Build Advice Last built 6+ years ago, need a sanity check, please!

I'm thinking of upgrading my hubby's PC as he's having a few issues with it and it's at least 6 years old.
He currently has
CPU: Core i5-2500K (not O/C)
Mobo: MSI P67A-GD53
RAM: 4Gb
GPU: Radeon HD 5700
SSD: M4 256 GB
OS: Win 10

Can't remember what PSU (he's on it at the moment so can't check).
He used to play FPS like BF and Strategy/RPG like Civ and NWN all the time, but since children came along 6 years ago, it's been more casual gaming like World of Warships and smartphone games. As the children get older, there will likely be more time for more intensive gaming again. I'm having time to think about building systems again

I've been reading reviews and such, and think this would be a reasonable upgrade with room for improvement later if required:
CPU/GPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
Mobo: Asus Prime B350-Plus
RAM: 1x8GB (Crucial or Corsair, probably)

Keep existing Case, PSU, SSD, OS.

Does this sound reasonable, while still offering an upgrade path for the future (discrete GPU, more RAM, O/C etc)?

Thanks,
Janine

 

Upgrade path seems perfect, makes perfect sense.
Only one thing, instead of limiting yourself to specific RAM brands, check RAM frequency and timings, Ryzen is very sensitive to that.
I'd personally recommend something at 3200MHz and CL14 if possibl£.

EDIT: make sure your retailer upgrades the motherboard to the latest BIOS or that it's Ryzen+ ready.

 

I think you'd be best trying to find the cause of current issues first, if it's PSU or SSD you'd be transferring it to the new build. If it's software, maybe a clean windows install can fix it ?
Is the 2400G enough of an upgrade from his 2500k ? Or is the most important thing just to keep things ticking along ? I'd check benchmarks/reviews between the two if I were you, just to be sure the chip is what you want.
If his current PC can be made reliable again, maybe just add some more DDR3 RAM for now (of course if it's a nightmare machine it'd be better to just ditch it/sell the working parts).

 

Not much of an upgrade IMO. More of a side grade. Better off getting it stable and slapping more DDR3 in and a GPU.

 

This. I would swap the SSD before getting rid of the MB/CPU. A 6 year old SSD won't be up to much these days. Adding 4GB of DDR3 will be cheaper than 8GB DDR4.
Find a second hand GPU a few generations old that isn't being looked at by miners, but the two things you need - memory and GPU - are at their most expensive this year.

 

1050ti would do nicely, if you are not having much luck on the 2nd hand market.

 

Thanks all.

The main issues with the current PC are related to networking - it keeps dropping the connection to the network (wired ethernet) in Win 10.
We've tried installing a new ethernet card, but it hasn't helped, and I'm out of ideas (plus time to troubleshoot). I thought it would probably work out quicker and less frustrating to just start again.
He's tried a clean build of Windows lots of times as any time we have a power cut while his PC is on, Win 10 gets scrambled and refuses to start.
I can try and run some checks against the SSD though. I'm pretty sure I've already tried that before without finding any problems, but willing to give it another go. Anybody point me at a reliable checker tool, please?

I've had a look at benchmarks of the two CPUs and GPUs, and the Ryzen is better than the 2500k, though not by a huge amount.
The Vega 11 appears to be hugely better than the Radeon HD 5700 though.

At this point, he'd probably be happy with a more reliable PC, and there would be options for upgrading the CPU later, as I read AMD were committing to the AM4 socket through 2020.

 

Have you tried replacing the ethernet cable?

 

Yep

 

and replacing the network device? Or at the very least connect to a different port?

I'm just going through the motions here, not implying anything.

 

yes, we bought a separate PCIe network card and installed it, didn't make any difference.
Tried it in a couple of PCIe slots too.

 

It could be the device that you’re connecting to in that case. How old is the router or switch it’s hooked up to?

 

Switch is less than 4 years old, Router is newer. I'm also connecting to the same switch with my home PC and work laptop without issues. Can't remember if we've tried swapping round the cables & ports at all - but we probably have as I'm pretty sure we tried plugging directly into the router as a test.

 

Hmmm. Very strange.

Like the others have said, that chip is more of a sidegrade as opposed to an upgrade, though the GPU will be a lot better.

I would hold off for less than a month and see what the AMD Ryzen refresh brings. April 19th is the launch date, supposedly.

 

Thanks, I can certainly wait for a month or so, and try and troubleshoot the existing issues while I wait.

Thanks for all the opinions and advice folks.

 

As others have indicated, if you've bought a separate Ethernet NIC and that's also dropping the cxn, it's highly likely that your issue is not with the machine itself.