Upgrading 7+ year old components

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 01:23

I've got a few aging parts in my PC, namely the CPU/Mobo, and I've been looking at upgrading them. I can't justify going all out on a brand new build, so figured that upgrading the weakest areas would make the most sense.

I originally wanted to just upgrade the CPU, but in order to do so I need a new Mobo to put it in. I will also likely need to get a new CPU air cooler, so my current I believe is only for the AM4 socket.

So to summarise, I believe I want to just upgrade the following:

Mobo
CPU
CPU Cooler

Let me know if I've missed out key details.

Thanks in advance!

Purchase Timeframe:
Sometime in the next week, but I'm not particularly fussed.

Budget:
Truthfully, I don't know. I've looked at some of the bundles on here, so I guess perhaps £400-600 roughly?

Usage:
Mostly gaming and some online shows/streams etc.
I've got 2x 27" 1440p monitors currently.

Preferences:

Ideally an M-ATX board, purely because I prefer the slightly smaller size.
I was eyeing up an 9800X3D for the CPU too.

Current Hardware:
Ryzen 7 3700X
AMD Wraith Prism CPU cooler
MSI B450M Mortar MAX
2080TI
32GB Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DD4
Corsair RM650 PSU
AMD Wraith Prism CPU cooler
Lian-Li 207
M.2 SSD

Peripherals:
N/A

Special Needs/Requirements (inc Wi-Fi):
N/A

RollerBall · 3 May 2026 at 01:42

You'll need new RAM as well.

Gray2233 · 3 May 2026 at 01:57

You should remain on AM4 and possibly consider a new CPU if necessary, but I would start with either an AMD 9070 or 9070XT GPU and then see where you get on. You'd be looking at 80-100% more performance over your current 2080ti with those cards, and believe it or not AM4 still has legs.

CPU wise a 5600 would give you decent but not huge gaming uplift and slot into your current motherboard for not much money, a 5500X3D would offer a much bigger jump but will cost more.

Your PSU is a little borderline for a 9070XT but you should be fine with an undervolt, and probably without to be totally honest. I'm running a 5070ti on a 650W PSU with zero problems currently, but it's worth holding in mind.

As mentioned above, moving to AM5 will require DDR5 as opposed to your current DDR4 and that will set you back £250-300 + all by itself, prices are nuts right now due to datacentres buying up memory.

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 10:41

Gray2233 said:
You should remain on AM4 and possibly consider a new CPU if necessary, but I would start with either an AMD 9070 or 9070XT GPU and then see where you get on. You'd be looking at 80-100% more performance over your current 2080ti with those cards, and believe it or not AM4 still has legs.

CPU wise a 5600 would give you decent but not huge gaming uplift and slot into your current motherboard for not much money, a 5500X3D would offer a much bigger jump but will cost more.

Your PSU is a little borderline for a 9070XT but you should be fine with an undervolt, and probably without to be totally honest. I'm running a 5070ti on a 650W PSU with zero problems currently, but it's worth holding in mind.

As mentioned above, moving to AM5 will require DDR5 as opposed to your current DDR4 and that will set you back £250-300 + all by itself, prices are nuts right now due to datacentres buying up memory.

Appreciate the detailed reply, thank you.

Is the suggestion to stick to AM4 based purely on budget? I could increase the budget somewhat to accommodate needing to buy DDR5. I just hadn't even considered that it would even need to be replaced, so the budget posted didn't reflect that.

Although based on what you've said though, it does seem like the 2080ti is in dire need of a replacement if the performance improvement is that big.

Edit: Lets say I upped the budget to £1000, is it still worth just sticking with AM4 and upgrading the GPU?

mickyflinn · 3 May 2026 at 11:12

Totall

SymTax said:
Appreciate the detailed reply, thank you.

Is the suggestion to stick to AM4 based purely on budget? I could increase the budget somewhat to accommodate needing to buy DDR5. I just hadn't even considered that it would even need to be replaced, so the budget posted didn't reflect that.

Although based on what you've said though, it does seem like the 2080ti is in dire need of a replacement if the performance improvement is that big.

Edit: Lets say I upped the budget to £1000, is it still worth just sticking with AM4 and upgrading the GPU?

