Any reason I shouldn't swap round CPUs?

August 11, 2024 4:03 PM

I have a PC and plan to build another one, using the CPU from the first one in the second one and replacing it with a new chip which costs the same. It makes sense to me, but perhaps there's a catch I'm missing.

I built a budget gaming PC 18 months ago which used a Ryzen 5 5600G. It's soon to get a GPU added to it. On top of that, I need to build a second PC for home-working and light gaming.

A 5600G seems to be appropriate for the second PC as an APU fits the bill for occasional gaming and office use. Instead of buying another 5600G I could buy a 5600X for roughly the same price, put the 5600X in the budget gaming PC and take out the 5600G which would then go into the office PC build.

So the result would be that the budget gaming PC would have a improved CPU (5600X vs 5600G) to go with its new GPU. The office PC would get the 5600G and I'd be spending the same as I originally planned.

As you can see from my previous question, I'm capable of building a PC despite occasional mistakes. I'd be a bit nervous about damaging the 5600G moving it from one motherboard to another but from what I read it should be fine if I'm careful.

It would also limit my motherboard options for the homeworking PC to another AM4 board but given my budget that seems to be the sensible choice anyway.

So is there any reason I shouldn't do this?

posted by Busy Old Fool to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Nope, none at all. CPUs swap over fine, just be careful with the little pins, and as you say make sure the new mobo is compatible with that cpu.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:59 PM on August 11

Best answer: The performance difference between a 5600X and a 5600G will not be noticeable unless you specifically run benchmarks to look for it. Given that a 5600G has slightly more utility with the built-in graphics (for some unforeseen future circumstance) and moving a CPU is relatively simple but still takes time and effort and has some risk, I'd probably leave the existing PC as is and just buy a new 5600G for the new PC.

If you do move the CPU, you'll want to have some thermal compound to reinstall the heatsink when you do (clean off all the old stuff). The heatsink comes with thermal compound pre-applied, but it's not great to reuse it for a reinstall.
posted by whatnotever at 8:03 PM on August 11 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it feels like a big deal, but as long as you can identify the corner, it's no big deal.

Depending on how/ what the thermal paste was used, removing the heat sink+fan can be fraught.

I accidentally 'yanked' my chip up with the cooler once - the chip ended up being fine.

When apply paste to the new CPU, you really really need less than you think you need. There are tons of different thermal pastes out there. They're all pretty much equivalent. Spend in the mid-range if some didn't come with your new CPU.
posted by porpoise at 10:15 PM on August 11

I've moved a few AM4 around since launch, they're robust -- even to straightening a few pins I bent with a small drop.

If you don't want to move the CPU from us socket, you might transplant CPU+MB: move the 5600G + motherboard to the new PC and put the 5600X and its motherboard in the case where the GPU will go.
posted by k3ninho at 1:08 AM on August 12

Response by poster: Every answer was helpful but in the end the reality check I needed was that the small performance increase isn't worth the hassle of messing around swapping chips; I'd be better off waiting a year or two for the 5700x3d to drop in price.

Thanks all!
posted by Busy Old Fool at 9:13 AM on August 13