£500 budget for upgrade to 5900X

[RoyMi6]

I've got two PC's (my rig and partners).

Partners always gets the hand-me-down parts, but this time I'm having to upgrade something before I'd usually upgrade because of the older machine not meeting Windows 11 requirements.

Computer 1:
AMD 5900X
64GB RAM
RTX 5080

Computer 2:
i7-4790K
32GB RAM
RTX 3080

Obviously, I've no need to change the GPUs, so I've got a fairly strict £500 budget (+/-£25) to upgrade CPU, Mobo and RAM. I'm thinking my 5900X is probably old enough that it would make sense to just upgrade that and pass it down.

Any suggestions what to spend the money on for best bang for buck? Computer 1 is now just mainly used for gaming and I the 5900X will be a tidy upgrade for my partners.

Thinking something like:
Intel® Core™ i5-14600K - £166.97
MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £130
Acer Predator PALLAS II DDR5 6000MHz 64GB (32GBx2) RGB RAM CL30 PC5-48000 Black - £210

Thoughts appreciated if there's something better value I'm missing!

 

[StarShock]

Id definitely be looking at am5 as its got a good long shelf life ahead of it. Intel 14th is already a dead platform.
I would be tempted in this case to keep the 5900x for yourself as its still more than capable and the look to upgrade the other machine to maybe a 7600x or 9600x. Both would be a huge upgrade over the 4790k, and leave room to upgrade there down the line


Just a very quick spec to give an idea of what I mean

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Sapphire Pulse B850M WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05692) = £129.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £160.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04560) = £119.99

Total: £410.93 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[mickyflinn]

Do you need 64gb memory

9600x £180
32 GB 6000mhz memory £100
Thermalright peerless assassin £30

B850 motherboard plenty of options if you stick with 32gb.

 

[Gray2233]

You could install W11 on that old machine using Rufus.

If you decide to go the upgrade route anyway, I'd not touch Intel Raptor Lake as it's a dead socket with known degradation issues. If all you do is game AM5 is your best bet, something like this would offer a fair amount of uplift:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Sapphire Nitro+ B850A WiFi 7 (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05688) = £157.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04563) = £109.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £188.99

Total: £464.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Another £100 would get you into 7600X3D territory.

 

[Firegod]

Id definitely be looking at am5 as its got a good long shelf life ahead of it. Intel 14th is already a dead platform.
I would be tempted in this case to keep the 5900x for yourself as its still more than capable and the look to upgrade the other machine to maybe a 7600x or 9600x. Both would be a huge upgrade over the 4790k, and leave room to upgrade there down the line

You could install W11 on that old machine using Rufus.

If you decide to go the upgrade route anyway, I'd not touch Intel Raptor Lake as it's a dead socket with known degradation issues. If all you do is game AM5 is your best bet, something like this would offer a fair amount of uplift:

I spec'd up very similar/same. I think that has to be the spec to look at.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Sapphire Nitro+ B850M WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05690) = £139.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04563) = £109.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £161.00

Total: £418.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

 

[Tetras]

Thinking something like:
Intel® Core™ i5-14600K - £166.97
MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £130
Acer Predator PALLAS II DDR5 6000MHz 64GB (32GBx2) RGB RAM CL30 PC5-48000 Black - £210

Thoughts appreciated if there's something better value I'm missing!

If I was determined to go Intel, I'd get a 245K/KF instead (motherboard would need to change too, H810, B860 or Z890). They're currently available not much more than the 14600K.

Gaming performance of the Core Ultra CPUs is not the best (inconsistent), but good enough and you'd avoid the 14th gen shenanigans.

Unlikely to be much in the way of upgrades on either the 12-14th gen or 15th gen/Core Ultra platforms, so AM5 should be better in that respect.

 

[RoyMi6]

Thanks for the ideas folks. Such a pain feeling like I have to upgrade mid cycle cause, as you suggest, the 5900X is still serving me well.

I had missed the boat on the Rufus image writer allowed the TPM checked to be ignored, so I’m going to give that a try at the weekend before ultimately deciding.

In an idea world I’m waiting for 70 series Nvidia cards to come out before I’m upgrading again!

 

[Disco_P]

You can also just stay on windows 10