Build me a new semi-budget platform.

harmattan

harmattan

harmattan

Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2015
Posts
1,114
Location
Kent, UK; Brooklyn, NYC, NY
I'm looking to refresh my platform from my current setup below. I'm agnostic to manufacturer, CPU or Mobo. I have around £500 budget after selling my 5900x and x570 (~£300 from resale, £200 pocket change). My main needs are for 4k gaming (supporting my new 7900xtx). Two nice-to-haves would be dual M.2 slots and a decent number of USB I/Os. I do appreciate OC features, but more and more, I'm finding it more trouble than it gives with stability being preferred.

5900x
16GB Patriot Viper 3200 DDR4
Gigabyte x570 GamingX
Rx 7900xtx
1GB ADATA SX8200 NVME M.2 (original un-downgraded version)
1GB Samsung 2.5 SSD

I could go to a PC configurator, or pour over the forums, but looking for first hand advice from SMEs here.
 
Last edited:
harmattan said:
I'm looking to refresh my platform from my current setup below. I'm agnostic to manufacturer, CPU or Mobo. I have around £500 budget after selling my 5900x and x570 (~£300 from resale, £200 pocket change). My main needs are for 4k gaming (supporting my new 7900xtx). Two nice-to-haves would be dual M.2 slots and a decent number of USB I/Os. I do appreciate OC features, but more and more, I'm finding it more trouble than it gives with stability being preferred.

5900x
16GB Patriot Viper 3200 DDR4
Gigabyte x570 GamingX
Rx 7900xtx
1GB ADATA SX8200 NVME M.2 (original un-downgraded version)
1GB Samsung 2.5 SSD

I could go to a PC configurator, or pour over the forums, but looking for first hand advice from SMEs here.
Click to expand...
Based on your needs and budget, here are a few options you might consider for upgrading your platform:

  1. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: This is a 16-core, 32-thread processor that should provide plenty of power for 4K gaming and other demanding workloads. It's compatible with AMD's AM4 socket, so you'll need a motherboard that supports this socket as well.
  2. ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4: This is a mid-range motherboard that supports the AM4 socket and has dual M.2 slots and a decent number of USB I/Os. It also has good support for overclocking if you're interested in that.
  3. G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 3200: This is a 16GB (2x8GB) kit of DDR4 memory that runs at 3200MHz, which should be a good match for the 5950X.
  4. Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus: This is a 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD that should provide plenty of fast storage for your games and other applications.
Altogether, this combination should provide a solid platform for 4K gaming and other demanding workloads, and it should be within your budget if you sell your current hardware. Of course, there are many other options available as well, so you may want to shop around and compare prices and features to find the best fit for your needs.
 
harmattan said:
5900x
16GB Patriot Viper 3200 DDR4
Gigabyte x570 GamingX
Rx 7900xtx
1GB ADATA SX8200 NVME M.2 (original un-downgraded version)
1GB Samsung 2.5 SSD
Click to expand...


This is your current set up ?
and you want to upgrade for 4k gaming?

When gaming at 4k the load is massively on the GPU and there will only be very specific circumstances when a 5800X 3D or 13900K will actually give you extra FPS. In 99% of gaming situations you will not be able to tell the difference between your current 5900x and any other cpu when gaming at 4K.

Save the cash for future upgrades or other things.
 
Haz123 said:
This is your current set up ?
and you want to upgrade for 4k gaming?

When gaming at 4k the load is massively on the GPU and there will only be very specific circumstances when a 5800X 3D or 13900K will actually give you extra FPS. In 99% of gaming situations you will not be able to tell the difference between your current 5900x and any other cpu when gaming at 4K.

Save the cash for future upgrades or other things.
Click to expand...
He's already sold his 5900x and mobo.

The only reason selling his old stuff was to move onto a new platform but for 4k gaming was pointless
 
I don't get it. You already have a excellent pc capable of everything you want it to do and your motherboard has dual high speed M2 slots. The spec above is a sidegrade at best (downgrade on the motherboard) and the same size and speed memory. At 4k the gpu is more important than the cpu and a 7900xtx isn't going to hold you back. If you really want to change something maybe swap the 5900x for a 5800x3d and maybe swap the 16Gb memory kit for a 32Gb 3600mhz kit but apart from that I wouldn't touch anything.

