I built this PC in 2017 and have upgraded it a little since then. It currently uses an MSI B350M PRO-VH PLUS motherboard, a Ryzen 5 1600, an RX 6600, and 32GB of RAM. It handles gaming reasonably well, but performance drops during busy World of Warcraft raids. I'd like to extend the system's life without replacing the whole platform, so I'm considering a Ryzen 5 5600. The motherboard's official CPU support list does not show the 5600, although several users report that Ryzen 5000 processors work after updating to a newer BIOS. Is this upgrade actually possible and sensible, and is there anything I should watch out for?
4 Answers
Yes, the Ryzen 5 5600 should work after updating the motherboard to a BIOS version with the necessary AGESA support. Update the BIOS while the Ryzen 5 1600 is still installed, then swap in the 5600. It should be a worthwhile upgrade for improving minimum and raid-area frame rates.
It should work, but there’s always some risk when using a processor that isn’t officially listed. If the board refuses to boot afterward, a used B450 board would be a relatively inexpensive fallback. Make sure you have a recovery plan before updating.
People have successfully run substantially faster Ryzen 5000 chips on B350 boards with the right BIOS, so a 5600 is a reasonable choice. Keep expectations realistic for power delivery and make sure the CPU has adequate cooling, but this is probably one of the cheapest ways to get more life from the system.
The upgrade is generally supported in practice, even if MSI’s official compatibility page is incomplete or conservative. Just confirm the exact BIOS version and board revision before flashing, and don’t interrupt the update process.
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