£600 approx to upgrade to AM5 with a 7600 CPU so if you go with a 9070xt that's another £650 so that's £1250

Personally I would upgrade you GPU first and maybe the power supply if needed.

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 11:24

mickyflinn said:
Totall

£600 approx to upgrade to AM5 with a 7600 CPU so if you go with a 9070xt that's another £650 and so that's £1250

Personally I would upgrade you GPU first and maybe the power supply if needed.

Alright gotcha, I'll go with GPU and PSU first and then look at upgrading the other parts sometime later in the year, maybe next.

If I can be cheeky, would you have any potential suggestions on particular 9070XT and PSU?

Gray2233 · 3 May 2026 at 11:59

SymTax said:
Alright gotcha, I'll go with GPU and PSU first and then look at upgrading the other parts sometime later in the year, maybe next.

If I can be cheeky, would you have any potential suggestions on particular 9070XT and PSU?

My basket at OcUK:

1 x XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT Triple Fan Gaming Edition 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-XFX-05454) = £629.99
1 x MSI MPG A850G ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-00Y-MS) = £99.99
1 x Gigabyte UD850GM PG5 V2 ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-03K-GI) = £80.00

Total: £817.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)

As you can see, a lot of components (namely anything with memory, so GPU/RAM/storage) is through the roof price wise since the 2080ti was the king of the hill.

Honestly, I'd undervolt your 9070XT and see how it gets on with your 650W PSU before bothering with a replacement, worst case your system powers off while playing a game.

Radeon RX 9070 XT (ASUS TUF OC) review (Page 5)

We review the Radeon RX 9070 XT (ASUS TUF OC). The most striking improvement lies in the number of AI and ray tracing (RT) accelerators, which have seen a noticeable boost compared to previous generations. The RX 9070 XT packs 64 RDNA 4 compute units, 64 RT accelerators, and 128 AI accelerators.

www.guru3d.com

335W average power draw with peaks of 364W.

I'm in the same boat as you, albeit with a 5070ti which has similar power draw, the only reason I'm switching out my 650W is because I'm also changing case and want to move to something modular/easier to cable manage. If you do switch out, given your budget constraints either of the above would be absolutely fine and give you some future headroom. The MSI is the better quality unit, A rated on the SPL tier list and has very good reviews, the Gigabyte is B rated and has good reviews.

As for staying on AM4, I'm on that platform still myself, albeit with a 5800X3D and it's a very good pairing for the tier of graphics card you're looking at. While the 5800X3D stock is dire at the moment, there are talks of AMD having an anniversary rerelease which might see see some decent prices, but alternatively the 5500X3D shouldn't be miles behind and is quite affordable.

AM4 Lives: AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks | GamersNexus

CPUs AM4 Lives: AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks September 22, 2025 Last Updated: 2025-09-22 The 5500X3D likely takes fallout from the manufacturing process and then re-spins it as a new model, allowing AMD to salvage silicon The Highlights The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU is for the Latin...

gamersnexus.net

https://www.techspot.com/review/3109-amd-ryzen-5500x3d/

As you can see, it offers substantial uplift from your old 3700X, personally if opting for AM5 instead the minimum I'd consider would be a 7500X3D.

Rob_B · 3 May 2026 at 12:31

I've got the swift, drop the power limit by 7% or so and it won't go over 300w. Measure your case though, its a BIG card.

That, maybe the PSU and a 5700X3D and you'll be laughing.

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 13:06

Gray2233 said:
My basket at OcUK:

1 x XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT Triple Fan Gaming Edition 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-XFX-05454) = £629.99

1 x MSI MPG A850G ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-00Y-MS) = £99.99

1 x Gigabyte UD850GM PG5 V2 ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-03K-GI) = £80.00

Total: £817.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)

As you can see, a lot of components (namely anything with memory, so GPU/RAM/storage) is through the roof price wise since the 2080ti was the king of the hill.

Honestly, I'd undervolt your 9070XT and see how it gets on with your 650W PSU before bothering with a replacement, worst case your system powers off while playing a game.