***Edit*** This is all pretty pointless to me but now you have sold your cpu and mobo you are commited so I would switch to a AM5 build which will need DDR5 but it's a waste of money over what you already had.
 
Last edited:
@harmattan I am sorry buddy , you really should have asked for advice before you sold your old kit. Have you sent it yet ? can you cancel the deal ? I highly recommend you try to keep your current stuff.
 
pastymuncher said:
I don't get it. You already have a excellent pc capable of everything you want it to do and your motherboard has dual high speed M2 slots. The spec above is a sidegrade at best (downgrade on the motherboard) and the same size and speed memory. At 4k the gpu is more important than the cpu and a 7900xtx isn't going to hold you back. If you really want to change something maybe swap the 5900x for a 5800x3d and maybe swap the 16Gb memory kit for a 32Gb 3600mhz kit but apart from that I wouldn't touch anything.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. I was looking at some of the Alder Lake and Raptor Lake CPUs (12600, 13600) and was thinking the extra IPC over Ryzen 3 may make some differenc, even at 4k. That, and I'm not wont to sit on a platform that's EOL.

I haven't sold the 5900x or mobo yet (although this Gibabyte mobo is seriously annoying).
 
What in particular is annoying with the Gigabyte mobo? BIOS flash and try to sort out the issues and save £500 is always a win in my book.

It may actually be the ram not being a good fit for the Ryzen/mobo combo that is the issue. I am using a 2x16gb kit of the Viper DDR4 and was a pain to get it running at advertised speeds with 5900x
 
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £668.96​



​

I think this is the lowest that would qualify as an upgrade.
But like others said, at 4k there will be almost no difference still
 
In that case either stick with the 5900x or do what I suggested in post #5. I would update the bios to the latest version whether you get the 5800x3d or not because new bios versions usually have updated Agesia in them which can increase performance, sometimes by quite a bit as well as fix compatibility issues. Version F37d is the latest for your board.
 
Last edited:
White_Widow said:
Based on your needs and budget, here are a few options you might consider for upgrading your platform:

  1. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: This is a 16-core, 32-thread processor that should provide plenty of power for 4K gaming and other demanding workloads. It's compatible with AMD's AM4 socket, so you'll need a motherboard that supports this socket as well.
  2. ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4: This is a mid-range motherboard that supports the AM4 socket and has dual M.2 slots and a decent number of USB I/Os. It also has good support for overclocking if you're interested in that.
  3. G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 3200: This is a 16GB (2x8GB) kit of DDR4 memory that runs at 3200MHz, which should be a good match for the 5950X.
  4. Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus: This is a 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD that should provide plenty of fast storage for your games and other applications.
Altogether, this combination should provide a solid platform for 4K gaming and other demanding workloads, and it should be within your budget if you sell your current hardware. Of course, there are many other options available as well, so you may want to shop around and compare prices and features to find the best fit for your needs.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but this is terrible advice, would essentially have identical gaming performance as OP's current setup - and this would be the case even if it wasn't gpu limited, which it will be at 4k.
 
Last edited:
Haz123 said:
What in particular is annoying with the Gigabyte mobo? BIOS flash and try to sort out the issues and save £500 is always a win in my book.

It may actually be the ram not being a good fit for the Ryzen/mobo combo that is the issue. I am using a 2x16gb kit of the Viper DDR4 and was a pain to get it running at advertised speeds with 5900x
Click to expand...
It continually wants to reset to stock settings. I have a vcore undervolt of 1.3v and have set the curve optimizer and PBO settings to keep temps down (this board is known to have agressive stock PBO settings). Strangely, it will sometimes reset the vcore back to stock leaving the other settings; other times, it will knock the PBO settings back to default "motherboard" -- no rhyme or reason to it. I can live with it, just annoying.

The bios is the latest v.

Edit: Good call on the RAM. It is listed as a compatible model for this board, but I've seen compatible RAM modules listed for Ryzen before that hardly work.
 
