. My goal is to pair it with either a GTX 1660 Ti or an RX 6600, limiting the GPU to around 100w. I'm weighing my options between the Ryzen 5 2600, which I can get for around £30 used, and the Ryzen 7 2700 for about £50 used. My motherboard only supports 2nd gen Ryzen CPUs and I want to keep the power draw under 65w. While I know these processors aren't going to be future-proof, would opting for the Ryzen 7 provide any advantage since modern games might benefit from extra cores?
3 Answers
If you're looking for value, consider the Ryzen 5 3600; it's pretty affordable these days. As for the GPU, I’d recommend the RX 6600 over the 1660 Ti if you can find it at a good price.
Could you check if your motherboard can handle better CPUs with a BIOS update? Sometimes there are updates available that improve compatibility, although I'm not sure about the HP 285 G3.
I’ve looked around, but it seems there aren't any BIOS updates available to support 3rd gen CPUs. A lot of people seem to have run into the same issue.
Are you sure your motherboard only supports 2nd gen Ryzen CPUs? Many AM4 motherboards can actually handle all Ryzen processors from the 1000 to the 5000 series, depending on the model. Which specific motherboard do you have?
From what I’ve found, it’s an HP 285 G3 model, and it seems like they’ve locked the BIOS to only allow 2nd gen CPUs.
I appreciate the suggestion, but since I'm using a prebuilt system, it's specifically capped at certain CPUs, and the 3rd gen options aren't listed as supported.