Radeon RX 9070 XT (ASUS TUF OC) review (Page 5)

We review the Radeon RX 9070 XT (ASUS TUF OC). The most striking improvement lies in the number of AI and ray tracing (RT) accelerators, which have seen a noticeable boost compared to previous generations. The RX 9070 XT packs 64 RDNA 4 compute units, 64 RT accelerators, and 128 AI accelerators.

www.guru3d.com

335W average power draw with peaks of 364W.

I'm in the same boat as you, albeit with a 5070ti which has similar power draw, the only reason I'm switching out my 650W is because I'm also changing case and want to move to something modular/easier to cable manage. If you do switch out, given your budget constraints either of the above would be absolutely fine and give you some future headroom. The MSI is the better quality unit, A rated on the SPL tier list and has very good reviews, the Gigabyte is B rated and has good reviews.

As for staying on AM4, I'm on that platform still myself, albeit with a 5800X3D and it's a very good pairing for the tier of graphics card you're looking at. While the 5800X3D stock is dire at the moment, there are talks of AMD having an anniversary rerelease which might see see some decent prices, but alternatively the 5500X3D shouldn't be miles behind and is quite affordable.

AM4 Lives: AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks | GamersNexus

CPUs AM4 Lives: AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks September 22, 2025 Last Updated: 2025-09-22 The 5500X3D likely takes fallout from the manufacturing process and then re-spins it as a new model, allowing AMD to salvage silicon The Highlights The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU is for the Latin...

gamersnexus.net

https://www.techspot.com/review/3109-amd-ryzen-5500x3d/

As you can see, it offers substantial uplift from your old 3700X, personally if opting for AM5 instead the minimum I'd consider would be a 7500X3D.

Fantastic, thank you so much.

I'll pick up the MSI supply too just because my current one is 7 years old and if I'm wanting to upgrade the remaining parts sometime over the next year or so, might as well do that now.

These are still solid choices with that in mind I would assume?

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 13:08

Rob_B said:
I've got the swift, drop the power limit by 7% or so and it won't go over 300w. Measure your case though, its a BIG card.

That, maybe the PSU and a 5700X3D and you'll be laughing.

The cost of the 5700X3D is a little offputting, but perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places.

I'll keep an eye on the supposed 5800X3D anniversary edition coming soon, just in case it's somehow not extortionately priced

Rob_B · 3 May 2026 at 13:19

Worth holding out yes, prices are crazy (didnt realise they were now £300!) but it would help delay an entire platform upgrade so swimgs and roundabouts. A 5600 can be had for £100, might be a better option then if you cant pickup a cheap x3d

Gray2233 · 3 May 2026 at 14:04

SymTax said:
The cost of the 5700X3D is a little offputting, but perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places.

I'll keep an eye on the supposed 5800X3D anniversary edition coming soon, just in case it's somehow not extortionately priced

The 5500X3D can be had for around £150 and is about on par performance wise in games.

SymTax · 3 May 2026 at 16:51

Gray2233 said:
The 5500X3D can be had for around £150 and is about on par performance wise in games.

I'll have a poke around and see what I can find then. Seems like a fairly low cost alternative.

Appreciate the help a lot!

mickyflinn · 3 May 2026 at 18:56

You can get the Montech Century II 1050W PCIE 5.1 80+ GOLD Fully Modular Quiet ATX3.1 Power Supply for £99

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/montech-century-ii-1050w-psu-review/all/1/

I like powecolor hellhound 9070xt it has a dual bios and reviews well but cost £30 more than the swift. The Swift is a 3.5 slot GPU so its thick so check dimensions and clearance whichever you buy.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powercolor-radeon-rx-9070-xt-hellhound-16gb-gddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gra-pwc-04016.html

tamzzy · 4 May 2026 at 12:42

Gray2233 said:
The 5500X3D can be had for around £150 and is about on par performance wise in games.

this. i've just built a computer with a 5500x3d and a 3080...works a treat!

for your £600 budget, i'd get a 5500x3d and a used 4070/4070 super
going from a 2080ti to a 4070 super = about a 40% increase in gpu performance

the best part is, the 4070/4070 super uses less power than the 2080ti, so you don't have to swap your psu out either...just a straight swap of the cpu (needs a bios update prior) and the gpu

performance comparison equalised to the 30-series:
2080ti = 3070
4070 = 3080
4070 super = 3080ti

SymTax · 7 May 2026 at 16:24

First of all I just wanted to say thank you for all the advice. I ended up stretching my budget slightly and going with the following:

1 x XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT Triple Fan Gaming Edition 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-XFX-05454) = £629.99
1 x MSI MPG A850G ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-00Y-MS) = £99.99

They arrived earlier this week and are performing beautifully.