Last edited:
GreatAuk said:
Sorry, but this is terrible advice, would essentially have identical gaming performance as OP's current setup - and this would be the case even if it wasn't gpu limited, which it will be at 4k.
Click to expand...
I apologize if the advice I provided was not helpful.

pastymuncher said:
In that case either stick with the 5900x or do what I suggested in post #5. I would update the bios to the latest version whether you get the 5800x3d or not because new bios versions usually have updated Agesia in them which can increase performance, sometimes by quite a bit as well as fix compatibility issues. Version F37d is the latest for your board.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the additional information and for clarifying your suggestion. Updating the BIOS to the latest version can indeed be beneficial, as it can provide improved compatibility and performance for your system. In general, it's always a good idea to keep your system's BIOS up to date, as new versions are released periodically and may contain important fixes or improvements. That being said, it's important to be cautious when updating the BIOS, as a failed update can potentially result in hardware failure or other issues. It's always a good idea to carefully follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer when updating the BIOS, and to create a backup of any important data before proceeding.
 
pastymuncher said:
Have you tried replacing the cmos battery?
Click to expand...
Worth a try, but I'd think if the cmos battery was dead or dying all settings would go back to stock.

A few things that have clarified for me:
  • I'd want to move away from the AM4 platform as it's largely EOL, and really the only "upgrade" I could make would be a 5950x which really wouldn't improve my gaming experience (and I don't need the extra threads for anything else)
  • I want to steer clear of Gigabyte. Come to think of it, every board from them I've owned going back to Sandy Bridge or further back has had issues (this was apart from general issues with the chipset), and I find they're bios software supremely cludgy. I've had good experiences, on the other hand, with Asus, MSI, Asrock, Abit.
  • I'm not opposed to going with a platform that supports DDR5 and/or DDR4, but I wouldn't want to upgrade my current DDR4 e.g. buy 32GB, since I'll surely evenutally move to DDR5
 
Last edited:
If you are upgrading to hopefully get a more reliable system then fair enough thats your decision, just do not expect more FPS at 4K. Replacing mobo battery is sensible advice from pasty but it sounds like you are fed up with AM4 and just want a change.

7600x+DDR5+B650 mobo is the most sensible choice but not sure you can get that in your budget. I also did not like the gigabye mobo I had and the MSi ones I currently use are solid, X570s+B550 Tomahawks for me.
 
I'm now looking at a 12700k with an z690, keeping my DDR4.

But I see folks recommending an AM5 setup e.g. 7600x, DDR5, b650? My main issue with AM5 is the motherboard cost which are, in two words, obscene and insulting. I'm not spending £200 for motherboard, much less a second rung chipset.
 
The reason most of us are recommending AM5 is because there is a chance you will be able to slot in a 9000( or whatever number they choose) series cpu in 4 years time. This is not a certainty but it worked out that way for AM4. The AM5 mobos are very expensive but this is partly because they are over engineered with future cpus in mind. Buildzoid in his tear downs saw mid range X670 mobo with VRMs capable or supplying over 1k Amps when the 7950x only required a max of 110 Amps. This seems crazy but the mobo manufacturers do have more access to AMDs roadmap and plans than we do.

12700k+Z690 is still a great system. Just make sure you get a mobo with all the features you need and hopefully it is not as tempermental as your current Gigabyte mobo.
 
harmattan said:
It continually wants to reset to stock settings. I have a vcore undervolt of 1.3v and have set the curve optimizer and PBO settings to keep temps down (this board is known to have agressive stock PBO settings). Strangely, it will sometimes reset the vcore back to stock leaving the other settings; other times, it will knock the PBO settings back to default "motherboard" -- no rhyme or reason to it. I can live with it, just annoying.

The bios is the latest v.

Edit: Good call on the RAM. It is listed as a compatible model for this board, but I've seen compatible RAM modules listed for Ryzen before that hardly work.
Click to expand...
You can't undervolt the vcore and use curve optimizer at the same time, it's only one or the other so that's probably why it's resetting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom