Not sure if you should upgrade your motherboard? Here are a few tips to make clear when and why to buy a brand new motherboard.
When your PC gets slow, and it’s time to upgrade, you may wonder: CAN I upgrade my motherboard? It is an essential element of the body, but it’s not always easy to know when you should upgrade your motherboard. Replacing the motherboard can be costly, but it can possibly bring you benefits in conditions of speed, hardware support, and better graphics support.
We’ll make clear some reasons why you need to upgrade your ryzen 5 5600x motherboards and some considerations to bear in mind when you do.
1. For Faster CPUs
One of the primary reasons to upgrade your motherboard is a fresh, faster CPU. If your CPU is rather new, the performance gains that come from upgrading to a more recent one are going to be fairly minimal. If you have a processor that’s three or even more years old, however, you’re going to notice massive gains jumping to a newer processor. For example, the jump from an older Intel 3rd Generation CPU to a super-fast modern 12th Gen CPU will be much more noticeable than received from a more recent iteration.
Upgrading your motherboard for better gaming is also a good notion. At least, with the difficulties continuing to face the global PC hardware market at the time of writing, buying a much better motherboard and installing a faster CPU is likely cheaper than sourcing a graphics card. However, in more regular times, buying a fresh GPU is usually the easiest way to better gaming performance.
2. For Faster RAM
Making the upgrade to newer iterations of RAM requires a motherboard that will support those new RAM modules. If you are currently using DDR3, for example, you can’t make the jump to DDR4 or the newer DDR5 without swapping out the motherboard and the CPU first.
When new RAM hits the marketplace, it’s the perfect possibility to consider if you need to upgrade your motherboard. The performance boost between RAM generations varies, though. Upgrading from DDR3 RAM to DDR5 RAM will feel just like a significant boost. But, you’ll desire a new motherboard to support the latest generation of RAM, as the DDR5 RAM configuration differs from previous generations (as does every new RAM iteration). To put it simply, if you get a DDR5 RAM module and try to fit it in your old motherboard, it just won’t fit.
3. For Better Graphics Cards
All of the above reasons are good, however in my opinion, this is the single greatest reason to upgrade your motherboard.
If you’re a gamer or video editor, a new CPU/motherboard combination and a higher-performance GPU will make your PC seem like an totally different machine. Because of this, games will run faster and with less lag, all while permitting you to improve the in-game settings to run at more graphically-intense levels than your previous card. (Based on when you last upgraded, that is.)
If you’re not a gamer and you’re more of a everyday internet user, the best value for your money will likely be a RAM or SSD upgrade, and you could skip GPU upgrades altogether. Again, as above, getting your hands on a graphics card anything near MSRP is a miracle, but that situation will hopefully change in the future. In any case, upgrading your motherboard for faster hardware is always worth considering.
4. For Faster Data Transfers
Another reason to upgrade your motherboard is designed for faster data transfers. Making the upgrade to SATA III or USB 3.0 escalates the transfer speed of data from one piece of hardware to a new. For example, SATA III has a maximum rated speed of 6Gbps, and USB 3.0 tops out at 5Gbps. The most recent iterations of USB are even more quickly, with USB 3.1 delivering to 10Gbps and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 pushing that to 20Gbps.
5. You Have Damaged Parts
Damaged motherboards are an infrequent but huge problem. Snapped pins, disconnected plugs, static electricity discharge, and other issues will all lead you back to the repair shop to buy new plugs or, hopefully, a professional installation.
The same thing goes for fire damage, smoke damage, water damage and mold, and even physical trauma from impact.
Remember, the CPU/motherboard upgrade is one of the very most expensive upgrades you could make to your existing PC.
If you aren’t confident in your ability to match up parts or to effectively piece everything together once you’re amid your build, it’s always going to be far better decide on a professional installation rather than the price of replacing damaged hardware.
6. You Want New Features
Finally, you might not think about motherboards as things that include exciting features. But there are technological developments in the world of motherboards. And you will probably want to upgrade to use benefit of these.
The great things about upgrading your motherboard vary. For instance, you might want to use an M.2 SSD, a little format SSD that screws directly into your motherboard. But you’ll desire a motherboard that supports M.2 drives for this to work. Or perhaps you want a computer that supports fast transfers via Thunderbolt 3, in which case you’ll desire a motherboard with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
Finally, if you’re looking to squeeze a bit more performance from the body, or you’re just seeking to learn, you might want to try overclocking your CPU. To do this, you’ll need not only an overclockable CPU but also a motherboard that supports overclocking.
Beware of Issues With Compatibility
To facilitate a motherboard upgrade, you will have to match up your new hardware to your existing hardware-or you can go buy a couple of brand-new equipment.
The most crucial bit is that the motherboard and CPU must match. More specifically, the motherboard CPU socket must match that of the CPU’s socket. So, for example, if the motherboard supports LGA 1150, your CPU must also support that.