Now, on to the reason for the follow-up post. I've been fortunate enough to receive confirmation of a work bonus at the end of this month, so I've decided to proceed with moving the rest of my build over the the AM5 platform. If I don't do it now, I probably never will.

Naturally that includes needing to pickup a new CPU, CPU Cooler, Motherboard, and RAM.

So far I've picked out the following:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £368.99
1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £229.99
1 x Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB Dual Tower CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02721) = £36.95

The motherboard seems like a bit overkill, however I've had my previous one for 7 years now so I'm not expecting to replace the new one for quite a number of years too.

I like air coolers and RGB, hence the pick for that.

I've got absolutely no idea on RAM. Currently have 32GB, so I imagine just getting 32GB would probably suffice? Apart from that, I don't know what to go for. RGB would be nice if available. (I appreciate it may come at a slight premium)

Budget for the remainder of the build is around £1000.00. Happy to go slightly above if the cost is absolutely worth it, but I'd prefer not to.

Happy for any and all suggestions.

Rob_B · 7 May 2026 at 16:34

Got the same GPU and PSU, good choices.

If gaming then the 9800X3D is your best bet without breaking the bank, take a look at the 9850X3D but weigh up the cost vs small performance bump.
Yeah the motherboard is a bit OTT, even a decent B650 would cover you but last time I looked prices weren't too far apart so you might as well go for the one you want.
32GB is plenty for just gaming. With an X3D don't worry too much about the speed, 6000 CL30 would be nice but a bit slower will make barely any difference to gaming.

Tetras · 7 May 2026 at 16:52

SymTax said:
The motherboard seems like a bit overkill, however I've had my previous one for 7 years now so I'm not expecting to replace the new one for quite a number of years too.

That's one of the best performing B850 boards thermally, but not needed for a 9800X3D/9850X3D.

SymTax said:
I've got absolutely no idea on RAM. Currently have 32GB, so I imagine just getting 32GB would probably suffice? Apart from that, I don't know what to go for. RGB would be nice if available. (I appreciate it may come at a slight premium)

The standard recommendation for AM5 was 6000/C30, since that's what AMD themselves suggested and made the most sense price/performance. With how the market is now, I'd just buy whatever is cheap and preferably a brand you've heard of. The performance loss is minimal with the X3D CPUs from running slow(er) RAM.

I was always one of the first on here to advocate for getting bigger kits, especially coming from 32, but both 48GB and 64GB kits can be insanely expensive. That said, if the choice was between a very fast/premium 32GB kit, or a slow/mediocre 48GB kit, I'd take 48 every time.

tamzzy · 7 May 2026 at 16:52

They're all decent choices.
As @Rob_B says, the mobo is OTT. I'd go for a cheaper one and save £50-60. It's a small sum at the end of the day...but every little helps.
The cooler is available elsewhere for cheaper

Gray2233 · 7 May 2026 at 17:49

I've never spent a premium on a motherboard unless I've needed very specific features, you're not necessarily buying longevity by spending more.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Sapphire Nitro+ B850A WiFi 7 (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05688) = £143.95

Total: £147.95 (includes delivery: £3.99)

I've used the M-ATX variant of this in a couple of builds, it has very robust VRM's and will happily run higher end CPU's than the 9800X3D under prolonged loads. My current AM4 motherboard was an £80 Asrock B450M Pro 4-F, it was one of the cheapest (good) AM4 motherboards on the market at my time of purchase and has worked absolutely flawlessly for over six years, with three different CPU's (1600AF, 3700X, and its current 5800X3D).

Unless you really need things like extra USB ports, extra M.2's or particular features/whatever else you really don't gain anything by spending more.

Hell, I had a Gigabyte Z77 D3H many moons ago, second cheapest Z77 on the market back in 2012 and it ran a heavily overclocked Ivy Bridge for a good 6 or so years until I sold it, and last I checked it's still chugging away to this day without problems.